No problem - Staggered 525's fit nicely - the vents are also exhausts recessed back inside the vent, or you can have four exhausts straight through to the transom if you want it loud. We also intend to do versions with a sunroof, or less roof leaving the windscreen in place. It has a cabin as well for the leisure version, V berth with a head and small galley, a great fast weekender!

Well we've finished the hull mould now and it was time to turn it over last Friday. We had made a pair of A frames which will also be used to tilt the mould when laying up the boat. We needed to control the whole thing to stop it turning "at it's own speed", so we robbed a set of front brakes of an XJ900 and made a disc, welded the whole thing on and voila! Thanks to the very nice Paul Mcarthy at Wolf Rock (he's our neighbour) for the use of his fork lift truck - again! The Photos are pretty self explanatory I think ............

Very interesting thread. Thank you for positing it and the boat looks great.

Thank you - Here are some renderings of what the open version would look like complete with flames!

I have made a GIF of the process of turning the mould and plug over - it's at http://files.me.com/cookee/qt7voh although it is a large file - too big to upload on here I'm afraid.

About time for an update - having a windscreen in a boat requires quite a bit more work at this stage - we have the screens now and Kitten has taken a pattern off them - not using anything with styrene in it of course - he used PVA glue and ended up with a shape the same as the inside of the screen.

The pattern is then being used to make a plant for the mould which will be used to make the actual boat. The pattern will form part of the structure of the cockpit roof - in effect we are building the cockpit roof around the pattern taken from the screens therefore ensuring that it will all fit together perfectly every time. The only assumption in all of this is that the screen manufacturer is capable of repeating their side of the job accurately!

Photo 1 screen with protective wrapping if you can see it!
Photo 2 the pattern is taking shape - the screens are laying outside face down
Photo 3 the pair of patterns are done - removed from the original and the surface is covered in Formica
Photo 4 the plant is then laid up onto the pattern thick enough to allow for the thickness of the screen and the glue that will hold it in ensuring a flush fit in the boat

The rear end is nearly finished - Formica doesn't do compound curves so some of it has to be done the old fashioned way with filler then high build paint, rubbed down and polished, the flat or single curve areas can be covered in Formica.

The extension that will extend over the drives is not on the boat - the shape you see in the photo with Kitten in will allow outboards to trim up if fitted and will provide a positive location for the extension when inboards are fitted.

Looks great!

Thanks for the continued updates,.......very nice process to see and follow.

Lots of work :drink:



Jon

Gorgeous boat Cookee! :Score-101010: And boating is SO much more enjoyable with a windscreen. :) I like the 3.0 twin turbo diesel, 265hp/425tq and as you say, with tuning it will make over 300hp and close to 500tq, making the Arneson choice a no-brainer.

Good luck with this project and I think you will sell a lot of them! If I were buying one it would be with the Yanmar/Arneson package without a doubt.

I like the idea of outboards too. Twin or triple 300s will go over big here.