The Athens build team has completed the construction and installation of their bridgedeck, the forward bulkhead and the two transom bulkheads.

With the installation of the most recent elements on the Gato Especial,  the builders are now ready to fabricate the hull turning structure that will stabilize the boat for the big rollover.

 Underneath the hull, they will build mirrored, 45 degree chamfer panels that strengthen the hull-to-bridgedeck connection on the underside. They will then install a triangular shaped longitudinal beam from bow to transom. This form will spread the compression loads from the mast, give the boat bullet-proof stiffness fore to aft and deflect waves from unimpeded slamming of the bottom of the bridgedeck while underway.

The hull turning process has been completed, the builders have installed the wave deflection/ longitudinal beam and the hull-to-bridgedeck chamfer panels.

The builders apparently had quite a fun session with the hull turning, as they had several friends over and the actual process went quite quickly.

 Once they had it upside down, they quickly installed the wave deflection unit and moved on to build the chamfer panels.

The addition of these two structures insures a very strong boat, fore to aft, as well as a more comfortable ride in a choppy seaway. In the time since these images were sent, the builders have completed the fairing of the complete underside of the boat and are ready to seal it with a coat of epoxy to prep the hull for a first coat of primer.