Floats and Rudder

It's been a while since my last update but as alot of the work lately has been on the second float which is a repeat of earlier posts on the first float I haven't been getting tocarried away with taking photos etc.

I have managed to get the first float outside skin all laminated and ready to begin faring. Certainly felt like progress when I could knock on the side of the hull and hear a resounding solid thud. I just can't wait to get into all that sanding!!

The shaping of the second float has pretty muched finished now and I should be able to start glassing the outside skins this weekend. So between laminating the second float and faring the first one I should not run out of work any time soon.

However just in case I feel like I am feeling like I haven't got anything to do I decided to start on the foils. I don't want to start on the main hull untill the floats are almost ready for painting and that will be a while away. So I thought I would be able make a few of the smaller bits and pieces, Rudder, Daggerboard main hull bulkheads etc and decided to strat with the rudder. I was intending to try to get someone to do the shaping using a 3D router but it was difficult to find someone locally that was prepered to take the job on so it was out with the sander and router! I was worring about this part of the job for a while but it ended up not being to big a job after all and it only took a day to shape the rudder by hand and the result looks like the plans so it should be all fine.

The rudder is a little bit under size to allow for the carbon to go on later but it is now ready for the HD insert down the centre a bit of Carbon and final shaping. Doesn't sound like much but will probabley take a while!

Floats taking shape

Progress has been a bit slower lately but steady all the same. Now that the weather has turned for the warmer I thought I would be able to get into the project a bit more but I have had plenty of jobs to do around home as well and have been told those jobs are a higher priority!


Managed to get the deck built and glued onto the first float with all the HD foam inserts in the right place.



HD foam ready to put into the deck and float ready to have the deck glued on

Then the deck glued on

Work also continues on the second float with the bulkhead flanges, compression strut and chain plate in place. So now I will continue to fit the deck to the second float and shape them both before laminating the outside skins.

Two Floats! (nearly)

Another high visual progress moment achieved this weekend. Removed the second float from the frames after gluing the last two halves and taping in the bulkheads over the last couple of weeks. Certainly is very motivating when you can actually see something happening rather than the normal routine of spending hours prepering to do small jobs that once done those not in the know wonder what you've done to justify the hours spent in the shed.

As for the 1st float after I finished the bulkhead flanges as in my previous post I went to work on shaping the keel. Forgot to take a photo of the finished shape unfortunatly but I was surprised how a small radius on the keel made the float look so much more like a hull of a yacht. I also put an extra layer of tape on the inside at the transom as I managed to sand right down to the laminate while shaping the keel.

Other small jobs done were the making of the two compression struts for the bow of each float and fitting the first one. Also glued together the foam block to make the bow for the port float.

Compression strut fitted

Block of foam all glued together and joined to the hull waiting for the sander.

Bulkhead flanges

Managed to get the bulkhead flanges done on the 1st float this week. This was a job I had not been looking foward to. I was a bit concerned with how I was going to get the six layers of glass around all the corners and still keep it reasonably tidy. As it turned out it wasn't as bad as I thought it might have been. I was surprised how well the glass conformed to the required shapes once it was wetted out and only required a bit of gentle persuasion to get it all in.

Just a little bit of tidy up required and that will be another one ticked off the list, only a few thousand more to go!!

Also managed to get the last float 1/2 laminated this weekend which when I removed the peel ply tonight has turned out to the best result so far. No bubbles or lumpy bits at all. I geuss I must be learning something after all!

The last 1/2 waiting to be joined

4th float half and 1st float joined

Work still plodding along at a bit of a slow pace over the last couple of weeks. Mainly due to the cold weather and apparently building a yacht doesn't get me out of mowing the lawns!!

However I finished the chain plates that I molded last post. Got the required carbon on and after a bit of an issue trying to find a small leak in the vacuum bag managed to get a reasonable vacuum of 25"Hg.


Out of the bag then cut in half to make the two chainplates


Work then carried on with the 1st joined float. I finished taping the bulkheads into the 3rd 1/2. The bow bulkhead proved to be a real test of patience. It was so much easier to do when there isn't another float 1/2 sitting on top! I managed in the end to be able to just reach the bottom of the bow bulkhead by holding the brush with my finger tips and used the theory of just get more resin in there and it seemed to turn out OK.

Then removed the joined float from the frames and taped the keel join. Thought it would be easier to tape the keel join with the hull sitting upright and working with gravity rather than against it. Also got the 4th float half ready to laminate but will do that next weekend.

The photo below shows the joined hull upside down with the 4th half in the frames in the fore ground. This will make it a little more civalised to do the Bulkhead deck flanges that are called for in the plans. With it at this height I can sit down with just my head inside the float.





Started to work on the mold to make the beam flanges which is proving to be a little difficult to hold the angled plate in position. In the photo above I am holding in the plate by screwing it to the deck flange plate but I may change my mind yet as I am a bit worried that I may get resin into the screw threads and it becoming a permenant part of the foat! I will see how I feel tomorrow when I start to glass it all up.

