2006 building logs

July 2006 Still working on the Port Hull

I am at the very last stages of the Port hull for now before I finally turn it over and put it aside and start on the Starboard hull. It has been a long 10 months (or it seems long because it appears that not much has happened for a long time). I am keen to get on and build the Starboard hull if for no other reason than a change of scenery for a while. Building a cat is interesting but can be monotonous (not to mention energy sapping). I am keen for it to be interesting again. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy it, just not as much at times! But that is during the hard parts, but at home that night, after a shower the feeling of accomplishment returns and I remember why I enjoy it so much again.

2 July 2006 Sanding, sanding more sanding

Sanding is a horrible job. I think when the designers and engineers design a sanding free boat, everybody will want to build one. Until then the oceans are the domain of the rich or to the dedicated few. My arms are sore, so are my shoulders and my back is just ok. Enough whingeing, I have almost finished sanding the bog layer, I have just a small section of the underwing section as well as the concave chamfer join. I will try the pool noodle idea tomorrow.

After I have finished that last bit of sanding, I will prepare the hull for a coat of resin and a coat of highbuild. I will just give it a clean off. The resin/highbuild coat has to be done on the same day, so I will have to start first thing then wait for the resin to go off enough to apply the highbuild whilst the resin is still green. Then it is back to sanding, again. I will also have a better idea of how well I have faired the hull so far. It is always possible to do a better job but at some point you have to say good enough. One little tip I picked up today after using a finer grade of paper (I have been using the most coarse paper I have 40 grit). The finer paper (I used some 120 grit today) makes for a much smoother finish, but don't mistake smooth with fair. In fact at this stage it is not important for the finish to be smooth, as the paint will fill all of the sanding scratches anyway. It is ultra important that the job be flat and the chines straight.

I sanded most of the day with the torture board and almost finished the outboard side of the hull with it, but once I had completed sanding all of the above water sections I was getting too tired and sore to continue with the board so I finished the underwater sections on the underwing side of the hull using the flat orbital sander (not the round random orbital). I will have another go with the torture board tomorrow (and the noodle on the chamfer turn).

7 July 2006 That's it I've had enough!

This week I made 2 new sanding tools, I made a shorter sanding board because the long board is a little hard to use on the underwing sections of the hull because it is too long and you only end up using about half the board, so I made another board about half the length to make life a little easier.

I also got a pool noodle and made a round sanding block to sand the chamfer join. I originally thought it would work best by wrapping the sandpaper around the noodle like a bandage but this does not work as the edges catch and it is hard to maintain a smooth round sand paper surface. It works best (and needs less sandpaper) when you run the paper down the length of the noodle. I tried using it without hookit attached and every time you put it down you lose the paper and have to reposition it before you can use it again. I attempted to resin hookit to the noodle but it didn't stick well, so I taped it with cloth tape (hard wearing) instead. I originally wasn't keen on this option because it meant that the edges of the hookit would be useless and the sandpaper would not stick to it and s a result not retain its round shape around the noodle and jut out where it wasn't in contact with hookit. But this turned out to be better. The straight edge that the paper not in contact with the hookit made was perfect for sanding the flat sections closest to the turn of the chamfer panel join as well as the rounded join in the same motion.

So on Tuesday I sanded for about another 2 hours with the new shorter sanding block on the underwing section of the hull and thought to myself that I had probably finished the sanding for now. I had already done what I thought was a good enough job on the outboard side of the hull. Anyway, I washed the hull down (just with a water and a towel) to remove all of the dust.

The next day (Wednesday) I decided I could do better so I got to sanding again and did another couple of hours on both the outboard side and the inboard bow and stern sections (the visible parts of the inboard side). The I washed the hull down again. Satisfied that I had done about as well as I could on the fairing.

Thursday, same thing. I decided I could do still better and sanded for about another 2 hours. And washed the hull for a third time. Oh and today we got a lovely surprise in the mail. 2 Schionning polar fleece tops which we will wear with pride when sailing on MM or at boat shows or the muster. Thanks Rob, Sam, Dianne and Wendy at Schionning Marine.

And today (Friday), I couldn't resist and sanded even further. Another 2 hours. 2 hours seems to be my limit on the torture board. I get very sore shoulders upper arms and hands from gripping the boards and moving it back and forth. It was starting to feel like this could go on forever. I dream of having a boat that people admire (as I am sure all builders do), so that entering a marina in her will be like driving into a car park in a gleaming red Ferrari. And each day I looked at the work I had done and went home satisfied that I had done a great job and MM is going to look great, only to decide the next day that I should probably do more. In the end I think fairing is finished and done well enough not when it is perfect because it will never be, but when your body says, no I wont be doing any more sanding for a while!

So this evening I decided that enough is enough. I have sanded about as well as I can and I have decided that it is time to add the highbuild and see how she looks. If I need to add filler and sand more than so be it, but for now I am moving on.

