Paint Day

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Today the paint job is finally finished.  Well, there is still the roof to do with sand to make a grippy surface and some other sandy grippy bits, but the pray work is done.  I just hope the problem with the paint doesnt re-appear.

So here it is in pictures.

Masking yesterday magnolia

Slap some on here

Like this

And some here

And here

A few hours later all unmasked and shiny

A good couple of days work making a huge difference.  More photos when I can get on the bow deck without damaging it.

The paint has been piled on nice and thick.  Jerry said he had never put so much paint on anything.  The magnolia has nearly 3 litres and the blue including the rear already done has used 8 litres.  All that needs to be done now is a good mopping.  This will be done in due course.

I have deliberately used standard colours as they will be easy to source in the future from vertualy anywhere in any form and in any base material.

The magnolia is from the BS 4800 standard  BS 08 B 15 


The steel blue is form the RAL standard RAL 5011


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Floors

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The floors are going in! Southern Yellow Pine 4x6s bedded well in chapopote (roof tar). 






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Down To The Finishing Off Jobs

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Forgive me readers for I have sinned. Its been nearly a month since my last blog.  I am now just doing the last few little jobs that have been hanging around.

I had the final bit of skirting board made by DW Wood Mouldings and fitted them along with the final bits of plinth.

Same both sides

I have fitted the rear door vents.

 16g SS special order, nice and thick

Still need varnishing

I have fitted the front button.

Ready for some bumping now ;-)

And finally Ive fitted a warning LED to the dash to confirm the alternator parallelling is locked in.


A horrible job which I didnt photograph was the removal of a spill of 2.5L of tar paint in the chain locker.  I decided it would be better to let it dry then use a hot air gun to melt it into manageable slices.  It worked but took about an hour and the last bits in the corners was a real job.

I have decided to move the inverter inside under the rear stairs.  I have had a couple of comments about it and I was a little unsure if it was a good idea when I decided to put it in the engine room  I will probably do this next week.
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Need to find something special for the Holidays

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If you are looking for serious Holiday gifts, for others (or even for yourself), I hope you’ll hang around long enough to read this...

As authors of a book that includes much common sense, but also some pretty specialized information, weve been particularly pleased, not just at the number of favorable reviews that weve gotten, but about where some of those reviews have come from.

When I used to play music for a living, the older and wiser musicians would remind me "Dont listen to the hecklers; theyre probably drunk." They also followed that statement with "Dont get too high on the compliments; theyre probably drunk. These are good words of wisdom for anyone trying to keep their assessment of the opinions of others in check. The same guys would also point someone out in the audience and say "If that guy says you did well, it means something", referring to someone that had been in the business for many years. Of course, "that guy" might put you in your place just as quickly; maybe more often.

We wrote our book for all levels of model makers. That is to say that it provides fundamental information that can teach anyone to learn the art of model making and it also has a significant amount of information that can add to any master model makers skill set. There are a number of areas of focus including; learning the art of "scratch building"; concepts and techniques for improving your ability to "see" your subject in order to better represent it in your model; understanding shapes, spatial concepts, drawings and how to measure boats accurately; different ways to build and display models; tools; materials; construction theories and much more.

Its got 160 pages, 264 photos, and 94 drawings and it took 4 years to write. Those photos were culled from thousands; the drawings from hundreds and the fifty some odd original chapters were focused down to twenty. It was quite a bit of work and, as with the playing of music, when you put your work out in public for others to judge, you want to know what they think... ...what they really think.

At shows and book signings, we’ve received positive compliments from all sorts of people and its been very gratifying. We dont always know who among them knows what, but we certainly know, from some of the serious conversations that weve had, that among them have been some very knowledgeable model makers. Unfortunately, those conversations are gone to the wind...

With our book, as when I was a musician, we wait for “that guy”, who is known for their expertise, and whose words can be relied upon to “mean something”. Because we believe in the quality of our book and want confirmation that we succeeded at doing what we intended, it means a great deal to us when “that guy” speaks up. It also helps us as we write our next book.

