Sunday, April 25, 2010

Social event and some building

I had a short notice gathering in the boat last week-end, drinking Calvados and discussing various maritime themes, such as interior layout possibilities and what to do about our Minitonner.  I would say the evening was a success in every aspect.  The small central cockpit configuration turned out to work well as the centre of events.


Foam blanks for the rudder is still a couple of weeks off, so after waxing the moulds they are set aside for now.  Looks like they have an adequate surface.


After a thorough clean up the following day I started to develop the buffer tank, i.e. finding the appropriate height, RM69 on several layers of off cut panels


and trying to figure out where the trough hulls and trough tanks will go.  I have done a lot of research on different hardware as well, several interesting parts available but of course none of them marketed in Norway. I favour the Forespar Marelon fittings and wrote them, and the Norwegian importer has been advised to contact me.
Here is the aft tank bulkhead dry fitted and floor level outlined.


Then making glueing flanges on the forward tank bulkhead. This picture is also showing the result of hours digging out edge foam and filling with epoxy.


Like this:


And a flange on the aft tank bulkhead


I have also started fitting the anchor well, here the well is temporarily wedged in


Taped in place on the accessible inside top joins.  The rest of the taping will be done with the hull on the sides and up side down.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Preparing rudder moulds

After the initial layers of epoxy, the mould surface was left rather rough.  I'm not sure whether this was due to the "wood" rising, dust not available to the vacuum treat being lifted to the surface, or other explanations.  Some serious sanding was needed anyway.  I started a bit last week, but today Torkil came over and we worked the moulds down from 120 grit to 600 and ended with a very smooth surface.  I guess about 5 rounds of waxing now, then the Norslipp and we are good to laminate the skin with UD.

Torkil and the moulds after the first layer of wax has been applied.

Interior finish and cockpit progress

I continued with some more taping when the hull was on the side (this picture was obviously turned judging from the epoxy cup sitting on the port cabin wall).  A vertical stiffener at the aft edge of the cut-out and glue-back-in area.



And the inner lamination on the main hatch opening.


Then I put the hull back in the supports and started to remove peel ply.  I have peel plied everything under way, and tried to work smooth and clean, and I have no intention of filling the interior up with fairing compound.  So I used about 10 minutes with a sanding paper and cleaned off the surface.  Then I covered the front end of the cabin with a polyurethane paint, as I think this would be quite difficult after fitting the anchor well.


Same procedure with the storage areas and safety compartment under the cockpit seats, as advised by F-22 builder and sailor Menno.


As it obviously would be possible to make a smoother surface in these areas, I am very happy with it the way it is, and I have removed more weight in peel ply than what I have added in paint these two last days.


I applied a second layer of PU in the 8 - 20 hour time frame, and fitted the cockpit tops this evening.


Tomorrow night I will have a couple of friends over to have a drink and some good conversations in the boat for the first time.  It's time to start testing the functionality of this construction.....

Monday, April 12, 2010

Caught up

After several days of other commitments I finally made it to the workshop this evening.  My brother was here and helped me turn the boat earlier today, I think it is very doable single handed as well, as the boat is not anything close to heavy.  I forgot the camera, today's pictures are of phone quality only.  Anyway, this is how it sits at the moment.




The main reason for doing this was to be able to finish taping the daggerboard case to the hull, the top starboard side still missing. (not now, however)


This position also made it easier to finish other taping, the port settee under support;


The main bulkhead opening to the aft cabin;


Glueing back in the starboard cutout made for the head.  The underside only taped so far.  The top side taping will be easy once the hull is turned back.  I'll keep part of the cut out, hinged at the front, for better access to the forward storage space underneath.


I managed to finish the taping of the aft cabin bunk top before the latest building intermission, here is how it looks.


I also got the chance to "trial laminate" the underside of the cockpit seats, nice access trough the cutouts, and definitely no need for making glueing flanges.  I just have to get the compartments painted and get on with the cockpit construction. 

Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Rudder mould preparations

Silas and wife visited today and he brought the rudder moulds!  They really looked great.  The foam has still to be milled, but in the mean time I will prepare the MDF for repeated use. Torkil will modify his Corsair 24 with an F-22 high aspect ratio daggerboard rudder as well, and we plan on making a spare to avoid loosing a season should any one of us be unlucky.
Two coats today, I let the first get tacky before I applied a second one.  The "wood" tends to rise a bit when wet, so I'll sand down and apply a third and perhaps fourth coat when properly cured. Then comes waxing time.


Continuing catching up

There are still several small jobs that have to be finished.  I want to be able to paint several areas when I start mixing up the paint, so I'll finish a few things before I get on with the cockpit.
Here is the finished cockpit floor.


And I formed a foam gusset at the aft daggerboard case end.


After fairing and applying a rather heavy carbon fibre layup.  This is definitely not the first place to fail, whatever happens.


After my rather unfortunate miscalculation on the space requirements for a RM69 installation I started preparing a contra lateral cut out, adding a support under the port settee.  Then I made the cut out, the starboard part obviously has to be glued back in.  The right picture showing the head hanging in free air.  I will make a combined buffer tank/forward floor to put the head on top of.  I figure I'll line the tank with a light glass and a few covering layers of epoxy.


I also started preparing the top side taping of the aft bunk top, adding pieces of foam in the bunk top/hull transition, to avoid excessive putty fills.  The buckets of Würth Assy screw are weighing the foam down in the putty bed.


And I did some more taping on the cockpit panels to main bulkhead join, as well as the aft bunk top to main bulkhead join.

Saturday, April 03, 2010

Catching up with things left out along the way

I continued to do more of the laminations that I, for various reasons, have left out earlier in the process.  The extra laminates in the cabin floor was one of them, now able to do it after the initial hull-daggerboard case taping was done last work night.  I used here as on deck some carbon and some hybrid, making up a carbon A equivalent in the middle section with a top layer of aramid for toughness added wider than necessary for structural reasons.


And here is how it looks trough the deck hatch:


I also made the cockpit floor double tonight, plus some more taping of the cockpit seat fronts.  The double layer being compressed under the weight of some Nissan king cab wheels.  I planned originally to vacuum this in place, but after the drain holes were made before installation of the seat fronts this became an intricate matter.  I decided on poor man's vacuum bag and gravity instead.



I got an answer from Mr. Farrier regarding the structural issues in the head area and are now soon ready to move on with the custom buffer tank and head installation.

Thursday, April 01, 2010

Head problems, mould milling

I imported a RM69 bayonet catch ABS head with the 25 litre buffer tank from Holland (they don't sell these in Norway, only powerboats and over sized monos here), as this seemed to be by far the lightest toilet (3kg) on the market, and the buffer tank with the integrated 3-way valve seemed to be exactly enough to make good cruising amenities.  It also seems to have a good reputation amongst F-boaters.  I was quite sure the buffer tank would not fit, but I wanted to give it a try.

The tank does not fit.  Worse, the toilet don't fit either, not on starboard side as I had planned.  It will however as it seems fit on port side.  I will make a custom buffer tank serving as the raised front floor, and with the exact right height of the floor it should fit in.  I did not research this good enough before cutting the access on the starboard side.  So now I have to glue at least part of this back in, make a new under seat support to fit on port side, and make a similar cut out on port side.  I have contacted the designer regarding structural issues.

The cut out


The under seat support


Anyway, this cut out made the access for the final taping of the daggerboard case and the daggerboard case web, that I had postponed due to difficult access, much easier.  Finished taping:


I am also preparing the last reinforcing laminations to the cockpit floor.


I received some nice pictures from Silas, showing the daggerboard rudder moulds being milled.  The rudder looks sexy, he reports.  I am looking forward to start laminating!