In all I spent about 3 weeks (about 30-40 hours) sanding and used all of the sanding tools in the picture below. I used the rotary random orbital first as it had the best cutting power. The danger with it though is it has a small footprint so the big danger is that it would dig very subtle holes all over the place, even though I kept it in motion the entire time. Then I would use the Bohler to sand the panels very close to flat and also use the regular orbital on localized high spots before using the torture boards. Here and there where the high spots were still too high to keep at them with the torture boards I would use the Bohler again. Then when I had the hull almost as smooth as I thought I could get it, I worked on the chine turns again with the flat orbital for all but the concave chamfer chine, which needed the noodle. The noodle worked extremely well, and this part of the job only took half an hour. Then finally I spent the last few evenings using the torture boards to get the panels flatter and the chines as straight as I could get them, each day finding a little more I could do.

So tomorrow I will mask the hull off (using thick black plastic sheets) to prevent runs and drips on the sections I am not going to do (about 200mm from the edges on both sides wont be highbuilt as I will be glassing the next sections onto this area). The other advantage of masking is I will end up with a straight line to feather out which even if visible will look ok. On Sunday morning I hope to get a coat of resin all over the hull and then in the evening I will get the first coat of highbuild onto the hull. I cant see that a coat of resin then a coat of highbuild (even though it will be less than a millimetre) wont result in a smooth flat surface. Lets hope so.

8 July 2006 Making MM decent!

This morning I masked off a line on each side of the hull at about the middle of the panel and then masked off the area below the tape line with black plastic. The reason for doing this is so that I have a straight edge where the highbuild and resin stops to feather out. I didn't do this when I glassed the hull and I found the resin drips and bog runs made it more difficult to fair evenly. There will be more glassing and bogging on the bottom of these panels when the hull is turned right way up and the topsides are glassed in so there will be a similar fairing job from the top down and this line will make it easier to fair to later.

After I had the skirts in place I barely had time to give the hull a final wipe down (just with a damp cloth) to get the remnants of dust off the hull ready for the resin coat and highbuild tomorrow, before I had to rush off to a wedding. Mine!!!

Jo and I decided to get married on the quiet. We wanted the formality without the ceremony or fuss. We hired a celebrant and a photographer, more to act as a witness than to take the photos and did the worlds shortest marriage ceremony (it was faster than in Vegas, it literally took about 5 minutes) and then we went to Akuna bay to look at boats and have a burger! Next year we plan to do it all again in Vegas with a Rodney Dangerfield impersonator but they aren't legal anywhere but the US. But for now, it was just a formality. No fuss, no honeymoon!

Tomorrow morning I will resin coat the hull and tomorrow late afternoon I will give it the first coat of highbuild.

9 July 2006 A new white coat

So after yesterdays excitement it is back to work. I got in early (for a Sunday!) and started at 9am. I gave the hull a thin resin coat and was very careful not to get any runs in it. These will just have to be sanded out again so I used the roller and carefully checked and rechecked for runs and rolled out any I saw. It took me about 2 hours to coat the entire hull. I used exactly 50 pumps of the West wall pump to entirely coat the hull (I did 2 tubs of 20 and a tub of 10). I have no idea how much 1 pump dispenses but I will pump out 1 pump next time I need some resin and I will weigh it so that I can tell the tech minded readers exactly how much resin I used. I will also find out how many milliliters it is.

The resin shows up every high and low spot that you just cannot see beforehand. I thought I had done a great job of fairing. I ran my hand along the hull with my eyes closed or looking away and I could not feel many highs or lows at all. But they are there and clearly visible in the gloss finish of the resin. Nature has a way of messing with peoples heads. It is only when a gloss finish is applied that the poorly faired finish shows itself and of course, very glossy is the way we all want our boats. But the sanded finish of bog is not gloss, the opposite in fact and these blemishes are invisible! My heart sank when I first saw them and I thought I would have to fair all over again. But I started the resin coat from the inboard bow back and when I got around to the outboard side I noticed how much more care I had taken where it mattered. The outboard side is much fairer. There are still some highs and lows but nowhere near as many or as deep. One thing is clear from the photos, that the tapes are still visible through the resin, but only because the resin is clear. If you look into the sheen you cant see the tape edges in the finish only on the panels under the resin. Once the white highbuild goes on they should disappear forever.

I was finished resin coating by 11.30. I got everything ready for the highbuild and then went out to buy some last minute things I needed, such as a way to measure out the paint and hardener. I had some lunch and got back at around 2pm and the resin was still very tacky. I intended to wait until around 4 before starting on the highbuild but by 4pm the resin was still tacky. I decided to go ahead and apply the highbuild anyway. At least I know I will get a great chemical bond between the resin and the highbuild.