1st Float joined

Its been a high visual progress week which always make me feel good. Managed to get the layers of required glass on the bow stringer and the chain plate pad So the 3rd float half was allready to join.

But before all that excitment I got the G10 fibreglass tube glued on to the foam to start making the chain plate. The photos below show the mold setupand the result. The tube ended upnot being exactly square but perfection is very hard to achieve so it will be good enough. I can;t seeing it make alot of diference in the end except that one of the mast stays will be 1 or 2 mm longer than the other one.

Then this weekend moved the 2nd half into position and joined it up. Sounds so simple but feels like a bit of a milestone has been reached even though there is still a long way to go! It must have been a big moment as even my wife came out and gave me a hand, which is quite good as she can actually get into the bow bulkhead. I'm still not entirely sure how I am going to tape up the bow yet!

Slow progress, 3rd float 1/2

Its been a while since my last up date but alot has happened with life in general getting in the way of building. A few weeks ago we had a car crash which stopped progress on the build for a few weeks while I recovered and then had to find a new car etc! The good thing is that we weren't badly hurt which is a least one good thing to come out of it all.


The other thing slowing down the build is the cold weather at the moment. I seem to only be able to do anything of consequence on the weekends as it gets to cold to work with the resin at night after work, yep that bloody work thing gets in the way of yacht building! However last weekend I did manage to assemble a few mates around to give me a hand and laminate the 3rd float 1/2. It didn't turn out as good as the second half and there were a few spots that had to get a bit of attention and patches put in. Then this weekend I glued on the chain plate pad and the stringer which now just need the putty around the edges sanded and cleaned up before I put the glass on top of them. So I am hopefull that assuming the putty willgo off sometime in the next few days I will be able to glue two float halfs together and make it look like some real progress!



Foam all laid in placed and waiting the fibreglass cloth to go on.




In the picture to the left you may notice that the colour of the bog has changed from the earlier float halves. I changed to a low density filler to glue the foam together after a comment Ian made that the glue powders are too hard and not to surprisingly he was right. Thats why I am not designing the yacht and I am sure its a common rookie mistake. I have made a bit of extra work for myself a bit later on when I come to faring the outside of the hull.



Chain Plate pad and bow stringer bogged in place. Just waiting for the bog to go off enough to allow it to be sanded and glassed over.

As the weather is so cold I have also started work on making some molds. This week I started the mold for the wing net support rails. The advangtage with such good plans is being able to do jobs well ahead of time when things slow down a little. I hope this will save me time in the long run.

2nd float 1/2 out of frames

Just a very short update at the moment.I managed to get the stringer glued in and laminated and fitted the bulkheads that I had made perviously this week so I could remove the float 1/2 from the frames ready to reverse the frames and start on the 3rd 1/2.

Not to many pictures as its pretty much the same as the 1st 1/2.

2nd float 1/2 laminated

There has been a bit of a cold snap here in NZ this week so I haven't really done alot of work on the boat. A Cold snap here is 6 or 9 Deg C so nothing like the northern hemisphere but still makes it to hard to work the resins through the cloth etc. However yesterday it did get warm enough and I glassed the 2nd 1/2 which had been waiting since last weekend.



This time I didn't use the plastic over peel ply and opted to use just the peel ply. The result was really good this time with no air bubbles at all so I was really pleased with the result. Below is a close up of the sort of result I got which is looking simalar to the vacuum bagging so I think I have got a fairly good resin to cloth ratio here.











As I didn't have to do any repairs or patches this time I also managed to glue in the transom and center bulkheads so in all not to bad progress considering.

2nd float half

Spent the week getting the foam planks laid on the 2nd hull half so not to many exciting pictures this week. This time I put a skim of fairing compound over the deck flange to create a small radius where the hull and flange meet. This was a bit of a problem area when I glassed the first float 1/2 as the fibre glass didn't like the sharp step where the flange and hull meet. The small amount of bog will make a nice smooth transition from the hull to the deck flange so I shouldn't have any problems with the cloth not wanting to sit down on the foam properly.

Also made up a cradle to suport the joined floats or just a half after they come out of the frames. Seem a little bit extravagant but should make it easy to fair and glass the floats as I can stand each float up in the cradle or lay it down on either side. I will also make up some wheels to put under each end of the cradle to make it easy to move around.

1st float 1/2 finished!

Had a busy week again. Laminated the bow stringer and chain plate pad with the appropriate layers of fabric as per the plans. Glued in the bulkheads and then did the bog fillets and taping on each side of the bulkheads. Lastly removed the hull 1/2 from the frames ready to do it all again!


The only unfortunate thing is I forgot to take many photos apart from the one below after I removed the hull.

Bulkheads, bulkheads and more bulkheads

Got busy this week and made all the bulkheads for both of the floats. Even though I haven't finished the first 1/2 yet it does give me a bit of a head start on the next half as the bulkheads will be done already.