When you know who “that guy” is, you know that what they say can help guide you, especially if the subject is one that you don’t yet know much about or in the case where you are looking for a gift for someone else. We have now heard from a number of “those guys” and it is probable, if you happen to be reading this, that you are well aware of one and likely more of those we’ve chosen to list here:

As you read note not only what is said, but who is saying it. They are people who know what they are talking about:

From the November 2011 issue of The Waterman’s Gazette, a trade publication of the Maryland Watermen’s Association. The Watermen that work on deadrise and other types of workboats in the Maryland waters of the Chesapeake Bay rely on the “Gazette“. Watermen have no problem telling you what they think; good or bad. The review says some very nice things, referring to how model boat builders and enthusiasts“, both “professional” and “hobbyist” will benefit and “can apply the principles learned for design techniques and theories to other models they want to build” and concluding with “it’s well worth the price”. Believe me, Watermen know value.

Tom Holmes, noted expert and restorer of classic Century boats and President of The Century Boat Club, wrote in The Thoroughbred, a magazine published by The Century Boat Club, “their attention to detail is awesome” and “their chapters on Understanding Lines Drawings and How to Measure a Boat are very instructive for club members tackling a restoration job, especially a basket case. Their approach to problem solving is fundamental to a boat restorer especially if you are not simply copying , but need to scratch build boat parts. You will learn many skills and approaches to boat building from reading this book.”

Good Old Boat Magazine, well read by many for years said among many nice things: “My learning curve would have been much less steep if Fundamentals of Model Boat Building had been available.” and “I looked at this book from the perspective of a fellow model boat builder and found the explanations and terminology easy to follow. With that in mind, I asked my husband, who is a sailor, but not a model builder, to look it over and he told me it’s a fascinating read.”

Fine Woodworking Magazine, respected by woodworkers the world over; in addition to awarding our book as a prize, included this in their assessment: “This seems like a pretty intense book, but if you want to build model boats, this book will show you how to do it all.”
 

As of this time, all of the reviews that we have seen have been very positive and we are very pleased and proud to recommend our book to you, or your loved ones. There are many others and I will be happy to give you the sources so you can read their complete reviews. Just email me at johninto@intothings.com

That said, I want to know all opinions, whether you are a novice or a master, whether your opinion is full of praise or full of criticisms. We have yet to see a negative review, not that we would look forward to it, but we really want to know of all honest opinions. We really want to know what you think. Take a look for yourself!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!
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Calendar Islands Yawl Modeling Continued

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Fleshing out the Calendar Islands Yawl

Modeling the Interior

While I am actually breaking out the geometry of the final 3D computer model, the interior of the "in-the-flesh" model was glued in yesterday and Ill prime it today.

Cutting out quarter scale bulkheads for Calendar Islands Yawl interior.

It never ceases to amaze me how everything just fits. Paper patterns are Spray77 tacked to 1/8" plywood and cut to the line on the bandsaw. Then the parts are glued into place with little to no refinement and they fit well. It makes this method of proving out the hull design quite efficient.

After hull turnover in actual full-size construction, this is what the boat interior will look like.

The beauty of kit construction, is that we set up stem, bulkheads, and transom on a CNC cut, self-jigging strongback. And after planking, we turn over the hull and the interior structure is already complete. In traditional construction, the molds would be removed and bulkheads fit in their place. Kit construction allows the professional and home-builder to skip the time consuming steps of making patterns and scribing in bulkheads.

After turn over, the tank tops are put in place. They play an important structural role in stiffening this very light boat.

Stay up to date with me as next Ill prime the hull and make paint choices. Furthermore, the cutting files will be ready for CNC cutting of the first kit. 


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Misty Moonbeam

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Misty Moonbeam a unique yacht which was designed and built by the late Michael Corbin.

For many years Misty Moonbeam was a familiar sight on the Medina River in Cowes.




