More sanding and fairing done. Tried tinting one of the resin coats, and it turned out well,- another coat and I wouldn't have needed to paint it !. But- it showed up bits I wasn't happy with, so mixed up some more resin and fairing powder and gave it another coat. Sanded that back today, and gave the deck another white tinted resin coat.

Not getting too carried away at this stage,- just getting it to a stage worth undercoating, as I want to see if it sails before spending money on paint. I'll be tinting a colour for the bottom as well, as that's not looking too bad at the moment, fairing wise.

JB

Even hotter day today, (37C in the shed) so added some more f/glass. The bottom was trimmed and sanded back, then some glass tissue was laid over (the previous night) to help with fairing. When that was set, it was sanded back. The deck was then glassed with 200gsm cloth. After that set, it was sanded back, and a coat of thick resin and filler was squeegeed over the deck and bottom to get rid of a few imperfections.

That will all be sanded smooth, and if satisfactory, will be painted with a thick acrylic primer, with more sanding to go. getting closer to the fun part of making the fittings and installing the gear. Hull now weighs 1.4kg,- (was 1.3kg before deck glass) hoping it will end up around 1.5kg when painted

JB

Decent hot day today, so decided to f/glass the bottom of the hull. All the c/board case parts were epoxied in the night before and set well. The bottom of the c/board slot was filled with a tight fitting balsa square, and planed flush, to keep any epoxy from entering. When the glassing is finished, this will be easy to remove and sand back.

I put a coat of epoxy mixed with filler powder on before the 6oz cloth, and troweled it into the pores of the foam as a filler, then straight away laid the cloth on and rolled the normal epoxy through the cloth. This should help with fairing the hull later.

My Hitec winch arrived from a surviving model shop 80 miles south, and that will be eventually fitted in front of the c/board case, in the cutout. Lots more to do yet.

JB

Cockpit floor is now epoxied in. The centerboard case is also epoxied into the lower reinforcing pad, ready for the unit to be epoxied into the bottom hull rebate. - (Pics added to show the centerboard case parts with the assembly method.) Once that's set, the upper centerboard case reinforcing pad, which is a firm push fit over the case will be epoxied in.

JB

Haven't built anything for a while due to lack of space (too many models) but the urge to build something was too great. After looking at many options, I decided to go with something 'easy' to build. I found some full size plans for an Australian MkI Moth which I'm building to a MKII (double chine) style.

I'm building in foam and glass again to make things easier. It's 850mm long and 310 wide which is roughly 1/4 scale (original is 11 ft)

Started by converting all the lofting measurements on the redrawn 1953 plan to metric and dividing them by 4 to get the scale.
Next was creating the ply deck, then contact gluing onto it a piece of dense 50mm building polystyrene. This was then shaped with a surform file and the chines shaped afterwards using eyeometry. Then the 10mm deck foam was glued on so the deck sheer could be shaped.

Next the cockpit foam was routered out, and basswood sides and inner transom piece epoxied in. After that, the ply outer transom piece and hardwood nose block was epoxied on.

The centerboard case upper and lower ply braces were routered out (using the mill and a 1/2" slotting bit) large enough to accept the case sides, leaving enough room for the 6mm aluminium keel (can't use a centerboard for obvious reasons) which will have to have a bulb fitted.

A rebate in the bottom of the hull was routered out for the lower c/board brace. These braces are needed to form part of a box structure with the floor and cockpit sides which the c/board can lever on. Once everything is eventually glassed in, it will make it very strong unit, so the foam will just be the shape surrounding the box, and not having any strain put on it. The ply deck will take the strain of the stays/mast.

The cockpit floor was cut, and will be slotted the same as the braces, then the c/board case will be built.

The mast on this is 1.486m tall, - sail is -luff -11.295, foot 609mm, so quite large for a small boat. The full sized boat is a lot of fun to sail, so this model will be interesting to sail. Unfortunately, without the human input required, and being a performance boat, it may assume the attributes of a submarine in a stiff breeze, - time and testing will tell.

The basic mast was made from 12mm ally tube, boom from 10mm. Sail pattern was cut from art card to the plan. All laid out on the floor to get an idea of what it will look like.

PDF is the history of the Moth. There were a number of versions round the world as it went along,- scow, international moth (dinghy type) and todays high speed foiling moth.

Lots more to do yet

JB

2025 world champs, off the Whangaparaoa peninsula, just up from where I live.

https://australianclassicdinghynetwork.org/moth

https://www.moth.asn.au/