Hull No.1 and the "Sniper" deck plug

Hull No.1 has been recently laid up, the hull bottom was gel-coated white, while the hull sides were gel-coated "Athol Blue" which is the lightest blue in the Allnex Colour Range.

The tie layer was then added onto the cured gelcoat, using vinylester resin and 225 CSM, during this process we added rovings to the internal radius's of the strakes and chines to reduce the chance of air voids and to create a strong point on the vulnerable areas of the hull. The idea behind using a light weight tie layer is to reduce the amount of shrinkage in the initial laminate which reduces the "print through" of the fibreglass fibres as the resin shrinks during the curing process, this was then cured overnight.

The next layers were a 450 CSM over the entire hull and transom, with the strakes and chine getting a strip of 450 Double Bias, and the transom getting a full cover of 450 DB with 200mm laps onto hull sides and bottom, then another full cover of 450 CSM. This was left overnight again, then repeated the next day.

The 38mm Thermolite transom was then glued in, as was the forward towing eyelet block, which is a solid fibreglass mass. Once cured, the prior hull laminate was repeated another 2 times. Then 12mm thick 80kg foam was glued to the hull sides, cured, then another 2 layers of 450 CSM over the entire hull.

The hull was left to cure for a few weeks in the mold over the Christmas break, then we started on the stringer and sub-floor structure, firstly with the main stringers made from 38mm Thermolite and the outer 2 stringers made from 12mm Thermolite all glued and glassed into place with a 2400 gram combination of DB and CSM.

Sub floor bulkheads were added, spaced at 600mm intervals, glassed in with 2 layers of 450 CSM. All laminates cleaned up, then onto fitting and glassing the floors, keel stringer, flow-coating the flooding keel void and fitting and glassing the keel floor.

All this structural work has now created a stable hull that cant flex or move, so now it was time to release from the mold, fit a light weight version of our Tracker deck to the hull, which now gives us a base to build our Sniper deck from. The process from here was to use MDF to make a skeleton of the new fore deck, firstly starting with a "spine" to create the sheer line, then add "ribs" and shape those to a desirable camber, dash and breaker rebate was also made at this stage. The gaps in the ribs were the filled with expanding foam, glassed, then bogged, faired, bogged, faired..... TBC

July 2026

A lot has happened since our last update. The filling and fairing was completed on the Sniper deck, a few coats of gelcoat was applied to the deck. This gave us a good base to board back and identify and minor lows, then another quick coat then onto hours of wet rubbing and polishing.

We widened the flange with some throw-away melamine for molding. We gave the plug a few coats of wax, then sprayed the tooling gelcoat, followed by the vinylester tie layer, a couple of layers of 450 choppy. then 3 layers of 600, some foam core on the large flat areas, then another 3 layers of 600. a steel frame was made to keep it rigid and at a good working height.

The mold was released from the plug, sealed and waxed. then onto the gelcoat, tie layer, couple layers of glass, 10mm foam core on the flats, and another couple of layers. Sniper deck #1 was now released, trimmed and fitted to the hull, hull and deck flanges were temporarily screwed together, then the hull and deck join was glassed together internally with a couple of layers of choppy and some double bias.

Helm and rear locker bulkheads installed, side pockets and rod holders in cockpit, cabin side pockets. 240L stainless tank installed, floor glassed over the top.

We then started work on the wave breaker mold, we made a plug, then took a mold, then made a part the same colour as the hull. The flooding keel came next, we cut a hole in the transom and put in some breather pipes up the front. We currently have the flap mechanism being drawn up and bench trialed, hopefully this will be successful.

We fit up the engine to the 4" hydraulic jack plate, then the jack plate to the boat. put some essential fit-out items like mooring cleats, towing eyelets, fuel fittings, bungs, basically enough to get her on the water, this will be a demo, and we'd like to leave as blank of a canvas as possible for the future owner.

Fit-up all done, we've had a couple of sea trials (in the lake) and she performed amazingly (with 2 adults and 2 kids)

With the light weight 200 Suzuki at 25 knots, she burns 22 litres an hour at 4000 RPM. Wide open throttle she gets 43 knots, burning 50 litres an hour. with a bit of fine tuning with the trim and the jack plate, we can play with these numbers a bit to suit the conditions and payload.