Tor's F-22 R Panta Rei

Electronics

2012-01-29T02:20:00.000+01:00

Due to work load and weather, not much have been done for a while. The 3 m tiller extention weighed in at 380 grams and is more than sufficient rigid, but I think I will add a 45/45 biaxial sleeve for longevity.

I have been trying to get all the electronics talking together, which has proven to be a tough task. I have the Nexus NX2 system, a Lowrance HDS 8m plotter, a Garmin HVS 17X GPS antenna, a VHF radio with built in AIS receiver and a ST 2000+ tiller pilot. They are all supposed to speak NMEA 0183 but it seems there are a bit different dialects. My solution, as it seems right now, will be a ShipModul Miniplex-2E, partly because I also want to create a WiFi zone to transmit data to iRegatta. As I would like to transmit to several units, as far as I have been able to establish, I will have to set up a router, and one with an external antenna as the carbon hull will effectively block the signals.

Another thing I have spent some time pondering about is where to place the different units. Should the plotter be bulkhead mounted or on some sort of arm? Where would the Nexus instruments be then? The compass should be on it's own to avoid interference. Everything should be viewable from everywhere. Obviously some compromise have to be done. This is what I think: The compass on the starboard side. The plotter on port side. The Nexus instruments either on the pop top, it would need a cowling about 40mm high to make room, or on some sort of pod like the F-32SR Jailbreak.

Hopefully things will soon start to happen, I'm really looking forward to start the season. However, the snow is still safe with temperatures tending to stiffen water significantly. I will probably have access to a large heated room and will try to get the mast faired and painted during week 7. Not many heated workshops are 11m or more long......

Inputs on the above appreciated, as always!

Tiller extension

2011-12-02T01:45:00.000+01:00

There are a lot of fancy tiller extensions on the market. But none that I have seen are much more than a metre long. To be able to steer from my favourite position on the F-22 it will have to be somewhere around 2,5 metres.

My initial plan was to use carbon fibre ski poles, and I even got a pair of telescopic poles, although only about 1,7 metres long, so some sort of extension had to be made.

Then I changed my mind. I will try to make extensions from 15mm diameter PVC tube with unidirectional carbon outside. The PVC is ductile but soft where as the carbon is stiff but brittle. I hope the combination will make stiff and durable extensions. I make them 3 metres long, and will cut them to the desired length after trying out on the boat.

PVC tube, UD carbon fibre, wide enough for two wraps around the tube, peel ply and plastic film ready for lamination. The PVC tube is rubbed with a coarse sanding paper to make sure there is some bonding between the two parts of the construction.

All the layers wrapped around the tube and packaging tape used to get some compression in the laminate. The tube is supported on two sides to make sure it comes out straight after curing. It will be exciting to see if this schedule makes a stiff enough tube, of if further laminating is required.

Preparations for next season

2011-11-30T16:47:00.001+01:00

As the storms are passing the coast, the boat is safe inside Guttorm's barn. The rig being manuvered in to the barn on October 2nd. Unfortunately, it is not possible to get the boat back in to my workshop without extensive de mounting, so I don't have a heated workspace any more, just a sheltered place. I'm still looking for a place where I can fair and paint the mast, might have to build an extension to my workshop.

I made some stands in order to get the under water hull finished, as it was quite rough after spraying the epoxy and no further measures after that.

I put the boat up by first extending the floats. Then, by lowering the trailer tongue, putting the aft supports in, elevating the tongue and fit the front supports I could level the trailer and pull it out.

I was wet sanding the hull with 240 grit paper until smooth as a baby's ass. I had to quit when the water turned in to ice and I have a part of the aft hull left for spring. I plan to use VC17m anti fouling.

I ended up putting the trough hull triducer (speed, depth, water temp) in the mid line, just forward of the forward bunk aft bulkhead. This will probably put it out of the water at high speeds, as I was able to see the daggerboard trough the nets several times during sea trials, but I expect it to be able to give good readings upwind, on both tacks, where speed trough water is most important.

A few pics of the rigging details

Jib furler is Karver KF1 placed under deck (not visible) and continuous furling line is led trough hull side trough a custom fairlead made by Silas Spence.

Furling lines are then lead on top of bow nets

Trough a two part lightweight fairlead from Colligo Marine mounted on the front beam top. Furling line turns in a ring at aft end of cockpit, suspended in a bungy to keep it tensioned. Furling is easy from nets or cockpit.

Screacher furler (also Karver KF1) has made some wear traces in the carbon fibre anchor on the bow pole. Need to be watched closely next season.

This is the final solution for routing the screacher furler lines in to the furler drum, using two rings from Colligo Marine. The only issue now is the furling line is too thick at the splice. The routing backwards on the boat is identical to that from the jib furler.

Long time no post

2011-11-29T21:17:00.000+01:00

First, the end of the September 9 post. Nav light was fitted, still wiring and battery to be fitted.

The active Garmin GPS antenna. Still nothing to receive the data.

Picked up a new acetabular component for the mast from Opheim Workshop.

I kept the boat in Oslo until September 23rd, managed to sail quite a bit with several interesting crew. The last week in Oslo I was sailing every evening in from about 20 knots wind and down. No damages. Boat speeds up to about 15 knots average over one minute. Buried leeward float several times with no big issues. Main hull is barely touching the water when pushing the boat, resulting in loss of rudder a couple of times, which made the boat turn up slightly and reattaching rudder. Haven't tried the assy yet, looking forward to that.

With the boat in the water, I had to turn focus back to my professional carreer, which necessitated a change in poisition and workplace. This has led to 20 hours of commuting each week, so my life feels rather busy now. The boat was put on ground, as with no nav lights working, there were no more chance for a sail. On the upside, I was able to acquire a rather nice commuting tool:

Week end sea trials

2011-09-17T01:00:00.001+02:00

I went to Oslo for some social sea trials last week end. Four boats sailing south on Saturday, social gathering at Sandspollen over night and back up to Oslo on Sunday. We had most kinds of weather, from sunny and no wind to heavy rain and quite heavy gusts force 6-7.

I drove all night and arrived in Oslo at 4:06 in the morning, had a few hours of good sleep in Anders' Grinde. Launched later that morning.

Start of our "race" was in very light conditions. Thomas brought Champagne, perfect for the conditions.

The wind built to force 3-4 southerly and we had a few hours of upwind sailing, keeping speeds of 10-11 knots at decent tacking angles. We had a fight with a beautiful Dutch sloop with sail # NED 27. We were constantly a bit faster on a slightly poorer angle, which resulted in very similar VMG's. We put in a reef after a while and was able to maintain our tacking angles better after that. They won.
On the last tack we broadened the angle a tiny bit and Thomas took this video when close reaching single reefed in Droebak Strait. GPS showed 14,5 knots.

Sandspollen over night. Excellent company. The fleet in the morning

On Sunday I didn't feel like racing and wanted to relax on the fjord along with the other boats, sailing downwind under main and jib only. 5-7 knots of boat speed. Pretty moderate conditions.

And some live pictures, captured by Erik in the Grinde

Then the wind grew again and white streaks of foam showing wind direction. I depowered everything I could (the reefing system, sailmaker's idea, doesn't work when the wind is up, will rebuild to plans) but we were sailing constantly over 13 knots with no options of retreat. Although the boat felt very comfortable with the conditions I didn't and chose to find shelter under land and remove the main. We continued under mast and jib doing 7-8 knots. Problems with the screacher furler was the main reason we didn't use that sail much this day, although double reef and screacher would probably have been a lot of fun.

Almost ready for more sailing

2011-09-09T03:14:00.000+02:00

I made the modified brummel splices to the side lines. A little bit shorter tapers than the 36 times rope diameter, but if this weakens the Dynex by 50 % (which I doubt) it will still have a safety margin of 3 to the design specs. These lines will not let the pole move sideways. I have not yet tried the spin from the pole and are looking forward to this week end's sailing.

The gooseneck getting a deck flange

The allways light summer is over. Nav lights need to be fitted.

This is for the GPS. The only instruments I have used so far is a piece of wool yarn in each shroud and an iPad.

The safety compartment is now closed.

More glue

2011-09-07T02:59:00.000+02:00

Got the last G10 tube bushing in. The pole is almost ready for another go, just have to make sure the side lines are attached in a fool proof way. I ordered some more dyneema, but will likely not have it before the week end so I will have to cut the current line in two and make eye splices on them, hopefully they will not be too short after the splice is in.

Definitely looks more like a proper boat with the pole attached. It is obvious the spin will catch more air and more easily from the end of this pole than how we rigged it on Ytterøya rundt.

Glued and taped the new wing net rail inner supports

Laminated a goose neck on a plug from building foam. Covered in peel ply and wrapped in tape during cure. The plan is to melt out the foam with acetone or some other chemical.

more epoxy repairs

2011-09-05T19:12:00.000+02:00

I decided to put on some extra UD carbon and then covered it all in several layers woven fabric at the tip. The hole has now been made and the G10 bushing is in place.

The new pole "ear" being glued in place. Making a new and attaching it was easy, the hard thing was to remove the old broken one. It is now also laminated over.

Preparing the new inner supports for the wing net rail. These will definitely not fail in compression, but I've started to wonder if they are so stiff something else will fail instead. Hope not.

Test fitting under the rail.

I have the wires for the mast head VHF antenna and the Nexus nWind transducer treaded, and now have to make a gooseneck for trough deck wiring. The mrc Box will be located inside the mast near the base.

It's getting dark here now, so I have to have working navigation lights before relaunch.

Inside. First haul for repairs.

2011-09-01T01:28:00.002+02:00

After a week or so in the water, breaking up a few things and demonstrating the boats ability to outperform about any other boat in these waters (emphasis the boat, not the skipper - not yet anyway) , it was time to haul and get inside for repairs and finishing off a few more things.

My "yachtclub" has a big house at the docks that I can use for the repairs. No heating though, which is challenging when working with epoxy.

The bow web has been carved empty and cut clean at the bolt level.

It is is currently being vacuum bagged, this time the uni carbon runs around the end of the web, and I only used HD foam out there, other wise it is rebuilt as per plans.

The web it self had nothing to do with the damage but make sure not to follow the plans regarding the side stays as this will not work properly, as stated by the designer "...these (sidestays) should be locked to the pole in some way so that they cannot slip or move." I think I should have been able to see this coming, and I'm pretty mad at my self I didn't. But, soon things are back to start.

The wing net rails failed at once.

Farrier put out an update on this, but I ignored it as I had already finished fairing the floats and I probably hoped that mine would not fail. Anyway, I'm rebuilding the rail supports as per Menno's recommendations and they will now be very rugged.

Using cutoffs from bulkhead panels to make 5 supports each side. Make sure the supports clear the main hull when folded.

Inspecting the mast foot after the compression incident. I had to see if anything had cracked inside. To remove the plastic I had to chisel it out in pieces. Seems everything was OK, the plastic wasn't inserted all the way it seems. New plastic bearing currently being made.

Inspecting the shroud to mast connections. After the dismasting in the garden, it was exciting to see how the new stopper knots behaved after being out in a bit of wind. Seems like we got the size right now, and the knot seems to hold well after my tightening by pulling a 3-series BMW with hand brakes on over dry tarmac by the knot.

Also seen here is a Ronstan Orbit block attached to the mast with Colligo's new loops making a fully articulating sheave.

Wednesday night beer can race

2011-08-26T02:50:00.000+02:00

This Wednesday was the first sail in decent winds. Probably around 8-12 knots gusting to around 15. We were not able to make it to the start and met the fleet a few minutes after start, fell in behind the last boat and sailed the course from that point. A 15 nm triangular course. Crew was one man on a sail boat for about the third time, one very experienced cruiser not familiar with this boat. We sailed conservatively and did not use the spinnaker, we didn't have the option of using the screacher without the bow pole.

On the reach we sailed pretty well, hitting 14,5 knots in a gust with the sheet well out and the traveller down. The boat was absolutely stable and would have been able to take a lot more power. We had a compression fracture between the plastic insert and the carbon in the mast foot and had to rake the mast more forward to keep it rotating. One more issue to address when indoor again.

The downwind leg was pretty boring without the spin.

We put in a reef before the upwind leg and did 11 knots pointing as high or higher than the rest of the fleet. Neutral helm and almost no movements due to waves. Pretty impressing! The wind died after a while and we shook out the reef, but continued to make huge gains on the fleet including a Dragonfly 28 sport.

Conclusion: It's a rocket. Can't wait to learn how to sail her!

Ytteroya rundt 2011

2011-08-26T02:27:00.000+02:00

There is an annual distance race organized by the local yacht club every August. It has been the big goal for the season to get the boat ready for this race. Unfortunately, I crippled my boat the night before, and the forecast suggested all big sails available should be used. At the time of the start it was absolutely no wind, and after a two hour postponement the race started but a lot shortened.

