Week 11 Write Up - Oliver's first day, fairing and laminates

My good friend and Impala sailor, Oliver, showed up this weekend during his Thanksgiving break from UVM to spend a few days working on the boat and getting use to the shop.  He will start full time after he graduates in January.  

Our first day this week was all spent on fairing the first 6 layers of laminates that we put on.  Brendan worked at power planing off the rough edges while Drew and I went at it with the belt sander.  Oliver was kept busy belt sanding the stern sections and up the skeg.  It was a little tricky working to get the 6th laminate layer faired to the same feel and level as the 1st laminate layer, as they have a difference of 5/8ths of an inch in height.  After it felt pretty good, Oliver joined Drew and I in fairing it all again with the three foot file boards.  This took the rest of the afternoon.

In the next two days we were able to continue dry fitting, gluing, and stapling the second to last layer, of which we had already started in the stern and at the skeg.  We got into a routine of dry fitting enough laminates before lunch, that would give us just enough time after lunch to have them glued and stapled.  This will allow them to harden overnight and be faired the next morning.  It also breaks up the monotony of attaching laminates for a week, then gluing and stapling for a week.  

We took a short week, and ended on Wednesday, so that everyone could see their families for Thanksgiving.  But for me, an unexpected new snowboard arrival sent me straight to VT to get some early season skiing in!

Next week, we hope to be near having all laminate layers on and glued.