2008 building logs

August 2008 Closing the foredeck

The closing of the shell continues. This month should see the catwalk glued and glassed in and the foredeck glued on (and deck hatches cut back out again) and hopefully I will make the last major panel, the cabin roof. Once the cabin roof is on the boat the cabin sides and flat decks (part of the pre cut kit and sitting next to the boat) can be kerfed and glued on closing the shell to what is called "lock up stage". I wont actually get these glued on this month but they wont be far away. Once they are on, the focus will shift almost entirely to internal fit out.

Aug 2 Catwalk sides ready for shaping

At the boat show yesterday I saw some things that I will be buying in the very near future. I am going for a Lavac manual and electric vacuum toilet for the ensuite (and may even use it on the main toilet). You put the manual pump in line with the electric pump so the waste passes through one pump to the other or past the other depending on which is used, to the holding tank. I ordered one and should receive it next week. I also saw a 12v/240v 10 litre water heater that can heat water to 75 degrees in about half an hour, so about 4 to one mix for a shower which would make 40 litres, plenty for a few showers, although we would probably set the thermostat to around 55 degrees so that you cannot burn yourself. I was going to fit a gas continuous heater but I am always concerned with both the safety of gas and being reliant on filling gas bottles. We will of course have gas cooking but without the drain from a water heater a gas bottle should last much longer. 

I also got more inspiration from being on finished cats, the stand out was a Fusion 40 which also highlighted that foam backed vinyl is the way to go to finish the interior. I have also pretty much decided on the panels I will build the furniture out of. There are a number of good options, Schionning recommend ATL Featherlite which is a cardboard honeycomb core sandwich panel. I am not using it only because it is more expensive. I was also considering Multi panel which is a foam core, that needs to be glassed each side to make up a sandwich panel but again whilst this material is excellent and used on many Fusions, I have decided on Nidaplast from Boatcraft Pacific. This is a polypropylene honeycomb core panel that also comes un-glassed but I have worked out that after factoring in the cost of glass and resin these panel are about half the price. I just have to be careful when glassing that I keep the resin content down. The advantage for me is that I wont have to kerf to make curves, I mold it than glass it to shape and the end panel is light and strong. The core can be cut with just a Stanley knife and the core cannot rot. (I had also considered making my own balsa sandwich panels but in the end I don't need the compression strength of balsa on the furniture and the poly core is more flexible for creating compound curves.

Finally the Evinrude Etec 25's and 30's were on show, they wont be available until later this year but I don't need them for at least a year. They are both the same block so I will go for the 30's, same weight. Not a lot of information on them, no torque numbers yet, final gear ratio, fuel economy, just weight 64kgs for a 20 inch shaft electric start model, 15 amp alternator. And about $6000 each, which is on a par with Honda 20's Yamaha High Thrust 25's and most others in this size. Still by far the best numbers for me so I think this will be the way I will go. There eventually will also be 10hp models for the tender so again I will probably choose this option also.

Today I got the starboard inside hull panel bogged so it is at the same stage as the port hull (except I am still to glass the inside of the front 2 voids) and I continued working on the catwalk. I have glued the foam stacks together and glued the conduit into them and glued one of them to the catwalk, I will glue the other on tomorrow but I may shape this first one first.

Once I have the sides on I will cut the shape of the forebeam into the front, trim it to length and cut the foredeck shape into the back of it so it is ready to fit as soon as the shaping is done and it is glassed. I also still have to glass a ladder into the base for stiffness and duflex walls into the top to create the ladder chamber and the anchor chain box.

I want to finish the front of the boat so I can move on to the cabin roof. I hope to get this done this month. I really want to finish the shell this year, so cabin roof on, cabin sides on, flat decks on and rear steps in. Once the shell is done, the rest of the major work other than fairing and painting is inside the boat, making furniture, plumbing and electrics and then linings. There is still a long way to go on this build.

Aug 3 Catwalk sides on, scallops started

I had an interesting day today. As I have mentioned once or twice before, every now and then I like to spend time with Jo, not building the boat, but I am also keen to keep working so today I managed to do both quite well. I normally do about 6 or 7 hours work in a day. Today I started early, 8am and worked until noon, then I went home, showered and Jo and I went out for lunch and sightseeing for a couple of hours and by 3pm I was back at the shed and worked until 6pm. We went to a local look out to try and see if we could see any whales migrating up the coast. No luck today but it was a beautiful day and we had a lot of fun.