We jury rigged the spinnaker from the remnants of the bow web and was able to get it flying. However, the wind was so moderate that I struggled to get the boat moving AND go downwind at the same time. We gained rather well on some jibes, and lost it all on others. We would probably been best off just drifting along with the others.

After a while heavy rain started and the wind died. Anyway, we managed to get the boat moving. We had to try both tacks to see which one gave movement, as the wind was undetectable to the human organism, but when correct we sailed almost one knot while all others were drifting, bows in all direction. After a while I was wet, it was getting late and I was tired of this kind of "sailing" and withdrew.

Conclusion: The boat has a lot of potential, we have a lot to learn.

Another unfortunate happening

2011-08-26T02:14:00.000+02:00

While sailing to the start of last week ends race on Friday night, close hauled under main and screecher doing about 7 knots in far less wind, the bow pole diverted sideways and ripped the bow web apart.

Although much of my rigging is not exactly to plans, such as the mast section, the bow pole was rigged, to the best of my abilities, according to the instructions.

I had my side stays go three rounds around the pole and locked with half hitch knot but this failed to keep hold of the pole and caused the failure. I will get the boat up and indoor again this week end and start the repairs.

Unfortunate happening

2011-08-22T15:43:00.000+02:00

I guess this is what you have to pay for trying to do things better than before. The way the shrouds are attached to the mast has been given a lot of thought, and I still think I ended up with a very good solution proposed and made in cooperation with John Franta of Colligo Marine. Just a matter of correct sizing to make things work. I allready got new lines in the post the day before this happened.

Mast still on the Link SP II total hip replacement ball after falling over

No visible damages and after changing to the new attachment lines the more practical vertical posistion was regained

Then put the mast back down making ready for launch

Daggerboard

2011-08-22T02:38:00.000+02:00

Finally got the daggerboard out of the mould. Looks great. Quite a bit taller than me. Need a bit of paint.

Painted with a generous coat of epoxy primer

And fitted while the boat was suspended in a crane in Guttorm's farm.

Launched.

2011-08-17T17:18:00.001+02:00

I apologise for not responding to all tips, tricks and good wishes lately. I've been busy at work and finishing the boat. I launched around last midnight. Now I'm going for sea trials. I'm racing this week end. I'll get back to the blog when time.

BTW she floats so high I was afraid she would turn sunny side down when folded, so pulled her back on the trailer and unfolded before relaunch. Sailed 2,5 knots in about no wind at all on the mast alone. It was dark, no visibility at all and raining.

Party!

2011-08-10T02:52:00.002+02:00

I had good helpers, friends and family over last Sunday to celebrate and officially giving her the name "Panta Rei" while my wife poured Calvados over the float. My brother in law OJ took a lot of nice pictures, enjoy.

Navnefest for Panta Rei

Daggerboard

2011-08-10T01:41:00.000+02:00

It has been an extremely long way up to actually start making the daggerboard. Making the files for milling the moulds turned out to be more of a challenge than expected, and when I finally got the moulds it turned out a big void had been created when I glued the MDF-boards together. But I finally got to start the actual build today, and hopefully I will have the board in a few days. Due to limited space on my vacuum table I have to make one half at the time.

After sanding the epoxy I applied two layers of mould sealer and 5 layers of mould release.

Then all the cut outs for High Density inserts was made, and the HD inserts were shaped by hand. Foam blanks had been made on the CNC along with the moulds.

Cutting carbon for the skin and structural reinforcements

Ready for lamination. Vacuum bag attached at left, release film and breather visible in front.

The carbon for the first half waiting

Starboard daggerboard half under vacuum.

Pulling hard....

Mould, foam and carbon for port half waiting for available vacuum table...

All those couple of hundred small things.... part 5

2011-08-10T01:26:00.001+02:00

I have been more busy trying to sort all those things out than taking pictures and posting updates. So launch day is getting closer. I got the rest of the folding system done, with the bumpers and folded retaining system. Picture of one of the retaining brackets.

I've been splicing bow pole side stays and front net forward wires. No pictures at the moment. All float hatches have been sealed and attached. The side nets are more or less attached. Does any of you F-22 sailors come up with a clever way to lash the nets to let the boat remain foldable? I haven't yet.

After I had the name giving celebration last Sunday roller furling line leads have been attached. Still some splicing to do on a bow pole lead for the screacher furler.

Today I got the long awaited USPS shipment from Colligo Marine containing soft pad eyes and loops for attaching the head sail halyard blocks. Hopefully I will find some time to get these on tomorrow, after a daggerboard session.

Rig weighed

2011-08-05T02:02:00.000+02:00

I got the mast including five halyards, standing rigging, antenna and wind transducer on the scale the other day. I was a bit disappointed as it showed 64,9 kg. The good part is the top was only 26.

All those couple of hundred small things...part 4

2011-07-28T02:56:00.000+02:00

Very soon done with the mast now. I had a solid carbon piece inserted side to side as attachments for the cunningham. I will have a 6:1 system on one side and a rope leading trough the sail to the other side. Reefing the same way.

Today I laminated a previously overlooked junction between the mast socket plate and the forward mast wall.

I made up the foam core of the forward mast support.

And glued the foam pieces together. Also shown in the foreground is the mast rotator arm getting the last wrap of BD fabric

I've been sanding down the epoxy in the mould

And prepared the core with HD inserts

All those couple of hundred small things.... part 3

2011-07-27T02:17:00.000+02:00

Because of my mast's dimensions, I had to remove the pop top in order to raise the mast. Also, the aft mast support fell apart at the end of my journey, only cosmetic damage to the pop top fortunately. Anyway, two good reasons to make a new support. The new one is extended about 25 cm compared to the plan, and have an extra horizontal connection. Also, it is widened at the upper end to accommodate rollers for the large mast section.

I also finally got around to make a permanent brace with a working connection to the traveller.

I am also working on a better (permanent and working) front mast support. I moulded a lower piece to fit the bow web, using tape to pack out in order to make room for marine carpet lining.

Tape removed, trial fitting with carpet

Then there were several things to finish on the mast. First I had to laminate the external junction on the front half (spreader height)

One layer 0º, then two staggerd layers of 45º/45º.

Then, as I wasn't paying attention when making it, "hanen" (sorry, don't know the English name) was too big and had to be shortened to give room for the sail. Also had to terminate the dead end otherwise. Unfortunately, the sheave does not have the optimal position, it should have been about 1 cm further forward.

I have also fitted the mast end cap and mounted the VHF antenna and the Nexus wind vane. The cables are not there yet. I will also make arrangements for an easy attachment of a red battery powered LED for trailering.

One daggerboard mould half is now epoxy impregnated, the other half is almost done with the repairs from the defect in the blank.

Mixing epoxy for the mast end of the forward mast support using an old style scale

All those couple of hundred small things...on a horrible day in Norway

2011-07-23T04:11:00.000+02:00

Slowly approaching launch, at the same time this afternoon turned out to be the bloodiest in Norway's history since WW2. At this point it seems like a 32 yo Norwegian conservative Christian, right-wing extremist is responsible. At least 17 people dead in two attacks.

Boating is more peaceful. I have laminated the first fibreglass parts for the boat - the folded beam retaining brackets. The plans specifies no carbon in these parts as it will be too stiff. I made two moulds, here is the first set being compressed in the mould.

First set out and on the table as the last set is being compressed during cure.

I'm working on a carbon mast rotator arm, the core and the compact fibreglass plates for hole endurance is now ready.

The starboard half daggerboard mould had a defect in it. I have tended to this defect in between every other tasks, and it is now epoxy filled to the extent that parts of the mould is now steady, a piece will have to be filled with fairing compound and the moulds will be sanded and epoxy impregnated. Time consuming this fixing, as I have had to pour epoxy in in different angles using gravity to ensure full stability of the part over the void.

The F22R comes with all the go fast tweaks(well, I don't know, but at least a lot of them) already covered by the designer. Lowering floats in exchange with slightly increased folded beams is one of them. I planned to lower the floats about 12mm or 1/2". So I cut glass for spacers and measured and found that 9600 gsm of dry glass is about 12 mm and laminated a piece of this, using the above anvil(?) to compress the laminate. In retrospect, it turned out that this anvil was able to compress the laminate more than expected and the plate turned out to be about 10 mm only. So a sub maximum tweak this is. Then I had to make spacer washers from the plate using a hole saw at very low speed and plenty of water for cooling.

The spacer washers

F22R performance option and eye bolt for front net wire shown. The weather conditions also possible to imagine, it being about 12 deg and very wet. Norwegian summer, hurray!

Splicing the bob stay side lines from 5mm Dynex Dux. The background is the bright looking shore 75 urethane I sourced for various bumper pads.

All those couple of hundred small things.... part 1

2011-07-19T02:42:00.002+02:00

I'd like to thank all who posted comments to my latest postings. It's really inspiring to get that kind of remarks to my work. Then, and a bit contradictory to the previous sentence, I have been, for the first time in about five years, a bit fed up of boat building the last week or so, since I returned from my holidays. The boat was rigged in the garden and emptied from all the tools, parts, sails etc, but it has been hard to get on with all those hundreds of things necessary before launch. However, I can feel I'm getting back in the groove now.

I'm still working on some details on the mast. I haven't weighed it yet, but as soon as everything is fitted it will be, and I'll publish the result without any unnecessary delay. It's in the hood of 50 kg from the feel of it. Here are some details of the way it is rigged:

High load halyards are 2:1, that is main, jib and screacher. Main reason is taking load off of the clutches and the mast. Main exits at the base of the mast and leads directly to a winch.

Two headsail halyards exits mast in a pair of moulded recesses each side about 2m above deck, goes trough a Spinlock XAS clutch and a backup Schaefer self jamming horn cleat. A Colligo static snatch block at the deck will lead the halyards temporarily to a winch when needed.

I have had a great e-mail conversation with John Franta at Colligo Marine regarding the standing rigging ++ as I have had some special wishes as I made my own mast. This is his solution to my not-bolting-lots-of-steel-to-the-mast shroud attachment inquiry. Photograph showing the bitter end of the port "anchor" (Chinese stop knot) and the attachment of the starboard shroud to the "anchor" ring. (sorry, this terminology is difficult in a foreign tongue). Also shown is the Genua halyard moulded exit and the Ronstan Core block as an outside sheeve block. Loop will be switched to newly developed heavy duty loops from Colligo Marine. This set up allows the halyard blocks to freely turn as the mast rotates. By the way, I doubt I will ever have a Genua on this boat, a fractional spin for use with reefed main is more likely, I live in the 60's you know...
One more thing - peel ply clearly visible here. I will sail a bit to see if I'm happy with the sideways stiffness of the mast. Easy to add some more UD at this point, but it is designed to be as stiff or a bit stiffer than the original design (including diamonds). As soon as I'm happy the mast will be faired and painted in a light (white/yellow?) colour.

And here is the Colligo "turnbuckle"

Bolt rope track. PVC lining. Might have to make a nice carbon pre feeder, and maybe some sort of temporary lazy cradle for rising/lowering. Have to sail a bit to see the needs.

Just a shot of the nice molded pre bend. About 78mm (3"), and the sail seemed to fit it very well. The fore and aft stiffness seems to be a bit less than expected, which I regard as a good thing.

These two shots are showing (so far, I don't have a daggerboard yet) the jib track that squeezes in between the mast foot and the daggerboard head. Daggerboard have to be partially lowered for it to work. Sheets will be very similar to the system on the Multi 23 (unfortunately I didn't find out until after this solution was developed, in cooperation with Silas.) Double block at the close end is for 3:1 positive mast rotation control.

Silas (naval architect, owner of a set of F22 plans) also designed and made this custom two (three actually) part fairlead for where the jib furler lines exits the hull sides. They will be further led trough a Colligo two line two part fairlead on the inner beam top and terminated at the traveller support.

At last today's achievement: The first beam bolting plate fitted. Very tight fit.

Sail fitting/testing

2011-07-07T13:23:00.001+02:00

Pictures from my phone. Forgot to take a picture of the spinn, but there were no wind to fill it.

Self tacking glider jib. Fitted perfectly. Can't wait to try it.

Furled jib

Screacher. Seemed to be deeper than I specified but the sailmaker was certain it would fulfill my needs. Time will show.

Main raised for the first time. What a great looking boat

Temporarily cunningham and mast rotator fitted. It was beautiful to see the leeward combined curve of the mast and sail.