The Penguard Highbuild is a 2 part epoxy based paint. The ratio of paint to hardener is 4:1. I was going to use a measuring jug to measure out the right ratios but in the end I thought it easier to use 2 matching soup ladles into a mixing tub. It is much cleaner and neater and easy to measure 8 of paint and 2 of hardener (about enough to do 1/3 of the hull). I then used the drill mixer to mix it properly before using a roller and roller tray to apply it to the hull. The paint is like any other paint and needs to be mixed before scooping out the ladles because it is thicker at the bottom. The hardener very thick and almost identical to maple syrup.

I was advised to use a squeegee to apply the first coat so that it filled all of the pinholes and deeper scratches from sanding but because the resin was still tacky the squeegee was not very effective, and didn't coat the hull very well leaving only streaks of highbuild very thin where it was applied but left most of the hull uncovered so I quickly abandoned that idea and used the roller.

The roller is not the ideal way to apply highbuild but effective enough. The conventional wisdom is that the first coat is better applied with brush or squeegee so as to get a deep penetration of the paint into the scratched surface of the bog, then to spray subsequent layers so as to get an even smooth layer. I don't think I will spray any of the layers on. I will wait to see if the roller and then sanding it back with progressively finer sandpaper is sufficient. I am building indoors and I don't want tiny beads of spray in the air landing on everything. Furthermore, normal paint would dry in the air and fall as dry paint drops almost like dust but being epoxy based it would drop wet and dry where it fell sometime later. Not good. And a warning to wear breathing apparatus if you are spraying epoxy based products. Otherwise the fine mist will dry on the inside of your lungs! It is near impossible to use this stuff without wearing a respirator due to the nauseating smell the stuff gives off. I don't know what effect it would have but I didn't want to find out and I wore my mask the whole time. Even half an hour after I finished and after a change of clothes Jo could still smell the stuff in my hair. I was also careful to wear gloves the whole time. So I didn't actually touch the stuff at all. I am sure it is harmless but like with all aspects of the build I err on the side of caution.

So after the rollercoaster ride of disappointment then relief of the actual finish I had achieved I can say that I am happy enough but not entirely satisfied I have done as well as I could have. I will have a better idea once I have sanded this first coat back and applied another coat.

Finally for all of those who have waited patiently for Jo to contribute to this website via her page, she has finally done so and you can read what she has to say here.

13 July 2006 It aint over till its over

Just when you thought the worst of it was past and that you could just wave a sanding board at the hull and paint another layer of highbuild reality hits.

I started sanding before the highbuild had fully set. I didn't realize it at the time. The sanding board would clog after just a few minutes sanding and would become almost useless. Then I realized what it was and I had a flashback to the bad bog episode. Did I mix the highbuild correctly? I mixed 8:2 (8 out of the big can, 2 out of the small can) and even though my math is not brilliant, it still equates to 4:1. I rechecked the cans, yes it says 4:1. What could I have done wrong. Then it dawned on me. It was only 14 hours since I finished applying the highbuild and the warehouse is cold. It just needed longer to set, at least that's what I told myself so I wouldn't worry.

I was right, it was only the coldness that caused the slow cure. It set hard and sanded much easier after 2 days. It sets to a semi gloss finish and gives a good idea of how fair the hull is. I can see that it doesn't need much more work. (More so when you see the hull sanded again).

Here and there the pigment or paint within the resin seemed to sag inside the resin, so in other words the resin set smooth but clear here and there with the white parts fallen somehow. I thought at first it was because the resin coat was still tacky when I applied the highbuild. It doesn't seem to matter much. It sands back fine. It will be interesting to see if it happens again on the next coat, if so my theory about the tacky wet resin is shot.

The highbuild is easier to sand. The finish from the coarse roller I used is like orange peel with highs and lows within it so that at first you are only sanding the high part down to the lows and is, as a result easier and faster to sand. Here and there the whole layer of highbuild is sanded away (high spots) and also here and there the highbuild isn't touched by the sanding board (low spot) and will get another coat to build it up. But for the most part I sanded until the orange peel effect was sanded smooth. For the next coat I will use a foam roller which should give a smoother finish.

It took me about 4 hours to sand about half the hull so tomorrow I will finish sanding and maybe even get the next coat of highbuild on. It looks like 2 coats may be enough to finish, 3 at most. In some places like close to the main chine the highbuild is completely sanded away. This will diminish as the highbuild on the low points (areas hardly sanded) raises with the next coat to the height of the sanded back sections until I end up with the final flat fair finish (try saying that with a mouth full of marbles!).

I sanded back with 80 grit for most of the hull, but used some 60 below the waterline to cut through a bit faster. The finish from the 80 grit feels very smooth compared to the 40 grit finish on the bog. So smooth in fact I think it is smoother than a babies bum, but lacking a baby nearby to compare I only had a babe, Jo, but she refused to let me compare and one can only surmise as to why. Does she fear that the hull may in fact be smoother? I guess we will never know for sure.

I will use 120grit on the next coat which I hope to get done on the weekend. Even though it is easier than sanding bog it is still hard work and I cant wait until it is done.