In the morning I glued the other side of the foam molding onto the catwalk and left it to set and then I made a plywood mold to the exact size with the contour of the forebeam and foredeck cut into to it to transfer onto the catwalk and cut out before fitting so that the catwalk fits exactly into place. This is a 2 part process. I had the ply cut to size, 150mm x 2.4 meters. Then using cardboard as an initial template I cut the forebeam profile out of the front. Then with piece on the forebeam I placed it along the foredeck D bulkhead and traced the shape. I then cut that out and it sat exactly as the catwalk will sit with that cut out applied. I now can trace that shape using the template, onto the catwalk sides. Then to finish the morning I sanded the inside of the foredeck ready to glue and glass onto the boat, 200mm either side of each bulkhead and along all outside edges. The sanding ensures a smooth and keyed surface to glue and glass to inside the cramped deck hatches. I don't want to have to do much extra work in there, upside down and inside that small space. I will paint the insides of these hatches white before I glue the deck on.

I have decided to glue the catwalk to the bulkheads first then glue the deck on around the catwalk (I will cut the shape of the catwalk out of the bottom of the panel and slide the panel down over the bulkheads and catwalk then glue the bottom panel cut-out on after that, in the same way that I did with the side decks over the forebeam. I put the foredeck panel onto the boat to check its fit and to mark out the cut out for the catwalk so that the foredeck can be slid down from over the catwalk down into place once the catwalk is glued and glassed on.

In the afternoon the foam side had dried sufficiently to remove the clamps and move the catwalk onto the bench so that I could start working on the other side. Then I cut some material ready to glue into the catwalk to finish it, internal walls for the ladder box and anchor chain trough and the stiffening frames.

Then I got the belt sander and using the drum on the front as my mold and the top plate as the depth guide (I pre tested this on some conduit offcuts) I sanded out scallops on the conduits already on the boat (the forebeam and bows). I marked out the scallops 150mm in from each corner then at 200mm centres. With the tramp eyes also at 200mm centres but offset by 100mm so that the laces would be at an angle (45 degrees?) back and forth.

You want a wide scallop so that the rope lace used to secure the trampolines does not touch the conduit as it enters or leaves after going over the stainless steel (8mm) rod inside so that it cannot chafe and eventually break and the front drum of a belt sander to cut a uniform size and shape scallop works well.

I have cut the scallops into the bow sides even though I have not yet finished fairing them. In an ideal world the scallops would be cut last but I need to insert the rods before I glue the foredeck in as I cant get the rods in once it is on, and I don't want to try and cut the conduits with the rods already in them as I am bound to touch the rods with the sander and scuff them which in turn could damage the rope laces and cause them to break. Now the obvious next question is why not just fair the hulls first but the fairing should be done once the front panels are all glued in as the process of putting the foredeck on will move the hull top panels as they are screwed to each other under a little force as they glue, so you cant fair a surface that is going to move again. It just means I have to fair around the scallops which wont be too hard and in fact will mean that the scallops can be refilled wherever I have not cut them uniformly. The scallops in the forebeam are very uniform and clean but in the sides the shape is such that in order to cut straight and square the cut continues down into the bog shape below and here and there these are a little unevenly cut so bog will backfill them so that this can be addressed. I am not overly concerned as the differences are minimal and they are under the tramp and out of site but wherever I can clean them up I will.

With the last 15 minutes I got a start on the shaping of the catwalk sides using a long board and just sanding along it. I did not get much done, I just wanted to get a feel for how easily a torture board would take the foam off. It wont be too hard to do. I can even use a plane to get a start but I probably wont bother, I have cut nearly half of the overhang off in just 15 minutes.

Aug 4 Catwalk sides shaped

The catwalk sides are shaped ready to be glassed. I have to fill some gaps where I did not quite manage to sand out the joins (due to cutting the foam a touch narrow). No matter, some thickened glue will fix that easily. I shaped the sides using a belt sander to knock the majority of it out. Some would use a plane but I prefer a sander as foam is fairly soft and the sander gives you time to start stop start and make sure you don't take too much off. Then when I thought I was close to shape I got onto a torture board to finish the shape and size. It might be useful to have a female of the required shape to use as a template to check the shape at various points along the length but this shape is fairly basic and I felt I could get a fairly good shape by eye. I think it looks OK.

So tomorrow (hopefully) I will start on the glassing. With the sides glassed (2 layers) the catwalk will be very much stiffer and I think just a centre stiffener and 3 crossing the catwalk should be ample. Once the sides are glassed and the stiffeners in and glassed I can trim it size and shape and glue it onto the boat.

Aug 5 Catwalk sides glassed

I needed to fill some gaps in the sides of the foam joins as I underestimated the shape and size again (I also did that with the daggers due to a kink in them) but as with the daggers, backfilling the gaps was a simple matter if not a little time consuming. I cut the foam really tight because I had an offcut I could get the strips I needed out of if I kept them to the size I did and I still have to make the rudders and the bows out of the foam so it is a precious resource.

