Our blog is usually followed by those interested in boats but we recently received an email from Joe who came across us while searching bossa nova music on the web. Thanks Joe for your email! … and we have added a link to you playing the ‘The Girl From Ipanema’! (See “You Tube – Girl… Read More »
Playing with my new toy on our big toy … now you can really see the mess … and how spacious the Fusion 40 really is!!
Sometimes you work on the boat for days and seem to see little progress. Fortunately the last 10 days or so have NOT been like that! We seem to have kicked lots of goals with a second motor dropped in and hooked up, the ceiling lining ply well under way, and the shiny stainless pullpits… Read More »
Our stainless steel rails have arrived. Trial fitting complete, ready to bolt on.
It’s full on now. Every spare hour of every spare day. If we want to make January our launch month, it’s full steam ahead. Our outside fairing is very close, our upholstery all confirmed and ordered, bench tops measured with templates completed ready for our cabinet man, galley carcasses in with doors being sprayed as… Read More »
I suppose the second toilet was never going to be quite so exciting and was a challenge to bolt down as we couldn’t reach the locking gadgets but in the end we fabricated some alternative fiberglass brackets which are out of sight and working well? The hardest part about fitting the main fridge was probably… Read More »
The devil IS in the detail. Our fairer is working on the cockpit now, with the transom main sheet track ledge completed and the side alcoves on the way. Cockpit under-roof next week. It’s the inside that it’s all happening. The two electric windows are installed with two actuators on each now. Much stronger we… Read More »
Just got back from the Sydney Boat Show. The usual list of things to see, measure and price. This is (hopefully) the last of the big shows before we launch so we thought it was an opportunity to check some details and look for a few things we hadn’t made decisions on … and two… Read More »
Installed the freezer unit yesterday (not plumbed in yet) … a big shiney bit! We have a separate freezer in the starboard hull for long distance cruising with a fridge/freezer in the galley for everyday use.
Fitted the two electric windows yesterday. Designed these with the companion-way door frame. All aluminium with white powder-coated surface. Had them for ages so very exciting to finally start fitting them. And they are electric!
What’s this got to do with boat building??? Heard today that we are celebrating 50 years of the Rolling Stones. So I thought I’d mark the occasion by mentioning a great album I bought a few months back called Bossa N’ Stones. A collection of great renditions of Stones classics in bossa nova style! Smooth and… Read More »
While the weather has been COLD we have kept at it … with the latest ETL (estimated time of launch) being January, the “heat is on!” Jumping out of bed early morning hasn’t been that easy but once inside the boat with the heater on it has been rather cosy. We’ve been having 2 degree nights… Read More »
It’s so bloody cold here in Melbourne. My football team is losing so I now have weekends “free” ??!! Why not speed things along on the boat building front. Neville and I have just finished 4 days straight and feel like we may have turned the corner. Acetone bottle and rag in one hand and… Read More »
I think I mentioned in a previous post that “finished” was a big word. Well, the wine rack is finished! 25 bottles of storage. See pics. Until all the spraying & polishing is finished, we fit, then put away so the brown paper hasn’t been peeled of the rack sections. It’s actually been made out… Read More »
We are still fairing inside. Keeping in mind our man Mick only works 2 or 3 days a week, the inside is nearly (there’s that word again) there. More importantly, Mick is doing a fantastic job. He gets such a shine and there’s no sign of the joins. This is a specialist job and he… Read More »
Action everywhere today. Cabinet-maker here to fine tune the measurements, Mick our ‘fairer’ here, and Wayne our window man here. Love it!! Windows are completely in (look great) with the black Simsons completed as well … shmick!! Gilbert our cabinet man, here as well. Bathroom benches made, trimmed and completed,and our ‘cubby-hole’ features trimmed &… Read More »
Sunny day, cold weather approaching, time for the windows to go in. We started last week preparing the fibreglass, with four ready, we started on the glass today.
It’s a beautiful day here … 25 degrees, not a cloud in the sky, no breeze, just sunshine. Some days the weather can reflect the mood. Today, we feel we are making progress and the sun is shining. Mick, our fabulous ‘fairer’, our fibreglass master, has added some shine to the bogged and gelcoated white. … Read More »
Jobs done … helm pilot hatch, bathroom ceiling, rudder reference control in port engine locker, gas bottle shelf/locker, galley furniture, rear beam join in back locker, dinghy davits, auto-pilot cabling, second engine bilge pump … Is he going crazzzzyyyy???? See pic number 8!!