Finally, I can't finish this report without thanking all the well wishers that emailed to congratulate us on the wedding. We really appreciate your emails and best wishes.

14 July 2006 A good day at the office

I managed to get the rest of the hull sanded and a second coat of highbuild on today. The underwing side of the hull sanded really easily (as easy as sanding can be, which is still hard work) and was a little fairer than the outboard side (ironic really). I used a fine roller (foam) on the second coat but surprisingly (to me) I used the same amount of highbuild on the second coat as I did using a coarse roller on the first coat. I had just a little left in the tray when I got to the end so I just went over a few of the poorer sections and used the last of it. I should be able to get a good finish with 120 grit paper and will then apply a final coat of highbuild. I think a final coat will equate to half the 20 litres I have so I will get both hulls done with the highbuild I have.

With any luck I may get this coat of highbuild sanded this weekend and the final coat on, and during next week I will get that sanded with 240 grit which should make the hull very smooth and then I will be applying 2 or 3 coats of resin mixed with copper powder to the underwater area to 100mm above the waterline as an antifoul base. Then the hull will be ready to turn over.

15 July 2006 No Such luck

After such a productive day yesterday today was a bust. It was a rainy cold miserable day, the best kind of day to be working up a sweat sanding a hull but unfortunately the cold meant that the second coat of highbuild wasn't set properly. Trying to sand it just resulted in the paper clogging very quickly and I am sure it is not wise to do so anyway.

So I spent the day lazily on the couch watching TV and surfing the net. Tomorrow it should be ok.

I also did 2 really dumb things yesterday, that could have turned out a lot worse than it did. In the end I think no harm at all was done, but I did have a sleepless night wondering. The first dumb thing was that I was counting out the scoops of paint when I lost count (after 3!!!!). I don't know what distracted me but I couldn't remember if I had scooped 3 or 4 so I decided no problem and poured what I had scooped out back into the drum and started counting again. The problem with this was that I was on my second batch for the day so the pot had already been used meaning there could have been traces of hardener in the mix that I just poured back into the 16litre drum of paint. It could have ruined the rest of the drum but fortunately no harm was done. But it goes to show you can never stop concentrating. I put the drum in the brick chemical room just in case but there was little likelihood that such a small part of hardener could do much damage. Another lesson learnt.

The second dumb thing is a lesson I should have learnt already. I tried to reapply the masking skirts using the same tape that held it last time but it wouldn't hold properly so I used the clear packaging tape again. But as happened when I used it to stop glue dripping through to the inside of the hull when planking the hull, the epoxy melts it so it is very hard to remove. And you cant leave any trace of it on as it is a weak point that could cause the paint to crack or delaminate from the hull. Or just ruin the smooth paint finish. So I painstakingly removed any trace with a Stanley knife blade. I will also be careful to sand well to be sure. Surely I wont make that mistake again. Don't bank on it, if I can't remember the count at 3, anything is possible.

The second coat does look good and the small section I sanded did sand quite easily with 120 grit and the finish is very fine.

So I now expect that I might be able to completely sand this coat tomorrow but I doubt there will be time to coat the hull a third time. Maybe I can get that done on Monday night then a final sand over the rest of the week before applying the copper epoxy next weekend. I doubt I can still turn the hull next weekend, as I need to organize some helpers and I need to be sure I will be ready before having people commit to helping. I must get it done in 2 weekends time though, because in 3 weekends time I want to go to the Sydney boat show.

16 July 2006 Just a coat of paint in it

If only I didn't sleep in again today I would be able to report that I have sanded the hull ready for the final coat of high build. But I did lie in bed watching Sunday so I didn't start until 11am and I am about an hour short of finishing the sanding for the second last time on this hull. I have about the last 3 meters of the inboard side of the hull to sand and a tidy up of the chines which I figure to be about an hours work and then I can apply the third and final coat of highbuild to the hull. I will get that coat on tomorrow and then I am busy Tuesday which is fine because you cant sand this stuff for about 24 - 36 hours in this temperature anyway.

The paint was still not fully set today but I worked on anyway. The only hassle this creates is that you have to clean the paper of build up every 10 minutes or so, but again this is about the time that my muscles start screaming for a rest and cleaning the paper is just long enough a rest for my shoulders to go another 10 minutes.

Here and there I sanded through the highbuild to the bog again, or more accurately to the resin coat over the bog. The resin is very hard and I haven't sanded through it anywhere so the hull is still well sealed. It is heartbreaking to sand through the highbuild but with each coat the areas of highbuild sanded away diminish and sanding through is just a sign that a high spot is gone and by definition the hull is fairer. Progress. The fact there are so few areas now and that they are such small areas and that there are now no lows that are not being sanded fills me with confidence that there is now only the thickness of a coat of paint until the hull is fully fair. In fact I think the hull is now fully fair but a final coat of highbuild will finally seal the hull and show a uniform finish ready for final painting, but that will come later when the boat is completed.