A previous owner writes "If you would like to see more of the interior of Misty Moonbeam - heres the link to an Album created April 2010 - which can be viewed page by page without purchase. This was where she was berthed under her new ownership from 2007 to 2010 Chivenor, near Barnstable at the time. It was a pity the tide was out - but you cant have everything, it was a beautiful day. I was fortunate enough to be invited to spend a day on board, with a photographer friend who created the Album. Thats me on board in red"

"Misty Moonbeam was sold in 2007 and indeed has been recently sold on again. I would also refer you to a YACHT MARKET site, where Misty was advertised prior to the latter sale. This gives all her statistics and will give you a true figure of the amount of winches on board. This site will be undoubtedly removed soon as she is under new ownership as at October 2010."

"If you remember, she was originally a Wishbone Schooner - but the first buyer didnt know how to make use of the wishbone, whereby it was removed, re-rigged with a complete new set of sails."

"Here is the one and only picture of Misty Moonbeam under sail in the beauty of her original rig for which Mike had designed her It is not easy to get a photo of your own boat under sail - unless you are racing and surrounded by press photographers. Fortunately I alerted some friends she was in the West Country, and the rest is history. Thats Mike on the raised poop - with daughter and son-in-law on deck."




"May Misty Moonbeam continue to sail the seas. She was designed for world cruising and may she be admired the world over and live on in the memories of all who appreciate her individual beauty."

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Voice recognition software

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I am writing this short post in order to test the voice recognition software embedded in Windows 7. It is my hope that I can write posts more frequently in this way and also answer my backlog of emails.

My primary work is boatbuilding and design and I am finding it difficult to keep up with the administrative work which articles, emails, and the blog entail.

At the moment I am teaching the software how to recognise my Australian accent, and it seems to be having great difficulty!

There will soon be posts about a Water Rat being built from 4 mm plywood which is coming along very nicely indeed, and I will be posting some photographs of the Scram Pram which is almost completed. The windows are in and we hope to have the boat in the water within a few weeks for trials.

The voice recognition software seems to be working, but please be tolerant of my mistakes!

Ross Trinders beautifully built 4mm Water Rat


Scram Pram with her windows dry-fitted, and the decks screwed down on bedding compound

Now, doing all of that with voice-recognition software was VERY time consuming, but stand-by for an improved service!
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This blog is being moved

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This blog is being transferred to my own website. All the posts have already been copied over ...

http://www.storerboatplans.com/wp

There is a good search function on the top right of that page.

For discussion, podcasts and more on boat design, boat plans, boat building, boat repair, plywood, epoxy, amateur built boats, sailing boats, canoes, kayaks, rowboats, yachts and more.

Best wishes
Michael

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First Mate Side Seat Rails

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At the end of June 2011, I published a post about my idea for moveable side seating in cruising dinghies. The idea is that side seats can be used if prefered (although I like to sit down low in the boat with my weight near the windward turn of bilge) and can also be removed at a moments notice. Most importantly, if they are slid into the centre of the boat they make an excellent sleeping platform, well above the bilge water.

The Phoenix III built by Paul Hernes, showing the side seats in the standard location.............. 
...........and slid together to form a nice sleeping platform............
.....or removed altogether.
You can find my original post at this address

I am continuing to work intermittently on a First Mate in my workshop - she gets attention when glue is curing on other jobs. Last week I installed the rails to carry the removable side-seats/sleeping platform, and Im delighted to say that in First Mate, the seats are more than 26 inches wide at the upper part of the body when slid together. Here are a few pictures of the rails: -

Here is the seat rail glued and screwed onto the aft face of the midships frame. This frame is made from 12mm (1/2") marine plywood, with 38mm x 12mm (1-1/2" x 1/2") behind where the screws go through. The whole thing is very strong, and the seat rail would be fine with just a glue joint. However, the silicon bronze screws make it simple to position when the epoxy is slippery, so they may as well go in! The rails are positioned to carry a side seat which is 31mm (1-1/4") deep - these will most likely be 25mm (1") framing topped with 6mm (1/4") marine plywood.
A close-up of the aft rail, which attaches to the semi-bulkhead at the forward end of the stern seat (i.e. the "stern sheets"). The centre cut-away is just to allow positioning of the screw-in hatch to that particular buoyancy compartment.