It was easier to fill and then glass wet on wet so I did that. I rounded the duflex edges with a router then I started filling the foam gaps and finally I made the cove on the underside of the catwalk to side joins.

Then I wet out 4 lengths of tape all 300mm that will overlap around the middle leaving 2 layers over the conduit. I also overlapped the top and bottom edges and on the underside I made sure the overlap continued past the side onto the base via a coved join. This ensures that the glass completely encases the sides and as it also attaches to the base the conduit is well and truly attached. I attached peel ply to save on sanding as I will have to apply a thin layer of bog in order to fair the sides, however the cold at the moment will probably mean that the glass will still be green enough to get a chemical bond anyway.

I also still have to glue the stiffening frame in. I have all of the pieces cut (foam) ready to glue and will do that tomorrow. Once glued on I will round the edges and cove the joins then I will glass a layer of uni onto the tops of the frame then a layer of tape to hold it all down. Once the frame is in and the sides are faired I can trim it to the template and glue it (and glass it) into the boat. Hopefully it will be on the boat by the end of the weekend.

Aug 8 Catwalk stiffening frame

I had some visitors today so I didn't quite get as much done as I would have liked but I always welcome visitors, they make the building much more fun. I love chatting about boats, my boat or anyone else's. I did get the stiffening frame glued to the catwalk underside. Tomorrow I will round the edges and glass them, uni first along the top then double bias to hold it all down. Then I will bog out the tape lines to the base so that is fairs out neatly without visible tape lines and also lightly bog the curved sides.

I have decided on the material I will use for the internal furniture fit out, including the non structural bulkheads I still have to build that will be walls and doors into the bathroom and the rear port cabin and the small room in front of it so the occupant has some privacy getting dressed standing up. The material is called Nidaplast, it is a polypropylene honeycomb core. It comes as just a core or pre glassed. I am going to buy it as just a core and glass it myself for 2 reasons. Firstly I am going to form a lot of the panels on the job especially where I want a compound curve, then glassing in place once the shape is achieved.  No kerfing is required as the un-glassed panels are very flexible and can be cut with just a Stanley knife. I will also make some flat panels and may even vacuum infuse them to get them lighter (lower resin to glass ratio and a bit stiffer). The other reason is cost. The pre formed paper honeycomb panels are about double the cost of these once I factor in the core, the glass and the resin. The cores are about $110 each and glass and resin will come to about $80 per panel. So about $2500 - $3000 for my furniture. That is about a quarter of the price of the furniture kit but a lot more work. I figure I will need about 12 full panels maybe a little more. I had seriously considered Multipanel, a foam core that some of the Fusion builders are using, it can be heat formed and then glassed but the cost is also a little more. The picture above shows a small sample of the Nidaplast and the purpose is to show that compound curves can be formed.

Aug 9 Catwalk frame glassed and bogged

The foam stiffening battens I glued on yesterday were still a little green but on well enough for me to round the tops with a router. I then cleaned it up with some sandpaper just hand held. I started by cutting the uni strips that will cove the tops of the foam battens and the double bias tapes (200mm) that will lap from the base over the battens and to the base on the other side holding it all down. I then coved the side to base joins and wet out the uni and glass and applied the uni and then the glass. I tell myself often don't pull threads and this is especially true with uni as it often frays at the edges and the outside glass threads often don't sit as neatly as you would like, especially if when cutting the strips you sever an outside thread, but as usual I forget my own advise and cant resist the temptation to pull at loose threads, and inevitable it creates more mess than it clears. Don't do it, just smooth them down and let the next layer smooth it out or if it is an outside layer clean it up when the resin is green and you can cut it off or wait for it to completely go off and grind it clean. So with the glass down and well wet to the base and into the coves I stopped for lunch and let it set for a while.

After lunch the glass whilst still tacky had gone off enough for me to bog the frame and the curved sides. The underside wont be very visible except from in a dingy under it but I still want the tapes to be blended out so a very light layer of bog will be enough to be able to sand it all smooth. The curved sides were glassed a couple of days ago but I peel plied them so I could apply bog directly to them. Again only a very light layer will be needed as the sides are already quite fair but the bog will make it completely ready for paint fair. In order to get a very light bog layer I decided to paint it on with a brush. This means that I had to make the bog a little more runny than I normally would so that it is able to be applied with a brush (normally a trowel is used but on a tightly curved surface a trowel is not as effective) but the downside with this is that a runnier mix means more resin than usual (less powder) with in turn means it will be a little harder to sand. I am not too concerned by that even though I have to manually long board it as it is only a very small area so it wont be too difficult. On the frames I will use a flat orbital sander.