Very light wind, still gathering some power

Hardware and folding system, a retrospective story

2011-07-07T13:16:00.022+02:00

After post curing the mast, by the way I achieved 45 deg C for 40 hours or so - not as much as I hoped for but hopefully better than nothing - I had to start assembling the boat. We are southbound for our holidays and it was necessary to bring the boat down for sail fitting if any sailing is going to take place this summer.

The main hull was placed in the garden for fitting. I bought a tent but didn't find the time to put it up, so some working was done in the typical rainy and cold summer weather. Here the pulpit and hatches are mounted, and clearly the lexan windows are fitted.

I ordered all the metal parts for the boat some three years ago at a local workshop. They are doing a very good job but at a tremendously slow rate. After lots of visits and calls I finally got the aluminium anodized and the last steel and titanium parts made the same weekend I was going to travel south. Hence, quite hectic assembly. I have also not been good at taking pictures of the process. I was very lucky that Silas stayed for a couple of days helping me with this.

Folding system being assembled. Workers in all sizes taking part in the process.

So, fitting the folding system. I have been very cautious to follow the plans exactly, and so I did with this assembly. After fitting the bolt backing plates and the compression pads, the beams were connected to the boat via the upper folding struts and final alignment was about to start. Then we discovered that neither of the beams could be set remotely in the correct position. The first thought was that the upper folding struts were not made according to plans (the first set weren't, as the holes were 3mm too big for the bushings), but this turned out to be correct this time. So we had to go on and shorten the inner ends of the beams quite a bit (6-8 mm I guess) and we finally was able to move the beams in to the correct position. When swinging the lower folding struts to the hull at this stage they all fitted perfectly central and even on the hull recesses. We bolted the brackets to the hull and was very anxious to test the folding system. That is when we discovered we had a Farrier non folding trimaran.

Further trimming of the beam inner ends corrected this, as seen outlined on one forward beam here, this was only restricted by the window.

When we finally got all beams sufficiently cut back, all beams folded flawlessly. As a bonus, all four beam bolts were fitted quite easily without having to modify anything. The thrill is now if this still fits after adding the last beam end pieces and trimming the compression pads......

Then fitting the floats to the beams. This was not difficult, especially not when we did it like this picture shows, with the float upright and the beams partially folded.

A series of four shots showing Silas testing the unfolding ability of the port float. One finger start of the motion

Two hands but still smiling

allmost there

Bolting the aft beam down

Port float folded and strapped to the trailer, boat steady for attaching starboard float.

Mast raising

2011-07-05T08:58:00.001+02:00

I'm awfully sorry, but things have been so busy I have had to down-prioritize blog updates. I'll try to fill in as soon as I get some time, as much have happened, and a few things that might be useful for builders following. Anyway, yesterday I managed to raise the mast for the first time outside the Gran Seil's loft in Oslo, and today the final fitting of the sails will start.

Post curing the mast

2011-06-19T02:03:00.000+02:00

The weather forecast predict good weather the next 24 hours, the last of that for a while. So I had to exploit the situation. The mast is hanging under the rams. I put a ladder and other long things I found on top to provide for a longitudinal support, then a layer of building foam on top all the way. After this I covered it all down to the floor with several layers of tarpaulin. A 3.3 kW blower is located each end. I'm not sure this will generate enough heat, but I will see what the meters read tomorrow. I managed 25 deg C above ambient temperature quite fast.

More mast

2011-06-18T02:42:00.000+02:00

I had the day off, that's always good for building progress. Removed the bag this morning, and the bleeder was evenly saturated as a sign of adequate wet out, and also that the epoxy hadn't cured before I got the bag on. It takes a lot of time singlehanded to apply 7 11m long pieces of carbon, all the consumables and getting the bag tight, so it was a bit exciting to see how well it had worked.

After making the necessary measures I started to cut the top of the mast clean. I cut the top at 6 deg relative to the axix of the mast in order to compensate for the log and get a horizontal top. I used a regular carpenter's saw ant that worked well.

A closer look at the mast section. Note this is the top and the UD fibre area is half the thickness of below the hounds.

I started fitting the top U-shaped insert that carries the main halyard sheeve and the termination of the 2:1 halyard.

Then I sat nup the mast with the trailing edge up to make the slot for the sail bolt rope. This is the jig for cutting slot with circular saw. I finally got my 12mm drill back as well, as it has been sitting in the bolt rope tube at the join since building the mast. I put it in to align the two pieces but couldn't get it out afterwards.

From the other side of the cutting jig.

After cutting I had to sand the track well. I used a 10mm round steel inside the tube, with sanding paper going in one side and out the other, turning around the steel. Then, when pulling the paper back and forth the slot is being rounded well on the inside, in the transition between tube and slot. I think this is important in order to get the sail run smoothly in the track.
I also glued in reinforcements on the inside of the track at the top before glueing in the U-shape. I would not like to pull the boltrope out of it's track.

Then I made the top cap on a piece of foam as mold. This will serve as attachment for the wind transmitter. I will have to make it removable some how.

I did some fine cutting at the lower end, dug out the foam and filled with fibre reinforced and thickened epoxy.

At last, a kind of an overview shot, showing the mast from hounds down, leading edge up.

Mast

2011-06-17T03:56:00.000+02:00

First, it would not be wrong to state that I was a bit disappointed that, after two days at the glazier, after I had been in contact with them several times in advance to make sure everything was planned for and OK, the boat was still untouched. As there are more to be done than the windows, I had to take her back to my garden and I am currently mounting stuff between other tasks.

The weather turned summerish again today, and I did the other side of the mast. The recesses each side of the section is supposed to be filled with UD carbon in order to provide sideways stiffness. Calculations showed that 210 mm^2 of T700 fibres would give slightly less bending when loaded to balance the righting moment of the boat than the specified carbon section with spreaders and diamonds. The section itself was not part of the calculations.

The bottom of the recess was previously covered with a hand lay up of 200 gsm Formax 45/45 fibres. I sanded this down, and a section outside the recess. Then, after preparing all the 11m pieces of fabric and consumables needed (carbon was cut on the firewood saw when still on the roll, NB don't do this at home and make sure to cover EVERY piece of skin when doing it, don't ask me how I know), I did a wet lay up of 6 layers 430gsm Devold T700 UD fibres. Three layers were staggered and tapered above the hounds, hoping for a bit of flex here.

This is 6 layers of 70mm wide UD and then a piece of 150mm wide 45/45 overlapping the section wall. Covered with peel ply, about to do the final wet out. Next was release film, bleeder fabric and the vacuum bag, before the big find-the-leaks-game started. Seems to have lost a picture here, I recall an error message on the phone. After a couple of rounds around the bag I was able to pull about 0.85 atm, a bit less than the other side, but sufficient to avoid any air or lift off in the laminate.

Then the mast was covered and heat (around 6kW) put on to let it cure over night. Summerish here means somewhere between 10 and 20 deg Celcius, close to 10 during night.

Earlier today I recieved this picture from Eivind, he had noticed a familiar shape in the hall at NTNU where my daggerboard molds are currently being milled. Time to start building soon, as it looks.

Painted

2011-06-14T02:12:00.001+02:00

I picked up the main hull today after work. It looks really good IMO. The painters were very satisfied as well. Rest of the parts will be done tomorrow. As my camera is still missing and my phone serves as camera, the pictures are of the usual reduced quality.

The two last pictures is taken in front of our local glazier business who's going to put in the windows tomorrow.

I'm waiting for the aluminium to come back from anodizing. One side of the unidirectional reinforcement on the mast is now done with good result.

June this far

2011-06-13T03:58:00.000+02:00

Most of June this far has been more fairing. One thing I did much too late was buying a cheap paint gun. This was a very much better way to get the high build primer on in even and thick layers. I have sprayed several layers of different makes, and also modified some primer with a small percentage of microballoon, in the area of 2% by weight, with much better build as a result. This way I was able to get most of the uneven transitions between different fairing compound mixes faired.

I made a set of new supports for the boat. Wheels underneath. Makes handling the boat very easy.

I finally reached the point where I decided to stop fairing (you will never finish, as someone wisely stated in the F-boat forum some time) and I had a lot of friend over helping me to carry/roll the boat out of the workshop and on to the trailer. Guesstimated weight when lifted by two persons 160 kg.

With the boat safely on the trailer it was time for refreshments according to local tradition and recipe, served from the swim step

I have also been working on the mast, preparing for the final structural laminations. A layer of 200 gsm 45/45 was added in the groove to bond the halves and make sure it was air tight for vacuum bagging the UD that will fit on top of this layer. Obviously, I did not take a picture after the lamination.

Also, I was foreseeing enough to make an extra piece of mast so I could practice making the sail groove and the feeding opening.

The boat is currently at the paint shop and will be picked up tomorrow. I was able to sneak in and take this picture late Friday evening:

The skim coat process

2011-05-29T03:17:00.000+02:00

After the contouring, there will be millions, ok hundreds, of pinholes in the surface. I have used a method very similar to the method described in Wayne Hick's chapter 25 to fill these and large scratches. I use a fast epoxy with about 5% by weight microballoons added, apply with a squeegee, wait for a while and then remove as much as possible. This fills quite well and also hardens the micro substantially, as well as it serves as a water barrier. I sand with 120 grit, which is quite easy as the layer is very thin and only the small bumps from the ends of the squeegee has to be removed. This has proven to be a much better way, although quite labour intensive, than the roll and tip epoxy coat I applied to the floats. Several skim coats are recommended, but I have decided rather to sail this summer than to achieve a piano finish.

Skim coat on aft cabin area

Making pad for the starboard cabin top winch

For the mast foot

I used Jotun's high build primer for the floats. This was filled with aluminum and also impossible to sand. So I was recommended the Hempel stuff, but this proved impossible to source. So I use a regular epoxy primer (made primarily for use as a water barrier on polyester hulls) and add approximately 20% by volume/2% by weight of microballoons.

Cockpit still with the skim coat only.

I'm sanding the high build down with 180 grit and finally see how well I succeeded in contouring the patchwork. At least I found some irregularities on the port bow...

I'm getting closer anyway. And a wise guy stated somewhere, probably on the f-boat forum, that you never finish fairing a boat, you just decide to stop at some point. I'm not far from that point now.

Preparations to the top side

2011-05-22T02:52:00.000+02:00

I was done with the contouring above gunwhale. However, someone has been using a random orbital sander and some areas are not longer the correct contour, although with a very fine finish. Arrrgh! I don't know yet how much attention I will pay to this. Also, the beam recesses was finished, and I also told so to my workers that no more work was needed there, but they still managed to put a lot of filler into the upper folding strut recesses, which was a pain to get out. Silas did a great job helping me with that.

A few small projects was not finished, like the engine control. I had to put the engine back on, rebuild it to accommodate remote control, and decide on the placement of the tube for control wires and gas.

In the cockpit, I had to glue back in a piece of a cut out to accommodate the Teleflex mechanism with the flush Spinlock front plate for winch handle. (I was hoping to fit this in the extended part of the coaming but this turned out to be too tight)

Some more work on the front deck was needed after building back up the flat panels under the bow nets each side (second time I do this). Then I marked the position of HD and drilled for pulpit and fairleads. I will have to build up a pad for the aft pulpit support.

And I have to make pads for winches and mastfoot.

I have faired the modified part of the cockpit

And I made a 2" tube for the control wires, fuel hose and electrical wires from the engine. Still to be glued, laminated and trimmed to fit. This tube runs from the aft cabin transom

Trough the aft cabin, where it serves as a perfect hand rail (and possibly a shelf front)

And enters the under settee compartment

Some thoughts on using hired help for an F-boat

2011-05-19T04:18:00.000+02:00

Sorry all, long time no updates. I've been too upset and busy to sit down and write. I had originally dismissed the thought of using help for the fairing, mainly because I did not expect to find anyone able to do the work to my standards within a tolerable cost. Then I got these two guys recommended by the painter and I could see the boat finished maybe two months earlier. The problems rose before work started, as they did not show up. Then one showed up for two days instead of two until finished, and so on. It did look, however, as he was doing a good job. I was not able to be there and help and guide, mostly during Easter, but I had given instructions, or so I thought. By the end of Easter my costs had reached $5.000, the boat was more bumpy than ever and worst: It was covered in patches of fairing compound of different mix ratios. And on top of that, fine fairing using electrical tools had started. Even those areas already finished by me before this week had been ruined. That is when I ended their engagement.

Since then I have spent every available minute sweating over the longboard, trying to save the boat. It looked like I had to do another big fill, but it seems now I will be able to get an acceptable finish, although not as I hoped, by thorough work with the longboard and a few extra highbuild fills. No need to say, the boat was not ready for painting early April as planned, as it is still not so. I'm getting closer, though.

This is after about one and a half week of sanding with 40 grit. Most of the big bumps are removed.

