The first of the FPB 78 series now has all of its bottom plate in place, a major milestone.

A beautifully fair plating job. Minimum bottom thickness throughout the bottom of the hull, to within two meters of the stern, is 12mm (1/2”) going up to as thick as 24mm (one inch) in the grounding flat down the centerline.

One of the last pieces of the bottom. We know of no other yard that can “wheel” this complex shape into a piece of plate this thick.

Last piece of the bottom going on.

Now several interior details. Looking here at the great room sole support. The notch out on the left is for the stairs between decks.

Although the deck opening is engineered as if it were unreinforced the framing system acts as a deck web to add extra stiffness to the opening.

A detail shot of the great room sole supporting system.

A sign of rapid progress on the FPB 78-1. The masts are being assembled onto the Matrix deck.

And here the start of the deck assembly for the second FPB 78.

Moving to the carpentry shop the master bunk base is almost ready for finish work.

Finally the drawer stack which goes at the foot of the bunk in the forward suite.

Next week we will bring you up to date on FPB 97-1 and 64-10 as they near launch date.