I am still not sure yet if I will spray the final coat of highbuild or roller it on again. The finish of the sanded highbuild is extremely smooth now. I am not sure if a roller will send me backwards in finish or not. If I can use a roller it would be my preference for 2 reasons, set up time and clean up for a roller is much easier and I will not have overspray and paint mist with a roller.

We have decided that by next weekend I will definitely have the final coat of highbuild on and sanded so I can use next Saturday to apply the 2 or 3 (not sure which yet) coats of copper epoxy resin to the waterline and below, then all of the following weeknights for last minute jobs and tidy up before turning the hull over. So the date for turnover is set for Saturday 29th July. How exiting.

18 July 2006 Now just a days sanding to go

I have used a roller to put on the third and final coat of highbuild on Monday. So today I just checked how it had dried but did not attempt to sand if for the final time. I will wait until either tomorrow or Thursday. I am very happy with the way it has turned out. The coat applied was a bit finer than the other coats and I used just a little less highbuild this coat and in places where there is no white highbuild underneath the color of the panel below shows through a little but in the end it is not what it looks like that counts it is the fairness and smoothness. It barely even needs a sand. And in a way I guess it will barely get one. The 240 grit is almost like wet and dry it is so fine.

Once that final sanding is done, hopefully before the weekend, I will apply the copper epoxy antifoul undercoat (some use this as their only antifoul but I have my doubts it would be fully effective on its own) for the Pure Seal, assuming of course it passes the test of time. I plan to have this done by Sunday evening. Then all there is left to do (for now) is to turn it over.

As a bit of fun today, I played around in PhotoShop with a couple of images I had of the Schionning Radical Bay (8mt bi-rig cat) and another Schionning, a 13mt Cosmos called Full Pelt and created a mock up of what our cat might look like when finished. There are a couple of factual errors, for example Full Pelt is a strip planked round chine hull whilst ours is flat panel hard chine hull and the masts are probably not high enough and also raked a bit too much but its a better idea of how she might look than the drawn picture we had. I have put it on our front page.

22 July 2006 So close I can smell it

I have finished the port hull. All that is left is to turn it over. Actually I will sand the glass tapes on the inside of the hull so as to be sure that none of the helpers that help me turn it over doesn't jag themselves on any sharp splinters. I have to do it sooner or later anyway (even though I eventually plan to laminex the internal walls that are not covered by cupboards etc so I don't really need to fair the internal surfaces) and I have a week to get things sorted so that is going to keep me busy. I may even lightly sand the coppercoat. I cant believe I just said that. Who would have thought that I would want to sand anything after the last few weeks!

I have learnt my lesson and used "masking tape" to mask the copper epoxy line. Masking tape for masking, go figure!. First I marked the waterline in pencil using the 2000mm from the strongback measure on the outboard side and confirmed the line with a stringline then used the spirit level to be sure it was level. On the inboard side I used just the stringline as it is not possible to measure from the strongback.

I marked a line 60mm above (below on the upturned hull) the waterline with a marker pen (again a purposely named tool!). I chose 60mm simply because it is the width of my spirit level and that made it easier as I lined the top edge with the marked waterline and then marked the mask line with the other edge of the level whilst checking the spirit bubble to be sure. I had conflicting information on the correct distance above the waterline that an antifoul should go to. Some say 50mm some say 100mm, so in the end I figured anything in between would work.

I noticed after I had marked the inboard mask line from the stringline that it wasn't completely straight all the way along. There was a slight upturn of the line about 3 meters from the stern. Don't trust the stringline, as no matter how tight you make it, friction against the hull makes it possible for it to sit where ever it may be whether it is level or not and you must move it to where it should be after making it level and it is not fixed, you may move it again as you mark your line along the hull as I must have to end up with a kink in the marked line. So I made a quick adjustment of the tape and confirmed it was straight with the level, you can see it got to about 10mm out at the end. Over 12 meters the stringline only needs to be 1mm out at one end for it to be 50mm out at the other.

After I masked the coppercoat line I taped the plastic to it using the clear sticky tape (I am addicted to the stuff, I just cant get off it...actually it is easy to use because it has a dispenser). I re used the plastic from the highbuild mask. (In places I still dripped epoxy on the hull but I will need to sand these areas again anyway so no harm done).

All of the prep work took about an hour. Now to the copper powder. The tub that it came in is a little smaller than a 20 litre tub, but when you open it you get a surprise. It is only filled about 50mm. I bought 9kgs, based on advise from Tom and Judy building Scrumble. They bought 10 kgs for a 44ft hull so I bought 10% less because MM is 40ft. I measured out 4.5 kgs (half for each hull) and then split off 1.5kgs in 3 500g lots. I figured on 3 coats per hull so 1.5kgs of copper powder per coat per hull and that is a total of 18kgs of copper epoxy resin on the boat (based on 50:50 copper to resin as per the ratio used by Scrumble).