In the late afternoon there was not much more I could do to the catwalk while the bog sets so I measured and cut the seat base and back in the ensuite toilet. Both pieces taper as the hull tapers down and back (actually forward but the back of the toilet cubicle is forward in the hull) so the best way to get the right size duflex panel is to cut cardboard templates to the exact size required then transfer that size to the duflex piece to cut it to size. So I measured first, transferred the size to a sheet of cardboard, cut the template out, trimmed it where needed or noted on it where it was too small and by how much, then transferred that to the duflex and cut them to size. I did not have time to glue them in but I may get time tomorrow.

I doubt the bog will be hard enough to sand tomorrow, at least not in the morning but it will be set enough to handle and I will cut the sides to the shape of the template and fit it to the forebeam and foredeck bulkheads. Then once it is fit, if it is able to be faired I will, and if I don't have any problems I may even get time to glue it onto the boat.

Aug 10 Catwalk roughed in

Some jobs have a very high satisfaction level. For me there are many of them, especially those that are what I would call milestone moment, things that everyone building must do to get a finished boat (well all jobs fit into that category but some are highly visual). Like fitting a major piece like the forebeam or the daggerboards etc. Today it was the catwalk. I roughed it in, ok very rough but it fit and is only a few more tasks away from being glued and glassed in. But trimming the ends to shape was a bigger job than I thought it would be. I used a combination of hammer and chisel, grinder and jigsaw and the shape and depth made it a tough job to get it cut out. It took me pretty much all morning. Then about another half hour fine trimming on the job in order to get it to sit in place level both along it and across it at any random point. But the satisfaction level was intense. I stopped for lunch and moved a chair under it and spent my lunch time staring at it.

After lunch I reluctantly took it back down again. The temptation was to glue it in today but that would have meant fairing it on the boat among a number of other tasks, not impossible but why work harder than I have to. So next was to cut away a part of the catwalk that will be inside the forward anchor locker. I will have an anchor chain trench on the starboard side so I left the catwalk full length there and cut out the rest. I marked the shape with a curved section of duflex (a door cut-out) and cut it out. I then de-cored it. You cant leave raw balsa exposed anywhere on the boat even inside, in the tropics even the moisture in the air is dangerous, and the inside of the anchor locker is a wet area. De-coring is really easy. I have a router blade designed for cutting 10mm deep slots in edges and I just cut a slot on each inside edge as close to the glass as I can without touching it. Once the 2 slots are in place the balsa snaps out with just your finger but is easier with a chisel. I did the 25mm bulkhead uni rope this way and just added another cut down the middle and the balsa snapped out just as easily. Then using the chisel you can cut out any balsa still attached to the inside of the glass and any straggling bits ready for back filling with microspheres or microfibres. I overfilled so that I can round the edge that will form the back of a ledge inside the anchor well. 

Then to finish the day I started fairing the curved sides. The underside took about 15 minutes of torture boarding but the topsides took longer, in fact after about 20 minute each they were only partially fair. So as you can imagine, after over an hour of manual sanding I had just about had enough. It was nearing 5pm and I promised to make a roast dinner tonight so I headed home, very satisfied with may days work.

So later this week I will finish fairing the catwalk, I still have about an hour or so to do on the sides with a torture board, then I have to sand the stiffening frame bog (hiding the tapes) with a flat orbital sander. I will glue the anchor chain trough wall in and another wall on the other side to square up the ladder area (the side is tapered at the moment) and then trim the foam at the rear back a little further (20mm) in order to slide the deck in under it. Then after all of that, I can glue and glass the catwalk in and hopefully next weekend I can glue the foredeck on.

Aug 15 Catwalk faired and resin coated

Very slow progress this week. In fact at one stage I actually went backwards! The foam shapes sides are glued to duflex sides and to glass it all I rounded the square underside inside edge so the glass would wrap around so it is glass on balsa rounded edge. There is nothing wrong with this the whole boats is glass on balsa but you have to be careful that there is enough resin on the balsa edge because the balsa draws the resin in and then the glass is resin starved and does not adhere to the balsa it sets hard not actually adhered. It does not become apparent until you fair the surface, then the glass that is not in contact with the balsa cuts through and that is what happened in a couple of places on the underside of the catwalk on one side. So after fairing I have a repair job which will then need to be re-faired. The repair consists of re-glassing along the glass cutaway, re-bog it and re-fair it.