Couple of days later. A test run of modified highbuild is applied. Never succeeded in sourcing the Hempel High Protect that was supposed to be good. The Jotun HB I used for the floats are banned; contains aluminium and is almost impossible to sand. I make my own now from Biltema Epoxy Primer added a modest amount of Microballoons.

Around 90% of the filler is now see trough to the laminate, which means the hull itself was very fair. The last unevenness are extremely hard to remove as the differences in hardness of the various batches of fairing compound come into play.

The scimming coat done to the lower half of the hull.This is a mix of about 5% microballoons in epoxy, and it fills the pinholes well as well as it fills up the surface of the micro and harden it. I have tried different methods of applying, using roller and squeegee. Then I remove all I can with a steel squeegee. I think the best is to apply with a plastic squeegee, and be cautious to remove the epoxy when it starts getting dry. This happens quite fast depending on the state of the micro, as epoxy is "sucked" into the surface of the filler.

The waterline was established using a laser leveller and then taped

Jotun Antipest sealing eposy applied to the underwater area.

Here's a bit on fairing

2011-04-23T02:15:00.000+02:00

I faired the floats using the "candy bag method" ie put strips of fairing compound every 10cm or so, fair down to get the level, and then fill between the ridges. I had to fill three times because the compound shrinks as it cures. I used SP system S-Fair 600 which is a smooth, quite heavy and very expensive compound. It's not very easily sanded and takes forever to cure. Theory is that you'd rather spend time applying fairing compound than removing it. In retrospect, this does not seem like the best way. It might have been something about my fairing skills at the time, but the fact is I probably had to re apply fairing compound at low spots 20+ times before I got the desired surface finish.

From a link on Andrew's blog, I got acquainted with the air plane home builders' method of choice, and this is more or less what I have been doing now, also supported by the preferences of the pro that I had a few days, and who is back now to finish the hull. Some problems though, as when I ask my worker (the not so pro one) to fill the low spots before he goes home, I return the next morning to find he has applied an insufficient layer of fairing compound to 3/4 of one hull side instead of filling the low spots (that I already pointed out to him) on both sides. So had to fair almost all of it back instead of the patches before the big fill. That's life when time has to be divided to several tasks and obligations.
I also changed to mixing up my own compound. This seemed to me as an unpleasant task at first, but it's not that bad actually. I use Svapox epoxy with GL hardener, an inexpensive laminating system with a medium working time, and add 27% weight (about 300% volume I'd guess) of micro glass balloons to get a non sagging, quite dry (have to use force and slow speed for it to attach properly) and light, easily sanded compound. The point is to fill ENOUGH to fill all low spots, then sand back to the correct contouring in one go. Preferably, the low spots should be pre filled and sanded when not fully cured (cheese grating) in order to avoid any low spots to occur due to crimp during cure. I use my favourite grit 40 on the rigid board until I have the perfect shape and see the high spots of the laminate shining trough the filler. This saves huge on time spent, and it is much easier to get an even surface compared to the patchwork on the floats. Then it's time top fill pin holes, and change to finer grit to prepare for the water penetration barrier.
I guess all this is subjective, but this is my experience.

A few shots of the situation after removing 90% of yesterday's compound today:

These kind of disrupted surfaces takes a lot of time:

And I finally made the hole in the bobstay anchor, had been postponing it for a few years:

Turned around, I'm constantly covered in dust

2011-04-22T20:45:00.000+02:00

Couldn't resist taking a photo of myself in front of the wing.

The heater have burned increasingly erratic lately, so it was time to check what was going on. I took out the burner head, and that was not pretty:

After cleaning, and it burns better but not perfect. I should have controlled the integrated pump filter and checked that it delivers 11 bar, but I didn't figure out how to get the pump out. It works for now.

Yesterday, the top side finally started to look quite good, and the hibuild primer and engine control that I ordered mid march had not yet arrived, so further progress required a flipped hull. I have had occasional help, but not by a craftsman, so I have to redo most of the finishing work. It still helps speeding up this work, that I must admit, is not the part I enjoy the most in boat building.

The main hull now entirely covered in fairing compound. I hope I won't see the boat in this position too often....

The faired tiller and mast raising pole still in progress

I will have a Teleflex engine control (still on backorder) under the cockpit seat, and a Spinlock ATCU unit for engine control with winch handle on the seat front. I need the Teleflex unit before the exact position can be determined, and then I have to insert a tube trough the aft cabin for the control cables and the fuel line. Hopefully, this will be done by next week.

Then pads for mast foot, winches and pulpit attachment points will be made before the Hempel high build (still on backorder) can be sprayed. Then, off to the paint shop.

Temperatures are more and more often in excess of 10ºC so just ten more to go and I can finish the mast.

That's it for now, going back to the dust

Mast raising pole. Tiller. Fairing.

2011-04-05T02:29:00.001+02:00

This might seem crazy, but in fact it is much easier for me to mock up a piece of carbon tube from cut-offs I have in the workshop than to source a piece of aluminium tube. So I'll have a carbon mast raising pole. The socket is in the barn, divided from the mast by a sheet of plastic, where it will hopefully cure enough to bring back to the workshop for final curing and attachment to the pole. A propose weather, someone might recall me whining about wind blowing out my heater, it was actually recorded 68 knots of wind on the farm that day. That's pretty windy.

Mast raising pole made up over a 2" PVC tube sprayed with silicon grease, wrapped with a piece of plastic and packaging tape used over the peel ply to compact the lay up. Worked great, this pole is probably better than my bow pole. Tiller seen behind. Very light and stiff.

After adding a 1/2" ID G10 tube to the bow web, I cut off the excess on each side and glued them in the "ears" of the bow pole to act as bushings protecting the carbon. Kept in line with the SS pin while curing.

The mast raising pole and the bow pole curing in front of the heater.

The tiller dry fitted to the daggerboard rudder case. I also made a pedestalish extension on the tiller to accept the pin for the tiller pilot.

And further fairing. Unfortunately, I hired two professionals to fair the boat, but one of them didn't show up, and the other one is too busy to work much on the boat. He does a good job when he is there though. That's the end of the June 6th plan I guess....

Slightly off topic

2011-04-04T10:36:00.000+02:00

As my hired help did a good job with the fairing last week, this is what was my struggle.

Provisions for tillerpilot. Windows. Tiller. More fairing.

2011-04-04T10:32:00.000+02:00

I updated my last post with a couple of pictures. My camera has been on unknown location for about a month now, I start to suspect it will not show up. Pictures from my phone.

I ended with the Raymarine ST 2000+ autopilot. It will be connected by NMEA 0183 to my Nexus NX2 system. I finally found someone who could give me answers to my enquiries regarding wireless and carbon, and he had rebuilt several TackTick systems to the wired Nexus after adding a carbon square head main sail to glass boats, and he was quite certain that wireless would not work in my boat.

I added a pedestal for the tillerpilot.

I have also added HD inserts for clutches on deck. And the mast raising wire brackets were finally finished so the position for the attachment plate could be established. Drilled and backfilled for those in the cabin side. Made the cut outs for the windows.

Also, I finally got the 1/2" rudder pivot pin and was able to start making the tiller. I made it up from two 4cm wide strips of 15mm Divinycell H100 with a layer of UD carbon in between, to make it stiff enough for further handling. When heat shaping the strips one by one it is easy to get any shape. Then glueing them together and keep them in the right shape while curing.

It seems it will even clear the engine, at least almost! PS fairing the cockpit, swim step, beam recesses etc is a lot of work!

OK, short update

2011-03-23T03:07:00.001+01:00

It turned out it was too tight in the workshop to do the final UD laminations along the side of the mast, and I didn't have appropriate 45/45 fabric to "wrap" the UD in, so the mast went on to the barn, waiting for better weather and more carbon. The carbon arrived today, very nice stitched light carbon from Formax, but the weather is horrible.

As the workshop was cleared, I got the main hull back in. So I trimmed and back filled the aft edge of the hull. I put in a string of UD carbon in the fill, to make the overhang stiff.

I made an MDF daggerboard top dummy and got the final placement of the jib traveller, drilled for the four 6mm bolts and filled 25mm diameter holes with high density epoxy filler and circular carbon fibre.

I decided the position to take out the continuous furling line for the jib, and made a hole in the hull side. Back filled edges.

Backfilled the edges of the coaming access holes.

Then I started applying fairing compound. The main issue now is the weather. The wind has been so heavy lately that it is not possible to heat the workshop. The heater bacfires and fill the workshop with smoke in the gusts, also tearing pieces of buildings off and overturning large trees. Guess it has to stop some time. And on Saturday my hired help will join in and hopefully get some progress on the fairing.

I have a mast!

2011-03-11T02:15:00.000+01:00

Still not finished of course, but at least now it's in one piece. Here's a summary of what happened the last few days.

The picture of the tube for electrical wiring (anchor light, VHF antenna, maybe wired instruments; I was thinking Tacktick, but inquiries to the factory, the importer and the dealer in Norway, British and American dealers as well as people fitting out carbon sports boats with the system have left me with none answers to the question: Does it work in a carbon boat?)

Mast socket plate with cheek block for main halyard fitted in aft mast half. Centre web fitted to the cup containment area. A pilot halyard was threaded before glue join.

The probable profile of the lower part of the mast

The shroud attachment tube seen inside forward mast half

The lower centre web being glued to the aft mast half, using the front half as a pressure distributor when compressing with straps. At the same time I dry fitted the upper part and glued the two front half parts together with microfibre saturated epoxy in the gap and a couple of patches on the outside.

The inside lamination on the front half join heat curing while upper centre web is prepared for glueing

The upper centre web glued in place, compressed as the lower one.

For those interested in the details: The cut off from lower part of the front half, showing the profile, the pre formed flange and the recess for unidirectional fibres as well as foam in low curvature areas in order to improve panel stiffness and avoid buckling under compression.

Centre web prepared with microfibre saturated epoxy for joining, and the forward half with pilot halyards threaded. Ready for joining.

Joined. Compression. One problem arose; the two halves are not totally rigid, and being unable to get inside to expand the profile at the join, the front half ended a few mm narrower over parts of the mast. This means the bed for the UD will not have a totally even surface, and the exterior will need some fairing to leave a smooth shape.

The shroud tube openings beveled. I laminated with a light carbon/kevlar hybrid to maximize chafe resistance, then inflated two balloons inside to keep it tight while curing.

I will spend a considerable amount of time working this week end, but hopefully I'll be able to remove the mast and get on with the hull during the week end. I have to pray for a couple of days with weather good enough to finish the mast without the heater running, as it is just too tight to get the rest done in the workshop.

A few steps forward

2011-03-05T20:31:00.000+01:00

The mast socket plate is very soon ready for mounting. Shown with pre made flanges for centre web connection and main halyard hardware.

I glued in a tube for electrical wiring in the aft mast half. Forgot to take a picture.

The trough tube for shroud fitting has been fitted and laminated on the inside. I need to back fill foam, bevel edges and laminate the outside.

The flanges for aft half to centre web join have been trimmed and sanded. This allowed me to test fit the centre web pieces and then the front half pieces. The front pieces have been trimmed to fit each other in the joining area at spreader position. The workshop is smaller than the mast and does not allow for good photo positions, here one shot trough the door and one along the mast.

Slow progress, unfortunately

2011-03-04T16:28:00.000+01:00

As I still have obligations to my employer, I could not proceed any longer at the same pace, I have had to work some as well this last week. Several short visits in the workshop have however brought the mast a bit closer to completion. I had hoped that I could start the fairing this week end, but it has to wait another week it seems. I have, however, put some decent pressure on my self as I have made agreement to meet the sailmaker for rigging and testsailing on June 6th.

The rest of the tangs trimmed.

Mounted. Kept in place by gravity. From right (down) to left (top) the tangs are for jib, optional backup forestay, genoa, screecher and spinnaker.

The mast base plate have been built up by wet lay up and vacuum bagging to a total of 10mm thickness of massive carbon.

Last mast part demoulded. Very good result.

2011-02-28T00:25:00.000+01:00

It seems like I'm getting better and better at this. Easier demoulding, easier removal of consumables and better surface finish. This part let go of the inserts very easily, and the halyard recesses came out close to perfect. It is trimmed and peeled and weighs 8,1 kg.

Continuing serial production of carbon tangs. Every tang is made in two steps; first the central glass piece and the perimeter uni carbon spread uot in the mast shaped piece, then the layers of triaxial each side of the tab and into the mast shaped part. I need 5 tangs in three different sizes to fit the mast. Three down, two in production. Here step two curing under pressure

This is what comes out of the moulds

Genoa tang trimmed and in position

I started the mast crane. It will be a U shape with the main halyard sheave inside, and a bolt for the halyard dead end. I will use 2:1 halyard to lower compression and clutch loads. Crane under vacuum.

