2009 building logs

April 2009 Finishing, duckboard and rear steps.

I finally got the steps sorted last month but I had the sort of month that not much seemed to happen. The reason for that was there was a lot of critical dimensions that needed to be followed and areas that had to be the correct size in order to clear the outboard, and of course the steps need to be functional. I also had the steering to consider. This month I hope to finish this construction work, close it all up and get on with more of the mechanicals. I may even start on the rudders.

April 4 Glassing steering tie rod conduit on.

I have finalised my steering system ideas, at least the stern end of the system. I have long wanted 2 things in almost all of the systems on the boat, redundancy, that is, if one breaks there is a back up system that immediately kicks in, 2 masts but the boat can sail on one, 2 motors but the boat can cruise on 1, and with the steering system I want hydraulic steering but I also want a mechanical back up that can easily be employed in the event of the hydraulics failing.

My solution is to have a tie rod connecting the 2 rudders and to have the tie rod driven by the hydraulic ram and to have an emergency tiller attached to the tie rod. The huge advantage of having the emergency tiller attach to the tie rod is that I can hand steer from inside the cockpit rather than the usual point for an emergency tiller, directly over one of the rudder stocks on the rear steps. If I need to hand steer for hours or even days, I don't want to be stuck out in the elements on the rear steps where visibility is poor. From where my emergency tiller will attach I will still be at my helm, where I can still read all of my electronics and stay out of the elements. And of course you are steering both rudders with the tiller.

Also attached to the tie rod will be the autopilot ram. If either of rudders should jam then the linkages can be disconnected so that the other rudder is freed and the boat can steer from one rudder until the other rudder is freed or fixed. I believe that the hydraulics of driving a tie rod is much simpler than driving 2 separate rudders in unison so that should both simplify the hydraulic system and be cheaper to install. I am not sure of whether this is also true of the autopilot system hydraulics, but I would imagine so.

One final advantage of the tie rod is that the conduit glassed in with uni stiffens up the duckboard. Not that that is going to be an issue, once the hatch walls go in, and the back wall glassed on, the box section will create a massive girder across the stern, stiffening it all up. I did want the duckboard stiffened considerably as I plan to use the large centre hatch as a bath so it will need to be able to easily support around 500kgs. I will glass a second conduit in which will be used for wiring to cross the rear of the boat, in particular the outboard umbilicals.

The tie rod I settled on is a 30mm aluminium tube inside a 31mm inside dimension plastic conduit. I needed to have the tie rod inside the conduit before I could glass it in because of the length. I could get it in and out during construction in an emergency if needed but that would require cutting a hole on the side of the hull and of course I wanted to avoid that. Besides having the tie rod inside the conduit, even though I am levelling the duckboard before glassing the conduit on, I can ensure the rod is still sliding inside the conduit once it is glassed on and then just let is set overnight. My fear was that if I glassed the conduit in without the tie rod inside and got even a slightly curved conduit (in any direction, up/down or fore/aft) then the tie rod would no longer slide easily inside the conduit.

The pics below show the space the outboard takes up in its well, so in the lowered position there is only room for a 200mm tiller arm on the rudder stock. So I mocked up a steering system out of timber pieces to ensure a tie rod on the duckboard could be connected to the tiller arms around the engine bay and work the rudders correctly. They worked perfectly. The ends of the tie rods will be connected to steel arms that are shaped around the engine bay to connect to a turn buckle that will connect to the tiller arms. The reason for the turnbuckles is so that there is toe in adjustment on the rudders. All very simple.

Once I had the peel ply removed and the conduit position marked on the duckboard I mixed up a sloppy mix of coving material and poured it between the 2 marks (front and back) I had in order for the conduit to be bedded in it. I then mixed thicker coving material and make the coves each side of the round conduit in order to glass over from one side to the other. I then wet out 2 lengths of 450g unit and laid them over the conduit overlapping across the top so that it has 2 layers over it. The I wet out a 250mm wide double bias layer to span from one side to the other with at least 50mm on each side, then a final 200mm double bias layer again spanning from one side to the other. To finish it all off I applied peel ply.

Tomorrow I will continue with the construction of the rear steps each side (off the boat) and perhaps start gluing and glassing the framework for the raised duckboard. I also have to start glassing the davits on the outside.