February 24, 2012 Just noticed I saved this page way back in October last year and never posted it (see below). Easter completion date … I don’t think so! We are hoping for September/October now. No way we’ll be ready before winter and it will be too wet during winter to move our boat out… Read More »
Still working on the fairing of the outside of our boat, inside will come next. While Mick, our fairer, continues to bog, sand & polish, Neville has been working on the conversion of the cockpit locker to an icebox. Mick will add the finishing fibreglass, then Neville will add some insulation. This is a ‘work… Read More »
Dry weather, mild temperatures, it’s fairing time. We’ve finally found someone to fair our boat. Mick is working on the outside while the weather is fine. Lots (and lots) of bogging and then sanding, with spraying starting today. We’ve also started adding the two underfloor ribs. One on today, prep done for the other. Not… Read More »
Cabinet-maker and upholsterer coming soon to measure up. Can’t wait!!
More fibreglassing of shelves and saloon couch, batons in the ceiling of the bathroom ready for the ceiling, fitting of a bilge pump to the port hull, pre-plumbing of two toilets, galley bench, laying up of small sections of our existing moulds to use as trim here and there …. the list goes on!
The last few weeks have been all about getting all the inside ‘shiny-sheet’ bits and pieces completed, particularly around the doorways. We’ve cut out the internal doorways now and measured for our aluminium trims. We are using the same company who have made our external doorway and windows. The external door & windows are powder… Read More »
Sunday is clean-up day, well, it’s supposed to be. Neville is good at the mess, so I suppose I compliment him by being better at the cleaning up. We can now see the saloon and the ‘couch’ furniture as I’ve ‘cleaned up’ this area this afternoon. I can’t really help ‘hands on’ with many jobs… Read More »
Really looking forward to the saloon coming together. We have put a lot of thought in to this area. Our initial thoughts were to have a galley down (like our Seawind 1000) – more entertaining room up and utilise the hull space down. After much discussion, measuring and researching designs on other cats, we decided… Read More »
A few jobs conquered. Know we’ve been a bit slack on our blog … thankyou for reminding us blog readers! Not intentionally slow with the updates, just not as much to report as the early building stages. But, I do know how interested and excited people get who follow these boat building projects … Neville… Read More »
I’ve learn’t so much during this build, especially working with fibreglass. Making the furniture pieces has been very rewarding. Finding ways to make white shapes and then piecing the made pieces together to make the corners, walls, steps and cupboards has been tedious but very rewarding. Just had a ‘week away’ escaping the cold and… Read More »
Thankyou Andrei for the reminder … “No more updates on the blog everything is OK ?!” Loads of work happening, but it’s slow now. No more big pieces being put together. Lots of bogging and fairing, and sanding and gelcoat spraying. Most of the joins have been prepared for fairing now, just weather dependent (you… Read More »
And you thought … nothing was happening. Lots happening, including lots of thinking. While we have purchased many interior furniture components from Fusion Mackay, we didn’t purchase the galley and saloon components. So we are designing and building these ourselves. Neville is busy learning ‘how to’ work with fibreglass and I just find the glossy… Read More »
It’s been 6 weeks since we started building. So much done … so much more to do. Long days, many hours, kilos of resin, kilos of glue, metres of fibreglass, hundreds of plastic buckets and white rags, and endless hours of grinding (teeth too). Not to mention the endless number of coffees, lunches and cold… Read More »
Just 21 days … stunning progress so far… the kit is basically complete but it was always our intention to fit a large number of moulded furniture components (from Fusion Mackay) and the installation of these has started as you can see from the pics. Fusion Mackay sell these components and we’ve had two of… Read More »
A few more assembly pics. The starboard and port sides have been added, furniture components have been placed waiting for fixing next week when Dodge from Fusion Mackay joins us.
The days have flown by and there’s been so much progress. We have a boat in our paddock! Lots still to do but so much progress in a short time. A big thankyou to guys who have been working with Neville … Tom from Fusion Mackay who’s our “expert”, Trevor, who’s pretty good at everything… Read More »
The second container has arrived, the building begins … not bad for nearly two days work.
Last update from Fusion … could be brought forward with a change to Kit Number #63 instead of allocated #64. We’ll wait and see!
“Isn’t it gorgeous!” Hmmm … WHAT is he talking about? He was talking about the forebeam. The forebeam has arrived … and the two engine beds.
Not much to show so far with the Fusion Kit delayed. With such a wet winter and another ‘small’ building project taking up considerable time (not to mention work), the delay has meant more time for preparation. Every night (no joke) Neville studies his “Master List”. “Nearly everything crossed off,” he told me the other… Read More »
This site is all about building a Fusion 40 catamaran, which we are going to name Bossa Nova. It is being built by Neville (& Amanda) at our home in Victoria, Australia. You are welcome to follow our journey. It will take several months, a lot of hard work and will be reliant on lots… Read More »