It took a while to get started, but my Starwind 860 trimaran project is now underway.

Tradition has it that a boat-building project should start with the laying of the keel. But for a long, drawn-out project, it doesn't make sense to rent a large build shed for the entire duration, when there are small fiddly bits that can be done first. So the first year or so of work on this thing is going to consist of fabricating small fiddly bits. When it does come time to assemble the hull, then, most of these parts will be ready to go, so the big tasks won't have to wait (taking up valuable shop space) while small bits are being made.

The Starwind 860's outriggers fold to fit on a trailer. The most highly loaded bits of the entire boat are the hinge pins for the outrigger folding struts, which are just about ready now.

Each of the eight pins (two for each of the boat's four crossbeams) gets a set of three aluminum sleeves. One will be incorporated into the fibreglass strut, the other two will be secured to the hull and outrigger with thick loops of unidirectional fibreglass, in the same manner as composite chainplates on a modern sailing yacht.

I've left the outer surface raw for now. It will be etched and treated for epoxy bonding before lamination.

These are a relatively small component of the final assembly, but a critical one. And it's certainly nice to have the project finally underway.

Eight pins, 24 sleeves, associated shop cleanup and a trip to the metal store represent about 10 hours of work for me, so figure on 6 hours (maybe less) for a competent machinist using good carbide tools.