Another shot of the aft seat rail with the rowing foot-braces on the floor below. These foot braces do double-duty as structural stiffening elements as well

This seating arrangement will make First Mate (and Phoenix III) very versatile cruising dinghies - my favourite type of boat bar none!
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A Bit Council House

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I have been up to quite a few things on the boat but nothing really blog worthy. I do have a lot to say about generators, batteries, alternators and charging but this is still a work in progress.

I have put the 12v toilet back in and fitted a better design non-return valve.



The 230v toilet was OK but had its issues, principally the amount of water used.  Since fitting this valve no backflow has been noticed.  The other issue I had with the 12v toilet was voltage drop on activation.  I have overcome this with a small sealed 12v battery in a cupboard very close to the toilet.

This was the original toilet swap blog.

Its a common joke in the UK that mounting a TV on the wall is a bit "Council House".  It just happens on the boat I decided it would be a good idea as it frees the surface of the unit.


Before

After

Much neater as all the wires are in the wall now.  The extra height is better, more comfortable viewing angle.  It was a bit low before.
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Answers to a couple of recent comments

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Here is comment received regarding Fleet:-

How much does she weigh?
What I like about flint is that the center of balance is over the center thwart making her easy to carry and light enough for this senior citizen to car top.


Well, I cant tell you how much she weighs because we havent weighed her yet, but the material thickness is the same as on Flint and the area of plywood is only 8.4% higher, indicating an 8.4% weight increase.  The Fleet shown in the pictures has a foredeck and inwales, but the standard Flint and Fleet have tank-tops on the foreward and aft buoyancy tanks, so it probably all evens out.

Based on just the plywood in the bare hull, the weight of Flint panels is 24kg(53lbs) and in Fleet the same is 26kg(57lbs). The centre-of-gravity of the hull panels (including transom without framing) is at 1.96metres forward of the aft perpendicular i.e. at the midships thwart near the aft edge.

The weight of any boat depends tremendously on the density of the materials used, and the attitude of the builder.
________________________________________________________________
In relation to my recent post on the virtues of the sprit rig with the jib set flying, Dennis Marshall writes: -

May I ask what the line is hanging from the peak of the sail?

Dennis is asking about the light line which can be seen in a number of photos, running down from the head of the sail at the peak end of the sprit

The light line is just visible in this photo
The line is a vang. I suggested that it be used in certain conditions when hard on the wind and when running free, to control the amount of twist in the sail, and (when running) to prevent the head of the sail from moving forward of the beam i.e. forward of a a line drawn at right angles to the centreline of the boat. If a sail moves forward of the beam, it is a sure invitation to a Death Roll.

The light line is run from the head of the sail near the peak of the sprit down to a thumb-cleat on the weather quarter and then to a little fairlead on the rudder head and then along the tiller to a small V-jamb cleat within easy reach of the helmsperson. When tacking or jibing, the line is flicked off the thumb-cleat and quickly moved to the one on the new weather quarter.  It only requires a light tension on the line (vang) to haul the head of the sail in to reduce twist in the sail.
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Love Love by Julien Berthier

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French artist Julien Berthier created this boat. According to him, "Love love is the permanent and mobile image of a wrecked ship that has become a functional and safe leisure object".

Im not sure the Health and Safety Executive would agree with him about the last part.

Heres what the gallery that displayed it said.

"For this piece he adapted an abandoned 6.5 meter yacht so that it appears to be perpetually sinking. To create this, the vessel was split and a new keel was constructed allowing it to be sailed by Berthier at a 45 degree angle off the coast of Normandy. Love-Love, like much of his oeuvre, is impressive, poetic and humorous.

In this project, the artist invests his energies and resources into creating an art of fiasco, aiming in his words to “fix an object at the moment of its deregulation.” The image, and metaphor of the sinking ship is an iconic one – it signifies death, lost hope and sinking dreams. Berthier’s Love-Love freezes those sentiments permanently both celebrating and overturning them. On display in the gallery will be the boat itself as well as a series of accompanying photographs and documentary video showing the performance in Normandy."

