Day 30

As someone long ago said: You never know 'til you try!
That was the thought for today. We placed the large curved plate up to the frame and marked it's approximate position and size. After much humming and hawing, we cut it and put it back up to clamp it on and pull it into position. This proved to be quite difficult ( by our standards anyway! ) but eventually we got it pulled in to obtain the curve.

Everything seemed as though it would be an easy job after the first large piece was successfully snug against the stringers, when we noticed that the joint between the first set we had put on yesterday, and the larger piece, was coning outwards. Of course we would have to fix it as it would completely destroy the fairness of the hull. So we continued to pull on the aft end of the plate, until the tack welds snapped at the joint. At this point things look quite impossible. On top of that we noticed the whole stem back of the bow has gone out of shape. This would be logical as only one side is pulling in. We have decided to to release the plate on the aft side and serve up another on the other side with hopes of using the opposite to pull each in at the same time. Oh well, we have all week to think about it!

Day 30:
9 hours - ( Between rain showers)
Shuffled plate. Cut first 10' radius plate and put into position, must be fixed.