New crew member!

On Friday August 21 at 18:16 a new crew member was born, a seemingly healthy little girl. This will undoubtedly influence on boat build progress over the next months.

Following is a short update of the latest progress until this great event. A view of the laminated aft deck.


Front deck still being worked on to get the details right before final skin lamination. Next is flange area for deck hatch and then the self tacking jib track.


Main hatch coamings in progress

Laminating aft deck

The flush mounted hatch handle. I'm satisfied and the anchor well hatch will probably receive a similar handle.


I laminated the anchor well hatch opening. Prior to laminating, the anchor well itself was temporarily positioned using a piece of wood between the bunk top and the anchor well bottom. This was to make sure the deck shape was correct during lamination.


I started cutting the fabric for the aft deck. I have decided to laminate, on all surfaces susceptible to impact traumas, such as a falling winch handle or floating timber, to use a combination of carbon and aramid as I did with the floats. One layer of plain carbon covered by one hybrid layer. The combined carbon content is the equivalent to the "A" fabric, and there is approximately 160 g/m² aramid in the outer layer. This will not make a bullet proof hull but a light hull that can handle regular use (and light abuse). Here the carbon pieces pre fitted.


Luckily, I was quite meticulous when wetting out the fabric as I was not able to pull a decent vacuum. I don't know why. I used 1,6 kg of epoxy on ca 1,2 kg of exotic fibres and all was thoroughly wetted out and covered with peel ply, also wetted out. There is some degree of vacuum and this is hopefully enough to avoid any bubble trouble, but I doubt it will pull anything in to the bleeder. Time will show.

Leverandører

I have received a couple of questions from builders and potential builders in Norway regarding local suppliers and I will try to make an overview here. As this is only of interest to Norwegian readers, I will write this post in Norwegian.

Skum: Det er vel egentlig to aktuelle valg her; Divinycell og Corecell. Noen mener den sistnevnte er den beste, men antagelig er forskjellen svært beskjeden etter at Divinycell kom med ny versjon for et par år siden. Divinycell distribueres av DIAB. DIAB er også norsk forhandler for Corecell men de var svært lite villige til å selge meg det, så jeg hadde egentlig ikke noe valg.

Karbon/aramid: Da jeg startet prosjektet var jeg ikke i stand til å finne noen som hadde karbon i større stykker enn 1m² i det hele tatt (i de lette kvalitene jeg var ute etter, tykk karbon fra Devold AMT var tilgjengelig men ville ikke ha ført til en lettere båt). Jeg kjøpte hele lageret til West på 1 m² stykker slik at jeg i alle fall kunne komme i gang (trengte karbon for å forsterke hybridduken min bl.a. ved skottinnfestninger). Senere klarte DIAB (forhandler av SP systems) å skaffe noe karbon på 100m rull, ikke fra SP riktignok. Ensrettet karbon fikk jeg fra DIAB. Det har etter hvert vist seg umulig, eller i alle fall meget vanskelig, å få tak i de dukvekter/vever/størrelser jeg har hatt bruk for og jeg var dermed på jakt etter en annen leverandør.
Jeg kom via noen bilmekksider på nettet over et enmannsfirma som heter Pelle Nymoen AS som har spesialisert seg på karbonfiber og drevet med dette siden tidlig 70-tall. Han skaffer det du trenger, til langt mer fornuftige priser, men selger ikke i smått. Alt i karbon, aramid og peel ply. Han har ingen nettside, han er en mann og har ikke tid til å ta seg av flere kunder, som han sier.

Epoxy: Jeg brukte til å begynne med epoxy fra SP systems via DIAB. Pelle Nymoen tipset meg om Svas Kjemi på Fetsund og jeg bruker nå Svapox 110 som selges til meget gunstig pris. Jeg har ikke prøvd infusjonssystem fra Svapox. Lamineringssystemet var ikke tilsatt kjemiske velgjørere og skulle være vanskeligere å bruke på avanserte fiber men jeg har ikke merket at det står noe tilbake fra SP systems Ampreg 20 i så henseende. Det kommer imidlertid på mye lettere håndterbare beholdere til ca 1/3 av prisen. Anbefales.

Vakuumforbruksvarer: Vakuumduk kjøpte jeg fra DIAB, type Airtech?, i alle fall amerikansk. Nylonduk, elastisk og den eneste type duk som duger (gjorde noen forsøk med vanlig byggplast etc) Minste kvanta 1 mål på en uhåndterlig rull som jeg fikk rullet opp på 4 hos den lokale plastfabrikken (jeg har til overs, kan selge hvis noen trenger). Slanger, koblinger, spiralslange (til distribusjon inne i bagen) fra Biltema. Resinfelle (med manometer ferdig montert) fikk jeg fra søppelkontaineren på SINTEF.