Mr Berthier knows something most of us dont, though - how to make money out of old boats. He is reported to have sold this one for £50,000.

Love Love from julien berthier on Vimeo.

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Battens Cut and Fit

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My battens have now been ripped and fit to the frames. I had to deepen the pre-cut notches to get the battens to lay flush with the frame contours. Per the "Boatbuilding with Plywood" book, battens should be installed after side planking, so I used some steel screws for temporary dry fit so they can be removed if in the way for subsequent work. They helped secure the frames in position so Ill leave them in place if possible.




The sides of the middle frame were unsupported and could easily be pushed out of plumb so I added a temporary cross beam and some angle braces from it to the form to stablize them. Now they can be worked on without moving around.


The next step is fitting the chines. You can see in the photo that Im experimenting with a piece of pine to judge whether my notches are right. Im letting my buddy Ted forge ahead with his Zip and of course he just tried steaming his chines and installing and broke one. Im taking a vacation so the boat will be on hold for awhile. Maybe when I get back, Ted will tell me how to install a chine without making expensive mohogany firewood.
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A Dory for Gazela Primeiro and at the end tips on glass application

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A while ago I received a nice email from Tony Souza regarding construction issues with a new dory he intended building for the old Portuguese barkentine Gazela Primeiro.

Hello Ross,
Thanks for your recent article "Stems and Trailers".  In that article you discuss natural timber vs plywood construction and show the merits of plywood glued lapstrake for boats that are dry stored.
Im trying to choose a construction technique to use for a reproduction dory that will be "dry sailed".  The dory is a Grand Banks dory of 17 feet overall, 13 feet on the floor. The new dory has to resemble closely the last of the three dozen Portuguese grand banks dories that sat on the deck of Gazela Primeiro, the 100+ year old Portuguese barkentine on which I am one of the all volunteer crew.  Last winter we patched and repaired the last dory, and this year Id like to build a dory to be used often for the teaching of boat handling, rowing, and dory sailing.  the boat handling includes launching and retrieving over the side using hand operated boatfalls. The new dory will spend most of its time stacked inside the old dory, the two as deck displays of what was used in long line fishing of the early 20th century.
As a matter of resemblance the new dory will have four frame sisters overlapped, removable thwarts, 5/8" cedar planking, solid gunwales, a mast step on the floor and two sets of oarlocks.
For ease of construction and in keeping with the dry storage idea I plan on using modern materials where I can.  The flat bottom will be Meranti plywood already on hand, no need to soak the floor seams closed before putting boat into the water.  The frames are already built from laminated ash. Tree crotch and buttress sections are too difficult to find.  I plan to epoxy the garboard plank to the bottom, glass tape and epoxy the inside seam.  After planking I plan to turn the boat over and glass the bottom and garboard with cloth.
After that long prologue we come to my uncertainty area, the clinker planking joints.  Its tempting to use lap-stitch aka ship lap joints, easily cut with a router and epoxy fastened.  On natural, i.e. not plywood, timber that may lead to splitting along the grain at the join.  Likewise dory lapped (rolling bevel) joints likewise glued might suffer splitting.  I should have said earlier that using modern glues and eliminating metal fastners is a goal.  The old dory is a pincushion of steel nails on the planking joints which has resulted in rusty streaks and rotten wood.  (Of course dories were not supposed to last more than a couple years in ocean service. Old dory is probably 40+ years old.) 
Would it be better to caulk the planking seams with Boat Life, a polysulfide, rather than epoxy fasten?  The frames are there to give cross grain strength.  With your expeience you might see that Im headed for problems not yet envisioned.
Any suggestions will be very welcome and gratefully accepted.
Gazela can be seen at
www.gazela.org.
A picture of the old dory is attached. 


