After a long time: all the balsa is on

After a long time, finally time for the boat again. Since early October the Diana has stood still; Peter aptly called it “out of mothballs again”. Between Christmas and New Year there is finally room to carry on.

All the balsa is now on, on both sides. The filler blocks at bow and stern sit between the bulkheads; the second side I mirrored, as intended, on the side that was already finished in early October, in the same way: glue roughly first, then file and sand to fit, and keep checking with a strip that the balsa doesn’t sit lower than the bulkheads. As Piet said back in September, that gives plenty of gluing surface for the planking later.

The first two strips of the first planking are on too. The first photo shows that the upper deck meets the top plank nicely. According to the manual that was the intention, now let’s hope that’s actually right.

On Sunday on with the next planks, and then the gunports first.