I figured on 3 lots of 10 pumps (from the West wall pump) of resin being enough to cover the under waterline area. I needed 5 lots of 10 pumps for the seal coat before the highbuild and that is about twice the area of the underwater area (this turned out to be exactly spot on). 10 pumps of the West wall pump is 490g of resin/hardener mix so 500g of  copper powder equated equally enough to 50:50 by weight, which again is what Tom and Judy used. I used the battery drill (I killed the electric drill) with the mixer on it and about a minute of mixing before adding the powder and another minute after adding the powder. The first coat mixed and went on easily. It is a bit mottled but as with all first coats it will be covered and the mottle filled out on the second coat.

I got slightly different advise from ATL regarding the ideal copper epoxy mix. Their advise was to load up the resin as much as I could with copper as this is the active agent that stops marine growth and the more copper in the mix, the more working agent that is exposed which makes sense. They suggested that at around 70% mix ratio it would get too hard to mix. So I used their advise on the second coat and decided that if I put 1kg of powder in with 500g of resin that would equate to 66.6% copper and I could do away with the idea of 3 coats as I would achieve the same effect with 2 coats. (Remember the plan is to coat the hull with PureSeal anyway so this is like a last line of defence should it fail and a defensive base coat if the PureSeal barrier is broken.) I had a back up plan if the mix was too thick, I would simply pump in another 10 pumps to bring it back to 50% but I didn't need to as it mixed and went on easily enough but the cordless was starting to struggle a bit under the weight.

I had to literally wait for paint to dry before I could apply the second coat. I measured out the 3 1kg lots of powder then I split one of the lots down to 2 500g lots. I figured that I may not use quite as much on the second coat so rather than have leftovers I would make the last batch up in smaller lots, I could still mix it all up if my calculation was inaccurate but in the end I didn't need the last lot so I can save that for touching up. That's 500g of spare copper powder so theoretically I should also save the same on the second hull, meaning that I will only use 8kgs of the copper powder. I still have to apply some to the shaped bow when I attach them and I will probably need to do the inside of the dagger housing and the daggers and rudders so I may need that extra powder so I am pleased with the outcome. If there is still any left after all the rest of the jobs I may use up the last of it by putting another coat (using a brush) along what I call the slapping line, the area at the waterline that has the constant slapping of waves (mostly at anchor) as this may wear that area faster.

The thick second coat felt really heavy rolling on which was also due to the first coat still being a little tacky. On the first coat I used a medium roller but on the second coat I used a fine foam roller (which is why I correctly assumed I would use slightly less on the second coat). My arms were quite sore by the time I finished. With any luck this hull treatment along with the PureSeal will mean minimal underwater maintenance for about 10 years. My understanding is that just a gentle scrub is enough to remove the slight slime or growth that may start on the copper epoxy and PureSeal claim that the motion of sailing is enough to remove anything that may get a slight holding and even claim this is almost impossible.

Tomorrow I will remove the skirt, but there is not much else to do, so I can sleep in and watch the Sunday program I like to watch in bed with no feeling of guilt at all.

24 July 2006 Stick a fork in it

Yesterday I did precisely nothing on the boat. Actually that is not entirely true. I dropped into the warehouse to take a look at the hull, that's it. Today I did only a little more than that. I removed the skirt. Yep that's it. I did try to do a little more but I couldn't for a number of reasons. Firstly the resin is still not set. Maybe the copper powder being a metal retards the curing process, I am not sure but it IS correctly mixed and is fairly hard but not entirely. I certainly couldn't sand it though. My hand print is left in it if I lean against it (which I did a number of times when removing the skirt).

I removed the skirt and learnt that masking tape is not all its cracked up to be. It tears easily when removed leaving small pieces I had to remove. Not a big problem as you can get a fingernail under it and start the process again so it is just annoying more than a problem. It also left a small residue of gum (glue) near the edge but I think some metholated spirit will remove that easily. So it is much better than clear packing tape but not the ideal. I have also tried cheap duct tape (with emphasis on the cheap which may have been the problem) that was less than ideal as it was too well stuck to itself and would stretch as removed from the roll ruining the straight edge. So the search for the perfect masking tape continues.

After removing the skirt I spent about 10 minutes admiring my work. I am very pleased in case you didn't know. One thing that the dark anti foul copper epoxy coat does do is that it really highlights any faults in the fairing. I am glad the boat will be white! I didn't do as terrific job on the underwater areas as I would have hoped for (but then I did follow the plan advise and not be too fussy on unseen areas) and that did make me wonder if I had done a good enough job on the above water areas. I think most first time builders go through similar self doubt at almost every stage of the build. It is probably because we are so keen to get a fantastic result. I reassured myself that I can always do more fairing to the above water outboard area if I want (I wont worry too much about the under bridgedeck areas). And the painter will soon tell me (in about 4 of years!) if he doesn't think the boat is faired well enough. We want to paint our boat with an auto paint called mica pearl white and mica pearl is a very difficult paint to apply so I will definitely be having it professionally painted. It is a 3 coat paint process, a base color coat, a semi color clear coat which has the pearlesence in it and then a number of final clear coats. The result is an off white that also changes color slightly depending on the angle the light hits it and has a depth to it that standard paint doesn't have.