Here is part of the text of my reply: -

I agree totally with your concerns regarding "hard" gluing of either "lapstitch" or dory-lap joints when using natural timber rather than plywood - I believe that they would definitely crack at the point where the planking thickness returned to single-plank. Harry Bryan wrote about the matter when he did a couple of articles for WoodebBoat Magazine about the building of his Daisy design. She had either double-planked cedar (glued with epoxy) for the bottom, or a single sheet of plywood. The topsides were planked with lapstrake cedar planks in the normal manner (I think using copper clench nailing from memory). The important thing in our context is that he expected her to be dry-sailed, and after completing the planking in the normal way, he dragged a sharp, flat-blade screw driver along the underside of the lap on the outer side of the planking. This produced a sort of square-shaped groove of about 1/8" x 1/8" in the underside of the lap. He then filled the groove with a bead of polyurethane (I would use 3M 5200 or Sikaflex 292, using a polyurethane-specific primer)

Having said all that, I wonder whether you could just glue the entire lap with polyurethane (I dont know enough about polysulfide to say anything about its adhesive qualities where no fastenings are used). The polyurethane is strong enough, but I dont know whether a fully-glued lap would allow enough movement to overcome the cracking problem, even given the flexibility of the compound - but my guess is that it would be ok, especially if the glue-line was thick.

If I was doing it, Id go the copper-fastened route, with the polyurethane (or polysulphide) run into the groove under the lap.

I think that the garboard arrangement you propose would be fine. The glass on the outer face should supply cross-grain reinforcement, and the tape on the inside will extend some distance beyond the vulnerable line of intersection between the inside faces of the bottom and the garboard.

On two boats I built (one of which ended up in the Jody Foster film, Nims Island - see the recent comment made on Duckworks http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/10/reports/may/index.htm ), I made the bottom from Western Red Cedar glued strip, continuing around the turn of bilge, after which I continued the planking as plywood glued lapstrake. I cut the bevel on the bottom planking to accept the first lapstrake plank before glassing the bottom. When glassing the bottom, I continued the glass right around and onto the bevelled face. This meant that when the first plywood plank was glued on, the glass was sandwiched between the WRC strip planking and the inner face of the plywood - the aim being to prevent splitting in the WRC.  This explanation is a bit clumsy, but I havent got time right now to do a sketch. In your case this will not be necessary, as you will have the glass on the outside of the cedar planking anyway.

??
Western Red Cedar bottom planking
???
Bottom covered with 400gsm (12oz) double-bias glass and the first two planks of plywood lapstrake attached - the first plank going over the glass, which itself had been laid over the bevelled edge of the cedar bottom planking.
???Here is Tonys latest up-date: -

Hiya Ross,
Here are three pix of the dory project to date.  This boat is a copy of the last original belonging to Portuguese fishing barkentine Gazela Primeiro.  You can see more pictures on
www.Gazela.org and my facebook page. My version of the dory has a meranti plywood bottom and white cedar planking over laminated ash frames.  The gunwale and cap are white oak. The dory will essentially be dry sailed i.e. living on Gazelas deck most of the time and occasionally be used for crew training and exhibition at home and ports of call.
After corresponding with you some time ago I took your advice and epoxy joined only the garboard plank to the bottom.  The rest of the construction has followed traditional methods. The upper edge of the garboard and the remaining planks are dory lapped and copper riveted.  Planks to frames are joined with Si bronze screws.
I think we talked about covering the bottom and up to the upper edge of the garboard with synthetic cloth and epoxy. 
Now areas where I could use advice:
What cloth would be appropriate? I dont think the dory will ever see a beach, but it might. So a light cloth should do.
Is there an advantage to graphite additive to the epoxy?
Any tricks to applying the cloth?
Thanks for your help,
Tony Souza




And part of my reply: -

Dear Tony,

Thanks very much indeed for the up-date, and for the nice photos. The boat looks super to my eyes, and Id love to take her out in the rough stuff - preferrebly with some weight in the bottom to represent the ballasting effect of a load of Cod!

My appologies for the delayed reply - we have been recovering from the devastating flash-flood which wiped us out on January 10, and priorities tend to be re-arranged!

