So the lads at the boatyard have been working flat out to finish the base coat and the first sections of the top coat were applied late on Friday. The finish will be matt black. There’s been an awful lot of work done on the hull and four more layers of Kevlar have been added for protection against the ice we’re likely to encounter down there. Final planning on the jetski ramp has been completed and the pieces are being made up. The prop shafts have been overhauled and were delivered on Thursday. These will be put in early next week once the painting has been completed. The rudder bits are on site too and will be put in after the shafts.
The jetski itself is getting the same finish as the Earthrace and Marcus and myself have been doing that this week. That involves a whole lot of sanding and elbow grease but the result is looking promising. It gets its final coat on Monday and assembly on Tuesday. 
So progress has been good and the next week will be busy. The boat will in all likelihood be put back in the water later this coming week and we’ll be doing a bit of testing and fine tuning early the week after. After that we go around the north of the North Island to take the boat to Auckland. This means a bit of photographic work when we get to the more scenic bays and a bit of fishing off the Three Kings and surrounding area. I know, it’s tedious but someone has to do it.
So all’s going according to plan. Just a lot of work left as all the electronics still have to be put back together. The Flir camera, satellite antennae and radar all to be mounted and a boot spoiler from a Mazda RX7 just happened to show up to facilitate this – compliments of Marcus. This was reinforced to carry the weight of the camera and all is looking good.