Making the bulkheads was speed up considerably by making two seperate bags so that I could do four bulheads at the same time.








Also got the bow stringer and chain plate pad glued to the hull ready to glass on once I have cleaned up the fairing filler around the edges.



Then at the end of the week I glued in the first bulkhead just to make it look like there had been some progress!

Bulkheads

Started vacuum bagging the bulkheads for the floats today. First time I have tried vacuum bagging and I was suprised how easy it was. Admitidly I am only doing some small panels and I can imagine that I would get a bit pushed for time on a large panel.

I was worried about how difficult it would be to achieve a good vacuum pressure. Although I did have some small leaks when I first turned the pump on, only got 15" Hg vacuum initally,it was easy enough to find the leaks and eventually got a vacuum of 28" Hg.

Vacuum setup. I put the extra layer of sealing tape around the edge mainly because I didn't know what I was doing and turned out to be completly unnesaccary.

minor repairs

After removing the peel ply there were three spots that required

some carefull attention with a grinder. These spots were not wetted out and had lifted from the core. I ground these spots down and applied a suitable sized patch results are as per the picture below.

Laminating 1st Float 1/2

After spending a couple of nights during the week cutting the fibreglass to shape and putting a bit of fairing filler along the keel join to smooth it out I am ready to glass the first float 1/2. Then I had to make a few phone calls to get some mates around to give me a hand to lay down the cloth, the promise of beer and food can be a great motivator!

You can see the fibreglass in the back ground just waiting for some eager volunteers!

As you can see plenty of helpers turned up which I am very thankful for. It meant that I was on resin mixing duty for the greater part of the whole exercise,hardly even got my hands dirty!


A bit of final quality Control before the peel ply goes on.






I tried "poor mans vacuum bagging" which I had seen being used by others and as I hadn't seen it before thought I would give it a go. Checked on the results the next day and I am not convinced as to the effectivness of using the plastic over top of the peel ply and the jury is out at this stage. I can see that it may be useful on flat areas but when there are some curves involved it may not be as effective?

1st float 1/2 planked

Had a bit of a delay over the last few weeks while I was waiting for the foam and fibreglass to arrive from the suppliers. Amazing how retailers are very quick at taking your money but not always on the ball when it comes to delivering the goods. However now that I have got the foam it only took a couple of days get it onto the frames and glued together.

ready for laminating the fibreglass

I decide to glue the foam with epoxy glue rather than a polyurathene construction type of adhesive. I did a trial with some polyurathene glue but I had some concerns with the stength of the glue. After I had left it to set for a few days I could still pull apart the foam pieces I had glued together along the glue line. I also had some concerns if the glue was water proof or not. It said on the label that it was weather proof but I wasn't sure if that meant water proof.

Strong back

With all the materials to build the hulls ordered and on the way I got under way with building the strong back and setting up the form frams to start building the floats.

After spending some time studying the plans I decided that the easiest place to start was actually at the begininnng strangley enough. So with that in mind I decided to start on page 1 and get on with building the floats.

I spent quite a bit of time over the week getting the strong back nice and level and roped in a builder mate of mine and used his theodalite level to get it as close as possible.

Decisions decisions

After Stuying the plans for a month and getting quotes for the materials from various suppliers I ordered the materials today.

There have been alot of decisions made this month. Firstly which technique to use to build. Good old fashioned hand layup, vacuum bagging or resin infusion. There is alot of info on the net regarding Vacuum bagging and resin infusion.

When I started thinking about building a yacht a couple of years ago I was very interested in resin infusion. Although the end product will be very high quality with infusion I decided to go with hand layup. I will be considerably quicker to build and it may be a few kilo's heavier but as Ian Farrier recomends handlayup to build one of these yachts it can't be that bad. Hand layup is afterall the technique that has been used successfully for a long time and should be quicker and invlove less risks than infusion.

I have decided to build the 'R' version, I can't help it really I would rather sail fast than slow, and based on the theory that you can make a fast boat go slow but you can't make a slow boat go fast so I opted to go with taller R rig. Initally I thought I would build using the minimum fabric weights as specified in the plans but after a bit of reflection I thought itmight end up a bit of an egg shell and lets face it when a yacht gets a bit of use it will eventually bumpinto the jetty or something else and the slightly heavier fabrics will give a little more protection.

The Beginning

The plans arrived today and I guess this is the end of any spare time I used to have over the next few years!

Now I need to study the plans and sort out prices and ordering materials and then workout if I will be building the cuddy cabin or the standard cabin version and exactly where to start.

The plans are very comprensive and easy to follow. The plans are printed in colour which makes it easier to see where all the different fabric weights go.

Given the amount of detail in the plans the decision of exactly where to start will require a bit of thought but I am certainly glad to have all the info in the plans given my experience in boat building, which is only doing minor repairs on exsisting boats so this should be a challenging experience.