Thursday, March 6, 2008

Additional 290 Hull Mold

We've completed our second 290 series hull mold... this will be a welcome addition to our plant and quickly become a necessity with the addition of the Express Cabin and Center Console models in order to meet retail demand.

If we continued with only one hull mold this would mean that we could only build a 290 series boat every other start. This is because we build our hulls over a two-day period in order to maximize the benefits of a properly cured skin coat.

Day one consists of spraying gelcoat, and skinning the hull to approx 70 mils. We allow this to cure overnight in order to ensure that the proper hardness is reached in the skin coat which protects the finished surface.

Day two consists of adding the bulk laminate which consists of layers of bi-axial and tri-axial materials, and foam coring above the waterline. Once they are done with bulk laminate, they finish day two by installing the transom, stringers, and the bulkheads.

Adding this second mold we mean that we can start a 290 series boat every single day, and considering we build one boat per day, that's a lot of capacity! Once we get the metal framework glassed onto the hull mold for rigidity, mold care will then properly bring it up for the first two production parts by buffing, sealing, and applying release agent. After building the first two parts we'll perform final tooling to take the mold to 1000-grit finish, and it'll be ready for years of high-quality production parts.

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