Vakuumbord: Jeg bruker et melamin/respatexbord fra Fibo Trespo. 

Longboard: Jeg har brukt en 120 x 12 cm "mureskje" som min lokale Byggmakker fikk tak i. Skrudde på beslag i hver ende for å feste papiret. Vanlig avløpsrør fra den lokale rørlegger som pussebrett på kurvede områder.

Slipepapir, skruer, maskiner etc: Würth. Dyrest og best.

Jeg vil kontinuerlig oppdatere/utvide denne oversikten. Er det noe du lurer på, vennligst send et spørsmål.

Preparations for deck lamination

I have put in several high density inserts now, and I can't think of any more needed on the deck. Or maybe one for the pop top hatch lock? It looks like this now:


I also did the cut out for the pop top, and started fitting the coaming.


This will make the rest of the internal work much more pleasant.


I am making a flush fitting on the front bunk storage hatch, much to test the technique. First, the necessary cut out was made using a router.


Then I epoxied in wooden dowels for the screws. These were then cut flush and I used a forsenker to match the shape of the fitting.


A layer of carbon to cover the wood and exposed foam


And then a vacuum treatment. Looking forward to see the result.


Edges of the anchor well hatch with HD foam


Supports for the anchor well hatch being glued in. A rope recess is made in the forward edge.


Recesses made for the hinges seen along the left side of the hatch

Goodbye strongback

When I got back from my trip, after the daily bit of house rebuilding (which is now almost completed!!), I have been able to put a few hours on the boat. I glued in the high density insert for the trailer winch eye.


Then I taped in the last part of the stern deck, both internally, which had to be done partly "blindfolded", and externally, and I put in an extra support under the starboard settee top, as I'm going to cut out and hinge the forward part to (hopefully, more measurements needed to be sure) accomodate an RM 69 with holding tank and three way valve





I put in an athwartships stiffener at the aft end of the front bunk on port side. Picture taken from the bottom of the boat, looking up and forward.


My initial plan was then to lift the hull, reverse the form frames again to do the last daggerboard case to hull and rudder web to hull taping, but I revised this and will do it as soon as the external laminations are done and the hull can safely lay on its side again. It was with mixed feelings the strongback was demounted and thrown out as it has been a close working mate for the last three years now....
Magnificent feeling to have something in resemblance to a boat in the workshop though.


And a more forward view:


I started shaping the transitions at once. This picture shows clearly what a difference a large radius does to the appearance as opposed to the hard deck to side transition on starboard side:


I've spent some time pondering on every thinkable trough hull high load applications I will want to fit to the boat, as time spent on that now is considerable time saved in the future. It is not easy in my opinion. At least, I will have a pulpit and "halegatter" (Norwegian for those rope leading hooks, fairleads?) on the front deck, as well as an eye for the front net. Notes to myself for later reference.

I also prepared for "kryssholt" (cleats? deck eyes?) on the aft cabin sides. I will continue this work next time, with eyes for positive mast rotators, rope cleats, mast raising wires etc.

I've tried to source glass fibre tubing with no luck. I'll glass in some electricians PVC tubing for wing net lashings. And HD around the anchor well opening, and then go on with the deck reinforcements.

All internal structural panels in place

Here is the tool I use for rounding edges before laminating over, as here the transition between settee top and front. Easy, fast and consistent result.





I made a "bucket shape" to be acting as a recess for the external safety compartment hatch, I didn't like the idea of having a hatch extruding from the hull surface...

Internal face of the same part.

Rudder center web taping. Quite good access trough the aft cabin aft bulkhead cutout.

Starboard settee top taping. Looking forward from the aft cabin.

Main cabin view from the front bunk, photo rotated to imitate correct orientation of the hull.

I am currently on vacation, and I will have to finish my house rebuild when I get home, but hopefully I will be able to get most of the main hull exterior laminated during August.

First day summer holiday

On the first day of my holiday it was 13 deg and RAINING. So I got to work on the boat a bit. The front bunk top is glued in. Still the top tape to do, I will do that when the hull is up right.


The aft bunk top was also glued in. The same with the top taping.


The port side taping of the daggerboard case web is done. I put in a stiffener across at the aft end of the front bunk. Still to be taped:


I tacked in the rudder centre web. I'll do some of the taping before putting the rest of the aft deck on.


And I started the fitting of the starboard settee. I have to make an extra support under this one as I will make the front part of the starboard settee as well as the aft part of the front bunk hinged to give access to the head.


This is a picture to show the spacious front bunk looking past the daggerboard case on the port side.