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.