The unprocessed U-shape. Approx 3600 gsm.

I made up the 25mm inner diameter carbon tube with high compressive strength lay up that will make a transverse pass trough the mast and serve for custom synthetic shroud system from Colligo Marine. Wrapped around a steel tube, using peel ply and tape to compress during cure. A layer of plastic closest to the steel, used for sliding off the tube. I didn't find my silicone spray that I use between the tube and the plastictoday, so releasing was quite a struggle. Would normally slide off quite nicely.

Finished 25mm x 3mm carbon tube

Last quarter

2011-02-27T02:03:00.000+01:00

I was at Røros a couple of days, but still have managed some progress.

I had to make new inserts for the halyard in recesses. These were made faster and turned out better than the last ones, funny how practice can make you better.

They were covered in packaging tape, and tacked to the mould with a strip of vacuum bag rubber tape. Whether that was a good idea will be answered tomorrow.

All carbon and foam was placed before I left for Roros, extra reinforcements were put in for shrouds, stay/sail attachments and mast crane.

I got all the consumables placed this morning (peel ply, release film, RDM, spiral tubes and vacuum bag) and pulled an instant 97%. I did not manage to get better than 99% though, and I infused at that vacuum this evening. The epoxy and the mould inside was preheated to about 30ºC. The whole process took about 16 minutes, then extra heating was added and I continued with other things until gelling.

Moulds being prepared for mast tangs. In the background mast base plate starter.

Series production started

I made a 5mm carbon plate as the core for the mast base. Down left the cup covered in a couple of layers carbon as a bonding surface for mounting in the plate.

The cup being inserted and glued in place

Detail of jigsaw blade after cutting three tang glass inserts.

Centre web

2011-02-22T19:55:00.000+01:00

Wet lay up and vacuum bagging on the workshop floor. 635 gsm triax carbon - 15mm H100 - 635 gsm triax carbon. Upper and lower parts side by side in the bag.

Evening shift

2011-02-22T02:32:00.000+01:00

I mounted the mast raising eye. Bedded in micro fibre saturated epoxy, I made sure the parts were kept firm together:

Then a piece of carbon was laminated inside, covering the inside part of the tang:

SS tapping plates for the clutches and horn cleats. It really hurt to put in all that weight, but I didn't see any viable alternatives, and it's down by the foot. Bedded in micro fibre epoxy until gelling.

Then I filled the edges and covered with a layer of glass fabric.

Also a piece of glass at the halyard exit for chafe protection. Showing inside of mast.

I was about to laminate the centre web, using the floor as a vacuum table, but I decided to postpone until tomorrow. Maybe I'll concentrate on the last infusion tomorrow though.

Carbon mast tangs Mk II

2011-02-21T19:36:00.000+01:00

I made the Mk I carbon mast tangs a couple of moths ago, and it turned out quite OK, but not good enough. So I developed the moulds to be able to take them the little step further. I have now made the first Mk II tang and I'm very satisfied. This will be the mast raising eye.

Step 1: The central 6mm thick fibreglass lining is placed between the moulds and secured with a bolt trough the moulds and the fibreglass. This way I was able to use lots of force to compress the UD carbon around the glass tab. The ends of UD carbon is spread like a fan and placed between two layers of triaxial carbon in the mast shaped part of the mould.

Step 2: De moulding and preparing two extra layers triaxial each side of the tab. Hole for the bolt visible here, as is the ready cut triaxial for next step.

Wet lay up, and the three part mould is assembled again. Home made "screwing clave" providing superb consolidation during cure:

De moulded and trimmed. Using a router bit to make bellmouth hole for lashings.

Mounting: A rectangular hole made in the mast wall. Peel ply removed. The part will be bedded in micro fibre thickened epoxy and laminated over from the inside. The loads should be well distributed to the mast wall without point loads.

Showing how the headsail blocks will be attached. Not on this tang though, as this will be for the mast raising wires.

The headsail and headstay tabs will have a slightly different shape. Fibreglass inserts in production:

Mould repairs

2011-02-21T18:24:00.000+01:00

I cleaned up the mould, and the damage didn't look that terrible. Several fields of dry, hairy glass though, so I decided to re saturate the surface with epoxy. Covered with peel ply to keep it where it was needed.

The epoxy filled quite a bit and not much left for fairing compound after removing the peel ply.

After sanding back the epoxy coat, I filled with SP S'Fair 600. Sanded down to 600 grit and re applied Chemlease mould sealer. Ready for wax and the last infusion. But first I have to make new halyard exit recess moulds and come up with a better way to attach them.

Carbon wing mast: Demoulding lower leading half

2011-02-18T10:08:00.000+01:00

Vacuum resin infusion produces quite a bit of garbage. These are the consumables removed from the mould. The peel ply is still on.

The Chemlease release wax works great. So great it is not possible to attach a tape to a waxed surface. That is why I placed the inserts for the halyard out recesses prior to waxing. Unfortunately, this demonstrated quite clearly, unforeseen, the effectiveness of the release system. This is the mould after removing the mast part. The lack of gelcoat is unfortunately obvious and I have begun the mental preparations for repairs

The part itself was however removed without any signs of damage. A very good result, part weighing in at 6,6 kg including peel ply and untrimmed, total weight of mast so far 28,6 kg which makes the goal of <50kg seem acievable. We were very eager to see what the complete wing looks like, so I lowered the trailing half from the ceiling, put in the foam blanks for the center web and placed our latest creation on top. Ståle demonstrating his satisfaction (and serves as a scale):

Another view of the complete shape, lower part of the mast, that is. I got those "so what will happen when at the dock in a storm"- thoughts again. I guess time will show. I expect the mast to work very well as a Try sail.

This is a close up of the starboard halyard out recesses. Plan is to make a circular hole in the far end of the recesses. Halyards will be led to clutches and secured with horn cleats at the bottom of the mast. Snatch block on deck will temporarily lead halyards to cabin top winches.

Well, guess next up is mould repairs. Should not be that big job.

Three down, one to go

2011-02-17T01:52:00.000+01:00

Ståle helped me prepare the carbon, foam and all the consumables, and we pulled a decent vacuum at first try.

We proceeded with the infusion, which went uneventfully. A total of 4,4 kg of SP Prime 20 LV infusion epoxy entered the bag. This construction, consisting of a heat gun, a non functional fan heater, a sheet of plastic and a sucking fan let us record a maximum surface temperature inside the mould of 49ºC.

Demoulding tomorrow.

Almost prepared

2011-02-16T01:37:00.000+01:00

Preparing for infusion of the lower leading edge half. I have decided placement of halyard out, rope clutches and horn cleats. Carbon, peel ply and release film have been cut. Foam is cut with recesses for the hardware.

Halyard out mould inserts. Mould sealer and two layers of release wax have been applied

Release film, peel ply and carbon ready to go in the mould after another two layers of wax.

Some nice French hardware arrived. Karver KF1 for the screacher. Identical furler for the jib.

More mast building

2011-02-14T03:34:00.000+01:00

Not much visible progress, but I have a lot of preparations done now, so the next infusions are getting closer.

I did the inside join. Double layer triaxial, 5cm and 10 cm overlap, wet layup vacuum bagging.

Heat treating the bag.

Then I cut all the foam for the centre web. 15mm 100kg/m^3 Divinycell. I have no idea how to laminate it yet. My vacuum table is 3m long, so laminating there will still be 2 joins on the upper half. It might be possible to use the floor as a laminating table. I might laminate one side, and then the other side after mounting, lapping down the UD recess on the side. Or just plain double side laminate and glue to flanges with micro fibre saturated epoxy.

Using wire to scribe the shape of the mould, I am making moulds for the head sail tabs. My wife's idea, thanks!

Cutting foam for the leading edge part. I decided to use foam around the bend close to the join. This way I can sand down and round off the shape at the joining height. Mostly a visual thing, I guess.

Thermo formed mast foam

I also made mould inserts to form the halyard in/out recesses

And I was able to get a couple of daylight pictures of the floats. Snow on deck. Will definitely be visible on the fjord.

Joined

2011-02-11T03:10:00.000+01:00

I finally decided to just do it. I lined up the two pieces the best I could and made parallel marks on the sides. Then cut them with my Bosch GOP oscillating saw. Mixed up epoxy and cotton chop and end joined, using a drill bit inside the sail track to align. After curing I sanded the outside of the mast and laminated a 10 cm wide tri axial fabric over the join, using the poor man's vacuum bag method. This will make an airtight join and I will laminate the inside with regular vacuum bagging.

While waiting for the edge glue to cure I made up a jig for cutting the track for the sail.

It is not easy to show the mnolded pre bend in a picture, but here's the two pieces joined.

Next challenge: Joining.

2011-02-09T01:20:00.000+01:00

I demoulded another perfect piece of composite mast today. The challenge now is joining the two pieces, getting the pre bend right, and in tight quarters as the workshop was built for a 7m boat, not a 10,7m mast.

As seen the mast just fits the diagonal of the workshop, with the central pillar making the access a bit challenging.

Aligning with a line, trying to match the pre bend with my calculations based on measures from the mould. It's difficult to see the difference to the curve when changing the pre bend by a cm. If anyone have a good idea on how to do this I will be happy to hear from you.

Floats in the dawn. Infusion.

2011-02-08T01:09:00.000+01:00

I had to take a picture of my "motivation installation" in the garden when I got home from work today.

Later I went to the workshop to infuse the next mast piece. I tried to take some video of the process, but unfortunately this did not work out in a manner that could enlighten the process. Only -0,97bar and no detectable leak today as well. So I infused. There were no detectable bubbles in the bag during the entire process. Low pressure passing by? Might explain the strong winds and snowing horizontal ...

I infused about 8 kg of epoxy. I used the heat gun to really heat up the epoxy as it entered the bag. Ambient temp 22ºC. This part is 1,5m longer than the previous, and have more reinforcements around the sail track. The epoxy is spreading nicely.

I made a kind of a tent over the mould and used the heat gun as an extra heat source.

A fan sucking from the other end. Thermometer showing ambient temperature and the temperature inside the distal end of the mould.

After a while the exothermic reaction was clearly starting, the heat being easily detectable by touching the outside of the mould. I left as I was assured the gelling had started. I expect to uncover another high quality composite part tomorrow.

Floats finished, main hull going home, mast ready for infusion

2011-02-07T01:47:00.000+01:00

The floats are finished with yellow sides, white on the deck and anti-skid. I have to test the anti-skid, but it looks and feels like it's gonna work. Not enough light for a picture, but they are waiting for mounting out in the garden, I'll get a picture, but I won't be around the house in daylight until next week end I'm afraid.

I picked up the main hull after the post cure. It's now waiting outside the workshop for the mast build to finish and will then be faired. I will hire help for this. This is the first trailering photo of Panta Rei:

This evening I continued the mast build, and the bag pulled >90% quite immediately.

However, similar to last time, it stopped at 96-97% for a long time, falling really slowly, no leaks detectable. My theory is that it's the moist in the carbon gassing out. Last time it fell to -1 bar after a while at 97%. The temp and the pressure in the bag is consistent with eventual water boiling.

The new but identical resin trap with gauge:

Looking up inside the mast, really big bag, getting better each time:

It got late, so I closed the valves, shut off the pump and will run a long drop test (or pressure rise test) until tomorrow. For further reading on vacuum resin infusion I recommend Henny's publications on his blog and the main Fram pages.

I'm back!

2011-02-06T01:41:00.000+01:00

It's good to be back after a week out of town. This morning I dropped off the main hull at the paint shop in order to get it post cured for 5 hours @ 70ºC. They were about to spray the float deck anti skid and I'll pick up the floats tomorrow. We'll discuss solutions for the main hull fairing job.

Tonight I was able to wax the mast mould again, cut carbon and foam, join the sail track tube and lay it all up until the peel ply. The lay up is 1 layer triaxial -45º/0º/45º 634gsm, 2 layers narrow 0º/90º 400gsm over sail track, 1 layer 10 cm wide 90º UD 400 gsm over the sail track, with extra 8 cm layer at sail head at full sail and all three reefs, 8mm perforated Divinycell H100, 1 layer triaxial -45º/0º/45º 634gsm, 1/2" PVC tube sail track, 1 layer narrow 0º/90º 400gsm inside sail track, peel ply.

Next is release film, RDM, the T-shaped aluminum profiles for making joining flanges and recesses for lateral UD fibres, the three spiral tube feed and suction lines and finally the vacuum bag. I hope to shoot tomorrow night.

