2006 building logs

Oct 2006 Glassing, bogging and fairing the starboard hull

With the Starboard hull glassed and bogged (on the 1st and 2nd of the month, the next task is fairing (sanding!). So this month I am hoping to pretty much finish this hull to roll over, that means sanding the bog to fair and applying the highbuild and fairing that even further and then the final epoxy resin coats, and also coving all of the internal joins and glass taping them.

1st Oct 2006 Hull glassed

Today Jo, Jake (Jo's youngest son) and I put in a total of 24 man-hours and completely glassed the hull.

We took plenty of photos, but I am so tired that I will have to update the site properly in a couple of days, tomorrow the 3 of us are going to bog the hull whilst the glass is still green.

Before we get into the glassing I have to show a minor problem before the glass covers it. Under the glass on the keel and on a couple of the panels here and there I have noticed a problem (very minor) with the factory made Duflex panels. I noticed them when I was releasing them from the flat panels months ago but didn't quite understand what I was looking at but now that I understand and have got to the stage of using the panels that were made up of the 1 bad sheet I can explain it.

What has happened at the factory is that the peel ply had air bubble or ripples in it and as a result the peel ply was not in proper contact with the glass which resulted in a surplus of resin drying on the panel in a corrugation instead of smooth (the peel ply when correctly applied soaks up the excess). No big deal. On the hull side panels I sanded the excess resin down to smooth again, you must be careful not to sand all of the resin away. On the keel as in the photo below, I decided to just fill the ripples before sanding then sanding back to smooth at the tops of the ripples rather than remove them down to smooth.

The first thing to glassing was about 4 hours preparation, which included a clean up of all of the peel ply I have removed from the hull and piled up under it on the strong back and a vacuum of the floor, putting all the tools away and a general tidy up. Then I set up a temporary full length cutting table down the side of the hull to cut the glass to size. I cut 3 1300mm width sheets, 7 150mm tapes and 3 100mm tapes all the full length of the hull. Each length of glass was rolled up ready for use. In all this equated to approximately 64 square meters of glass (prior to trimming). Once it was all cut, I packed the cutting bench away again ready to hang the glass on the hull.

Once the first sheets of glass were hung on the hull (dry), I could trim them to shape. This included some trimming at the keel so as to have a straight join down the centre of the keel (but not overlapping) so that each 1300mm sheet hung each side of the hull, this width glass is just wide enough to cover every chine on each side of the hull. It was necessary to shape the sheet so that it sat without creases or crimps as flat as possible on the hull hence the slight trim at the keel. I also cut the excess away at the ends of the hull such as the corner of glass you can see in the picture on the right below.

We were now ready to start the wet out. I started by wetting out the keel on both sheets then I decided to start in the middle on the inboard side, then work forward, then resume at the middle inboard and then worked back, then I went to the bow of the other side of the hull and worked back along the whole length to the stern. There is no reason for this order of process, there is no set way, the glass is already in place and trimmed to size so there is no chance of getting to the other end and being short or anything like that. I do think there is a danger of starting at an end and working to the middle and then starting at the other end back to the middle again as you could end up with a big kink in the middle and then have to find a way to smooth it out, but there is no danger of that if you work from one end to the other or from the middle to the ends.

The reason I did wet the keel out over a both sides of the hull first was twofold, firstly as I wet out I removed the masking tape that was holding each glass sheet to the other so that it wouldn't fall off the hull, once it is wet and therefore stuck to the hull the glass can no longer fall. Another reason for wetting the keel on both sides is because it is much easier to reach the keel from the bridgedeck returns on the inboard side and as you are leaning on the hull to reach you must wet the keel out first so as not to be leaning on wet glass for the obvious reasons of not wanting to get covering in resin but more importantly not disturbing the wet glass once it is all squeegeed into place. Of course if you have higher scaffold on the outboard side than I do (standing on 44 gallon drums) then this isn't going to be a problem for you.

