Flipped

Ray's back, just. Apparently the first part of the trip to Bermuda was particularly tedious and they seriously considered turning back. The rest of the trip via the Azores was made slowly in light winds until they reached Cape St. Vincent where they met the Barlavento wind. Although it is restricted to the west part of the Algarve, which is known as the 'Barlavento Coast', it blows predictably out of the north west most days in the summer at up to 30 knots.

Just googled translated 'Barlavento' ~

noun	luff weather side windward side
adjective	exposed to the wind weather windward

BTW the Eastern part of the Algarve is known as the 'Sotavento' (leeward) coast.

Work on the boat resumed.....

After putting the metre wide carbon wraps around the hull exterior at the mast positions and fairing some more, the hull was flipped. The dark patch near the 'wheels' shows where one of the carbon wraps is.

Restart and Recap

Looking back, I figured the first few blog entries were really more about me than the boat. So, I'm going to start again and see if I can focus more on what the blog is supposed to be about. 


Rob Denney at www.harryproa.com designed this 20 metre sailing proa. The design called for the shell to be made of 20 mm foam sheathed with glass/epoxy or 15 mm cedar sheathed in glass/epoxy. In theory, foam hulls should be substantially lighter at 0.08 sg than western Red Cedar at about 0.32 sg; however, it's not as simple as that. Foam absorbs far more resin (unnecessarily, as it does not improve strength) and resin weighs in at around 1.0 sg, almost the same as water. And the glass7epoxy sheathing itself takes up more than half the total weight anyway. Rob reckoned it was a 'no brainer' for a cruising boat, so I went for cedar. He figured the shell would weigh 1300 kg if made of foam. It will be interesting to see what it is when a crane lifts it.


Wood and fiberglass materials were purchased for the lee hull and arrived in February after Ray confirmed he would be coming back from the States. 

Which he did in March, and decided that he would rather do the lee hull in one piece upside down than 2 sides laid flat and then glued together. There's a pro and con to this idea. Pro, the 'keel' join is pre-glued together and all sheathing crosses over the 'keel' join making it inherently stronger. Con, although the inside can  similarly be done it is a much more restricted space especially at the ends.

Being a speedy person he (with the help of Dave and Ed) had the cedar hull completed in a couple of months. This included making a cement base and strongback, then making 19 stations upside down from the half stations done by Pym, and then gluing 15 mm western red cedar (No2s and better).

2 weeks later they had sheathed the hull on the outside with 350 gsm biaxial 45° glass and epoxy. After sanding and fairing for a couple of weeks, Ray headed back to South Carolina to get his boat and bring it back over the pond before the hurricane season.
Behind is the workshop which is large enough inside to do the beams and make parts, but the hulls and masts have to be done outside in 'clement' weather.......which we tend to have a lot of in the Algarve.