2008 building logs

October 2008 Cabin roof?

This month marks the 3 year anniversary of starting the build. In early October 2005 I started making the strongback and on 24 October 2005 I started gluing the first duflex panels together on the strongback. It seems a lifetime ago and the time has flown by. Before I started I set myself a 5 year build time, and with 3 years down I still believe I can finish the boat in 2 more years or less. I am sure I will have the hull at lock up by Christmas meaning that fairing and fittings such as stanchions aside (and the mast tubes and shaped bows) the rest of the work will be fit out inside the boat or off the boat work such as rudder boxes and rudders. Many builders have told me the shell is less than half the work and whilst I don't doubt what they are telling me, I cant see how the inside could take me more than 2 years to do, including all wiring and plumbing. These builders also completely faired their boats inside and I wont be fairing much if any of the inside, I may have to fair the bathrooms as they will be painted but I still hold out hope of using linings even in the bathrooms. This month I am hoping to finally get a start on the cabin roof, if I can get it made this month I am sure to have it fitted and glued in November and also have the wrap around panels on in November to finally close the cabin in.

3rd October 2008 Still finishing cockpit?

The weather is stifling hot. It is already hitting 35 degrees and it is only the first week of October. It is going to be a long hot summer. A cool change is due tonight but it is still forecast to be 28 degrees tomorrow, which means 38 on the boat!

Today I cut 2 pieces of duflex to make into the step top. I need it to be 2 pieces or made from one piece then cut in 2 because the back of the step is curved to the curve of the curved seat front (opposite curve shape of the step front) but I need a straight edge to hinge to (you cant hinge a curved lid). So I have the 2 pieces cut and shaped correctly, well almost, I cut the back part a bit out but no matter I will glue it where it contacts then back fill with filler where it doesn't before coving and glassing it on, but before I do that I intend to de-core and back fill the 2 straight edges, the front of the back part and the back of the larger front part that will form the lid. Then I can screw a stainless steel piano hinge in to create the step and lid. The lid will be oversize at the front and have a second layer of duflex glued on to form a lip over the step front and to give the impression it is double thickness, this is what I will do to the seat top overhang all around also so it will all match.

I then set to gluing and glassing on the helm seat top all around except over the curved island that will be the ice bucket. I have not cut the lid to form the hinged top yet but I have started the cut and left it only part cut. I will complete the cut once the lid is glued on. I glued it along the forward edge to the bulkhead (BH6) and along the side edge to the seat back already glassed on and along the back bulkhead (BH7) and along the top edge of the seat front all around. I then coved and glassed the top edges along those 3 edges and attached peelply.

So tomorrow when set this shape, the seat back and seat top will form a natural girder and be very solid. I will also cove the underside of the top to the base and glass that but before I do that I will glue another strip of duflex on to make the double thickness edge I want, then (the next day) I can round it off and glass it all around to finish. I will then be able to put weight on that seat.

Provided the heat doesn't beat me, I will then move to the other side and do the port side seating then finally the rear wrap around seat to finish the cockpit, before moving on to making the cabin top. Finally!

3rd October 2008 Still finishing cockpit?

The promised cool change arrived and today we had near perfect boat building weather, it rained most of the day! Not perfect because it was still a bit warmer than ideal at about 26 degrees but not stifling and not hot sun cooking the shed. I managed to get done all that I set out to do.

I started the day with the realisation I had made the most basic of mistakes but in the most minor of ways. One of the dreaded fears of duflex boat builders is the glass an important structure before removing the peel ply. For new readers that don't know what this is, peel ply is a layer of taffeta material placed over wet glass to soak up excess resin, have the resin dry with a pre keyed surface and generally just make glassing neater. Duflex comes with peel ply pre attached and you MUST remove it before glassing to it otherwise the glass just pulls away with the peel ply, it has zero structural strength. There have been rumours or myths about people glassing or taping entire hulls with peel ply on which of course will just fall apart as soon as they attempt to roll it over. In nearly 3 years of building I have managed to avoid this most basic of mistakes. Until today. I started removing the peel ply from the port side seat top only to find a glass strip holding a but join was glassed over the peel ply. No biggie but man I felt stupid. I removed the glass (it just lifted off with the peel ply) and will re-glass the join.

I cut the panels of the port seat top down where the hatch lids would be. I then de-cored the edges of the part to be glued and glassed on as well as the top of the seat divider that will have half of its top edge exposed where the adjoining seat top will be. I will also need to de-core the seat tops that will form lids but they can be done easily anytime but the edges I did today will be much harder to get to once the seat tops that are not lids are glued on. De-coring is really easy with a portable hand router (I have a rechargeable Ryobi) with the right blade in. A few runs with the blade set to 10mm deep and the balsa pushes out with a screwdriver or chisel in minutes. Once the balsa is removed it is just a matter of back filling the slot with glue.