The wet out method is just a roller and a container of resin and just pouring the resin onto the glass and spreading it out with the roller, or when only a little resin is needed to finish a section, just putting the roller into the container to wet it and then transferring that to the glass like painting. Then once I had wet out a 2 or 3 meter section I would have Jake start to follow me with the squeegee and remove the excess. The best way to do this is to run the squeegee across the grain diagonally from the top down so that gravity also helps with the drips, but to stop about a foot short of the bottom of the glass so that you don't have to hurriedly catch the drips, then once you have the whole section squeegeed to within a foot of the bottom you can squeegee the runs and excess resin at the bottom into a container to be re used. Besides removing excess resin the squeegee also removes any air bubbles and generally ensures the glass is bedded down well and and completely wet out (no dry spots). You must get the bubbles out while the glass is wet because once it is set any air bubbles are now a weak spot in the glass not to mention a bump that needs to be faired, and once the glass is set it cant be re wet to stick down a bubble. I think (I haven't had to find out for sure yet as I have not had any missed bubbles that set) that the only way to fix such a bubble would be to grind the glass away in that section and apply a glass patch over it then have to fair that patch out somehow.

The plans call for a layer of glass to 100mm above the waterline and a layer of glass to 300mm below the waterline and then 2 tapes on each panel join, 1 x 150mm and 1 x 100mm. When Brett Schionning came to help me glass the first hull he suggested it would be better to lay a full width 1300mm sheet of glass each side of the hull butted to each other along the keel centre line which takes the glass to about 500mm above the waterline, then to run another full width sheet of glass over the hull centered on the keel which seals the keel and would then run to about 200mm below the waterline but importantly would cover every underwater chine. He then suggested that only one tape (the 150mm) would be needed over the panel joins. I agreed to this however because I had to remove the layer of bad bog I felt I may have touched the glass tapes here with the sharp chisel and may have damaged it here and there on the chines (I don't think I did but I wanted to be sure) so I added the missing 100mm tapes on 3 of the chine turns that only had 1 unbroken layer of glass over them.

In order to remain consistent, I have glassed this hull the same way as the port hull ended up being so I taped each chine join with the 150mm and then gave the centre keel join the 100mm tape along with the chamfer and the corresponding chine on the outboard chine because they only had the one layer of glass added. So the minimum now is 3 layers of additional glass (there is already a layer of glass on the Duflex), with 4 at the keel join (the plans also call for 422g double bias but I have used 457g double bias). We wet the full sheets out on the hull but the tapes we ran through the wombat which saved a heap of time and probably some resin. The wombat pre squeegees the excess resin out so the only job you have with it is to ensure the tape is in good contact with the wet glass below and ensure there are no bubbles.

So the glassing is complete. I used 63 square meters of 457g per square meter double bias glass which means about 28 kgs of glass. This is prior to trimming and I probably trimmed about a meter or so in all. And I used 25 kilos of ADR resin. The ratio is supposed to be 1:1 by weight but I think that because I was wetting out onto still wet glass for all but the bottom layer slightly less resin was required, and I also cut some glass off and have overhanging glass that isn't wet so I am fairly confident that the ration is pretty close. We didn't weigh as we went on the first hull and I had an expert builder showing me how to wet out so I have no doubt that the port hull is spot on, and I followed his method on the starboard hull and am very confident that I have correctly wet the glass out fully the final 100mm tapes were not as saturated at the edges as the 150mm tapes but still were well wet out, it just meant I had some rough edges here and there but nothing the bog and sanding wont fix.

So now we are hoping for a good hard bog.

2nd Oct 2006 Hull bogged

We fronted up again today to bog the hull. It was still a little tacky, which I saw as a good thing on 2 counts, the bog would not run as easily across the tacky surface but more importantly confirmed that the glass was still green ensuring a good chemical bond.

The long term readers will remember that last time we did this we got the ratios wrong on the West System bog mix because one of the small pumps broke and we mistakenly applied the 4:1 we used the day before on the wet out when measuring the rest of the bog and the bog would not fully set as a result and I had to remove most of it and re apply it. Well this time we have the wall mounted pumps and the 5:1 resin/hardener was correctly metered out by the West pumps so we have no doubt the bog will set correctly, although I must confess that I cant wait to get over there tomorrow to see for myself that the bog is set hard.

I prefer to use a wide scraper like trowel rather than the ones with the handle over the blade like a concreter would use, primarily because I can get the bog out of the container and onto the hull easier with less spillage. I used one of the regular trowels to smooth out the bog over the tapes in some places but overall used the one I am using in the pics above.

