Topdecks

Our decks are Carbon / Balsa sandwich panels, with only two openings to access the batteries, winch, and navigation systems. The foredeck is V-shaped to shed water, and the aft deck is flat. The key here is simplicity and watertightness. The two sections will be epoxied to the hull.

Byron studies the sheeting system

The aft-deck, with watertight pillbox for antennae (aft of main boom)

The Keelbox and mainsheet post box from below

The antennae pillbox from below

Sailbot Topdeck next to IOM rev. 4 topdecks (look at the difference in structure that another meter requires!)

Hull Layup

We are laying up the hull out of all Carbon Fiber / Epoxy using hand-layup. There is no structure other than the skin, because we don't want to create any hard spots which could break the hull as it flexes. Here are some photos:

This is the tricky part

The fumes made everything a bit funny

Here you can see the reinforcement for the keel box and forward deck tiedown

Karl putting the finishing touches on the Sailbot Autoclave (ha!)

Attaching the transom and rails to attach the decks

Building the Mold

This is the first day of hull construction, with Alan making planks, Gaelen cutting out stations (not shown) and Don organizing and explaining.

 Here we have assembled the stations and Don and Murray are beginning to plank the plug

 Here's Ian posing with the first turn in the bilge planked!

Here's the finished hull plug after painting.

Almost there! This is the mold built off of our plug.