Two 6082 alloy aluminum Rudder shafts

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How would you like to try to get these through airport security. They sort of look like special edition, anodized AK 47s.

Truth be told......they were built according to the fabricated parts book that is part of the licensing of the F-44SC Super Cruiser by Ian Farrier.

These beauties were fabricated from a particularly difficult to find 6082 Aluminum. ( for reasons unknown to me, this alloy is readily available in europe, england and other locales but is next to impossible to find state side.)

6082 Aluminium  (Al Si1 Mg Mn)

Aluminium alloy 6082 is a medium strength alloy with excellent corrosion resistance. It has the highest strength of the 6000 series alloys. Alloy 6082 is known as a structural alloy. In plate form, Aluminium alloy 6082 is the alloy most commonly used for machining. As a relatively new alloy, the higher strength of Aluminium alloy 6082 has seen it replace 6061 in many applications. The addition of a large amount of manganese controls the grain structure which in turn results in a stronger alloy.

Fairing before the storm

At present,  there is a low pressure about to slam into the Pacific NW so I am taking advantage of the decent weather and applying the first of three fairing coats.  Although System Three offers a product called Quick fair, the cost factor is orders of magnitude different that mixing up medium sized batches of resin and microbaloons.  System three boasts that Quickfair is superior because of it being formulated under vacuum therefore eliminating air in the mix.   At $150 bucks a gallon, to me, I have decided that it isn't worth the little extra effort of mixing up my own fairing compound.

Targa Bar

So....Targa is an old word for targe, "shield".    I suppose it may be possible for this Targa Bar to one day act as a shield but I think I would have other more significant problems if that were ever to be the case.  Regardless, the upper portion of this structure follows the basic curve of the cabin top ( unless you opt to mount your mainsail traveler on it, in which case, the Targa bar is configured differently )  Personally, I don't like the idea of mounting the main sheet of my boat to an ungainly portion of the boat......I want it mounted to something solid as heck....mainly the center of the aft box beam structure.  The cross section of the upper portion of this Targa Bar structure is called out in the plans thusly. 

Since I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to build this Targa Bar, I'm starting things out simply by fastening the foam onto a curved form and gluing the central center rib in place.  Tomorrow, I plan on making things up as I go to work out a way to create this streamlined curved form. I have some ideas in mind but that's the fun in building sometimes.....not knowing exactly how to do something but having just enough of an idea to make you think it can actually be done. So far, I've been lucky and sometimes I've actually woken up in the middle of the night having figured something out........then of course when I wake up the next morning, I completely forgot it.