I attached a block on the rear bulkhead to support the seat top at its correct level position then back filled the de cored slots and buttered the seat front top edge with glue as well as the ends that butt into the bulkhead and put the top in place, screwing it down in places to hold it firm while the glue sets.

Then I started on the seat back. First I glued the small part that forms a lip on the top of the seat back in, this part wraps around the seat back and forms a mold for the kerfed back. Then I filled the kerfs with glue and ran a bead of glue along the back edge of the seat top where the back will butt into it. Then buttered all of the edges that support the seat back and finally the edge of the seat back that butts into the rear bulkhead then placed the back in position. A few screws to again hold everything in place whilst it all sets and then I squeezed more glue into the joins (because of the seat back angle there is a bigger gap at the front than the back). I ran some coves along the edges that I intended to glass and let this set a while and had some late lunch. (I started at 10am and this all took 4 hours)

 

After lunch I started glassing the seat top and back to each other. This forms a natural box girder and will support much more weight as a result. I glassed the now tacky kerfed section and then ran peel ply over the glass tapes.

I then started on glassing the underside. Along the bulkhead this space is very narrow. Coving and glassing in there was going to be difficult. I made a long coving tool out of a strip of ply by rounding the end and I managed to cove all the way in but I was not able to clean the excess coving material. Once coved I had to figure out how I was going to get glass tapes that far in without getting glue and resin all over my arm, but more importantly how was I going to defeat gravity. Glassing upside down is difficult at the best of times but in this narrow space, it was going to be a nightmare. Then I hit on an idea. I found an offcut of plastic conduit. I wet out a tape with a little more resin than normal so it would be very wet and sticky, I draped it lengthways over the conduit and using the conduit I pressed the glass into the corner. It stayed up long enough (a few seconds) for me to remove the conduit and reach in fully stretched and push the glass down more with my hands. I just barely reached the end. Of course I got resin up my arm but I got the tape on in one go without it falling which pleased me enough to accept that I would have a stick arm for a while.

I then glassed the easy part, the seat back top edge where it meets the deck. I coved it and glassed it then applied peel ply. I now have both sides of the cockpit seating glassed in from above. I need to get inside and grind the square joins round and removed glue dags before coving and glassing the inside or underside of all of these joins to finish them. I then only have the rear wrap around seat the top of which is entirely hatch lids to finish the cockpit seating.

In all this took another 3 hours. I then glued a small section of the step top that I had not done yesterday. Before I started on the cockpit today, with help from the boys I moved the strongback halves under the boat. This was some heavy lifting! With them side by side under the bridgedeck I will use them as my platform for making the cabin roof mold. Tomorrow I will start levelling the 2 halves and making the base out of ply sheets then attaching the mdf mold parts.

5th October 2008 Cabin roof finally started on

Today was a low visual impact day. I worked most of the day at setting out the first of the frames for the cabin top mold. As is usual with set up work, it is slow going (at least it is with me as I measure and measure again, level and check again...you get the idea) and little to show for it but all necessary to a good end result. The better the prep work the better the result.

I also spent a good hour having lunch in my now almost completed cockpit and daydreaming of looking out of my boat at anchor somewhere. I have only the rear seat backs to kerf, glue and glass down to finish the structure. I also have to run a rim around the cockpit seating and to backfill some more edges and hinge lids but there is no hurry for that. I am also waiting on some LED rope light arriving from China, I will be running white rope light under the rim of the entire cockpit that will shine down and illuminate the cockpit with ambient light at night, it should look fantastic. I will also have blue rope light under each of the transom steps and warm white will run around the edge of the cockpit roof liner and under the steps into the hulls. I may also run some under the roof lining in the bedrooms.

I am very happy with the cockpit layout. It is a very wide cockpit and has the open feel of a much wider beam boat. I am almost out of hardener again. I guessed how much resin was in the drum and I bought what I thought would be more than enough to use up the rest of the resin, and more than enough to finish the shell to lock up. I was out by 4 litres of hardener. I have decanted the last of the resin in the 200 litre drum and I have exactly 20 litres left but no hardener. I will have more hardener by mid week. That will be more than enough to finish gluing and glassing the rest of the shell, then my work moves inside for the furniture, where I have epoxy resin and hardener lined up, I am buying what will be left over from Nine Lives, about 100 litres, again this should be more than enough to finish the furniture.

