Spreading the bow wide open...

... and then pulling,this time from the outside to join the bottom panel with a wide, flat V before the tip of the bow will be brought together.

No news from the boat today, just a little personal word:

Analyzing my web log over the last couple of weeks I find that we have an ever increasing number of visitors, starting with only a few, but by now we are rapidly approaching a hundred per day, many of them seem to come regularly.

I had not really done anything for that, apart from participating in the Yahoo discussion group. So today i decided to go for it and spent a little hour submitting the YAGO PROJECT to half a dozen amateur builder and design link-collections on the net. I guess tomorrow my ISP will kick me out ;-)

But seriously, I am very happy about all this unexpected interest. And There are maybe a dozen of you who have started sending me nice mails and encouraging words.

I even got a few thinly veiled threats that they, too, might want to build a YAGO ... one even in ALLOY starting soon!!!! ;-)

I would like to thank you for all that, it is a perfect remedy against my inborn lazyness and helps me get my dirty work clothes on on a Saturday morning when I would rather stay in bed.

It's also perfect motivation to research the little YAGO TRAWLER for the river, ot the YAGO 37 BEACHHOUND that's trotting around in my head... more on that this autumn.

But there's all these unknown visitors.

Guys, WHO ARE YOU?

Look, if you are reading this, no need to write anything today, but if you come back next time, please take a minute to drop me a line, ok?

Had a very active wekend, took the boys to the village party that we did not find, the cat to her lover for a long dirty weekend, the kids to the beach again, banged my knee, overslept on sunday, did some shopping and also worked an hour or two on the boat.

I found that joining the flat bottom on uneven ground is a bit of a pain in the ass. Will get 2 traverse beams to jack the boat up on and lift it off the ground, that should make it easier - that will really be the very first equipment in terms of support that I had to get until now

{mosimag}
Transom fitted and hulls being pulled together forward. The very last look through the open bow from a point just above the waterline

fitting the tight curves required some tweaking with the come-alongs, note the temporary handles for attaching.

Knuckles?
What knuckles???
;-))))

Took 2 days off, couldn't wait anymore for my holidays and needed urgent rest.

My valiant Max left me for a week to find his friends and his canoe on the river, camping, paddling, eating fish soup and playing cards... he has well earned it, he really surprised me over the last weeks of building and it did our realtionship a lot of good. That guy is growing up big..

In the meantime, with Olga, we started pulling the centerline aft together, and to prepare the transom.

transom cut our and reinforced, top is left longer and straight, will be cut later.

holding the transom in place, pointed in the center and wobbling the hullsides to make the joint.

Finally we joined the hulls - just before yet another rain squall.

Seen from the cherry tree..

.
... and from the neighbours perspective - at last the mystery is lifted: IT'S A BOAT ;-)

It's quite a moving moment, when the still very soft and floppy shape of the hull begins to show the volumes, lines and shapes that I imagined in front of my computer....

The Transom is not yet fitted, which is why the aft section is still looking a bit strange, but that should change over the next couple of days.

A rare and evasive beast, whose existence is still denied by many scientists: CATAMARANUS FERRONEUS

The shells lie heavy in the evening shadows, like a giant dead mussle that somebody trod on, but without the fishy smelll.

Behind the line of trees the Danube runs high and fast. Mosquitoes are everywhere, but too small to show up in this resolution. The groundhogs have not shown their noses since we coated the lawn with steel.

The neigbours, still wondering what will happen here, forgot to remove their earplugs from last Sunday and now miss out on the sweet clicking song of the come-alongs.

Deep in the Hungarian countryside a boat is preparing to spring into sudden and unexpected existence....a pregnant moment in human history if ever there was one.

BTW, people, did you follow SpaceShipOne into space?

I just LOVE this guy Rutan. Go and check out all the beautiful machines he designed and build over the years, each one a piece of art, each a fantastic machine. I only wish I was was born a bit later, to be still around around when nutcases like us will build light-driven, spiderlike origami-space-yachts.

Didn't get too much done this weekend, weather was a bit mixed again and then I burnt out two grinders and spent a lot of time time shopping and running after replacement. As I had to give back the borrowed oxy rig, I had to cut all the port hull with the disk, and althought he cuts are much cleaner, that sure ate up the litte bit of energy I had left after the working week.