April 5 Glassing kerfed insides of steps.

With the duckboard braced to level it and the rudder tie rod glassed on and curing, I could not work on the boat for fear of disturbing the level set of the conduit. If the conduit moves and sets unlevel then the tie rod may stick. I have received emails asking me if I am concerned the tie rod may stick when underway in a heavy sea due to flexing of the boat. I am a little. But when you take into account the massive rigidity that will be built into the duckboard when the hatch dividers back and top are glassed on, it will become like a massive box section girder. I will also be glassing on another conduit so there will be the bulkhead, 2 conduits and then the duckboard vertical panel (the back) so that is a massive amount of stiffness built into the boat. I doubt it could flex enough to bind the tie rod. I tried bending the conduit with the tie rod in it and moving the tie rod through it and it still moved freely. The only other option for a tie rod that could not bind due to flexing would be underslung under the duckboard. The tie rod would need to be much heavier to avoid bending under rudder load and would look a bit ugly but it could be done fairly easily. So if I ever have any trouble I can change it but I doubt I will.

The tie rod only protrudes from each side about 150mm and to it will be attached with 2 12mm bolts one vertical one horizontal, a stainless steel connection bar shaped like a Z. The top and bottom parts will be 25mm rod and the connecting section 50mm x 10mm strap. The 25mm rod at the top will be welded on and go inside the tie rod and be bolted, the rod at the bottom will be attached via another bolt as a hinge point and have a thread tapped and a turnbuckle attached and to the other end the mini tiller is attached which is in turn directly attached (welded) to the rudder stock.

So today I glassed the inside of the steps. This section is kerfed. I have pre glued one of the steps so the inside kerfs needed to be sanded before glassing. The other step I glued and kerfed wet on wet. Let me tell you, anywhere you can glue and glass wet on wet, do so. It beats the hell out of sanding. The right angle joins also required coving. So as to cover the cove tapes and the kerfs I decided on 250mm tapes overlapping in the middle of each step riser. I had briefly thought about glassing in one piece but decided against it for 2 reasons. The pre glassed duflex of the treads does not need another layer of glass, and it is difficult enough taping around curved corners without adding in the complexity of multiples. Don't get me started on how frustrating getting peelply on around curved corners is. You need to have a lot of patience and slow hardener. At times I wondered what was worse trying to get the air bubbles out of the peelply or sanding them later if I gave up on the peel ply. I almost did!

Once the rear steps are cured, the next step is to fair them on the outside. The inside will be finished in a coat or 2 of white epoxy, but I have a fair bit of work to do before I get to that. I still have to cut a lid for the engine room out of the steps, and before I do that I want them faired on the outside. The method for cutting the engine lids out will be to decide on where I want them cut, then route 2 channels separated by 1mm of balsa and fill them with fibreglass rope, it does not need to be uni, although I will probably use uni then re-glass the top of the groove and fair it. Then once fair I cut along the 1mm balsa between the 2 uni rope slots leaving both sides of the cut, the lid and the steps pre edged. Then to the underside of the steps, a plywood frame is glues and glassed so as to act as a stop for the lid into the steps and to that once painted I could also fit a rubber seal to keep water out, although this is not critical as the motor well is a wet area anyway, that is there will always be water inside it so keeping water out wont be a major issue.

I had a small ceremony for the final pronouncement of death of my Blundstone boots. I have had them for about 15 years so it was sad to finally kill them but the sole (or is that soul) of the right boot was near totally off. So into the bin they went. I had hoped they would see the build out but alas it wasn't to be.

I wont get much done this week due to another Melbourne trip, but hopefully I can get a lot done over Easter. I am keen to get this section of the build finished, for 2 reasons, the first is I seem to have been working on these steps forever and am looking forward to the change in appearance the boat will have once they are on, and second because I am keen to get inside the boat and start on the wiring and plumbing before tackling the furniture. And along the way I also have to make and fit the rudders and rudder boxes.

April 11 Step edges and duckboard frames.

On Thursday afternoon I got the other conduit glassed on. This conduit is for wiring such as the outboard controls and also to add more stiffness to the duckboard. With this glued and glassed on yesterday I cut the duckboard frames to shape after setting out their position and marking them on the boat to make it easy to glue them back on. This took about a couple of hours as I had a headache all day so I was not working at full pace.

