Bunk tops taped

Somewhere around 14 m of putty fillings and tape is now in place.  Front beam mounts next.

Bow bulkhead finished

Today it was time to finish the taping of the bow bulkhead.  The most exciting part was the front side bulkhead to deck join, as there is no way to get this join in sight.  I tried to take pictures afterwards, but it was difficult to get the camera in the right position as well.  It seems it is adequately taped however.  I accept it as it is.

The bulkhead to hull side taping was a lot easier and turned out quite well.  This completes the taping af the front bulkhead and a long feared operation can be marked off as done.

Some readers may have wondered lately "he was installing beam mounts, and all of a sudden he switches to a completely different task without finishing what he started".  The thing is, as I suddenly discovered, that in order to finish the front beam mount laminations, I had to finish taping the front bunk top. I have not done any of the top side internal panel taping.  When I was about to tape the front bunk, it was natural to do all the taping left in that area.  I will now continue to tape the bunk tops further aft in the boat and then finish the front  beam mount and front beam bulkhead taping. One side of the daggerboard case taping is also left, and that will be done when the beam mounts are finished and I can roll the hull over again.

Another thing; I have been looking for a supplier of fine multiaxial carbon fabrics for a long time, for the foils for instance, and have not been able to source what I was looking for.  Several suppliers have told me such fabrics are not made.  Today I got mail from Torkil, he found exactly what I was looking for at Formax.  Thank you Torkil!!

Working in tight quarters

After the messy experience last night, I wondered how I was going to be able to clean up in this cramped compartment in order to be able to do further laminations.  No need to say, I was not too impressed with the quality of the tapes I had made last work night.  I ended up buying the "electrical finger" in the picture below and a few new bits for my straight and angled compressed air mini grinders

 

After extensive testing of the new equipment, a few f-words and a lot of carbon fibres stuck in my fingers, this is what the forward tape looked like:

And the aft part of the compartment:

The front bulkhead is at this point glued in at the lower third or so, using heavy compression to ensure good bonding in the area mentioned in the last post.  I found it necessary to have better support in the upper part before taping the rest of the front side of the bulkhead as this is partly a "not to be seen without a mirror" taping job. So I prepared the aft side of the bulkhead for taping. This area is huge compared to the front side of this bulkhead, but it still feels quite confined, rolling from side to side and partly supine to reach all the areas.

However, I was able to do some quality taping here. Also, extra reinforcements to the trailer U-bolt area and the front part of the front bunk top was taped in the same session.  My hair is so full of epoxy though, that I have to make an appointment with Helge, my drummer and hairdresser of choice, to fix it.

Then I made another shot on the extremely tight front end of bow web to hull tape, this time using pre wetted tape with peel ply attached manoeuvred into position using a thin piece of foam (no traditional tools such as fingers fit in here).  I was quite happy with the result and think I have managed to make this as strong as the designer can possibly have expected home builders to achieve.

Then I double taped the last piece of bow web to the front bulkhead, this being the roomiest corner of this compartment, it was almost like a walk in the park compared to the other taping.  I didn't peel ply though, it is most tempting to leave everything untouched when it lies flat and not risk to mess it all up again....

This leaves only the front side of the front bulkhead from bow web level and up to be taped the next time I go building, and I have dreaded for this for several months?

Finishing the internal bow area, finally started

I have not been looking forward to this job.  All the time since Jim's awful but correct comments on this post I've been looking for a suitable manner to solve this problem in a structurally sound way without having to dig out everything and then go on with a close to impossible laminating job with uncertain outcome.  Given Jim's comments on how tricky this is, and I totally believe, I was looking for a better way to get a good bond between the bow web, tape and the bulkhead.  My solution was like this (forgot to put the hull in the drawing, you'll just have to imagine):

I laminated the carbon, put the HD inserts in, and placed the bulkhead with a generous layer of micro fibre thickened epoxy on the surface in place.  Then mounted a compression system to keep the bulkhead firmly pressed against the bow web while curing.  I'm not sure this is actually better, but I'm sure this was the good part of what I was able to do that night.  The forward taping between the bow web and the hull was extremely difficult, and I was just not able to place the staggered tapes the way I wanted.  Most of it is where it should be, but there certainly is something to clean up 'til next time...

Port aft beam mount laminated

I also got the port side aft beam mount laminated.  This time a little bit faster, as one tends to get better at doing things when repeated.  (Which means I would probably be able to build an F-22 quite a bit faster if I started over again now.  Which I will definitely not do, but I must admit that I already have started to think about an F32SRX some time in the future....).  New to this side is the clamp on the flat area extension, as I saw imperfections on the other side here due to phenomena described by Isaac Newton centuries ago (it has to be your own mistake until you actually learn something, huh?).  The diagonal brace is just to straighten up the upper folding strut slot, as with this particular beam mount it seemed to want to be very roomy.

The mould was successfully removed and the aft coaming and recess laminate trimmed after this picture was taken.

Flerskrog Trøndelag - board meeting

Last Wednesday, the board of the Norwegian multihull association's northern fraction - Flerskrog Trøndelag - had a meeting in Levanger.  The members of the board met in the workshop to inspect the quality of my work and the progress.  My work so far was approved and good wishes for the rest of the project was offered from Torkil (Corsair 24), Trond Are (TRT 30?) and Arnt (Chairman), all of them experienced multihull builders and sailors.  This was indeed a big relief!;-)

I am also modifying an Eee for a friend that helped me recover a lot of lost Christmas family pictures from a bad SD-card in the family camera.

I might have to make myself one of these as well, to run navigation software (there are somewhere around 200.000 islands along the coast here, and a few of them are under water...), and maybe a music library for slow hours in anchorage...

Aft starboard beam mount taped in

I finally finished the aft beam mount moulds last week. Attached with self tapping screws at the lower end, and screws into the hull side at the gunwale.

Close up of mould.  Every corners between mould and hull or bulkhead to be filled with putty to nice round corners before taping.

All the fabric and UD reinforcements in place.  No way to vacuum this so it is a meticulous job to get everything nice and tight in every corner.

 

Detail of the upper folding strut bolt hole area with GRP doubler plate taped in.

The outside after removal of mould.