While building the solar panel tilting mechanism and installing the hangar deck, we have also installed barrel decks.
These barrel decks have multiple purposes. Their main purpose is to seal off the interior of the boat, while providing puncture resistance against sharp objects. At the same time, they have to allow the solar panel to rotate freely without obstructions.
The barrel decks were laid up with a fiber glass-resin lay-up in a PVC pipe back in August, and have been lying around since then, waiting to be installed. The decks were bonded to the wooden hull with epoxy resin and interfibe.
To access the space in the boat after these barrel decks were mounted, we cut out hatches from the fiberglass lay-up. This can be taken off when we are working on internal components, and sealed off when the boat is on the ocean.
After the barrel decks were in place, we installed lifting points for the boat. These will be the points from which the ship is lifted when it enters and exits the water. Since the boat will weigh more than 100 kg, these lifting points had to be engineered to withstand strong loads.