But rather than let the re-glassing slow down the progress too much I decided I would finish the fairing, then resin coat the underside (which I do before applying a coat of highbuild to the resin while it is green) and glass the section then I would then just have a small section to re fair later. I ran out of time, well the resin had still not gone off enough, to apply the coat of highbuild so I will do that first thing in the morning. The highbuild goes off much faster than resin so I should be able to glue the catwalk onto the boat tomorrow, and glass it on Sunday.

Aug 16 Catwalk glued in

Another milestone day. The catwalk is now a part of the boat and is glued in place. I finished fairing the top of the catwalk sides today, actually I created some work for myself yesterday, the resin from the underside coat dripped under and onto the top sides (the catwalk was upside down at the time so the top was underneath) so I had to sand all of that off first and in the process finished the fairing. I then turned it over again and coated the underside with highbuild so that later when the boat is painted, a light sand of the highbuild and the underside will be ready for paint. Ideally I would sand that highbuild before gluing the catwalk on but I didn't want to lose another day waiting for it to fully set and it only needs a light run with the orbital to finish. Murphy the fairing rule maker adjudicated again today, as with the forebeam I did a better job of fairing the catwalk undersides than topsides.

I trimmed the rear ends of the sides back the thickness of the foredeck so that it will slide under the sides when the catwalk is set on the bulkheads. Because of the angles it may not get under and if it cant I will have to cut the full shape of the side out of the foredeck and then glue the pieces back on from inside and glass it all back together once the foredeck is glued on and a hatch is cut out. I trimmed the catwalk out of the foredeck minus the side shapes in the hope I can slide the deck under the sides and then glue it all and glass it all. After about half an hour the highbuild was dry enough to handle the catwalk and I placed it on the boat ready to glue it on.

I then removed all of the bog from on the beam around where the catwalk would be glassed on (so about 150mm radius of the tape areas). Then I mixed a batch of glue up and buttered the front of the catwalk where it is shaped to wedge the back of the forebeam. Then once it was covered both sides I pushed it into place, in places some excess glue squeezed out in others more glue was needed. I wedged a brace under the catwalk to hold it up tightly in place. Then I thought the right front edge was a little high based on the position of the conduit, they need to line up each side, so I put a screw with a timber washer through to push it down again, but later once the glue had set I realised I was mistaken and it was in fact correct to start with and I had now made it low on the front right edge. At first I was annoyed with myself, then I realised that this was a blessing in disguise as the catwalk sloped down forward and right meaning it would be the perfect way to drain the inside of the box and anchor chain channel pulling water away from the deck and stopping it pooling inside. I should of thought of it and done it on purpose!

With the front glued down I moved to the foredeck and glued the back of the catwalk to the bulkheads. Then I made some filler up and started filling and coving all of the gaps. In one section on the top of the forebeam I had a little too much glue (as the gap was quite big) going off and I got some exothermic heat happening and it started smoking but nothing too serious. I did a lot of coving today whereas usually I would cove and glass wet on wet but because these coves and gaps are a bit bigger than usual I have decided to cove today, sand them to shape and smooth tomorrow before glassing then glass them.

Once it is all glassed on I can glue the foredeck on, so tomorrow my task is to glass all of the catwalk joins in and to paint the inside of the 3 foredeck lockers inside with the white epoxy paint in readiness for the foredeck to go on. I enjoyed today as I do on the milestone days, but also because the catwalk is another self design and it is particularly satisfying to think out a design myself and apply it, making my boat a touch different to anyone else's.

Aug 17 Catwalk glassed in

The catwalk is now glassed into the boat. Yesterday I did some coving with the intention of shaping it today with the sander as opposed to my usual practice of coving and glassing wet on wet. It was set enough to do that but I regretted the decision within minutes! Sanding and grinding upside down means you get covered in dust and it is hard work balancing on a milk crate and grinding and sanding. I still had to cove even more so there was still some wet on wet work so in the end I should probably have just applied enough glue to fill the gaps and hold it all together and coved today to immediately glass onto it.

Once I had finished grinding and sanding I got the vacuum cleaner out to clean up the dust both on the catwalk and inside the 3 foredeck hatches so that I could glass and paint dust free. Then a wet rag to clean the rest of the dust off and I let it dry while I made some coving tools out of hardened paint brushes. I buy cheap brushes and just throw them out after resining but today I decided to grind them into coving tools, they worked well. Later on when glassing I had a paint brush malfunction and the hairs just fell out of the brush I was using, but as it was the last one I had left I had to persevere with it.