For the cloth, the simplest would be 200gsm (6oz) woven glass. This is light and easy to use, and gives a good level of protection, and more importantly, provides a sort of screed to ensure an even thickness of epoxy. Dynel is also a good option (4oz, I think, but you would need to check with the supplier). Dynel is bulkier than glass for the same weight, and it has superior abrasion resistance - I like it on decks - but it doesnt have the tensile stiffness of glass so it will have less structural effect on the garboard-to-bottom joint. For a hefty boat like yours which may get handled roughly, Id give serious thought to using 400gsm (12oz) double-bias glass cloth. It isnt woven, so it takes bends fairly well, and with the fibres aligned 45 degrees/45 degrees, every fibre crosses the longitudinal joints. It is cheaper than woven glass, but is heavier than the normal 6oz stuff.

I normally use the dry application method (for weights up to 12oz). I lay the cloth over the dry, sanded, and vacuumed surface, and them smooth it into position with a dustpan brush or a wide, dry paintbrush. Tape any troublesome edges down with temporary bits of masking tape. Then start by mixing small quantities of epoxy and pour them onto the glass (or Dynel) and spread them with a squeegee - I use rectangles of 1/16" model aircraft balsa as they can be bent along the grain if required, and the corners dont snag on the glass.  Dont press too hard, as you will end up aerating the epoxy and making it go creamy with minute air bubbles (just like what happens when whipping cream). Just use a gentle figure-eight sweeping motion to get it out onto the surface. Dont fuss about getting it to wet-out - that will happen automatically. Keep on mixing, pouring and spreading until the entire surface is covered. Small batches are good, as they dont heat up so rapidly in the container.

When the surface is covered, use disposable brushes and/or disposable foam rollers with about a 1/8" nap to distribute the resin evenly. I use dry brushes and rollers - they pick-up from the excessivcely wet areas and put down in the dry areas. When all is even, use the squeegees again (held at about 45 degrees to the surface) to scrape off excess resin so you end up with just the wet cloth, but no visible pooling of liquid resin.

After the epoxy has gone off enough to be certain that the cloth wont float up off the surface - this depends on temperature and rate of cure - but when it gets to a "green"state of cure, lay on several more coats of epoxy to fill the weave so that when you finally sand the surface (after removing any amine blush with water and cloths, sponges or Scotchbrite pads) you are only sanding epoxy and not going through to the glass.

Have a look on my website under the button labelled "First Mate Photos 3" for a brief pictorial demonstration - the thumbnails enlarge if you click on them.
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About something you really need

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Something you might want to think about, a bit of asshat humor, and in the "Wrong then Wrong now" department...

I dont, as a rule, make pronouncements of the "everybody needs to have this" sort but every boat really needs some sort of emergency rudder that works if youre sailing out of cellphone range.

Ya think?

Fact is, building an emergency rudder that works does not cost a lot or take much skill and all of the information you need is available here for free.

That being said, there are folks who just dont GROK the DIY vibe or who are unwilling to spend the sort of silly-expensive costs of having a custom emergency rudder fabricated... Luckily for these folks there is a new emergency rudder that seems to make a lot of sense called the OceanSteer Emergency Rudder.


While not exactly cheap compared to a DIY affair it is much more reasonable than a custom fabrication. Better yet its designed to fit into a couple of flat packs so can fit into a cockpit locker or under a berth which makes a heck of a lot of sense. Definitly worth checking out.

Listening to Motion City Soundtrack

So it goes...
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Peter Duck

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Peter Duck is a character in one of Arthur Ransomes famous children’s novels, in later life he commissioned Jack Laurence Giles to design a comfortable cruising ketch which was named after the character. The design was commissioned just after the war in 1945, built by Kings of Pin Mill in Suffolk she was completed in 1947



Ransome is alleged to have requested “a sort of marine bath-chair, a minimum of work to sail and yet provide the maximum comfort for two.” Whether Laurence Giles succeeded is not clear, but for whatever reason Ransome didn’t take to Peter Duck and sold her after only 3 years in 1950.