The great satisfaction of a perfect infusion

2011-01-28T03:23:00.001+01:00

Vacuum resin infusion, although not rocket science, demands accurate and thorough craftsmanship. I think I was a bit in a rush, pushing for launch before the summer is once again gone in my last attempt. I had the pleasure of having Thomas, one of the original co owners of Frimann, visiting yesterday. And he was keen on seeing an infusion process, so we had to finish placing the consumables and the bag. We made sure the bag was well over sized this time, and able to fold around every tubes and other obstacles. This went quite uneventful, and as the pressure gauge read -1,0 bar, we decided to mix up some epoxy and keep on in the small hours.

I tried a new thing this time. As this infusion was not well planned, the workshop and thus the moulds and epoxy was not pre heated and only held around 18 degrees (my "idle" temp in the workshop) until we started and turned up the thermostat a bit. To overcome this, and to assure good flow and promote early gelling, I used my heat gun to warm up the epoxy just as it entered the bag. Other than a slight deformation of the plastic sucking hose, this seemed to work great. It all wetted out easily, and within a few quarters of an hour the exothermic reaction was obvious. And it all happened without any of us taking active part, we just enjoyed watching the process.

De moulding was also a bit of an excitement as the mould is old and somewhat in poor condition, and has to be used once more for the upper trailing half. But this went smoother than I dared hoping for, and out of the mould popped a perfect quarter of my new wing mast. What a marvellous feeling.

Update Jan 29:

We were really focused on the work during the mast infusion and the preparations for that, so I didn't even notice I had left the camera at home. The process was however identical to the last attempt, except 800gsm less 0º UD fibres all over, 400gsm more 90º UD fibres around the track and a lot bigger bag. I took a couple of post festum shots the following day but I have struggled to get them out of my phone. But here are two shots of the lower trailing edge part of the mast:

I cleaned up the workshop and waxed the next 1,5m of mould to be used in the next infusion. The upper section is 1,5m longer than this, all of which is a smaller profile, ending with a chord of about 30cm (one foot) at the mast top. However, due to sick kids and me going away for a week on a work/skiing related trip, I have not prepared more for the next part. I hope to have started the assembly by week 8.

I dropped by the paint shop this afternoon to discuss details on the white area and non skid areas, and both floats, the pop top and the rudder case are now yellow. Even better finish on the second float. This will look like a floating Lamborghini ;-)
The rudder case below, and in front my first soft shacle and Brummel splice made from a 4mm 12 strand braided Spectra? probably.

Next update in a week and a half or so.

First float painted with first colour

2011-01-21T19:45:00.001+01:00

This afternoon the starboard float got it's yellow paint. Jotun TopGloss 2-part PU-paint. It is still not dry on the pictures. The deck and beams will be white with antiskid.

Restarting mast build

2011-01-21T03:37:00.000+01:00

After a few days of cleaning up in the workshop (everything was covered in dust of course) I restarted the mast build. The lay up is modified, about 40% lighter than in the disastrous previous infusion.

I have re-waxed the mould, cut carbon and foam, made up the tube for the sail track (they come in 4m lengths and require an air tight join) and placed these pieces in the mould under a layer of peel ply. I will continue with release film, resin distribution material, spiral tubes and hosing and then, very meticulously, place a new bag over it all. And then....

The pain guys have been really busy, and I'm not about to launch anyway, so the floats have been down prioritized. But they might get their colour tomorrow. Pictures to be published as soon as there are any.

The floats left the building

2011-01-14T21:45:00.000+01:00

I took the floats and the other small parts to the paint shop today. It was a beautiful view in sunshine, half a foot of fresh snow and 13 degrees below zero.

The painters have faired one float this afternoon and he said I did a good job and he expects a good result. I'm very excited to see the painted float, should be ready one of the days next week. I will also bring the main hull to the shop as they can heat their paint box to about 80 degrees so leaving it in there over night is a very convenient way to make sure the main hull is properly post cured before I start fairing.

Winter sales

2011-01-14T01:33:00.000+01:00

I was lucky to source some more goodies at heavily discounted prices:

I found these items in a Swedish web shop at very competitive prices. 2 Lewmar 30 AST winches, bunch of Spinlock XAS 0408/1's, a Silva race compass and a Solara M-series 50W solar panel.

Test-fitting the Ronstan lightweight spinnaker tack block. I wonder what, if anything, to do with the pole end.

Going to the paint shop tomorrow

2011-01-14T00:43:00.000+01:00

Tomorrow I will deliver the floats, pop-top, rudder with case, jib traveller, beams and bow pole at the paint shop. This is to be considered a test session, so I'm not sure everything will be finished this week end. These parts will most likely not go back to the workshop anyway, as there is not enough space for mounting the boat in there anyway.

First round of fairing compound on the jib traveller

316 tapping plate for spinnaker tack embedded in epoxy/chopped cotton mix and glassed(!) over.

Port float, pop-top and rudder assembly curing after the last coat of HB primer.

Starboard float waiting on the custom float trailer

Jib traveller coated

New year, the one in which Panta Rei meets the water....

2011-01-03T01:35:00.000+01:00

One year ago the boat was like this:

It might not look like it but the progress has not been bad actually, with a baby and two months out due to a nasty prolaps. Hopefully this year will show to be even more productive and contain some sailing as a proove to that.

Holidays are never productive for me, too much other obligations. But I managed to finish the starboard float for transportation to the painter. The surface is rough and will be sanded on arrival, but the shape seems to be there:

The custom float trailer was made yesterday:

Today I started sanding and filling the last pinholes on the port float.

The rudder case have gone a few rounds with filler and sanding and is almost there as well:

The pop top getting filler on the edge in order to make a nice smooth edge:

More of the same stuff

2010-12-19T02:37:00.001+01:00

Not much news, and not much time to get trough this brief sanding intermission and back on to the mast construction. But I'm at least moving in the right direction.

The tiller stub laminated to the case:

Port float (left) fully coated with SP hibuild, which ended my supplies of that stuff. From now I will use the Jotun HB, with which I have no experience yet.
The Starboard hull is soon faired to 240 grit and ready for the last HB layer, which will also act as a protective layer for transportation (remember 20 below outside, snow storms and salty roads, an unfriendly environment for cars, cargo as well as humans:-))

I gave the rudder case with tiller stub a thin layer of fairing compound, and sanded down most of it. I decided to give the Jotun stuff a try, and covered it all, even though more filling is required, but it was hard to see when everything was black and white. Easy to apply in a fairly thick film with a roller.

The pop top/main hatch got the same treatment. Sin cethe last post, I applied a "big fill", finding the ultimate mixing ratio to be somewhere between 25 -30% by weight of micro glass balloons, and sanded off about 95% of that, then a scimming coat using 20% of the balloons. Today a layer of Jotun Epoxy Yacht HB.

The rudder case and the pop top in front of the suspended starboard float, ready for the last HB coat.

I think everything in my workshop is covered in dust now. Looking forward to the main hull.....

Lots of small steps on the way to the paint shop

2010-12-09T01:54:00.000+01:00

I'm struggeling on, using small envelopes of available time between other obligations, to make the floats, rudder and case, main hatch and bow pole ready for delivery to the paint shop, and the workshop available for mast building. Some pictures from the process:

Fairing the wing net rails

Primed

Aft view, two year old epoxy coat sanded to 180 grit

Primed. Next, I will sand the whole surface to 240 grit and apply a last layer of primer before transportation.

Fairing compound added to the other side of the rudder blade

Sanded, 120 grit

Hibuild primer applied

Gudgeon cut outs made with the strapped down router

Laminating cut outs

Laminating last layer on tiller stub

Foam dug out to accept tiller

Hole for the rudder pivot pin

Main hattch was very uneven, this is how it turned out trying to fill the lows. The hatch is also the prime test site for different mixing ratios of my micro, to be used on the main hull. Light, easily sandable when mixed correctly, and cheap compaired to finished compound.

Faired down, ready for the big fill

The hibuild on the bow pole was sanded to 180 grit, and a few imperfections filled.

Coated with another layer of hibuild primer. This is also to serve as a transport surface when delivering the parts to the paint shop. It will there be sanded and one layer of Speed Undercoat and two layers of TopGloss will be sprayed. I will not reveal the colour, but I'd be surprised if the designer disappoves..

Mast calculations done

2010-12-09T00:37:00.000+01:00

I had help from two engineering capable friends and they made models of the specified carbon stick with spreaders and my larger double tapered profile with central web. I was there too, enjoyed the repetition and far beyond in mechanics. Then they put some forces on the models to see how they handled. My new and improved, 40% reduced from the initial lay up, design is a bit stiffer (less bending at the same forces, 188 vs 240 mm at 940 kg of wind pressure, a momentum of 2800kgm, the "cold top"- direct translation from Norwegian - not a part of the equation (righting moment of the F-22 according to Ian Farrier is about 3200 kgm)) sideways than the specified mast. The longitudinal stiffness is far too high trim wise, but it will be a very good support for the reefed main or the masthead spinnaker. I will pick up the mast project again as soon as I get all those parts of a trimaran out of my workshop.

New plans. Finishing floats, bow pole, rudder case, rudder. Back to the mast

2010-12-04T02:10:00.000+01:00

November is over, leaving the memories of the coldest November recorded in more than 270 years, with the highest energy prices recorded ever. And December starts out just a bit colder. BRRRR!!! And $$$ keeping the workshop heated.

The main hull is still left out in the cold. I decided it was better to not remove parts from the workshop before they were finished now. I've been building for four and a half years now, and not finished one single part yet! That is soon to be changed.

Port float deck first round of hibuild primer

Starboard float outside, first round of hibuild primer sanded.

Starboard float deck massive inserts and ventilation hole made.

Port float inside: The June 2008 epoxy coating is now sanded, ready for hibuild primer

Starboard float starting to apply hibuild primer to deck area.

I made the holes for the rudder rope handle. Holes lined with pieces of PVC tube. Then one side was smoothed and faired.

Holes with lining, aramid reinforcement and some filler applied at the transition from reinforcement fabric. The downside of using aramid (Kevlar(R)) clearly visible at the upper right corner, one touch with the sanding board and the hair rises.

Filled (super thin), faired and covered with hibuild primer.

Detail of board head

I finished off the filling and fairing of the carbon fibre bow pole. It was a bit uneven outer surface due to the malfunctioning heat shrinking tube I was using, and hence not perfect but hey, it's not a piano, it's a bow pole!

Now covered with hibuild primer

Detail of my custom carbon anchors for screacher tack and bob stay.

And also working on the rudder case.

Glueing up the blank for the tiller stub from rudder foam cut outs.

Shaping the tiller stub foam

Final shaping with trial fitting.

The laminated tiller stub trial fit. Still to be glued and laminated to the case. Cut outs in case for hinges still not finished. Then mods for accepting the tiller has to be made to the stub.

I've had some slack these days, hence some progress. I will work a lot again, starting this morning at 0700. It will be a challenge to find time for the boat in between things the next few weeks, and then it's Christmas.

Rudder case

2010-11-30T03:06:00.000+01:00

More filler added. Still some shaping and another round of filler to do:

All laminations finished. This part consists of one piece of UHMWPE, one G10 tube and 48 pieces of carbon fibre, cut from various specification fabric and with fibres oriented as specified in the very detailed and easy to follow plans. I'm really looking forward to make use of it!

More hi build primer added and new areas sanded on the floats. Port float ready for hi build on deck, to the left stb float ready for another round of sanding and the (hopefully) final layer of hi build.

I plan to get the main hull back in the workshop tomorrow evening, and start filling low spots with my home mixed fairing compound. I'll meet with the mast engineer Wednesday night. I may or may not have to order some other weight carbon for the mast depending on his calculations.

Visitors this week end; some sailing, some building

2010-11-29T03:06:00.000+01:00

I was lucky to have three of my friends coming up north this week end, to help me with the build. That was the official excuse, anyway. And since we all share a common interest in boats and sailing, it was no surprise that we all enjoyed the week end. The weather was nice on Saturday, with clear sky, a light northeasterly but a bit chilly with -15ºC. Anyway, Oyvind kept telling he wanted to go sailing, so that was what we did. The only boat available at the time was the Minitonner. A bit of snow and very slippery on deck, and a few very stiff ropes, but it was indeed an enjoyable small expedition. N 63º 44' sailing in winter pictures below, coutesy of Erik, I hope

Winter sailing clothing

Preparing the boat

Heading out

Lots of very stiff ropes to sort out

The sun never gets real high this time of year. This is around 1pm. The (relatively) hot water makes a nice smoke effect.

Enjoying the day in the sun

A few cold noses, and lots of cold feet after a while though

Back at the dock. We never even tried to get the old Suzuki running

After the fresh trip on the fjord, we went to the workshop to warm up and find some things to do on the F-22. I decided to keep the mast moulds in the workshop, as it was indicated the engineers might take a trip during the week end. Thus no fairing of the main hull. But we took the floats back in to complete the updated deck specifications (early build #, lots of updates along the way) and prepare for painting.

