1) CNC laser cut the mould.  This will allow thinner, cheaper material which will pretty much cover the cost (~$250), and make assembly (a 2-3 person job with full length panels) easier, while eliminating the butt blocks, levelling the mould and getting the sides straight and vertical, none of which are particularly difficult, but combined, they take up a couple of person days and are still not exact.  We made and included blanks for the beam sockets and the mast bearings.  These would be more accurate and repeatable with cnc, which would also allow the bulkhead landings to be accurately (these need to be within a millimetre over a length of 2m, around 3 sides) installed in both halves.  Another benefit, which has only just occurred to me, is the moulds could also have (small, but very noticable) compound curvature included in the flat sides.  

2) Hot wired fillets.  On the windward hull, I used 10mmm radius epoxy fillets, then 50mm radius plaster of paris fillets over the top.  This was easy enough, but the pop took a couple of days to be ready to sand, and the corners were hard work.  On the lee hull, we used epoxy fillets, which were expensive, took a while and were hard work to clean up.  The next ones will be hot wired polystyrene, which Peter (Etamax boss, cad/cam whizz, filament winding supremo and the most easy going workshop owner I have ever bludged off) uses extensively for moulds.  

3) CNC router cut foam.  This is a bit of an indulgence, but in the absence of a table saw saves a lot of time as well as eliminating the potential for resin to run away along gaps in the laminate.  Mitchell, (21 years old, easy to get along with, understanding of my quirks, foibles and inadequacies and working for free to find out how it was done) made a better job of the foam edges than I could have, but we spent the best part of 2 days cutting and sanding.  

4) Use a 2 pack paint rather than epoxy to seal the moulds.    We would have done this pre assembly so everything was flat, but this would have meant most of the first day was lost while material cured.  As it was, most of the third day was lost chasing leaks.  

Mitchell took a bunch of photos, which will be in the next harryproa.com update, along with the ww hull pics and some exciting new designs from Steinar.  

Etamax is also building the rudder housings for Luca Antara in Portugal.  These are massive, very strong and quite complex.  Two guys were working on them while I was there and the standard of workmanship is very high.  They should be finished early in the new year.  

I also found out a lot about post curing epoxy, plastic blow moulding, filament winding, infusion, machining laminates and carbon that I did not know before. 

The Bucket List build time table may include another trip to Adelaide in January to complete the hull, or I may pay Etamax to do it, if a couple of upcoming plans sales proceed.  The mast and beams will also be built in January and they and the hull will come up here for assembly.   Sailing in February is a possibility.  

rob