I then coved all of the remaining areas that needed it and started on the wet out with the faulty cheapo paint brush. Glassing upside down is extremely difficult. You have to get it all on before you can relax as gravity is working hard against you. I found it easier to get the thin tape on first and to help me I made it too long so it could wrap around the turn to keep it from falling. I then went onto some other taping before placing the second tape on under as with the first tape tacked off just a little it made it a bit stickier so that the second tape was not so inclined to fall off. I put 2 layers of glass on the underside and 3 layers on top and around the sides. I then only needed a few tapes at the front to finish the glass in.

Once the glass is set the catwalk can be walked on. I put my weight on it today and it held me fine but it was only glued on so I get out on it I just leaned on it. I will also have to sand back the rough glass and re-bog the catwalk where I have ground it back to glass.

I painted the inside of the 3 foredeck wells. The middle one will be an emergency or secondary anchor well, the primary anchor will be stowed behind this well in a deeper well behind it in part of the void between the 2 bedrooms, with 2 300 litre freshwater tanks behind that. The well either side will be sail lockers and other spares. With the Bi-rig there are only the 2 mainsails so spares would be 1 or 2 of the same (not sure we would need a spare for each mast as the sails are all identical, so 1 spare should do it) perhaps a spinnaker of some kind.

With the wells painted and the catwalk glassed, the next step is to glue the foredeck down. Some readers may recall that I had arthroscopic surgery on my left knee about 2 years ago and my right knee has had floating cartilage popping out the last few weeks and an opening come up for surgery Tuesday so I may not get much done for the rest of the week, so tomorrow night I am hoping to get the forebeam re bogged and maybe (depending on time) even get the foredeck glued on.

Aug 18 Foredeck fitted

Unfortunately I didn't get as much done today as I would have liked, I only got an hour and fitting the foredeck took an hour so not quite enough time left to do as much as I planned but also because the moment I had finished fitting the foredeck I spent the next 20 minutes admiring it! And who could blame me, Schionning lines are beautiful and when they start to show themselves its hard not to admire them. I still catch myself staring at the way the hulls twist from the bows to the chamfer panels under where the tramps will be.

To fit the foredeck I marked the profile of the catwalk onto it and cut it out slightly undersize, then ground it out a little at a time until it fit. I wasn't sure the angles would allow for the deck to slide under the catwalk sides but after a few trims on the sides of the catwalk and enlarging of the slots on the deck under it went.

I intend to glue it on the weekend. But before I can I need to cut the scallops into the catwalk conduit and insert the stainless steel rod because with the deck on I cant insert the rod into the catwalk or side deck conduits. Then after it is glued on I will move on to the cabin roof (oh and the small matter of fairing it all in!).

Also before I can do any of that I have to recover from the surgery I am having tomorrow. I am unlikely to get anything else done on the job this week, maybe Friday but most likely on the weekend now. A side note on the catwalk, whenever I tell Jo what I have been doing (on the catwalk) the moment I say the word catwalk, she starts humming or whistling the Pink Panther tune!

Aug 24 Foredeck Glued On

As I predicted I did not get any work done during the week as I recovered from my knee operation. I got to the shed on Friday but more just to take delivery from my new friend Terry (building an Easy 11 meter) who kindly offered me the stainless steel rods I need for inside the tramp conduit. I did a little planning and measuring so I am counting an hour on Friday night even though I was there 2 hours. All I managed to do was cut the stainless rods to length. I cant kneel on my right knee and bending it still hurts, so progress this weekend was slow. And after this weekend I am sore and exhausted but happy that I have finally got the foredeck glued down. I still need to glass it on but for all intents and purposes it is finally on.

With the foredeck in place (that was the last thing I achieved Monday night before my operation) I glued the conduit onto the deck with a curve in it that matches the curve in the forebeam. When I glued the hull side conduits on I had the choice of having them run level as I did and then curving this deck conduit or running them uphill as they went back so that the foredeck conduit would also go on straight and level. The catwalk is about 200mm higher than the hull sides. Either method is fine, in the end I liked the way the hull sheerline was mirrored by the conduit about 50mm above it rather than the unsymmetrical way that shape would be with the conduit 50mm higher than the sheerline at the front but 250mm higher at the deck. I like the symmetry of the matching curves. Once it was glued and held in place (and with the curve where it should be) by 4 screws I coved and glassed it. I put the screws in places where the scallops would be so I could glass it with the screws on and remove them and scallop over the holes.

Even though the glass was only just cured this morning, the first thing I did was to scallop the catwalk and the foredeck conduits. They had to be done before I could glue the foredeck on, the reason being that the stainless steel rods need to be inside the conduits before the deck can be glued on as they cannot be fitted later, and the scallops cant be cut with the stainless rods inside the conduit because I don't want to score the stainless rods with the sander as it will then abrade the tramp lacing and cause it to break, it will be under tension and a sharp shard on the rod could break it. With the scallops cut and the rods inside the conduits I was all clear to glue the deck on.

