I´d been waiting for this day for a long time, and now it had finally arrived ... it was time to cut holes in the hull. Prior to cutting the holes for the two (2) Graupner Voith-Schneider® Propulsion drives, I used masking tape to cover the area to be cut. The tape made the pencil marks more visible, and it also protected the fiberglass thus preventing any chipping from the jigsaw blade.
A center pilot hole was drilled first, and then I used my hand, Black & Decker® jigsaw to cut the larger hole. I took my time making sure to cut the hole perfectly.
	The thickness of my hull is impressive as seen here. I shouldn´t have any problems with warping when my motors are cranked up to full speed.
Next, it was time to flip the hull and begin cutting along the lip. I decided to leave about a 1½" lip all around for stability and mounting of the Main Deck.
	The cutting process was very simple except for the bow area. I used a foam spacer at the bow to lift the saw up from the hull. I wanted to make sure the saw blade wasn´t going to penetrate the hull itself from the inside (bad move).
Finally, the process of removing the foam blank began. This was very time consuming and tedious, but well worth the effort, especially since I used duck tape prior to applying the fiberglass material.
	Some foam pieces were removed in large chunks, but most were very small. The secret was to clear out the center all the way to the fiberglass. Then it was simple to grab some duck tape and peel out the large areas. The tedious work came when it was time to remove the foam from underneath the hull lip.

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Last Updated Thursday, January 01, 2004 4:53:13 PM