Continuing catching up

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

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

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

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

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

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

Catching up with things left out along the way

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

And here is how it looks trough the deck hatch:

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

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

Head problems, mould milling

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

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

The cut out

The under seat support

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

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

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

More cockpit

Three more panels fitted today.  Cut outs and fillings for the bilge pump on the front port panel. This is quite time consuming work, but I think it should be possible to start fitting the second floor layer tomorrow.  I have considered painting the inside of the under seat compartments before fitting the tops, but if I'm able to tape in there I will be able to paint as well.  Just a fast fairing before closing off I guess.

Aft view

And the area for the flush mounted bilge pump.

Cockpit

I finally got a few panels glued in the week before last.  Since then I've spent a week at Voss, attending a seminar and skiing.  I was hoping to get more done the last week end but I caught a nasty virus and was forced in bed.  I'm writing this from my hotel room in Kiel, Germany, but I'm going home this week end and who knows, may be a bit of more work will be done?  Silas has had trouble programming the rudder mould file for the CNC router, but he might get it sorted out soon as well.

The panels lined up for pre fitting:

Detail of the athwartship sub bulkhead and external safety compartment opening:

Four panels glued in, taped on the inside only.  Seen across the cockpit from port side:

Making parts for the cockpit

My experiment on the doorway groove turned out to be a success, at least until I get the Lexan and are able to try if it actually works.  Close up of the groove, cockpit to the left and doorway flange to the right:

 The perimeter of the door opening:

And I got mail!  A roll of stitched 45/45 200gsm T700 from Formax destined to be the skin of the foils.  Beautiful fibres;-).  And Silas is working hard to get the rudder mould ready.

The cockpit is a lot of work.  I've spent three evenings now and still don't have anything to show. And I haven't even started thinking of the coamings.... What takes time is the fine trimming of the panels, making drain holes, making more panels after first making cardboard patterns (Ian Farrier's full size patterns provided with the plans are really great, these panels are not standard hence no patterns provided), back filling all open edges, making safety compartment etc. I filled the join area and laminated the inside of the safety compartment hatch recess:

 This picture shows from top left: 6 HP Selva two stroke for the mini tonner we (some friends in Levanger with different kind of sailing interests and experience, from kite sailing to circumnavigation) bought last fall, and the sails for the same boat, The aft cockpit seat fronts with drain holes added and back filled, a panel for the safety compartment with hole for the hatch back filled and finally under building vacuum the two under seat bulkheads for dividing the space in inside and outside storage.

Doorway

The brief intermission finally came to and end and I could start the doorway flange lamination. Mould is in place, imperfections filled and I have started laying carbon.

Menno was kind to share the difficulties he experienced at this stage, and I had exactly the same problems but thanks to the warning I had the necessary remedies in hand to overcome the problem.  Now curing. 

The cured first part of the flange:

And a detail from inside, not yet trimmed:

Then, rather than finishing the inside layers of tape, I moved on to finish the outside.  The F-22 comes with a lot of nice features like integrated chainplates and rudder gudgeons which I really like, and I would like to do as much as possible that way.  Hence, I make the groove for the lexan doorway panels an integrated part of the construction.  I started out making a mould to sit in place for the lexan.

It was temporarily fixed to the opening from the inside:

Then I made a flange outside of this mould.  It will be trimmed back to make a 1 cm deep groove around the opening to receive the doorway panels.  I will drill drain holes in the bottom part.

 

Detail of the flange/groove.  Seen from top, up is the doorway flange, aft is the cockpit side.  The bottom of the groove is epoxy filler and several layers of carbon 'A' equivalent is making up the flange.  I first tried to make it using some heavier carbon I had lying, but I have never used this fabric without vacuum before and that also proved impossible as the fabric was just too stiff to make it follow the curves.  So I spent some time making this and I really hope it will work.  If it does, several loose parts (wood/plastic and aluminium parts screwed to the hull) are eliminated.