When I eventually stopped admiring my own work and got onto the next job I started by levelling the 2 halves of the strongback to each other so that the frames can span them and stay level both across them and along the length. The legs were set for the floor of the last shed for when I made the hulls. The floor of this shed is actually better levelled than the last so the legs of each made one about 10mm higher than the other. Instead of the time consuming task of re setting the legs I decide to just pack the legs up where needed to bring the low ones up to the right height. This was a little frustrating at times, similar to when I was levelling the hulls to join them, a packer here and the level would be out there, a lower packer fixed that but meant it was out again there.

In the end I compromised on a couple of levels and got them to with 3mm and got it almost perfectly level across the 2 but slightly lower (3mm) at one end that the other. I also learnt not to worry about such discrepancies. As much as I like things to be perfect I have long learnt on a build like this that measuring to the mm is not necessary. Nice especially for the piece of mind but not essential to a good finish. The glue in places is more than double that.

Once I had the base frames level I screwed sheets of ply all the same thickness to the frames along each side to form the edge that the rim of the top will go down to and along the front. I can then set out a stringline to form the middle and to draw the shape of the top outline as a guide when planking drawn off that centreline. But before I can run the stringline I have to establish a centre and this is done by attaching the first frame halves to the jig and the line of centre of it becomes the centreline no matter if it is actually centred or not so long as all the others match it. I have decided that the most important shape of the roof is that where the main bulkhead is as this is the only point where the roof attaches to an immovable panel or shape (the edge of the bulkhead has a uni rope in it so it cant be trimmed) so it must match as close to exact as possible. If I am a little out anywhere else the panel of either to roof or the cabin sides can be pushed or pulled to match in the same way the hull sides to the curved hull to deck panel can be.

Before I could attach these 2 frame halves to the jig and get started on the mold  I traced their shape onto an mdf sheets (one of the temp bulkheads no longer required) and cut them out. The last temp molds are repeated aft of the main bulkhead to retain that final shape from there back over the cockpit. Once I had one set cut I can use them to make a couple more sets as I figure I will need 3 sets rear of the main bulkhead for the cockpit roof. I then attached planks along the bottom edge of the most rear (and largest) mold halves and screwed them at roughly square and middle of the 2 frame halves. I already knew they would be level but that didn't stop me checking and rechecking, old habits.

With that one in place all others will be measured, squared plumbed etc to that one. It doesn't matter that they are not exactly centre of the jig so long as they are all centred to and squared to each other. I did the same for the smallest and most forward of the mold halves but started to run out of time so tomorrow I will run a stringline and start measuring the rest of the mold to it at the correct spacing (the plans tell you them) and square to the stringline and square to the ply floors I have attached (because they are also level).

6th October 2008 Cabin roof frame set up

In parts of Australia today was a public holiday including where I live in Sydney but not in Melbourne where the company I work for is based so I still had to do some work but still got the afternoon to work on the boat. The work I did was to set up all of the mold frames for making the roof. I still have about 3 more to do but I have set all of the pre cut molds that came with the kit. The rear set of molds that mirror bulkhead 6 are repeated if I want the roof to continue past the rear bulkhead and over the cockpit, which I do, so I need to cut more of them out of mdf or ply and set them out at roughly 500mm centres for as long as I want to run the cockpit roof. I want to run my roof about 1800mm past bulkhead 6 so I have decided I will need 3 more frames, I have cut one set and will cut 2 more sets later this week and attach them to finish the frame to the entire size of my planned roof.

I started by setting the front frame that I had sat in roughly the correct place last night, but not before I finished the ply base so that I would mark out the curve of the front to side of the roof. The plans tell you the radius of the curves but don't show the axis of the circles that the radius is taken from, that is how far from front and side edges that the centre of the circle is. I decided to try to draw the line freehand, well not freehand but with a strip of duflex curved to where I thought the curve would go using the side edge and the point of the first frame as a guide but I was not particularly happy that I had it right. So I tried making a giant compass out of the strip of duflex. I knew the radius so I set a screw in the strip at the radial length from a marker pen in the other end of the strip and then I set about figuring where the centre of the circle would be with some trial and error. I eventually found it on one side, took measurements so that I could easily find the other side and marked out the roof front to side curve shape.

With the corner curves marked and the outside dimension known but the front and rear frames down it was just a matter of setting each frame the correct distance from the next, centred and square and level. Eventually (after 5.5 hours!!!) I had them all fixed in place. I felt very satisfied that I had got this all done today but my back was starting to hurt a little from being bent over under the bridgedeck all day!

I decided to do one more little job before knocking off for the day. I kerfed the 2 seat back panels so that I could get that final cockpit shape in. I set the saw and just cut the first kerfs by eye. I got them wrong! The panel would not bend the way I wanted it to. No matter, I just cut them correctly and it bent as I wanted so I ran some screws into the panel to just hold it in place. I cut the other side also by eye but this time at roughly the correct angles and it bent the way I wanted so I repeated screwing it into place and stood back to admire my cockpit.

