Prepping the hull mould | Sailing Blog - Technical Hints and Tips - Sailing Television

Prepping the hull mould

Here are a couple of shots of the mould of the new boat. To get a perfect finish the mould has to be meticulously checked over and carefully polished.
Note the orange stripe lines. These are to show the layup crew where to put the waterline. Coloured gelcoat is applied to the mould using the orange as a guide to become the waterline on the finished hull. Some manufacturers use tape for the bootstripe lines but Northshore use gelcoat since it will be much longer wearing. It is the area that needs a frequent scrubbing since it is right near the water.

Observant viewers will note the caprail is moulded into the hull on this boat. (see the overhanging lip at the top of the mould. The deck sits on this and is joined there rather than being joined on the caprail. This means we have a solid glass caprail instead of a decorative teak one as on the 42. The join is covered by the teak decking. So the new boat has no decorative teak outside. We do have the lovely teak decks and teak cockpit floors/seats but no other teak. I do very much like the great footing of teak decks but don't like maintaining decorative teak (either with varnish Cetol or whatever). The teak cockpit floors/seats on our 42 have been great and only require a scrub every month or two.

Now here's a picture to inspire .... as we are cruising the Bahamas and working on the 6th season of the Distant Shores TV series. This is a wonderful place if you have a shallow draft like the Southerly. (note the new boat still draws less then 3 feet despite being 6 feet longer!). We will be here for a few more weeks then jumping of to the Chesapeake Bay.


So we can still beach her like this. We do get to meet lots of people who come to see if we are all right ;-)
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