It took just on 4 hours for the 3 of us to bog the hull, although only Jo and I worked through as we didn't really need Jake too much today so I have only added an hour of his time, and 8 hours for Jo and I (4 each). I am happy with the coverage of the bog, it looks about the same as last time except perhaps not as many runs because we made the mix a little thicker this time. It was harder to make the bog thick and still make large pots last time as it went off so fast, but as the air has not reached the temperature and humidity of summer we can get more done with less haste and with the longer pot life. And with more fairing compound in the mix it means a lower resin to compound ratio meaning it should be slightly easier to sand. The tapes are visible through the bog depending on the angle you look at them. This is good, it means I have not over bogged the hull (good from a weight perspective) just as the manual suggests.

The next task is to check that the bog is setting correctly. I think it will take a couple of days to set to full hardness so I will have a few days off. Next weekend I will start the long, painful task of sanding the bog back to smooth. Thanks again to Jake and Jo, we got a lot done in the last 2 days.

4th Oct 2006 Another good hard bog

The starboard hull now has a rock hard layer of bog over it. A relief. I am now ready to start sanding again. That will probably start tomorrow. We worked very hard at it on the weekend so I have decided that a couple of days off while the bog fully hardens is not such a bad thing. I could be taping the internal hull joins but like I said a couple of days off has been earned.

I mentioned that here and there some of the 100mm tape edges had not been fully bedded against the glass below it. These are all only a few centimetres long and only at the very edge and in all there are about 4 or 5 of them over the hull. They are more like some rough strands of glass poking up from the hull surface. These rough bristles of glass catch bog which makes them look much worse than they are. I have a picture of one as it is now and I will include a picture of it once it is sanded out.

My hope is that this hull will be finished by the end of the month and may be turned early November.

7th Oct 2006 Sanding again

I have stated sanding the starboard hull. I know I am starting to sound monotonous on this but sanding really sucks. I hate it and I can't imagine anyone liking it. It is tiring, dusty but most of all boring work. I find myself daydreaming a lot while I am sanding. Mostly about launch day or the first shake down sails. Anything to pass the time. I also find that a couple of hours in one go is about my limit, although I managed 4 hours today (and 2 hours yesterday). I am also in a bit of a race against the weather now. I really want to finish the fairing before the really hot weather arrives as I really don't want to be sanding when the temperatures start hitting the 30's and above, which I figure is about 6 weeks away.

Right now I am using the power sanders, the 2 orbitals but mostly the Bohler. I have sanded just under half of the outboard side of the hull. I have sanded for 6 hours on this hull so far and I figure 8 hours (2 more hours) will see me at a quarter finished (sanding the bog layer fair) so that means about 32 hours sanding the bog. That isn't the end of the sanding but the highbuild is easier to sand (although more hand sanding on the longboard is involved).

The idea with the sanding is to sand away the highs until the lows disappear also and the surface is flat. The bog follows the contour of the surface below, so that even though it goes on smooth from the trowel when wet, it eventually dries in the same shape as the surface below so that there are highs and lows to the contour of the glass below. That is why the glass tapes are still visible through the un-sanded bog as in the picture on the left below. Once you sand the highs away the the tapes start to disappear at least to the touch as they stay visible through the thin layer of bog after sanding.

When sanding the bog away from the tapes and edges of the glass, the idea is to apply the bog and then sand it flat in a tapered away to nothing edge. In this way the edges wont be visible. I have made some sketches to show what I mean. I am not a very good drawer but this is pretty basic stuff so I am sure you will get the idea. The first illustrates how the bog sets to the contour of the glass below, the second is the idea of sanding the bog flat, the third explains the idea of feathering away the tape and glass edges by tapering the bog away to nothing.

I have started with the outboard side on purpose because after hours and hours of sanding there may be the temptation to cut corners or to say close enough so best to get the most important side done first, the most visible is the outboard above water section, the under bridgedeck is not as visible so if I do get complacent it may not matter as much. I don't think I will but best to be sure.

