Fin Installation

We have fins!

They arrived this past week, but I had to be away for a few days on business so I wasn't able to get started until yesterday. The first step after un-crating everything was to paint the top of the fins with anti fouling paint since it won't be accessible after installation. The first picture shows the fins with the tops painted. You can see the notched profile on the top to clear the hull chine.

Now that the fiber glass work is done and Glass Guy has moved on the other projects, I have my friend Fin-man helping out. In the next picture he's proudly posing next to the first fin that we installed. At first we had some trouble getting it on until we discovered that there was a layer of epoxy that had flowed down into the shaft socket on the fin and was causing it to bind up on the shaft. Once we figured out what was going on it was a simple thing to scrap it off, then everything went together as expected.

The next photos show the fins installed with the bottom winglet in place.

From there we moved inside and put together the inside mechanism. The last picture show one side assembled, and you can see how close the fit is against the bulkhead panel, but everything appears to clear OK.

I must say, I breathed a big sigh of relief today.