September 2018 sees Destiny start to look like a real boat! The deck finishes cooking in its mould and towards the end of the month everything is ready to be joined together. The floor section has already been installed inside the hull. The battening and cabling has been getting on well but we need the lid 🙂
Deck release
The first step is to release the deck and the upper section from the moulds. The factory do this very carefully with the use of their overhead cranes.
The upper section is full of shapes, windows and port holes. It is therefore much more difficult to produce a clean structure. There are so many more nooks and crannies to get stuck! The good thing about fibre glass is that this is not a problem as it can all be finished by hand. On close inspection I was originally shocked to see that bits of the window frame were broken. At first I went into a panic that the section would have to be made again! It turns out this is quite normal – no reason to worry. Once the experts have done their work, the fibre glass structure will be perfect.
Join the two halves
There are two sections to join. The deck section is first then the upper section goes on top. They are both turned up the right way ready to be lifted on to the hull.
Using the crane, the sections are lifted on top of the hull – and hey presto, we look like a boat!
Deck join marks a “milestone” stage in the production process. It’s now time to get the cheque book out again and transfer a sizeable number of dollars over to Jet Tern Marine. The bank account is definitely getting smaller, but the boat is getting bigger 🙂
The deck join at this stage is actually only temporary – just to show that it fits and the milestone stage is completed. The lid is quickly removed again after the photo opportunity so the factory technicians can carry on working easier inside. There are still big items to be installed in the hull before the deck can be permanently joined. We’ll catch up on all that activity when we visit the factory again next month!
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