Completing the Cuddy of my Gypsy 28 catamaran

After my tour of duty in East Timor I had 4 weeks Off. Now, this is a good time to continue my boat building project. From my last Off days I had finished constructing the cuddy. Now comes the not so difficult but labour intensive part..SANDING down the layer of glass to get a good finishing.

The spirits were high. I wanted to make this boat the smoothest and best looking Gypsy around. BUT the work never seem to end!

By the time I get a reasonably good finish I had already sanded too much..almost to the wood. So it is repair time again.apply another small patch of glass cloth and epoxy and then carefully sand it down again. However, the skill level improves as I get along.

I had a local fisherman Yee to help me a few days in the sanding work when he was not at sea.

But it is still a long and tedious process. I used a Bosch orbital sander to ease the process.

From the top to bottom....

At last I am almost satisfied with the smoothness. I always remember what Richard Woods (The designer of ths catamaran) told me about building a 50 ft boat....Build a boat that will look pleasant to the eyes from a distance of 50 ft! I used a 2 pot mixture PU paint from International paint.

The actual painting is actually quite easy .With a high quality roller the job can be completed in half a day.

Painting the top of the cuddy.

Hmmm it turned out to be quite nice. Feels good too.

I had to employ the services of my bitch Ciku to guard such a master piece.

The interior looks good too.

Overall I am happy with my work . Now the next stage is getting interesting..laying up the composite foams and building the hulls.