To begin the story, we invite you to read the first part of the story of this amateur sailboat construction . At the time, Bernard was finishing the plasters on the deck.
There are only three months of work left...
The Young 40, a plan by Greg Young, is taking shape. The hull is now almost finished. The plasters are sanded and the few reinforcements to be applied to the interior fittings have yet to be completed. The deck is adjusted, ready to be glued (currently it is stored suspended above the boat). Hull and deck are still bare, raw carbon.
All the electricity, fittings, motorization and painting still need to be installed: three months full-time and the boat will finally be able to accommodate its rigging.
The lead bulb was cast this winter and the aluminium keel veil, one of the few parts made outside, must arrive before summer. The keel will be 3 metres long, but it can be raised by one metre to limit the draught. To assemble it all, a 2.5-metre hole was dug in the slab of the hangar. A small matter!
An all-carbon construction
Classical music in his ears, Bernard installs the latest carbon strips on the interior structures. The reinforcements must have the same thickness as the structural partitions. To do this, he uses the vacuum suction technique. A classic lamination, by hand, is 60% resin for 40% fibre. Under vacuum, the excess resin is vacuumed up with the objective of leaving only 40% resin. However, it must be installed quickly: install the 4 or 5 strips and vacuum the suction films while the resin is still liquid. Carbon construction techniques discovered while visiting New Zealand shipyards, the same ones that are involved in building boats for the America's Cup.
Pieces "Made in Japan"
Even small parts are made of carbon: from toilets to teams. For the record, remember, Bernard lives in Japan while the sailboat is built in Brittany. It is in Japan that all the small parts were made. It has already been necessary for him to import the material from Europe and then, once finished, to ship the parts to Brittany, without thinking of Mr Le Douanier's taxes..
He's sailing in 3 or 4 years
It will still be a few years before this Class40 can be seen sailing in the breast stroke. It took more than 20 years to bring this boat to life for an investment of about 150,000 ?. For the carbon item alone, the budget exceeds ?50,000.
A beautiful story that we will continue to follow.
