Armor Amour – chapter 1

When Hello World came down from the rafters I was dismayed to find she was still wet. Before lofting her last October I had drained the standing water from the hulls. Though I suspected her fiberglass / foam sandwich was still saturated, I assumed that 6 months hanging in a warm house would dry her out.

I had forgotten about the 10 lbs of sand that had washed into the port hull during the Point Betsie surprise. The water did migrate out of the sandwich but rather than evaporating it mixed with the sand and pooled. There was about a half gallon in there!

The starboard hull had been breached, probably during the emergency landing to secure Zilliax’s bike. I had drilled the damage clear so it could drain – which it did – drip, drip, drip all winter. Yet the sandwich was still saturated when I opened the hatch hole.

Removing the wet sand and facilitating evaporation required hatches to be installed in both hulls. Love suffused my methodology. Deployment of the other essential modification – keel armor – was accompanied by a melange of emotions and associations, including the events of 9/11…

Why does powdered aluminum remind me of September 11, 2001?