I got them glued on but did not attempt to cove and glass them wet on wet. I left them to set and started ripping the step fronts from a sheet of foam. They are about 10mm thick and 40mm high, the width of the sheet. I set a fence on the saw and just rip them off. I am conserving foam now too as I still have the rudders to make and then the nose cones of the bows but I think I have just enough to finish all of these tasks, including front edges for the cockpit seating for the LED rope that will wrap around the cockpit under the seat edge.

Whilst I was as careful as I could be when cutting out the step treads, jigsaws sometimes run ever so slightly off line, even one side of a texta line to the other is a mm and what looks like a nice radius step still has imperfections. When I dry attached the foam edges I noticed that the natural curve of the foam bent around the front left a void here and there. Instead of using screws to pull it in to close them up I decided it would be better to let the foam take its natural curve and fill the voids with glue, rather than pull it tight to the edge and fill the void over the glass with bog.

I got them glued on and decided I had had enough for the day, my headache getting the better of me.

Today I got the duckboard risers coved and taped but because I did not get them on wet on wet yesterday I needed to give the joins a light sand to remove glue dags that would cause lumps in the tapes. After that I coved them I left the coves to go off for a little while to set.

Whilst they were setting I got a router and rounded the edges of the step fronts after removing the screws. Once the edges top and bottom were routered I got the orbital sander out and sanded the foam smooth.

I then wet out the tapes a few at a time and taped each of the risers into place. These were very slow and difficult to tape because of the conduits. Each one took 10 minutes to tape both layers and there were 8 so an hour and a half later I had them all done. I decided it would be just too difficult to get peel ply over the conduits so I only bothered to peel ply the vertical back edge tapes. The conduit will eventually be hidden under a false bottom to each hatch space so they wont be seen.

I also attempted to glass one of the foam step edges but I could not get it to stick to the foam. I removed it before it set with bubbles everywhere. I think I will need to coat the foam with epoxy and let it tack off before attempting to glass it again. I will try and get that done tomorrow.

April 20 Duckboard back on.

With the duckboard uprights glassed on I set about making the duckboard back panel. I don't have a piece of duflex big enough to cut it from left from the kit, as I near the end of the construction of the shell. I also glued and glassed another riser onto the steps each side and the foam strip onto the front of the curved transition step.

The duckboard back panel was made up of a number of smaller parts. Because the panel is curved it needs to be wider than it would be if it was just a flat back. But getting the exact shape is beyond my ability to understand how a flat panel curves up as it curves so I made the part oversize, placed it on the boat with an overhang top and bottom and marked the shape from on the boat. I took it off again and cut the shape. I left a small overhang (about 3mm) on the bottom in order to ensure it was glued all the way through. I will grind it back down to flat and level with the underside of the deck, round the edge and then glass it. I will run a uni along the edge just to stiffen the corner up a little more. I also left it oversize along the top and again I will trim it once I glue the duckboard top down.

The middle section of the duckboard will house a long hatch, the main purpose of it is to house long items such as a gaff, boat hook, fishing rods and when not in use on the dingy its outboard can be stored in that hatch. But I will also fit a plug on the bottom, so it can be filled and used as a bath or a live bait tank. The 2 smaller hatches either side will house the gas bottles, one each side. One will be the main supply for the kitchen cook top and perhaps a gas instant hot water heater, both very close to the bottle on the port side. The other bottle will be a spare but will also attach to the barbecue that I will mount on the starboard side. It will not be permanently attached so it can be moved ashore if we want a barbecue on a beach.

Whilst I was making up the duckboard back I sanded a z-joint that had a bit too much glue on and when I bent the panel around the back of the boat it cracked open a little. No big deal, I just laid some glass over the crack to repair it. But other than that small hiccup the back went on quite easily. What tends to happen with tortured panels is that they are difficult to get on first time, then after it being on overnight, the next day I was able to remove it, trim it to size glue the edges of the bridgedeck and uprights and get the curved back back on without too much trouble. Once it was glued on, I coved it wet on wet and glassed it wet on wet where I could, in places I had blocks that stopped me from glassing that edge. Once it is set I will glass the rest of the edges.

