It seems like and age since I was last in the workshop doing something constructive. Finally today I managed to make a start on a couple of improvements (not guaranteed of course) to two of my previous homebrew projects. There wasn't a lot wrong with the Bor in fact Graham Elliot was rather impressed with the design when he saw it in the flesh! It was then a great shame when I took the bung out whilst receiving his compliment that a load of water poured out which sort of dampened my proud feeling. A day or two after I found that the joint between the kicker well and mast tube had subsequently split causing the leak. (I digress)
So why cut up a perfectly fine hull? The Bor was just as competitive as any other modern design, winning the majority of Club races and even some District races. However, there were two major flaws. The skipper and the nose dive in the upper wind to rig ranges. Perhaps, again not changing down a rig could again be a skipper problem but I thought I'd just try a little tweak first. So it made sense to move the position of the winch as I have ordered a new Tempest winch from Titan.
The Bor was fitted with a BRC winch (Italian RMG clone) and the fixing bracket can be seen in the photo above. The batteries were located in a plastic tub on the opposite side of the fin case and the small pot just housed the radio receiver (rx).
The deck has been carefully cut away revealing the rear of the fin case, the new winch will be fitted just behind the case and the pot recess has been recycled and fitted behind the mainsheet post, both the 7.2V LiPo and rx fit neatly into the smaller pot.
Amending the Vertex plug was another job that had been on the cards for a long time so I'm relieved to have finally made a start. The issue with the Vertex was the waterline. The bow being a little low whilst the transom was too high. I did improve the balance by moving the corrector weight well aft but will be happier if this wasn't necessary to such and extent.
I have opted to add a little more volume to the bow which in turn will lower the transom. I used contact adhesive to glue a 6mm x 6mm piece of Spruce to the centre of the hull, then planed the ends down to form the new rocker shape.
Once satisfied with the fairing I applied liberal amounts of filler. I'm anticipating at least another two layers of filler and a lot of sanding and sealing to produce the new plug.
