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**Das Boot** · 08-31-2026, 12:34 AM

Sweet. Always good to bring back something old.

**JHapprich** · 2026-09-30T21:35:39+00:00

Hello, fellow modellers! Since my last post i contined work on the stern, i.e. completing the covers of the aluminum frame with bolts and nuts to screw them down.

**JHapprich** · 2026-09-30T21:43:03+00:00

The "shark fin" was further thinned out and i dropped the remaining old abs part as a spacer with two brass tubes to do the same job,saving weight.

**JHapprich** · 2026-09-30T22:07:43+00:00

And then...things went very wrong:

I figured the main hull that basically is a 75mm PVC sewer pipe had warped so it was no longer straight, but more of a "Wiener" sausage. In addition, the stern end had widened and was no longer round and flush set with the rest of the stern.

I suppose both my uncured filler mess and exposure to direct sunlight on the hottest days of the year to help cure that filler did the trick. CR*P!!!

Trying to force-bend that tube back to shape with mild heat application didn't work, so i decided to use the heat gun after putting a plug into the hull to prevent deformation. Well...

I figured the plug was about 1mm shorter in diameter than the inner hull, so i had a nice streight hull again, slightly longer, with sagging to the bow bulkhead plus the tech tray would no longer fit. Well performed, J�rg!

After peeling out the then stuck plug i checked what was salvageable. Luckily, only the hull tube was useless.

When i first made the model years ago, replacement of the hull tube was one aspect i took care of. The bow bulkhead with its coupling is the most important and complicated part of it. It always aligns perfectly with the tech tray and the stern. The hull is only the pressure vessel, last thing to do was glueing down the sail perpendicularly and that it was.
Now, with the new deck and filling added, things looked more complicated, yet they weren't at all.
So, after overcoming my objections, i bravely took the razor saw and cut off the bow bulkhead. I tried to remove the deck, although i was sure id need to make a new one. To my surprise, i was able to peel off the entire deck structure with the sail!
the bow bulkhead was installed with epoxy glue instead of weld glue, so with some force, i was able the remove the remaing hull portion. A new hull was cut to length, by the end of today, i had the boat back together. Glueing/sanding/filling later on.