As I said the copper epoxy wasn't set fully. No matter I am in no hurry now. So that pretty much put an end to any work I was planning for today. Planning is too strong a word as I just thought about what I could do momentarily and then shrugged and said nahhh.

The other thing I did attempt today was to make the cradles for the hull turnover on the weekend (weather permitting). The cradles come with the kit (or at least the main parts do) and are pre cut from mdf in the same way that the temporary bulkheads are only the shape is inverted. There are 2 parts to each cradle and 2 cradles for each hull. The 2 parts for each cradle have a slightly different profile to match the changing shape of the hull. One of the pairs are marked bulkhead 7 aft and the other in the pair marked bulkhead 7 fwd, so I placed one of the parts on the hull to check the distance apart that the 2 parts need to be fixed to each other and found that it didn't fit the hull profile around bulkhead 7 or anywhere near bulkhead 7. They are too small. I didn't search for where if anywhere they do fit, nor did I check if the parts marked bulkhead 5 aft and bulkhead 5 fwd fit because the mdf parts were scratching the copper epoxy fairly deeply because it has not yet set. So I will wait until the resin is fully set and then try. If they don't fit I will re-cut them. I will make stencils with cardboard then transfer the shape to the mdf and re cut the opening to the correct size.

I am not concerned about the cradles being the wrong size although I confess to a momentary concern that the cradles were correct and that the hull was the wrong size. That quickly passed.

So after all that, I couldn't even log the time spent as it was so insignificant. I figure on less than half an hour yesterday and today. Its tough being a boat builder.

27 July 2006 Ready to roll

I am ready to roll the hull over on Saturday. I only have a few tasks for tomorrow. I have still to decide if I will give the copper coat a light sand, I will ring the Pure Seal distributor tomorrow to check if the surface preparation for applying Pure Seal needs me to sand, and if so better to do it now, but if not, I wont bother. I can also clean up a little more.

I have made the cradles. 3 of the 4 cradles parts were ok but the one that was out took me a while to adjust as I didn't want to take too much off. In the end it took 5 trips up and down the ladder and to the saw to get the cradle to fit. I know why it doesn't fit and it is related to the kit cut being out. I had to add a small section to bulkhead 7 which altered the way that the chamfer panel sat and this causes the hull to be a touch wider at that point so obviously the cradle is still in the kit the way the chamfer was before rather than the way it is now. No big deal.

After I had the rogue cradle side fitted, I measured the distance apart they should be by laying a level across them in place on the hull then when level, measuring the distance apart they were so I could make them that far apart on the cradle dollies. They both (front and back cradles) worked out to 320mm apart (it doesn't tell you this in the plans so I assume it is something you work out for yourself, again no big deal and easily sorted). So I made 2 bases and 4 ends and screwed them together. I also attached castor wheels to each cradle so that I can easily move the hull around inside the warehouse. I will remove the wheels when I am ready to align the 2 hulls but for now this is the easiest way to work in a confined space and still be able to get to stock etc.

One weird thing I noticed whilst I was fitting the cradle to the hull is that although the copper epoxy looks brown, when you run your hands along it or anything else such as the cradles, the residue is blue. At least that is what it looks like to me but then I am color blind.

The castors are rated at 60kgs each so 4 per cradle is 240kgs per cradle and 2 cradles equals a load rating of 480kgs. That should be more than enough as I believe the hull would be around 300 kgs as it is now.

With the cradles made and the area cleared to roll the hull over, I only have to rig up the guy ropes to the hooks in the wall and I am ready to go. The hooks in the wall are there from the factory construction. With concrete slab walls, a crane is used to lift the whole wall which is prefabricated concrete with steel reinforcement to which the hooks are pre welded (and concreted) into place in order to lift them into place. I am going to use the hooks as anchor points for guy ropes to lower the hull over. I and my helpers will push the hull over using the bulkhead bridgedeck extensions as levers to push the hull over on the legs (I am not going to remove them until the hull is turned over). Then once the hull reaches the point where the weight shifts over the guy ropes will take the weight and we will gently lower it to the pallets. Once on the pallets we then roll it over the rest of the way. Then once it is sitting on its keel on the pallets we lift one end and push the cradle under it, then lift the other end and push the other cradle under and we should then be able to remove the pallets and roll the hull to where I want to leave it and chock the wheels.

I spoke to the importers of PureSeal (McIntyre Marine) and they told me I didn't need to bother with sanding as the PureSeal goes onto the surface the way it is. That saves me another sand of the hull and no need to tell you how I feel about that.

That's the plan. It seems easy as I go through it in my mind or on this page. I hope it goes as well in reality.