Beam attachment reinforcements.

Nice to finally see the hull in one colour

I got my mast tang out of the mould. A couple of pictures to show what I tried to explain in the last post.

Solid fibreglass centre piece to be lashing hole lining

Shaped to exactly fit inside the mast. Behind the glass insert for the combined jib/forestay anchor

I also managed to get a fair progress on the rudder case. Filling and taping the hinge tube to the case.

Ready for further filling and laminations

Rudder case and mast details

2010-11-26T03:18:00.000+01:00

I laminated the first 19 carbon fibre pieces of the rudder case tonight. Somehow, not being able to bag it, I got scared of lift off and other problems during cure, so I tried to clamp it all to the mould. Well. We'll see tomorrow.

I was grateful for making up some solid glass and carbon fibre panels earlier, I used both types today. Carbon spacer for the rudder hingeing glued to the G10 tube

Started the spinnaker halyard block lashing eye. I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out a clever way of making bullet proof lashing eyes on the mast. Tonight I decided to give it a try. A three piece mould, fitting the curvature of the mast at the attachment point, was made from light foam. A 6mm thick massive glass/epoxy D-shape was cut to serve as the lining of the 3/4" hole to be made later. The glass piece was placed in the vertical slot in the photo, and the curved perimeter of this piece was wrapped with ten layers of 400gsm uni cut in 6mm wide strips, the ends of the uni distributed as a fan in the mast shaped piece of the mould, then covered with a couple layers of 45/45. Next step is laminating the out-/top sides making up a total of 10 mm in the vertical tab. It will be mounted from the inside trough a slot and covered from the inside with further layers of reinforcements. Then a hole will be made in the tab sticking out of the leading edge of the mast. We'll see.

2010-11-25T01:27:00.000+01:00

Other events have taken my attention lately. A small update follows nevertheless.

Mast building have been put on hold, I don't know for how long yet, in order to get external help to try and optimize the design. I was surprised by both the weight and the ruggedness of the failed piece. I can actually jump on the section without noticeable flex, and this was a failed infusion. I will be surprised if it does not turn out I can reduce fibre weight in several areas.

That said, there have been lots of discussions on the f-boat group lately due to a few mast failures. It seems however the problem is loads under reefed main, a situation where I expect this mast construction will have a significant advantage.

With the mast on hold, I have continued on the rudder. The leading edge reinforced with a carbon/aramid hybrid in the pre made recess:

And the same around the head of the board:

While curing under "poor man's vacuum bag", the fit of a piece for the rudder case mould is being checked.

As the recommended wax sheets for making a spacer is only available in bulk, I chose to use a piece of vinyl (or something similar) flooring. When heated with an electrical heat gun it folded nicely over the leading edge. With a tight fit of the flange moulds it was kept steady. Using modelling clay for filling the corners works like a charm.

I added release wax to the whole surface. Modelling clay in different colours cheers up and makes me want to run back to start the lamination.

Curing disaster

2010-11-13T19:49:00.000+01:00

It looked really promising when I left the workshop yesterday, so it was a huge disappointment to find that something had gone terribly wrong after I left. However, it was not until the mast piece was out of the mould that I realized something was really wrong, although the vacuum meter reading one atmosphere gave suspicions. A few dl of epoxy in the trap, and the bag seemingly in place. However, the feeding tube was empty, leading the suspicion towards the patch mentioned in the last post:

I removed the bag and tubes, and lifted out the T-bars. Easy release. You can see the recess in the mast side here, and the glueing flange for the shear web. Excess carbon extending inwards in the mast.

The mast was released by sticking a sharp plastic spatula between the carbon and the mould, and then a thin piece of plywood. Easy release. As soon as the piece was lifted out of the mould, the disaster was clearly visible. For some reason, the vacuum has disappeared after more resin was sucked out, but before reasonable curing. The foam had straightened back to it's original shape and the outer carbon was lifted out from the mould, creating a major delamination all along the side of the mast. The really big surprise was the considerable stiffness, taken the sandwich is obviously not functional, and the epoxy is far from a full cure. Maybe I am seriously overbuilding?

So, this carbon monster will be brought to the dump. Too bad. On the bright side, the mould is still good, the release system seems to work fine, and it will definitely not be a soft stick. Also, the trailing edge containing the boltrope track seems to be fine, and I will have this to experiment on how to cut a nice and straight slot. You can see the saturated carbon and the "pre" bend here.

Also, the recess and flange seems to be just fine, making the joining process later more easy. Making carbon wing masts is probably not a usual thing to do at home, and considering what they charge for these things, it is probably a reason for that. However, I will not let this minor unfortunate incidence stop my plans for making an excellent mast. I just have to order some more materials and pull my sleeves back up .....

Carbon wing mast epoxy infusion

2010-11-13T05:11:00.000+01:00

First, I should emphasis that this mast is not a part of the Ian Farrier supplied design for this boat, and I must personally take full responsibility for its suitability and durability. And as I am a surgeon rather than an engineer, I have little basis for calculating the optimal way of building it for this vessel, or any other. It is based on "reversed engineering", trying to get it as sturdy as possible while not exceeding a maximum acceptable weight. Time will tell if I succeed.
It has been a while now since I made any serious infusion setups. Even though it is a lot of work, the thought struck me this evening when I was fitting the bag, listening to "sløyt og drøyt" (a music show that translates to something like far out and funky) on the radio that this is indeed a very 'cozy' way to make composite parts, as opposed to the vacuum bagging of wet lay ups that I have done mostly for a while now. Not every job is suitable for infusion of course, but when it is, it not only provides you a supreme quality part, it also relieves the stress and makes the anxiety of not getting the bag on in time or epoxy spilling on the tape and so on redundant. It was somewhere were this picture was taken that these thoughts struck me.

Even though all the building materials were fitted earlier today, it was still a whole lot to cut and get in the right place. Peel ply, then the perforated release film. Then I added a double layer resin distribution media (RDM), shown as the blue net in the pictures. In close conjunction to that I put the epoxy feeder line, led in at the lowest part of the mould. I'm using a cable collector from "Biltema" as in-bag distributor. Due to the shape of this part there are two high sides and hence two suctions are needed, shown in the above photo where exiting the bag at the highest point. After I got all these things in, I had to complete the mould by adding the two T-bars, the pictures showing the starboard one in place, the port about to be fitted. The below picture at the same stage, showing the opposite side of the bag. You can see the feeding tube entering the bag at the lowest point.

Finally, the vacuum bag can be fitted. Astonishingly, it had no leaks when I started the pump. However, it was not long until I heard a snap and a hole was created close to the feeding tube entry. A patch was added as shown.

Then I mixed up 4,5 kg of SP system Prime 20 LV infusion system epoxy. I'm not used to this kind of quite heavy lay ups, the laminate here being about 2,5 times heavier than the beam bulkhead lay up of the boat. So I spent some time making up additional batches until at last 8,4 kg in total was infused. This means undoubtedly that I have to order more of the infusion epoxy. What is not yet so clear is whether the mast is going to be much heavier than calculated. A lot of this epoxy is spilled, for instance three 4,5m feeding/suction tubes (around 1000 ccm) and all that is still kept in the RDM. I expect to find some in the resin trap tomorrow as well. It is approximately 5,8 kg of carbon in this piece, so the optimal amount of epoxy would be about half of that plus what is needed to saturate the foam surface and fill the perforations.

Just opened for the epoxy. It started bubblibg just inside the bag, indicating something was terrible wrong. The vacuum fell less than 0,05 Bar, but the vacuum is not that interesting when air is introduced along with the epoxy. i was not able to hear a leak, just the bubbling from the feeding tube. The epoxy flowed in at a usual rate, but it was distributed unusually as shown below. It was obviously distributed quite normal along the mould and back trough the perforations, but mostly air was distributed in the RDM. You can also see the feeding line full of air (2% air that is, from the colour of it). This would make a dry laminate and the leak had to be defeated!

Finally I succeeded (don't know how as I never found the leak, it just stopped bubbling) and the piece was fully saturated.

On this last picture you can see the excess carbon without RDM along it extending from the glueing flanges and still saturated. The suction lines starting to fill with resin after the inlet had been closed. It will undoubtedly be another high quality composite piece.

I stopped the pump and the bag kept a steady vacuum, excess resin slowly filling up the suction lines. I turned the temp up to 26ºC and left trough the winter night to have a beer and write this story.

Laying up first mast part

2010-11-12T19:30:00.000+01:00

After the successful release of the rudder from its mould, I had no more excuses to postpone the mast lamination. So today I finished the 5 layers of release wax and started cutting the carbon. The first layer in the mould is a triaxial stitched of around 630 g/m^2 followed by a 420 g/m^2 unidirectional. The fabric is really compact and will make a very nice laminate. In between every layer I put a narrow strip of 0/90 to reinforce the mast track, I would hate to have the main sail pull out of the track when pulling in the sheet.

Cutting triaxial and unidirectional carbon. A special thank to Thomas for giving me the excellent Chinese tailor's scissors.

The extra reinforcing layer outside the boltrope track tube

I placed the inside layers as well before sticking the foam core in. The inside laminate is the same as the outside but in reversed order. Boltrope track reinforcement between each layer. Then the tube was placed, and the foam put in between the two layers of unidirectional. I used a lot of clamps and 3M spray glue to keep the different fabrics organized.

Most of the lay up in place. Need to cover the inside of the boltrope tube. There will be fitted aluminum T-bars on top to create a recess outside the mast and a glue flange to glue the shear web to.

Just another view of the same

I will continue with peel ply, release film, resin distribution media and spiral tubing for delivery and suction, and then wrap it all in a bag. The boltrope tube lumen has to be open to atmospheric pressure to avoid collapse and resin filling. We'll see how far I get this evening.

Popping out the rudder

2010-11-12T01:44:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I was able, with the help from gravity and a friend, to pop the rudder out of the moulds (by bending the mould as the rudder itself is inbendable). It was indeed a pleasant feeling to hold this 1650 g extremely stiff carbon foil in my hands.

Rudder just left the mould

As opposed to the last rudder, there was very little damage to the mould this time, almost negligible as the area affected is not a part of the rudder surface.

Small damage near the tip of the blade

Also, this was a couple hundred grams lighter than the last one. The reason for this is no doubt that it was manufactured with one laminating step less, ie the foam was attached to the skin in one operation, hence less epoxy needed. The finish was the same almost perfect, and a clear coat would definitely be no problem. I will paint the rudder.

Trailing edge trimmed to give roughly the correct size

Joining rudder halves. More mast preps

2010-11-10T02:25:00.001+01:00

This is what one rudder half looks like right out of the bag. This time I did both the skin with structural reinforcements and foam core in one go, leaving the centre core area untouched. The core was pre shaped to fit the skin, but left high. The HD inserts was left even higher as can be seen here.

Then, using a router in a home made jig, I cut everything back flush with the centreline. Then I digged out the foam to give room for the centre core. This also gave me an extra quality control opportunity, as the core to skin bond was inspected and tested all along the recess. It was of excellent quality.

Here, the two halves seen in the background as the core is being laminated with the last piece of carbon sleeve visible on the vacuum table. After this I applied thickened epoxy (cotton chop/micro fibres) to the recesses and wetted the foam surface of both halves before I placed the core in the recess and joined the two halves.
Holes are CNC'ed in each corner of the mould for alignment, and the halves were bolted together and then placed on the table in order to cure under vacuum.

You can see here the rudder moulds under vacuum. Bolts extending under the breather. Object is to compress the two halves together, and make sure the whole mould is as straight as my vacuum table. Please note the pencil added inside the bag, hopefully it will take notes from the process. On top mast plans and jib halyard block, the builder obviously already in another mood. The observant reader may have taken note of the wall now seemingly very close to the table; this is not the fact as it is the opposite: The table has been moved closer to the wall in order to accomodate carbon cutting in front of it.

The mast building is coming up. I decided it was enough of filling and sanding. The original finish of the moulds was obviously not perfect, and still it has proven to be a very effective piece of engineering, so I decided to move on. Grey is my added fairing compound, black is old gel coat, now wet sanded till my shoulders hurt. My fingers tell me it is ok.

This is a close up of an area earlier published on this blog, now feeling quite fair.

I cut the foam for the lower aft half, which will be the first part to be infused. I'm using 8mm pre perforated Divinycell H100 foam core for better panel stiffness (buckling resistance) on the less curved parts of the mast. I will use this as a core for the central shear web as well.

The sail track insert is from electrician's PVC tube that come in maximum 4m length and has to be extended. I don't need much strength in the join, as that will come as a part of the lay up, but air tightness is absolutely necessary for the infusion process to work out.