What I did last time was to do everything and anything to avoid starting the sanding until there was nothing left, then I had to sand and sand until it was done. This time I am going to do a few hours sanding, then tape some internal joins for a day or 2, then sand some more, etc. This way it will break it up a bit and may not seem so tough a job. So tomorrow I may get another 2 hours sanding then do some taping.

8th Oct 2006 More sanding

I managed about 3 hours sanding today and am just over a quarter of the way (30%) done on the bog sand back. I have burnt out another random orbital sander, both went the same way, they spin freely (and fast) when not touching the disc but the moment you touch the disc to the face to be sanded it stops. So it has no torque at all. That and the smoke that comes out of them tells me they are finished!

So the power tool tally is 3 sanders (2 randoms and 1 orbital) and 2 cordless drills so far (one had the chuck jam, the other the switch went). These things are so cheap it is not worth buying expensive ones. Some even have warranties but again too cheap to worry about it. Anyway I am thinking of switching to air tools.

More of the same to come. But as I suggested I may do some internal taping for a while to break it up a bit.

10th Oct 2006 Still more sanding

Not much to report. I have done another 2 hours on the sanding of the hull but perhaps I am getting more efficient because I think I am at about 40% done on the bog sand back now. I think I might get it finished in the next week or so, if I can stay motivated on the weekend, then I can start on the resin coats and first coat of high build. Of course I am also yet to tape the internal joins so I could still decide to divert to doing those for a while too. The plan is still to have the hull finished this month and ready to turn first week of November.

11th Oct 2006 Yep, still sanding

Another 2 hours sanding today and I think I am now past halfway. I have about a meter to do on the outboard side and have done about 3 meters at the bow of the inboard side and a meter at the stern. So I have done more than I have to go on the hull. I still have some touching up to do all over the hull. I am thinking of taking a slightly different approach on this hull. I will attach some photos tomorrow to better explain this. Where I have a low spot (un-sanded), on the last hull I kept sanding until the low point was met by sanding the surrounding bog down to it. This time I may just fill all of the low spots to the point where I have already sanded, then sand it all smooth again. The result is the same but I end up with slightly more bog on the hull. And it really is slightly, it couldn't possibly be more than 1 kilo. But it may save me a heap of sanding work.

12th Oct 2006 Ho Hum.... still sanding

I only managed an hour today. I am definitely past half way now with all of the outboard side sanded except as mentioned yesterday for a lot of un-sanded low spots that I have to decide to either fill or keep sanding down to flat. If I decided to keep sanding then I have about an hours work to finish, if I decide to fill the lows I probably still have an hours work but a lot less of it would actually be sanding. Here are a couple of photos to show what I mean.

In the first pic I am know that I could easily sand it out but if I am going to go to the trouble of filling the size valleys like in the second photo then I may as well fill them all and save a lot of sanding. As you sand through the bog and start to hit the resin of the glass then the sanding gets slower because the resin is harder to sand and also because more care needs to be taken not to damage the glass by sanding through it too far. On the first hull I kept sanding until all of the low spots were gone. This means that the hull has as little bog in it as needed to get it fair.

On this hull I am thinking that the amount of bog left on the hull that could have been sanded off is negligible in terms of weight and also in terms of actual fairness. The low points on the deepest valleys are less than half a mm below the height of the highs around them so that means I would be sanding half a mm more bog away in that area to make it smooth, and if a section is half a mm lower in a gradual sanded incline than say the area a meter away all around it, the eye simply cant detect such a small change in height and it just looks and feels smooth and flat. And remember this is the worst of them many are even less than half a mm.

My fear in this method, is that having not been sanded (because the flat sander can't yet reach it), the bottom of the low points may not be able to bond to the bog (because they are un-keyed for a mechanical bond) and because they are so shallow that the bog will just pull straight out the moment I try to sand it again. I am going to talk to the panel beater a few doors away to see what he thinks, as he would often work in similar situation with the same materials albeit on cars. Either way I have about an hours work to do on the outboard side until I am happy with the finish. I have sanded about a third of the inboard side. I will not be as fussy with this side of the hull as it is under the bridgedeck. So perhaps I can have the sanding of the bog done by Saturday afternoon and then maybe get 2 coats of resin and the first coat of highbuild on by Sunday night. I am stoked at the progress on this hull so far.