29 July 2006 Hull 2 started....Hull 1 turned and set aside......Woooo Hoooo

There are milestone moments in the building of a cat, taking delivery of the kit, planking the first hull and then turning the first hull over. Today after some minor and frustrating setbacks we finally passed this elusive milestone. Finally.

Among many other jobs to do I still have to tape the join down the centre of the keel that is easier done with the hull turned, but then I still have a lot of work to do on the port hull so saying finished the hull just means to this stage where it is rolled over and work can start on the other hull. Many builders say you can break the long build process down into more manageable or imaginable chunks and that you should celebrate passing milestones so today was a special day.

It is a nervous build up to actually turning it over. There is tremendous apprehension. I even suggested to my brother in law that maybe I was deliberately going slow recently so as to put off this day. I don't know why I would do that but it is possible. Finally the day has arrived and I paced around the hull many times checking and double checking I had everything in place. And in the end there is no substitute to many hands to ease the load.

As planned I attached guy ropes to the hull via the hooks in the wall to ease the load down and I removed 3 of the 8 legs (between bulkhead 0 and 4) leaving the legs on bulkheads 0, 4, 5, 6, and 7 (I have had the legs off bulkhead 8 for some time). At that stage there were just 4 of us to lift Myself, a friend Andrew, Jo's son Ryan and Jo, and 5 including Andrew's wife Kris but she was busy taking photos for me and watching over her 2 young sons. We attempted to push the hull over by lifting from the inboard side until we reached the pivot point where gravity took over and the hull wanted to fall over the rest of the way. I held it in this position while Andrew and Ryan went to the other side to take the weight and try to ease it down the rest of the way. The ropes took the weight and Jo then tried to ease them with the ratchet straps to lower the hull the rest of the way. But this turned out to be too time consuming and the weight seemed a bit too much for just 3 of us holding it. We decided to try again without the ropes and with some extra hands.

So we lifted it back up, which was easy because you only have to lift a little and then gravity takes over again back the other way and eased it back down onto the legs on the strongback. I then went next door to Peter who along with Matt another local worker, helped us try again and with the extra hands we managed fairly easily to lift the hull back over and ease it down onto its side on the pallets. At this stage another neighbour Hilton also arrived to help and the now 6 of us then slid the hull sideways on its side a meter or so to give us a little more room then turned the hull the rest of the way over onto the keel. Easy. Then we lifted the stern and placed the rear dolly cradle. Then using a pallet jack (Kris's idea) on one of the pallets that the keel sat on, we lifted the hull and place the forward dolly cradle moving the pallet and jack down a little and re lifting the hull to position the forward cradle more accurately. I then repeated this to adjust the position of the rear cradle. Finished. Hull turned. And only a minor scrape of the highbuild on the main chine turn about 200mm long from dragging the hull sideways to repair. Just a minor fill and re sand. Really minor stuff. Once the full compliment of crew arrived, turning the hull only took 30 minutes start to finish.

A big thank you to everyone that helped me today, to Andrew and Ryan for coming over and to Kristine for taking the photos for me. And to Peter, Matt and Hilton for pitching in when needed.

I haven't bothered to show pictures of the guy rope set up because in the end we didn't find it that useful. It was useful when there was only 3 of us holding the hull as it took the bulk of the weight but we found it easier in the end to add more help and do away with the ropes. In a way we only really used the rope to tell us if we could do without it, and once we realized we could we did. I have started the pictures from the point the extra hands helped to turn the hull.

 

After clearing up (re arranging the pallets of stock and moving the empty pallets out of the way) I moved the hull around a little on the castors and found that the front castors were dragging rather than rolling because they were bending under the load. The package on the castors stated they are rated to 60kg but they are not up to the job. This is not a problem because with the pallet jack, removing the cradle is a simple task. So tomorrow I will replace them and re position the cradle. I may replace both sets.

I have removed the legs ready to start the next hull and moved the strongback over a little because of the tight space I have to work in. I re checked that it is level and straight ready to stand the starboard hull. Tomorrow I may even stand the first bulkhead of the starboard hull, just so that I can really say I have started the second hull.

Its hard to fault a day like today. One for the memory bank. And a nice round 500 hours to finish the first hull to roll over.

31 July 2006 Today nothing happened.

With the hull turned the work on the second hull has started, but apart from some preparatory work such as re attaching and leveling string-lines, nothing much to report was done today. I will start to position the bulkheads on the weekend as I am down to Melbourne again tomorrow. I will want to go to the boat show on one of the days next weekend.

One thing I thought would be good was to take some photos of the hull before the second hull gets in the way.

Below is a gif file of the hull rollover, click on it to open to it and it should play once you hover your mouse over it. Be patient as it will take a little while to download.

Time Spent: 53.00 Hours

Total build time so far: 500.00 Hours   Total Elapsed Time: 10 Months 4 weeks

August 2006 logs