Trial fitting the foam panels for the lower aft half. At this stage the foam was also cut to fit the molded in pre bend of the track. After this photo was taken, the foam was removed, and the mould is worked over with the mould sealer. Aluminum T-profiles that will be used for making glueing flanges and -recesses was also cleaned.

Five layer of wax is next. I'll have an idea how well this release system works tomorrow, when I remove the moulds from the rudder. That will hopefully be a bit of fun. I have to do the rudder finish and get on with the rudder case in order to be ready for last shaping of hull before filling and fairing starts early December, hopefully.

Trying to decide on furlers

2010-11-06T21:05:00.000+01:00

I have to decide on which furlers to use on the different headsails. There are several nice furlers on the market, and choosing the right one might not be so easy, although there are probably several right choices.

The chute is the easy one, only Facnor have one as far as I have been able to find out, so this will be the Asym FX 1500.

The jib is restricted by the size of the hole in the deck, and the below deck compartment itself. This rules out the Colligo. Precourt rules out themselves by not responding. Facnor have decided to rule out their FX series and recommends the wire luff furler, in which I have no interest. I'm going with the Karver KF-1 here.

The contenders for the screecher are the Karver, the Facnor FX-900 and the Selden CX-15.

The fact that the different manufacturers provide different types of technical information makes it even harder. And what about the swivel and halyard, 2:1 or not? I would have loved it if Colligo made a smaller model of their light weight swivel with 2:1 static block. Any input would be most appreciated.

Laminating rudder halves

2010-11-06T20:21:00.000+01:00

I got most of the carbon cut the other day, and did the rest today. The mould was sealed earlier, today I applied 5 layers of wax, using Chemlease PMR-90 that I got for the mast. It's supposed to have a very good release. I'm anxious to find out....

The wax have to be left to cure between each layers. During the curing time I prepared plastic cutting patterns for cutting the carbon for the mast

Doing the rudder halves as a wet lay up, there was no room for photographing the process. Here are the carbon skin, the UD reinforcements and the foam core with cut back and HD epoxy mix along the trailing edge wet in the moulds.

Consumables added and a perfect vacuum making sure everything is perfectly bonded to each other. Next step will be routing the foam and skin edges back to centreline level, and then remove foam to allow for the central core which will be added wet as the halves are joined.

Fairing of the bow pole

Small steps forward

2010-11-05T13:09:00.000+01:00

The moulds are soon ready for mast production. While the fairing compound in the moulds harden, I do a bit of other stuff. Here are the finished bow pole attachment points.

And the rudder foam with HD inserts. I will make this rudder in a slightly different manner than the last, laminating skin and core in one go, then removing foam for central core before joining. More to come soon.

Washing, sanding, washing, filling, sanding, washing

2010-11-01T00:14:00.000+01:00

It has been difficult finding time again for a few days, but the moulds are getting better and soon ready for use. First, after a thorough wash, I wet sanded the moulds to get an impression how bad they really were. The leading half is not that bad, but the trailing half had a lot of damage to it. It almost seems they forgot to wax it in several areas before the last shoot.

Then, after soap and the acetone washing, I started filling the imperfections and damages. This is now sanded down again (hard work sanding epoxy filler inside a mould) and I will have to do one more fill in a few spots.

I also laminated the sides of the carbon anchors for bob stay and screecher tack on the bow pole.

And the last lamination inside the "ears" was done. After placing the carbon inside, I inflated a balloon to keep it tight to the underlying laminate. Worked well.

Hopefully, November will bring a mast to the workshop.

Moulds rigged. Cleaning. Reorganizing.

2010-10-26T02:51:00.000+02:00

So, the moulds are rigged and braced and I'm happy with how it will be working on and in them. They have been around collecting dirt for probably 15 years, so I decided to start with a round of dishwash detergent and a scrub. I washed the trailing mould, which was the worst and need the most attention before use.

Ok, so here is the picture similar to yesterdays leading edge. It is possible to see the damage to the gel coat. I think I'll start with wet sanding, and then scim with epoxy fairing compound. Then wet sand again and apply Chemlease® 15 Sealer and then Chemlease® PMR 90+.

Close up showing the built in "prebend", and more surface imperfections
.

I'm still throwing out scrap from the workshop and moving around a few things. Have to roll out and cut 6+m carbon fabric pieces in a few days, I hope.

Setting up the mast moulds

2010-10-25T21:25:00.000+02:00

I spent most of Sunday cleaning up in and around the workshop and I filled a trailer with scrap materials to be taken to the dump. Another pile is rising for when the trailer is emptied. Then I started to set up the moulds in an appropriate working height with straight and steady support. The mast will be made from four quarts made from two moulds and a central shear web.
I will have the two moulds lined up next to each others with walking space between them, here the leading half is on it's new legs.

I removed a lot of old epoxy and inspected the mould surface. It seems to have gotten some beating up when the last piece was removed, so some filling and fairing will be necessary.

Gel coat ripped off trough to the glass

Another missing part of the gel coat

A photo of the leading half, seen from the spreader position. I will not use spreaders on this mast, the size and construction makes the section stiff enough without. Saved weight and drag, and a lot cleaner for the jib and handling on the trailer. My phone inside to give a sense of the dimensions.

Clearing the workshop

2010-10-23T18:37:00.000+02:00

Last night, I had Gudmund, Ståle and Guttorm over to help me carry the main hull out of the workshop. Although this was quite a trouble free manoeuvre, we all had to make an effort to lift it. I'd guess somewhere between 150 and 200 kg. Here the team after removing the workshop wall, before removing the hull

It's a trailerhull! Guttorm is trying out alternative rims for the trailer.

Mast moulds in the workshop. I have to give them a fair bit of TLC before starting building, they were last used sometime in the 90'es as far as I know. Have to extend the "bulkheads" and mount it on a stand in working height. Then there are some minor repairs to the gel coat.

The snow is here!

2010-10-22T02:04:00.000+02:00

Yesterday the first snow this season arrived. That was what the rest of the trailer parts did as well. So I worked until late (ie early) to get all the parts fitted. This is how far I got.

This is the basis of the bow pole after external lamination. The party balloon lamination on the inside is put on hold due to trailer finishing.

Tonight I kept on with the trailer. Tomorrow I will have a couple of friends over to help me carrying the boat out of the workshop and on to the trailer. It will be exciting to see how well it fits.
This trailer modifications have really surprised me time consume wise. I haven't counted the hours, but there are a lot of them. And I have to pick it all apart again for galvanizing. And the electrical system is not ready. And the light plate. It's a whole project all by it self!

Bow pole in progress

2010-10-20T01:49:00.000+02:00

The "ears" stuck well to the tube, but had to be laminated as well. I sanded down the corners and prepared for a length of carbon BD sleeve to overlap from tube to "ears". Tomorrow I will put a length inside the tube and blow up a balloon inside it.

Then I started to prepare for the bobstay/screecher tack carbon anchor. Slots in the tube being made.

The core consisting of HD Divinicell and microfiber saturated epoxy was wrapped in unidirectional fiber.

Plan was to insert while still tacky, but I used more UNI than planned and the slots was too small so I didn't get it in like I had planned. Ended in a usable position though.

Screacher tack showing hairy uni due to working too much uni trough too small slot. But a very tight fit.

Decided to try the heat shrink tube again, but now using peel ply inside, so just for compressing purposes. The fabric covering the smooth transition between tube and bar. Tube cut to see if it will release this time. Seems it will let the peel ply go.

More bow pole and trailer

2010-10-19T02:51:00.000+02:00

Attaching the "ears" at the basis of the bow pole, or klyverbom as I prefer to address it. This is the link between the Baugspryd (bow web) and klyverbom (bow pole).

Along the carbon tube you can see the remnants of the "special treated heat shrink tube" available from Soller Composites. It is supposed to apply some degree of compression to a laminate when heated and be releasable. I have now done several attempts, and I have scrapped carbon worth a few hundred dollars in an attempt to make this work, but I don't seem to get the hang of it. I've been in contact with the supplier, who offers to supply more tubing (not carbon, as some attempts should be anticipated) which I'm definitely not interested in. He suggests the problem is due to my lack of experience with composite work. This may well be true, in which case I think the product should not be marketed the way it is. (-besides the heat shrink part, this method works very well). My advise to other builders out there: Stay away from this product. I do, however, like the carbon uni and BD sleeves from Soller. Anyway, I finally managed to make what I judge to be a structurally sound tube, the remnants of the shrink tube will be sanded off (bulk was removed with utility knife).

This is the mould and in it the core of what will be an attempt to make carbon anchors for bob stay (Vaterstag) and screecher tack (klyver). I didn't really see how I would fit a saddle eye in a proper manner to the tube. Besides, this is nice prep work for the mast attachments, some of which I am really still in the planning phase for.

Bunk board and side supports sealed with epoxy.

Another set back for the trailer

2010-10-19T02:40:00.000+02:00

I did most of what I could do with the trailer, with the parts available so far. The rest was supposed to be finished last week but isn't. I have to decide if I'm going to wait for the trailer to be ready to receive the boat, or if I should keep it on the building stands outside the workshop. I really should clear the workspace to get the mast building going, as I have to give the sailmaker the mast prebend before he can start the sail.

Anyway, a couple of trailer photos:

Lights being fitted

Extension for the light plate. This turned out to be too floppy, I have to do something about it, either more stable extensions or a much lighter plate, or both.

While I'm not able to decide on how to move further I have continued with smaller projects in the workshop. I finally got the kevlar laminated on to the cockpit seats. In the background the Harken CB midrange windward sheeting system, I ended up buing it from Mauri Pro Sailing, fast and complication free delivery. I have asked several Norwegian dealers for about a year now, I got the first quote the same day as this was delivered.

Then I finally got around to do the final sanding of the rudder moulds. I have not been looking forward to this, but now it's done. Applied mould sealer, still to apply 5 layers of release agent, then ready to shoot another high quality rudder. I have to make the rudder case as well, in order to start the tiller and do the final trimming to the aft edge of the hull.

I also started playing with mixing my own fairing compound. I was able to find a recipe for a thick, dry, easy sandable compound, but I have not yet found the proper tool for applying the stuff. I will try to pick up a lot of useful hints described in this and this link for the main hull fairing.
In the background the first small steps in the making of an "optional carbon bow pole" visible.

Really no much progress, I think it is because I have not been able to find time for boatbuilding lately.

Trailer news

2010-10-07T00:08:00.000+02:00

I got some of the parts for the trailer. They are really professionally made, and if they all were made to plan I would have been really happy now.

Unfortunately, the brackets for attaching the bunk board to the trailer were not. They look really good, exactly like I drew them,

but a closer look reveals the problem. It will not be easy to pass a bolt trough here, even though I designed an oversized hole compared to the planned bolt dimension.

The upper articulating part of the adjustable double bow roller

And the last lights to get everything per regulations, perhaps. Even the lawyer within the government who tried to help me to interpret the highly complex formulated regulations gave up.

I made the reinforcing laminations on the bracket/traveller join.

Limited progress

2010-10-05T00:58:00.000+02:00

I fixed the engine mount with 8 M8 through bolts. The bulkhead seemed stiff. The mount works, but not perfect. Here the mount in top position of four, and engine tilted up in second position of three.

Engine fully tilted.

I also spent some time sanding the traveller mounting areas, making ready for some layers of reinforcements at the joint positions. The telescopic and swing up stainless swim ladder I bought is just a bit too wide to fit on starboard side. I'm working on a solution, but it's all still in my head.

No trailer parts.

Engine mount. Traveller bracing

2010-10-04T01:20:00.001+02:00

This is probably way overkill, but I don't like the idea of the engine on an "extension" is causing the bulkhead to flex back and forth. So, behind the cut outs with massive epoxy filling around the bolt holes in the bulkhead, I mounted a 20 mm HD foam plate, and from that I made stiffening stringers in all directions. The stringers are covered with a layer of 500 gsm UD carbon, and then one layer of 400 gsm DB (45/45). Now I expect the bulkhead to be very stiff and no flex. The exciting part is now how well the aft cabin will serve as a resonance chamber, amplifying the engine noise and vibrations.....

Hurray, I was able to remove the mould plates from the traveller braces. Although the laminate from yesterday was quite thin (approx 1,5 mm), this was enough to give the traveller absolute stability. The difference was sensational, especially taken into account the braces was not very stiff at all. I doubled the lay up, making them about half the thickness of the main brackets. Hope that will do, I'm most concerned of direct traumas. Here is a close up anterolateral view:

And posterolateral:

The traveller might even be less prone to snagging ropes with this extra bracing...

Still no more parts for the trailer.