14th Oct 2006 Sanding the bog almost done

Hands up the biggest idiots here. If you raised your hand you are in the top 10 but I still think I would win. I just sanded 70% of the hull using the 60 grit paper when I could have been using the 40 grit and cutting the work almost in half. I was trying to remember how many coats of highbuild I put on and I remembered that each coat was sanded off by the next finest paper until I got to the 225 when it suddenly dawned on me that I was already on the 60 when I should have started on the 40. I immediately switched to the 40 and the bog came off so much easier. As a result I decided to go back over some of the areas that I was thinking of filling and sanded it down the rest of the way. Its is no biggy as mistakes go, actually I hope all of my mistakes are as inconsequential but it just goes to show that some of the work building a boat is going to be self inflicted!

I actually still do have a number of areas I have to fill. You may remember that I felt that some of the tapes were not quite wet enough using the wombat and as a result some of the edges were not bonding properly with the glass below. I didn't notice that the bonding was poor in places until the next day when we had to apply the bog. Of course I should have just gone over the suspect areas with a brush and more resin when I glassed them, but then I didn't realize the problem existed. I didn't do much about it the following day when I first noticed the small areas that hadn't properly been wet down because I was rushing to finish and get the bog on before the resin was green. Rushing is a trap that I think all amateur builders fall into because many jobs are time sensitive, that is you have to finish before resin goes off. But in reality you have far more time than you think most of the time.

Anyway as a result now, when the bog is sanded away over an area that has a poor bond or a small bubble, the glass kind of collapses to the layer below and tears away until the resin is back in full and the layer is back to normal, leaving a hole that needs filling. In some of them I actually need to cut some of the suspect glass away with a Stanley knife, which is fairly easy as the suspect glass does not have as much resin in it, so its a matter of cutting until it isn't possible to cut with the Stanley knife because where there is resin cutting isn't possible. Most are about 30-50mm long and about 3-5mm high and 1mm deep (1 layer of glass). Apart from the extra work fixing them I am totally unconcerned about these holes, most are on the edge of the top tape, a tape that I was originally contemplating not having at all, so a few gaps and tears in them are of no consequence. I have about 10 to fill in all.

My original plan to resin coat the hull and a coat of highbuild tomorrow was a little optimistic. I am almost there but I still have to fill all of the holes and I also still have a little sanding to do in places (that I will do once the fill has set). I underestimated just how much the heat slows you down. It was 35 deg yesterday and 37 today. I managed to work for 6 hours today but that was my limit. I finished by vacuuming the dust off the hull and floor and giving the hull a wash down. Once I washed the dust off the hull I saw how much work I haven't done yet!

So tomorrow I will fill the holes. That may take an hour or so. Tomorrow will be a light day. The resin coats and highbuild all need to be done in a day (whilst each coat is still green) and I wont have time to fill, wait until it sets, then sand and still get all that resin and highbuild on. As it is an all day job I may not be able to do it until next Saturday so when I get time during the week I will use the time to start doing the internal tapes.

15th Oct 2006 Filling holes

After a great day catching a ferry across Broken Bay for lunch at Palm Beach (from Ettalong) I put in 2 hours in the afternoon scraping at the air bubbles, poorly adhered glass and holes to remove any suspect glass before filling them all with bog. I also filled any of those low spots that I mentioned earlier that were left (most were gone after I sanded a little further). So tomorrow or the day after I will sand these fills back and the hull will be ready for another wash down to prepare for the 2 coats of resin and the first of about 3 coats of high build. There is more sanding to come of course but the highbuild is easier to sand than the bog.

16th Oct 2006 Sanding the fill

I spent an hour sanding back all the filler that I put on the hull yesterday and it all worked very well and has remedied the problems of the glass tears and holes. It also saved me some sanding work as I  filled some of the low spots that were left so apart from sanding the fill down I don't have to sand any further and the hull has faired out well, better I think, than the Port hull and I was quite happy with that. You cant really tell until the highbuild goes on but it seems better. And everything on this hull seems to have gone better than the first which is to be expected. So apart from the chamfer turn the hull filling the hull is ready for the resin coats. I will sand the chamfer turn tomorrow.

