Rudder, rubbing strakes and taff rail continues

The taff rail continues fabrication.  Below shows it sitting in position after sanding.  The forward uprights are still to be cut to length, but my father has fabricated two stainless steel fittings to go underneath them to strengthen the attachment to the coaming.  They will be shown when mounted, but will be through bolted to the upright, and will be screwed in two directions onto the combing (along with the original coach screw).  I am thinking I will need to buy the winches to check lifeline interference with the handles to determine final height of the forwards bits.

One of the other tasks was to mount the rudder.  I had already fitted the top transom fitting, so we could block up the rudder to determine final bottom fitting position.  Then it was on to fitting the middle one which has a 20mm hardwood backing plate inside the transom in the rear storage area, see below (excuse the flag, my son found it somewhere...).

And a close up of the top two fittings and the hole for the tiller looking into the cockpit.

And all done.

Final task of the working bee was mounting the rubbing strakes onto both sides of the hull with sika marine sealant and silicon bronze 14G 5-mm (two inch) screws 250mm apart.  Below is putting on the sealant after taping up around where the wood will be:

There were three of us initially, and then mum had to help as well to hold the top one when we started at the stem because of the length and curve.  After peeling off the tape quickly I then sanded them all, and have filled a few screw holes left from laminating the third layer on where the chainplates will go and elsewhere.  Paint with epoxy sealer undercoat and then topcoat to follow is my goal for the next week.

And a final shot from a distance, very hard to get a good shot that shows the whole boat.

No photo but all the electrics are now completed, with the interior lighting and fans operational. Of he nine lights only two didn't work first time, one the plugs were reversed and the other was a thin wire I had broken when crimping on a component but easily fixed.  One of the two forward berth fans had a similar crimping/broken wire issue so fairly happy with that outcome.

Work continues, with motivation high.