I had the deck removed to fit the stainless rods so while it was off (lifted up from the deck on all but the front edge and propped up with a 2mt plank as a stay) I buttered up the D section bulkheads and the front edge of the deck with glue and pushed the deck down as carefully as I could trying to keep it just off the bulkheads so as not to smear all of the glue away. I then lifted the back up and buttered the sides where it meets the inside bow panels and the bulkhead top (bulkhead 4). I then started screwing it down and cleaning the excess glue that would squeeze out as I went. The bulkhead has a uni rope in the top so in order to pull the back down with screws, planks are screwed into the face of the bulkhead about 20mm lower than the top and then the foredeck is screwed to the edge of the plank, you cannot damage that uni rope in anyway, not even a screw hole as it is the ribs of the boat.

I had to make more glue up to squeeze into voids and gaps and I made coves with my finger tip (inside a glove) at all of the inside angles I could get to (Some of the joins are now sealed inside deck lockers until I cut the lids out to get inside to cove and glass them). I then finished the day (a long one for me even though it was only 7 hours!) by bogging the forebeam where the catwalk was joined bottom, top and sides. The beam is (well was) already fair so I just filled back with bog to just above the bog height already there and will now fair it all back out. I also put a thin layer of bog over the foredeck conduit to fair that in once the glassing in this area is completed and also bogged.

Next step is to glass the foredeck on inside where I can get to it and outside once I have coved the joins and trimmed the bridgedeck where it over hung the foredeck. Once trimmed and rounded smooth glass will go on to complete that part of the structure. I had called this month as building the saloon roof but it has taken me most of the month just getting the front third of the boat closed in so the roof will be next months project. I have set myself a goal of getting the boat locked up by January so that the next phase can start, fitting out the inside.

Aug 26 Under catwalk foredeck sealed

In order to fit the foredeck over the already attached catwalk I had to cut the catwalk out of the deck and the space below it and then glue the cut out piece back in under the catwalk. I did that today but first I had to trim back the bridgedeck overhang.

Once I had that trimmed (which I did with a jigsaw and grinder) I found that fitting the under catwalk piece was too difficult with the underwing trimmed to the correct size (or oversize and trimmed later) and have the piece fit into the space. I found it easier to cut the thickness of the deck into the underwing like a rebate and have it fit that way, then once glassed it wont make any difference. I had also cut the catwalk cut out too small and had to cut more out so when it came to gluing the piece back in it was too narrow by about 20mm so I had to glue an offcut into it as I just couldn't find the original offcut. Again no big deal, it just becomes part of the core once the join is completely glassed.

Once this is all set I can finish the trimming under the catwalk, round the corners and sand it smooth, glass it all and bog it while still green in preparation for fairing it. I still have to finish the front edges of the underwing stiffeners and give the bridgedeck curve a coat of bog also. At that point there will only be fairing and painting needed to finish that section of the boat. The side decks wont go on for some time because of other construction requirements which means that the foam noses cant go on until the side decks are on, so the front of the boat is not yet quite finished. But it is close.

Aug 29 Deck joins coved

Today I sanded all of the rough glue which often sets in sharp point, on each of the joins that need to be glassed to finish the foredeck. The side deck to fore deck joins require quite large coves larger than the ones that join the chamfer panel to the hull or underwing, the largest coves on the boat and I was a little concerned that I might get an exothermic reaction if I locked the cove in under wet glass, causing air bubbles and brittleness of the material. So I decided to cove and let it set, sand it smooth then glass it and bog it tomorrow.

Unfortunately I mixed a bit too much coving material so I decided to use it under the catwalk in the join there. I really should have glassed this wet on wet but by the time I got to this work it was getting quite late so I decided that I would risk it still being green enough tomorrow (unlikely) or sand it, or just apply a little more coving over this cove and glass onto that.

Hopefully this weekend will see the bow section of the hull completed, the glassing all done and bog applied so just the fairing to finish, so that I can move onto another section of the build in September.

Aug 30 Deck joins glassed and bogged

Glassing or taping is a very satisfying job. It is relatively easy, (except for long upside down taping) but the reason it is satisfying is psychological. Taping sets hard and seals joins and has a feeling of permanence about it. Once done there is no going back, so once something is glassed in and it sets it is in for good and mentally you start to move on from it. So it was this feeling I had as I glassed and then bogged the foredeck to underwing and foredeck to sidedeck joins and the catwalk to foredeck joins. It is now all in, done, move on. Well not quite, there is still the inside joins to be coved and taped but I wont get to most of them until after the foredeck is faired and then the hatch tops cut out so that I can get inside again. I can get to the joins in the inside of each hull and will do that soon, there is still some trimming to do inside where the foredeck and sidedeck planking meet before I can tape in there and my knee is still a bit too tender to be climbing into those spaces.

