Beam interior

At an early stage of the project I obtained the beam mold from a fellow boat builder who was relocating to Australia. The mold spent several years in my garage, with the intention to start the beam construction during the winter months. More than once I cleared the garage to make room for the build, only to see it gradually fill up again, postponing the actual start each time.

For reasons that are hard to explain, I found myself repeatedly putting the job off.

Years passed, but in the spring of 2017 the situation changed. With the prospect of having to vacate my workshop later that year, I finally took up the challenge and started the construction of the beams. I used a four-week holiday period to make substantial progress. During that time, my daily rhythm — including sleep — was largely dictated by the curing cycles of the epoxy. Fortunately, all work could be carried out at home in the garage.

The standard F-39 beams are constructed from a combination of glass fibre and carbon fibre, with carbon used primarily for the unidirectional reinforcements at the top and bottom of the beams. For this project, however, I chose to build the beams entirely in carbon, mainly to reduce weight.

The interior laminations of the beams were carried out one beam at a time in my home garage. To make optimal use of gravity, the laminate was arranged as horizontally as possible by rotating the beam mold into the required position — a process that became increasingly heavy as the laminate progressed. Once the interior laminations were completed, the beams were moved to the workshop near the boat for the next construction phase: applying the carbon laminate to the outside of the beams.