Building the hull, part I: Bottom, sides, and parts of the stern

Glueing side strut onto bottom First step: glueing struts to the side of the bottom. These struts will act as guides for attaching the side parts, and reinforce the edge and the bottom (the ship will weight about 12kg after all!).

Engine mounting The main engine has to be elevated from the bottom so the shaft can pass over the rear thruster while the propeller fits under the bottom of the stern part (see next picture).

This is the upper part of the stern. The flat bottom will just sit on or slightly under the water line. It supports the rudder and the rudder servo.

After cutting out the bottom I realized the V-shaped cut is 4mm too far in - ouch!, but the only erroneous cut so far (touch wood). So I cut out a V-shaped 4mm wide piece of wood, and glued it in. This worked better then I hoped/feared, and with the glass fiber/resin coating this should be no problem regarding stability.

The servo for the rudder is a pretty powerful device; I've been advised that some extra oomph is needed for a ship/engine of the size I'm building/using.