Under Construction (1)

This First set of Pictures were all taken at Bloodaxe Boats' Workshops on the Isle of Wight
(Click picture for larger version)

28/11/97
The false floor in place. Its beginning to be obvious how clean and uncluttered - and large - the deck area will be. Of course it won't look quite so neat when there are bits of string, toe straps, foot rails and all the other nonsense in there... There's also another 18 inches of width to come with the wings.
27/11/97
The False floor, ready to glue down. When the boat is complete this expanse of floor will be broken only by foot rails, toestraps and a low tunnel for the daggerboard case.		The frames under the false floor.
Close up of the daggerboard case area. The case is very long. This is a future proofing exercise to provide the capability to move the daggerboard radically forward - for example if I were to put a jib on. Note the high density foam for the mast foot and the carbon reinforcement down to the spine underneath.		Looking aft into the bow tank. The unidirectional carbon reinforcement is for the loads from the prodder.
Bow frames looking forward. There will be a false floor above the level of the webbing to brace the sides of the boat and also to permit retrofitting of a spinnaker chute should that ever be desirable. Note the low transverse frames to strengthen the bow in this high load area. Detailed attention to construction like this is the reason why custom-built foam sandwich boats like this have such long competitive lifespans - more than twice that of mass production boats. Of course its also the reason why they cost rather more to buy in the beginning.
Photos (c) Andy Paterson/Bloodaxe Boats.
A Couple of shots of the hull out of the mould and clearly showing the shape. The patch is where the daggerboard slot will come.
Photos (c) Andy Paterson/Bloodaxe Boats.
23/10/97		The shell, still on the mould.
From above. The fine entry is obvious, and the curvature in the bow sections is observable.		A Three Quarters view. The yellow material is peel ply, and the black stripes are trace lines in the 45 degree glass beneath the peel ply.
This Bow on view shows the chine line off well I think. You can see that the max. chine beam is well aft, like an 18footer.		The shell from aft. The vacuum bag on the shell for the last layer of glass.
Photos (c) Andy Paterson/Bloodaxe Boats.
11/09/1997
The building jig in the boat builders' workshop. Unusually for a male moulded boat the jig is fully surfaced with ply, rather than just battens. This is so that the inner skin can be vacuum bagged onto the mould.
Photos (c) Alison Wilde