carbon

"So who can resist black kittens sitting on rolls of unidirectional carbon?"

2 inch strips...

Since my carbon uni came in a 2 ft. wide roll, I used a couple of pieces of scrap foam and a blade from a utility knife to create a guide tool that allowed me to cut my carbon down into 2 in. strips that will be used to create the bow brace.

adjustable spreader

Here's the brace support hardware that will become the apex of the spreader. I created a mold and cast this piece using epoxy and microballons.  Since I couldn't figure out a way to lay the 8 layers of unidirectional glass under this piece, I made a profile mold that should mirror the flow of the carbon over this piece, then I can place straight timber formers under the edges so that I can lay in the 20 layers of 2 in. wide carbon spreader material.

Bonded in place

The center section of the bow beam is comprised of multi layers of glass with the primary feature being 14 layers of unidirectional carbon wrapped over the two stainless forestay thimbles.

figuring out how it all goes together....

So here I am test fitting all my parts in preparation for assembly.  They say that building a large catamaran can keep you young.

forstay components

Per fabricated parts book, here's a pile of 316 stainless that will be used to create the forestay anchor point and seagull striker.  A local fabrication show " Versatile Supply" http://www.vsisurplus.com/
did a masterful job. It nice to have friends with a CNC water jet, mill and lathe.

While I wait for my stainless steel forestay thimbles......

http://dsc.discovery.com/survival/games/life-death-sea/life-death-sea.html

beware seagulls

Here's the roughed out core foam for the "seagull striker"

bow beam end

Not so pretty..... but here's a bunch of duct tape being used to pull peel ply snug against the end of the bow beam. the bow beam ends are closed off by bonding the 3/16 in glass gussets in place by covering over with two layers of tri axial glass and epoxy. Peel ply helps to create a nice neat finish that does not require additional sanding effort.

bow pole hole

Looking in through the bow pole hole you can see one of the 3/8 inch bow pole gussets that has been installed and glassed in with 2 in tape.

bow beam gussets

seen here are the internal bow beam gussets. I created these by vac bagging multiple layers of glass to create the four 3/16 thick gussets and two 3/8 inch gussets.

bow beam

As Ian Farrier suggests, it's best not to skip around the plans book. In my case, just when I'd rather be inserting the bow beams into the bows and getting on with bonding this boat together, I realized I needed to completely finish my bow beam ( including the carbon seagull striker )

Seen here is my shop monkey reminding me to follow the plans as I should.