I anticipate I will remove the temporary bulkheads this week and get started on the internal tapes. I will resin and highbuild next Saturday.

18th Oct 2006 Still more sanding

I hand sanded the chamfer turn with the pool noodle tool today. That was a tough half hour! I also filled a few more places in the hull that I thought could use some more fill including 2 more holes that I created by using the Stanley knife to remove some more suspect glass that hadn't bonded to the glass below. You can find it by running your hand along the glass and listening for a change in the sound that is made. I had considered leaving them as they will end up under a number of coats of resin and highbuild and then another 2 coats of copper epoxy as they were on the keel, but I thought better of it and filled them in.

In all there have been about 12 of these holes that I filled and that created about an hours extra work. All but 2 were on the edge of a tape, about half were under the waterline and 3 of those were on the keel near the bow. All were on the very last 100mm tapes. Not a big deal in the long run. They fill back to invisible once the highbuild goes on. These pics show what they look like filled and sanded.

 

Once I sand the final fills I did today, and give the hull another wash down I will be ready for the resin and highbuild on Saturday.

20th Oct 2006 Final preparation for resin

I spent an hour today applying the skirts to mask off the areas I don't want to resin or highbuild. The only reason that I don't want or need resin and highbuild on these sections is that they will be glassed later when the bridgedeck is attached to the chamfer and when the strip planked hull to deck curve is made at the top of the hull so there is no point in applying resin and highbuild now. After I had attached the skirts I gave the hull a final wipe down with a towel to remove the last remnants of dust ready for an early start tomorrow.

 

21st Oct 2006 Resin coats and highbuild

I had a long day today but not all of it was spent working on the boat. More than half the day was spent literally watching paint dry. I started at about 8.30am and immediately applied the first coat of resin. It took a little over an hour to apply a coat to the entire hull. I then had a 4 hour wait until the coat had sufficiently dried so that I could apply the second coat. I assume the second coat is to be sure that the hull is completely sealed by the resin, the plan calls for 2 coats so that is what I applied. So around 2pm I started applying the second coat and finished around 3.15. While I was waiting for the first coat to dry I had computer work to catch up on so I wont count the time in between coats on the man hour count.

For the technically minded, one full coat of resin is 50 pumps using the west wall pump (the same as it was on the first hull). Each pump is 0.065 kgs of resin and hardener so 50 pumps is 3.25kgs of resin. As I applied 2 coats today I added 6.5kgs of resin to the hull.

I am not sure what the highbuild weighs as I didn't have time to weigh it today, I will do so on the next coat but I assume it is slightly heavier than the resin as it has the pigment in it that makes it easier to sand. I applied the highbuild at around 6.30pm. The first resin coat had 4 hours to dry but the second coat only 3 and it was still tacky to touch. This slowed down the application of the highbuild a little and it took about an hour and a half to apply. I got the same pigment falling in the highbuild that I got on the first hull. I don't think it has anything to do with the resin being still tacky, I cant remember how tacky the resin was on the first hull when I applied the highbuild. It has no effect anyway as the next coat covers these clear streaks anyway so I didn't worry about it. I think it is just something that happens with the Penguard highbuild.

One final note on Penguard highbuild. For those that have never smelt it before, it is very overpowering and I get a headache and sometimes even nausea from it after about half an hour. I have to wear the breathing mask while applying it to avoid these side effects. I don't have this reaction to epoxy resin. This smell or vapor is also released when sanding the highbuild so the respirator is doubly needed, for the dust and the vapor.

So again I have an easy Sunday. I will check the highbuild tomorrow to see that it has cured ok but it is unlikely that I can start sanding tomorrow, as the highbuild should take a bit longer to be ready to sand. I can start on the internal tapes but I think I will have an easy day.

22nd Oct 2006 Highbuild now dry and ready to sand

I didn't do much on the boat today. I wandered in mid afternoon primarily to check that the highbuild was setting ok and to change the wheels on one of the cradles. The wheels I originally put on were supposed to be rated at 65kgs each so 4 should have given a nominal load rating of 260kgs and the weight of the hull spread over 2 cradles should have been capable of 520kgs. I guess it doesn't work that way because the wheels on the forward cradle collapsed almost immediately. I didn't worry about it too much as I don't need to move the hull around much but I had some time today and decided I wanted to solve this issue. I bought 4 more wheels rated at 75kgs each to try. The 100kgs are much bigger again, which isn't a problem but they raise the hull off the ground further and have a huge footprint that I thought they might be too big for the cradles I have but if these fail then I will have to go to them. We will see.