Although not a production boat, over 40 of these ketches were built. LOA is 28 feet 3inches long with a draught of 3 feet 6 inches and a beam of 9 feet. The original boat was fitted with a Stuart Turner engine. The detailed fit out of each is varied, but the overall design is recognised for its passage making ability even in heavy weather. The easily handled ketch rig made the boat popular with single hander sailors.

The original Peter Duck still survives, indeed flourishes under family ownership who have been custodians for much of the past 50 years.

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Sailing Model AMYA Star45 Class Construction Deck s Hatches

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from John Fisher:
Attaching deck to hull

John Fisher photographer


Hull with deck mounted:

John Fisher photographer



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HATCHES:

From Phil Geren:
The simplest hatch cover solution I have found for Star 45 is to cut a piece out of Presentation Cover vinyl, which cut-out is shaped like the hatch opening but 1/4 or 3/8 of an inch larger on all sides. Then, apply electricians tape (1/2 or 3/4" wide) all around the perifery, so that half the tape is on the vinyl and half is hanging over the edge.

Presentation Cover vinyl which I get at Office Depot is about 15 cents a sheet; it is about 0.008" thick; it is slightly over 8.5X11" in size; a full sheet weighs about 16 grams; it is stiff, but flexible; it is crystal clear, but if you want it opaque, just wet sand it with #400 grit wet or dry sandpaper.

Position the hatch cover over the hatch so that the tape extends evenly past the hatch opening an equal distance all around, and then just press on the tape to stick it to the deck. Its waterproof, durable.

You can make spares and stick them to another piece of vinyl and carry that with you to the races. That keeps spares nice and flat and keeps the tapes sticky side clean for future use. A set of these hatch covers usually lasts me all season. At lunch, I take one cover off to allow the boat to dry out, sticking the cover to a dry vinyl sheet to keep the tapes sticky side clean.

Photo is Star 45 #778, freshly rebuilt for the Nationals this year, and a set of covers on the floor next to her.



Phil Geren photographer


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from Uncle Dave:
I pulled one of my old Star45s from the attic and have it here in my workshop. It has a fiberglass Sirius 45 hull, a aircraft ply deck and aluminum keel fin. Unfortunately it is not one of my finest examples of workmanship or painting. However Ill suffer the embarrassment and use if to show some one style of hatch construction.

Carrying around a model around out of the water is no big deal. Taking a model out of the water can be something else. You first need to hang onto the model. Then find a place to take hold to lift the model. This is one of the reasons I have used easily removable hatches. You can grab the model through the hatch, fingers under the deck and pick it up. Of course a thin ply deck the model deck and hatch construction needs to be strong enough to withstand pulling on the deck and lifting a twelve pound plus model. Therefore I braced my decks around hatch areas.

First I built a flanged frame for the hatch to sit in that also extended under the deck and attached to the deck bracing.
dlm_hatch_a.jpg

Then I built a hatch cover based on the size of the hatch. Initially the hatch cover was made to fit very loosely in the hatch. I then took some silicone (tub seal or similar) squeezed a bead around the shelf/lip of the hatch. The covering the hatch opening with food wrap poly sheeting Id push the hatch cover in place down into the silicone. This made a nice water tight gasket around the edge of the hatch. After waiting a day Id remove the plastic, trim and silicone that showed topside. With the silicone dry, pop the hatch cover in place and check the fit.

dlm_hatch_b.jpg

I placed a strip of magnetic tape on either end of the cover and on each end of the hatch frame.

dlm_hatch_c.jpg

When the hatch cover and hatch mag tapes touched they pulled together. This magnetic tape is neat stuff you can pop the cover in place and it will stay put.

Typically I made my hatches about 4"X5" giving me plenty of deck to the sheer.
fixed_travelersml.jpg

I heavy weather if the model might go over on beams end Id cover the seams with tape just to be extra watertight. A 4X5 hatch gives room to get inside, adjust winch, radio etc, and to remove any water that got into the bilge while sailing.

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