Summer?? Mousefur and sanding

May.  After the coldest winter in more than 50 years I had been looking forward to this as May should bring the green colour out accompanied by the wonderful smells of life emerging from the remnants of winter.  We should be able to wear a few layers of clothes less than the previous months, and maybe even no shoes!  Seems not.  This is what I saw out the window yesterday, trying to get a glimpse of the fjord.

Seems like it could be a while before we harvest the fruit and berries in the garden as well.  What happened to global warming?

I am a big fan of savings in fairing compound, both labour, money and weight wise.  Which means I will not spend time or money fairing the interior, except perhaps a few small details.  A nice finish and welcoming atmosphere is however desirable.  Farrier/Corsair have solved this using Frontrunner(R) fabric, which is also recommended by Ian Farrier as a durable and light weight fabric, so I have tried to source that particular fabric for the purpose.  It is, as far as I have been able to establish, not available in Europe, but  Litestream in Las Vegas has this fabric in stock, and was selling for a reasonable price, however the shipping to Norway was way more than the fabric itself, and then Norwegian taxes on top of that....
Trough help from the Yahoo! F-boat group I was able to find alternative fabrics in Europe and yesterday I received a sample of VV Softex Grey A70 n from Meubelstoffenvoordeel.nl.  It has a comfortable colour and texture, is light weight, are made for a moist environment and passed my 8 month old daughter's chewing-test (durable).

The sample:

It also convincingly passed the enhanced velcro-test:

So then, Dutch Softex it will be.

I was planning to laminate the external beam mount lower folding strut bracket bolting areas yesterday.  I didn't get to it, as the preparation work with rounding corners and filling gaps turned out to be a major time consumer.  But I'm getting there.  Forward lower folding strut bracket bolting area with hull turned up side down.

I also used a paint roller handle to make a special-tool for diggging out foam from tight locations, in this case the cockpit drain holes, wish I did this a long time ago, it made foam digging (a formerly detested activity) almost enjoyable.

Skiing Vallee Blanche and some taping

I had a wonderful day, skiing with my sister the Vallee Blanche.  When I grew up in Lillehammer I had a poster of Aiguille de Midi on the wall, but this is the first time I have ever been here, it took me 30 years.  I wish for a next time within the next 30,  possibly with a ski ascension of the Mont Blanc summit....

Then back to taping cockpit panels and anchor well.  As well as making glueing flanges for the buffer tank. I started by laying the hull over on the starboard gunwale.

This made for an easy access to a lot of taping.  I made a flange for the buffer tank top/forward raised floor on the daggerboard case support web.

Then substantial parts of the anchor well was taped to the hull, both inside and outside.

And I was able to tape, quite comfortably with a good result, the cockpit seat underside.  This is a peep trough the small aft cutout.

I even got the structural aft coaming part adapted and the inside taping done on starboard side.

Then, in preparations for the forward compartment cockpit seat underside taping, including inside the safety compartment, I turned the hull another 90 deg over.  This will also give excellent working conditions for the rest of the interior anchor well taping, cockpit seat top to seat front taping, back filling the cockpit drain holes, external laminations of the lower beam mount parts as well as laminating the trailer bunk board from several layers of plywood. This is how I left the workshop with an increasingly less cooperative heater.

I might need to replace the Foma heater as it is notoriously unreliable and snow is still falling every second day so boat work without a heater is out of the question.  I should probably have been born in a more friendly climate, had anyone known I would develope such strong attraction to abnormal sailing vessels...  (Did that make any sense in English by the way?  Remember, I'm Norwegian)

Social event and some building

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

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

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

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

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

Like this:

And a flange on the aft tank bulkhead

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

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

Preparing rudder moulds

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

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

Interior finish and cockpit progress

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

And the inner lamination on the main hatch opening.

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

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

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

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

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

Caught up

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

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

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

The main bulkhead opening to the aft cabin;

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

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

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

Rudder mould preparations

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