With the last riser attached to the underside of the transition step this set of steps is complete. The outboard well lid will hinge from the top of this set of steps and the bottom riser will form the bottom of the lid and it will fall onto the next step, so it wont be glued and glassed on like the other steps. The steps below will be part of another section of steps that cover the rudder box. These will all be glassed to each other but then be cut down the middle to fit the rudder box void.

The shape of the steps is really pleasing me. They have come together better than I thought they would considering I didn't really know how they would turn out before I started. But the process has been slow going.

April 26 Step front glassed, steps bogged.

The steps have given me pause for thought. Embarking on something as big a job as building a boat has you go through a lot of ups and downs. When a task drags on or takes much longer than you had previously anticipated I think it starts to make you wonder how long the rest of the build will take and the optimism of an early finish starts to evaporate. Next week I will be going into the third month of working on the steps. The advise to others here is double edged. Whilst sticking to the plans and the kit is certainly much easier and faster, it may not suit your requirements so I am torn between advising to stick to the kits for ease or free wheeling it for getting a unique build and a more personalised boat.

Anyway, whilst progress has been slow it is progress nonetheless. With the steps in place on the port hull I made a piece to fill the gap under the transition step to the hull side. You simply cut a piece to fill the gap and make 2 of them and glue and glass them on. I have confidence to make a mirror image part and glue and glass it onto the starboard hull because I know the hull is an exact mirror of port and the steps have been made as exact mirrors also.

I also experimented with a part to fill the gap from the bridgedeck to the last part of the transition step on the right of the pic on the right above. I experimented with a curved piece to fill this last gap but I was not happy with the look of a curved part meeting a squared off part so I will go with extending the square edge to the hull sides. But it was an interesting experiment and shows how easy it is to fabricate things out of duflex with kerfs, glue and glass.

The next task that has been a bit of a problem on my mind since I attempted it unsuccessfully a couple of weeks ago is glassing the foam step fronts. The foam is there to house (and hide) LED rope lighting so it is not structural but does need to be glassed as it is way too soft to not have hard glass over it. It also needs to be completely sealed so that no water can get into the balsa via the foam glued fronts if I cant get the glass to stick down properly. The last time I tried to glass a front I could not get the thin surfboard cloth to stick to the foam without bubbling, and I fear I wont be able to get heavier cloth on any easier.

So my idea was to wet the foam edge first and let it tack off. Wet the cloth out and also let the resin tack off a little before trying to apply it, in order to have a stickier situation and hopefully not have any bubbles forming. However I could not let the glass tack off too much that I have no movement at all because it is very difficult to get the glass on around curves running both along and up and over the edges in exactly the right spot first go with the right tension. I managed to get them all glassed fairly easily in the end.

I wrapped the glass all the way around from the step tread around the foam front and wrapped around behind the foam front and I used wedges to keep the glass hard up against the back of the foam front. Once I had all 6 edges (3 step fronts on each set) glassed I had a break for late lunch while they tacked off a little further. I then started bogging the steps with a thinnish bog mix and applied it with a brush. I also ran bog on the step risers that are kerfed so they have a series of flats that need to be rounded to a curved finish and finally the step treads. There are tapes and z joins that need to be faired out on the treads.

It was a relief to get the foam step fronts successfully taped because I have a number of foam edges around the boat that I need to be able to glass such as around the cockpit roof, and around the cockpit seat fronts that will also have LED rope lights behind them.

As it was my birthday today I did not get much work done. I did not quite finish bogging the steps yesterday, so I basically just finished that as the bog was still not hard enough to sand yet (the bog takes 2-3 days to fully cure once the temps start to drop in Autumn now). I also spent some time adjusting the next steps in the steps process, excuse the intended pun. The next step down is part of the bottom steps that will be made separate to the top set and form the base onto which the engine room hatch lid will sit, and will also have the kick up rudders cut out of them.

I knocked off at 1.30pm so that I could go home and watch the Carlton v Bulldogs game which we won so all in all a good day!

Another disappointing month in terms of hours. Again 20 short of the goal I have set for this year, and May will also be short due to Sanctuary Cove boat show. Oh well what can you do.