I think of the four weekends and a couple of odd hours in the evenings that we worked until now we have spent about half the time either joining the single sheets together or fixing tool-problems. With full sized sheets and proper cutting equipment, work would be MUCH easier.

And to tell the truth, I was a bit tired, and on sunday afternoon simply wanted to lie down and do nothing. Strawberries are almost finished but cherries are coming. The Danube glides by only 50 meters away, and our BLACK SWAN just got a new coat of paint and we have not sailed it this year. Maybe next weekend - although I promised myself I would only go sailing once I have aligned the two halves ;-)

In spite of all the work on the computer, the moment when all seams of the half-hull come together, there is a certain apprehension - from the CAD screen to the full size drawing on the steel plates to cutting and pulling together, there is some room for error...

But no need to worry, the starboard side folded perfectly, with only a couple of millimeters to adjust.

Joining the vertical seams.
Note the "handles" for come-alongs welded directly to the panels, to be cut off later.

Ah yes, and Fina, our persian cat, had 5 kitten yesterday, that makes 8 cats in the house right now ;-)

Max, happy apprentice and future Master Origami Builder

Stopped yet again by rain, but this time...

... nothing will stop this valiant crew from boldly going where our true destination lies.
We finally enter the long promised 3D space!!!!!!

Its no longer flat ;-)

We are pulling the starboard side together, and so far it is easier than expected. Here, the upper chine is tacked, the lower chine being pulled in. As we advance, the welded chines support the ends. The power needed to pull the darts is also much smaller than I thought, as long as we lift and support the ends all the time.

The only problems we have are with unclean cuts from the first, borrowed oxy cutter and with some butt-joints between the sheets. If you can get good cutting equipment, full size sheets and flat hard ground it should be a piece of cake! The port side has better cuts, and should come together easier, so unless the weather stops us dead again, next weekend we should start joining the halves.

The last week was very wet, with flooding and thunderstorms.

We only managed to put in a couple of hours in between the cats and dogs raining from the sky... we now have one half hull cut out, traced to the sheet below and flipped over. We did some short tentative pulls on the darts, just to see, and it seems to work - if all goes well next weekend we will pull the panels together!

I also have to leave on a short trip - so if any of you is wating for mail, please give me some more days before I get down to answer everythign I got in my inbox...

Aligning the panels for the port hull, starboard hull traced identical and partially cut int he background. We had lots of rain and the sheets get a nice rusty color - that is good as we are now looking at the inside of the sheets and shlag that will rust off now will not need to be blasted.

All evenings during last week we started assembling the sheets to a full sized panel. The neighbours must be wondering what's going on ;-)

The weather is mixed, grey and intermittend rain, I hope it will hold. We managed to borrow an oxy cutting rig, and I have to see that I get all my hull-panels and the transom cut out, the cheapest new kit I was offered was about 400 €, and I prefer to wait until I find a second hand one.

I am very very nervous... ;-)

A long 3-day Weekend has started - let's see if the picture we will take monday evening loks any different...

These are 2 panels. Cut offs joined at the bottom. There will be just one vertical weld above the waterline.

Just like cutting the paper shape, except a bit bigger and a lot hotter ;-)

During a break in the rain we finished aligning the 2 layers of sheets one on top of each other. Tomorrow morning, if the weather lets us, we will draw the shape and start cutting...

It's raining - frustrating and a gentle reminder of the incoveniences of working outside. Went and spent some money instead, electrodes, discs, so I am sure that I will not be out of supplies when all the shops are closed on monday.

Today the truck came and delivered the steel:

That should be enough to build the hull and start the deck

A peaceful moment on deck - YAGO does not seem to pitch or roll at all in spite of the heavy wind, probably due to the flat bottom and very high prismatic coefficient.

...I have put my Forint where my mouth is.

After nearly 20 years of abstinence, with the occasional litle thing built or repaired here or there, I have fallen off the wagon one more time. I visited a steel yard, climbed clumsily over piles of rusted sheets, greedily fingered T and L profiles, and then signed at the bottom on the dotted line.

They will deliver some time next week. Steel has driven it's cold claws into my brain again. A Junkie's Tale.

(The guy on the blue picture above is King Matyas I am told, and it is worth about 4.60 USD)