I am very happy with the way the resin and highbuild has gone and the tapes are a lot less visible through the highbuild this time than last time which gives me hope that the sanding will be a little easier. All I did to the hull today was to remove the skirts.

So the hope now is that I can get this coat of highbuild sanded during this week, last time it took about 4 hours per side of the hull, so if I get 3 or 4 nights in where I can sand for a couple of hours each time I should be applying the second coat next weekend. So I don't think the hull will be finished this month but it should be finished early next month. The Schionning Muster is mid month and I hope to have both hulls finished by then.

23rd Oct 2006 Sanding highbuild

I managed 2 hours of sanding (about my limit) today. I started at the bow on the inboard side. I usually like to get the outboard side done first so that I use most energy on the most important side of the hull before my enthusiasm wanes (it hasn't at all yet but I fear it will someday) but I decided it didn't matter today as this is the first of 3 coats to sand and also because I didn't have the usual energy for boat building today for 2 reasons, the Brazilian Grand Prix started at 2.45am and I had to unload a truck delivering stock to our business this afternoon, 92 20kg cartons! That's about a third the weight of our cat when finished! Anyway I managed about a quarter of the hull. So 3 more days like today and I will be onto the next coat.

24th Oct 2006 Another 2 hours of my life spent sanding!

Yes, another 2 hours of sanding and now the inboard side of the hull has been completely sanded (for this coat). I am sanding using a combination of the Bohler and orbital and the shorter long board. I cant use the longer long board I made on the inboard side of the hull because it is more difficult to use on the chamfer and you can only use half of it so its much easier to use the shorter board.

This coat of highbuild is now fairly thin having been sanded away but there are very few areas where the color of the bog below shows through, meaning that there is still a layer of highbuild over most of it.

The tapes are visible again and you can also see that some of the high spots are actually in the resin coat in the form of runs. This explains why there are some areas where the highbuild is now completely sanded away. The bog was pretty fair but the thicker areas of resin are enough to become high spots that cause the highbuild to be completely sanded away. The tapes and glass edges are visible again because the highbuild is thin. You can see them but you definitely cant feel them.

The next coats will need less sanding until the last coat will need very little sanding at all. With any luck I will have this coat sanded by the end of the week and have the next coat on by Friday so that I can sand it over the weekend and apply the final coat on Sunday afternoon.

25th Oct 2006 A productive day

I had a good day today. Whilst my arms were feeling quite sore, my energy level was high and I got the entire outboard side of the hull sanded. I took me about 3 hours. So apart from about another hours sanding on the chines in particular the curved chamfer, I am pretty much done on this coat. I may even get the second coat of highbuild on tomorrow but more likely Friday afternoon.

Tomorrow I should get the last of the sanding done then vacuum the dust and give the hull a wash ready for the next coat.

26th Oct 2006 Not much done today

I did the last of the sanding today but not as much as I thought I would need to do. I decided it would be a good idea for now not to sand the joins. I want there to be a build up of highbuild on the very edge of the chine so that I can use it to make the chines as straight as I possibly can, especially the above water chine on the outboard side. So after about half an hour of hand sanding here and there, I vacuumed the dust off the hull and gave it a wash.

I used the glossy surface of the wet hull to check for fairness by lining up the light from the ceiling and using the wet surface like a mirror and moving the reflection down the hull looking for areas that were not fair. I was very happy with the finish on the outboard side, the inboard side was not as good but acceptable (the opposite to the other hull). Remember the inboard side is not very visible as it is under the bridgedeck. So this points to an easier job with the sanding of the next 2 coats of highbuild and possibly a better result than last time.

27th Oct 2006 Second coat of highbuild on

I applied the second coat of highbuild today. It was a warm day and the coat was setting on parts of the hull while I was still applying the coat to other parts so I should have no problems starting to sand it tomorrow. More sanding, fantastic. One thing that baffled me a little was that I used more highbuild on this coat than on any of the previous 4 coats I have applied. I usually use 20 scoops of paint and 5 scoops of hardener and this is enough for a complete coat.

