Spring is nearly around the corner and will be very welcome, especially after a recent arctic air mass plunged most of North America into a deep freeze for over a week. We can’t think of a better way to celebrate Spring than with the launch of a new design, and the new J/9 is just over a month away.
Hull #1 is out of the mold! Sitting on a shop cradle, the hull is stunning, seemingly already gliding effortlessly through the water. Shown here in the proto-type shop at CCF Composites, hull #1 is being utilized for constructing and verifying patterns for key interior components such as the main cabin berths and shelves, forward v-berth, and additional bulkheads. The
main bulkhead, mast step, and keel floors are fitted, and once patterns are finished it will move into the assembly area.
Meanwhile, the J/9 deck mold completed last week, and the first deck is underway. The deck is shown below with just the skin coat applied. To this will be added structural fiberglass skins on either side of Corecell foam to produce an extremely strong but lightweight structure. The
J/9 structural and laminate engineering is being designed by Steve Koopman of SDK Structures, a leading engineering firm with an extensive background in high-performance sailing.
The new J/9 deck mold shown just before the final application of release wax.
The skin coat is applied to deck #1.
Above, a new fiberglass drilling jig is fit over the deck plug. The deck hardware kits have
arrived and next week we’ll position hardware on the deck plug and take the boat for a
“virtual sail” to finalize hardware locations.
The main bulkhead mold is waxed
and ready to go.
Three days later a new bulkhead is
hatched!