Day 48

Welding in a tent is a bit like a blind man playing piano. If you sit him in the correct position, the music sounds great.....but one key over and people start leaving the room! The penetration area was available but keeping on track was very difficult. Also the wind was on and off even through the tent. This turns even the best weld into a bubbly mess. Gena spent the whole day on the aft end from the keel down the aft stembar. She wasn't a happy camper needless to say. All I could do was plasma cut the deck frames between welding times. (Only one machine can be running at a time )
The deck frames normally would be cut to full width, put in place, then the cabin top cut away from these. This seemed to us to be a terrible waste even though the cut out frames could be reused and recurved to make the cabin top. We thought about trying to bend the new camber for the cabin top without any extra on each end to hold while bending. Cutting out the side decks would be easier, so they could be put on while the hull is still upside down, supported temporarily, and faired in to the cabin top edge. All this can be done while it's easy to get at, near the ground.
As the deck camber isn't an equal arc of a circle, it is important to start the piece of frame approximately the distance from center of the template as it will actually be on the deck. Towards the widest part of the boat, there is a barely noticable curve, almost discernable, so I decided to cut down some of our never-to-be-used 2 1/2 flatbar and then grind it down to match against the blueprints at each point. Lining up all the pieces won't be a problem as the template will be clamped in first, and used as a guide. All of the pieces will be then trimmed to fair in a smooth deck to cabin curve. Unfortunately, the bow couldn't be finished today as the wind was blowing hard on the bow where there is no tent cover. Oh well, that'll give us something to look forward to next weekend!

Day 48:
8 hours:
Welded up aft-bar to bottom plate up to keel. Made all side deck frames and bow deck frames