Chain plate braces in, at least stuck to the walls. Keel trunk is in, but neither are glassed. After the Plexus kicks off they will get their glass reinforcement tabbing.

Meanwhile Tom does a little finish work on bulkhead #4. This is the one that sits under the companionway door bracing the front of the cockpit.

Tim’s adding in the fiberglass reinforcement tabbing. The rear floor section is set in place to make absolutely sure bulkhead #4 is going to clear everything. In “theory” it should line up wonderful. But, we’ve learned that, if there’s a way to check for sure? Then check. Cheap insurance.

Closeout plate is tabbed in place.. Its that bit that spans from the keel trunk to bulkhead #3.

Everything is tabbed, filled and fared. The pre-painted parts are tapped off and we’re ready for..

Gelcoat.

So now the interior glasswork is complete. Time to pull the boat out of the mold.

But, that hasn’t happened. I was hoping to have it out this week but I guess early next week will be fine.

It is also ready for me to install the electronic panels and wire-ways. I should do that, but I’ve been lazy and I haven’t..

Bad boss!

Meanwhile..

Todd wants a foredeck hatch. Here’s Tom laying out where its going to go.

There has been a lot of going back and forth between Todd, me & Leif on this. I’m chewing my fingernails off ‘cause this is somewhat of a one way deal. Once this hole is cut, there’s very little chance of going back. ( This is the first time for a foredeck hatch on a Dart. )

Its cut.

Tim/Tom have been working on how we’re going to do the hatch thing. In the end, they decided on building a drop-in-able insert for this to make glassing everything in as a tidy package easier.

The beginnings of the insert plug. Or mold? Mold.

Last Dart mold..

Also, most of the holes are now drilled for the hardware on deck. Can’t see ‘em on this small picture, but they are there. Winches are mounted.

Parts are being pulled from the shelves in kit form. This is the first Dart that I’m not really involved in the deck hardware installation. We’re kinda’ testing the paperwork to see if there’s enough info and if the kits are the right complexity.

So far it looks like the kits are too big. Tim/Tom want to be able to pull a kit and install something while waiting for other things, like resin, to be ready. The kits I originally chose take days as opposed to hours to install. So we need to break ‘em up a little.

Another interesting development came about when Mark (Dart #3) had a set of race cushions made up for when they race their machine. A pretty good idea and one that I’d never thought of.

This got me thinking that the people who own Darts and the people who make parts for Darts should be able to get together. In fact, I think this is such a good idea, I decided to forgo the typical middleman thing and just made up a set of links to people who make Dart parts.

So, if you scroll to the bottom of the Left Coast Products page, you will find Left Coat Vendors listed. Need a Dart part? Check the list.

And that’s where things sit today.