I didn't have a big enough router bit to round the front edge. I made a small impression in it with the largest bit I had but in the end I wasn't happy with it so I got the flat sander and just rounded it a bit more. Once it was rounded I gave the coves a sand to smooth them and I was ready to glass. I was a bit concerned with coving yesterday and not glassing wet on wet but I am glad I did them this way, they were still a little green which meant that the sandpaper clogged a little but I got them sanded smooth and then glassing was a breeze. Under the catwalk the cove was still quite soft, softer than the rest which surprised me a little, I did it last but only 15 minutes after the previous coving. Anyway because it was softer (rubbery) I just coved over it with a larger radius coving tool and glassed on that cove wet on wet. No problem.

I had lunch to give the tapes a chance to set a little so they would not move as I applied bog. Then I bogged all of the tapes out to the bog layer that was already applied to the various panels. Once set it can all be faired and back filled. This is a job I will do a section at a time to make it seem less of a chore. Next month I will move onto the cabin roof construction but tomorrow to finish out the month I will glue the bedroom walls in.

Aug 31 BH 5 glassed.

I intended to glue the bedroom walls in today but before I could do that the plans say that BH5 needs an additional layer of glass to both sides so the side of the bedrooms needs to be attached before the walls be glued on. I am not sure my boat still needs the extra glass, I assumed that the reason it is needed is that this bulkhead is usually the mast step bulkhead but wont be on my boat, BH4 will hold the twin masts on mine but I decided I would apply it anyway, for the minimal extra weight, the piece of mind in knowing the boat is as rigid and strong as it should be is well worth it. Surprisingly it took me 4 hours to do. Which didn't leave much time for anything else.

To start, I had to prepare the bulkhead, that means grinding glue dobs off and making sure the surface was smooth so that the glass has no air bubbles. Once the bulkhead was smooth I had to clean the area of dust, vacuum clean and wipe down the bulkhead. Then cutting the glass to size (and peel ply to size) and hanging it using clamps in place on the bulkhead. The the wet out started. It is a big wet out and I find the easiest way is to start at one end and using a paint brush wetting out a section at a time then using a combination of my hand (or a scraper but I find hands more effective) and a detail roller, press out all air bubbles and touch up any dry spots so that the glassing is pretty much done as you go. Then wet out the next section and repeat until the entire glass is wet and well attached to the panel. There will be the need to go back over and redo the detail rolling here and there to move bubbles that appear and dry spots to apply a little more resin to but the bulk of the work is done.

I decided I would put peel ply over the wet glass so that I got a nice pre keyed surface to work with later. I am unlikely to be fairing any internal surfaces as I have pretty much decided I will use covering of some kind on most internal surfaces, ultra light laminex where I want a hard surface on flat or non compound curved sections and foam backed vinyl where I want a soft finish. The keyed and smooth surface created by the peel ply will ensure whatever lining I cover the wall with will have a smooth surface to adhere to. Peel ply also removes excess resin that brushing on can leave. Peel ply is laborious to apply as you need to have it pulled fairly tight to ensure there are no wrinkles or bubbles in it, as any area under the bubble will have a different finish the that under the peel ply but being a flat surface I was surprised how easily the bubbles came out and the entire panel was able to be peel plied fairly consistently.

Once I had finished applying the peel ply I still had time and I considered gluing the walls in by cutting the peel ply again but decided against it and finished cutting the parts for the ensuite toilet box and then did some planning on how I would run wiring and plumbing.

I have a very early start (3am!) for travel to a 9am business meeting in Melbourne tomorrow so I decided to have an early finish today. I managed 5 hours today for a total of 78 for the month. I have been aiming for 80 hours a month this year but I figure I got close enough. I have had a very satisfying month completing some milestones such as closing the bows and foredeck but I got a lot more satisfaction from installing the catwalk, mostly because it was not a kit item and like the cockpit furniture and as the internal furniture will be, was my design and not having a kit meant figuring out how to make it and cutting the parts and putting it all together, a process I really enjoy.

I have been planning for some time to make the cabin roof and it keeps getting put off a little longer and the latest plan was to make next month now that I have finished the bow section and catwalk work but I have also been told that 9 Lives could be out of the shed in about 5 weeks and making the roof where 9 Lives is now would be much easier than making it under the bridgedeck. I will discuss the timing with the builders and maybe put that off another month and finish installing the dagger cases and a variety of other jobs that still need to be done, such as working on closing the stern sections.