For some reason today I needed 26 scoops of paint and 6.5 of the hardener. That's 30% more. It may have been the heat, I don't know. I am covering a little more area as I have glassed a bit more on this hull than the last but I needed the same 24 scoops on the first coat on this hull so it took me by surprise a little. It doesn't concern me, I have enough left to get another coat done and I only need one more coat, and the difference in weight is negligible. I only mention it because it happened and I report everything.

The weather is cooling tomorrow, perfect as I plan sanding, which is not pleasant in the heat. I am hoping to get a little more than half the hull done tomorrow and the rest done on Sunday.

28th Oct 2006 Sanding second coat of highbuild

Four hours work today although only 3 of them were spent sanding. I took regular (about every 15 minutes I had 5 minutes off) breaks. I managed to sand about 3/4's of the hull. I have sanded all but the large inboard middle hull panel. I figure I have about another hour or so of sanding to finish this coat. I should be able to get the final coat of highbuild applied on Monday. I had the time and the energy to finish the sanding on this coat today but my arms were just too sore. Why push so hard when I am under no real time pressure to finish and I already feel I am ahead of schedule on this hull. I am (despite the sanding) really enjoying the build and part of that enjoyment is working when I want to and not when I don't.

Tomorrow I will do the last hour of sanding and then vacuum and wash the hull again.

I am very happy with the finish on this hull and I feel that the final coat of highbuild will barely need sanding.

30th Oct 2006 Finished sanding second coat of highbuild

I had a day off yesterday. No work, no boat building. Just a lazy day watching surfers at McMaster's beach and a burger for lunch. A great relaxing day.

Today I sanded the last section of the hull and vacuumed and washed the hull. You can see from the photo that there are very few places that the highbuild is removed completely so I am confident that the last coat will sand easily and that the hull is already pretty fair now.

Hopefully I can get the last coat on tomorrow. and sanded by the weekend. If I do I will put the copper epoxy on on Saturday. Then I will start on the internal tapes. I will turn the hull just after the muster in Mid November.

31st Oct 2006 Final coat of highbuild on

I have had a very productive month. I have just one last light sand of the hull to do until the dreaded sanding is over for a while. Whilst all sanding is hard work, this last light sand will be the easiest of all. I have applied the third and last coat of highbuild today. I really did scrape the bottom of the highbuild drum but managed to complete the coat with the tiniest amount to spare. I actually thought I might run out before I completed the coat so I decided to not coat the underwater areas until I had finished the above waterline areas figuring if I did run out, the underwater area would be next covered with 2 coats of copper epoxy so would hardly matter anyway. But in the end I just scraped through with almost none left. So out of 20 litres (16 litres of paint and 4 litres of hardener) I got exactly 6 coats, 3 per hull, 3.333 litres per coat.

Even though I still have a light sand to finish the hull, it is already very fair and this last sand will basically just make it smooth as well. (There is a very big difference between smooth and fair). And even if the highbuild is sanded through here and there it is of no consequence because this is still just an undercoat for the paint which no doubt will also have another coat of thick primer before the actual paint goes on, then a number of coats of clear gloss over that. Fair is the absence of ripples, highs and lows along the length and are acutely visible the moment the hull is glossed. So if you want to see if the hull is fair, wet it. You will soon see. The last sand uses the 240 grit paper and is more like a polish in many ways as the finish is semi gloss.

As the un-sanded last coat best shows what the hull might look like later when painted white I have included some angles of the hull to show the various chines. When sanded here and there the highbuild will be worn away and makes the finish look blotchy until it is finally painted.

In the next few days I should have given the hull its final light sand and should also be able to apply the copper epoxy anti foul coat before the weekend. I will then remove the temp bulkheads and get started on the internal tapes, the only other part of the hull build before turning it that is not yet done.

Finally for this month, Jo has added to her page, you can read her contribution here.

Time spent: 83 hours

Total build time so far: 680.00 Hours   Total Elapsed Time: 13 Months

November 2006 logs