The Birth of a 'Centennial Spray' in New Zealand!

Early August 2001, and the hull has been completely glass sheathed. A laminated hardwood (White Gum) rubbing strip has been fixed to the hull. The last layers of filler have been applied to the hull and deadwood, but a final fairing will be required before an epoxy high build surfacing primer is applied.

With all of the major fairing completed, a coat of epoxy high build primer has been applied. This is a thick coating designed to assist further fairing of the hull. A temporary block has been fixed to the outer stem, just ahead of the forward face of the ballast keel rebate, to assist in levelling the hull after it has been rolled upright.

The completed template for the lead ballast keel. This has been shaped out of foam, glass and epoxy.

After the coat of High Build primer had cured, it was board sanded. A coat of "Interprotect" primer was then applied, and this was also board sanded after curing. The result has been an increasingly fair hull. We have applied a cove of filler along the base of the keel and along the rubbing strip. This will be sanded to a paint finish prior to rolling the hull upright in the next few days.

The hull may look superficially similar to the earlier photo above (August the 6^th), but after hours of board sanding, the fairness of the hull is very satisfying!

The "rolling day"! The hull has been jacked up, using large steel spigots attached to the stem and transom (the arrangement on the bow can just be seen). All of the frames have been trimmed off at the sheer line, to give better clearance during the rolling process. Two chain blocks have been attached to the beam between frames 6 and 7 (one on each side). One of these blocks will pull the hull over while the other block will check the hull's progress.

Hull halfway over. The large beam of the spray hull is VERY obvious!

The hull, now completely upright, has been initially blocked and cradled. Once finally levelled, and after the temporary frames have been removed, the inside of the hull can be cleaned up, and work on the interior can commence.

All of the temporary frames have been removed from the hull (note the heavy temporary cross braces to assist in stabilising the hull shape until the permanent internal structure has been installed). After several days of sanding, all of the planking on the inside of the hull has been cleaned up, and the first permanent ringframe (laminated Sapele) has been dry-fitted in place. Neither the transom nor the stem have yet been trimmed to length.