For the first time since the beginning of the construction phase, we managed to visit the shipyard in France and see the progress of construction on our ship for ourselves. It was quite impressive to not only visit the shipyard and walk past any random ships, as we did a few times during the planning phase, but to actually stand in front of and inside the ship that will soon be our home.

Painting is finally finished, and the boat is now much closer to its final look of white, gray and black. One pass of polishing is done on the bare aluminium.

The boat has been moved to the paint shop, where a primer and anti-fouling will be applied to the hull below the waterline. The hull above the waterline is not painted, and remains bare aluminium on which a protective layer of corrosion forms over time. The deck, cabin roof and hard dodger are painted white, in up to nine layers of paint (for robustness), so the painting process will take a while. We have to be patient.

The deck is now firmly welded to the hull and the cabin roof, the doghouse and the aft arch are in their final positions. The impression of how the cockpit will look later is starting to be pretty complete.

The deck, cabin roof, hard dodger and cockpit have now been welded together separately. The hull has been turned.

Metalwork has progressed further and the hull was unmolded this week, that means it was removed from the steel mold on which it was constructed initially.

All main plates of the hull are now in place, and work has started on some parts of the superstructure, like the characteristic stern arch which will later hold solar panels and dinghy davits.

The first hull plates have been welded onto the transversal frames this week. Hull plates are 10 mm and 8 mm strong.

Here we go! Work on our aluminium hull started this week. First, the aluminium transverse frames are mounted on a reusable steel frame, which is used for all ships of this series.