I wont be gluing these backs in until the duckboard and steps are in as these shapes need to compliment or match the seat back. I have screwed them in for now so that I have a starting point from which to work when making the other side of the bulkhead at the duckboard and steps. The top of this triangular area will include drink holders set in the top and fishing rod holders. I have been tossing up whether these need to be drained but in the end I will ensure that they cant leak and let evaporation take care of any water that sits in the bottom of them.

Today was a very satisfying day. I don't need to confess that I have in some ways been putting off making this frame. Oh I had a very legitimate reason for doing so. I still have to strip plank the roof and just setting the frames under the bridgedeck bent over all day was not as comfortable as it would have been had I had space next to the boat to work which will be free in about another month or so. I would still be bent over making the frame on the floor unless I had a big table to work on but it would be more comfortable. But those that have read the whole blog would know that there are many jobs I have put off because I feared doing them, and each time when I finally got over that and did them I found the fear unfounded. But there is also a raised level of satisfaction when you successfully complete a job you have feared doing. You would think by now I would have learnt to just get on with it but fear gets us all in some ways. And we all get over them when we are ready. And the raised levels of satisfaction are rewards enough in themselves to worry about changing who I am. I write this in part for the benefit of anyone putting off starting out of fear. If you are considering building then let me tell you that you already have it within you to do it. You would not be considering it if you did not. Don't let it stop you. You wont regret it. Much!

7th October 2008 Gluing roof planks

An hour is better than nothing. I glued the last of my duracore planks long enough to strip the entire length of the roof. The roof is going to be about 100mm short of 2 full lengths glued end on end. I am short about 4 planks of finishing the roof with the duracore I have but I have some duflex that I can substitute, it is essentially the same except instead of hoop pine veneer (duracore) it has a layer of glass each side (duflex). In something like a deck, hull or cabin top, duracore (or duflex) as the name suggests is a core only and the strength, waterproofing etc comes from the skin (the fibreglass) so duracore or duflex are both balsa cores so for all intents and purposes no real difference between the 2. The entire roof will be glassed again both sides so apart from a little extra weight (because of the extra glass and resin on the duflex) there is not disadvantage (or advantage) in using duflex instead.

Once I start planking with these I will have a better idea of how much more material I need and how I use it. I will probably strip these to thinner strips to do the harder parts of the curve at the edges of the roof that curve both fore and aft and side to side and use the duflex in the middle of the roof that only has the front to rear slope to cope with so I can use wider strips. (The reason I am short is I used 2 of my planks on the dingy and the rest I used on the curved foredeck when there was a duflex panel for that in the kit!) I have posted some new Nine Lives pictures. These were taken a few weeks ago, I will take more later this week, not much visual change for a while, mostly under floor fittings and pads for mast, winches, etc.

11th October 2008 Dry fit first roof planks

There are days when at the end of it you are no closer (or in effect further) to finishing the boat than you were before you started. Unfortunately you just have to roll with them because as sure as the tide you will have them. I had one today. I may have rushed in my excitement of an new phase of the build or because of the unnecessary over caution I had in fixing the bulkhead when I first started the build maybe I over reacted and didn't take enough care in fitting the roof frames because I have a couple of lows that I have to fix. It could be that these take just half an hour to fix but as they are they will create problems later in fairing so I have to refit at least 3 of them, possibly 4.

I had the all of the provided roof frames attached to the strongback halves last Sunday night and only got time to glue the duracore planks I have left together during the week. I still had to cut and fit 3 more sets of frames the same size as the back set of frames. These frames are the full size of the roof at the rear most bulkhead (BH6 the main doorway bulkhead) and the roof follows that size and shape the rest of the way back over the cockpit so the frames are cut to the same size to achieve this. I cut up what I had left of the bottom halves of the mdf temporary bulkheads (the parts of these are still in the starboard bulkhead as the molds for the curved hull to deck panel. These were only wide enough to make the curved 1/3 edges of the frames and I ran a piece of timber (shaped to the gentle curve) along the top to complete the full size of the frame. I still have to run a torture-board over them to shape out the irregularities of my jig sawing ability!

Once I had these last 3 molds cut I attached them to the strongback frames in place. The cutting and fitting of these last 3 molds took me most of the day. Once they were in place I got the first plank and dry fit it more out of curiosity and excitement at getting to this stage than anything else. The plans say you can plank the roof with full width panels in the middle as they curve very gently across the middle (left to right) 1500mm or so and only curve dramatically fore and aft until you get to the point at the sides where they start to curve more tightly down the sides as well as the forward curve, and at this point narrower planks will be needed. The plans also say you can cut kerfs in the top face of the planks to create the curve. I tried this but found that with the kerf on the top the kerf point became a hard turn not part of a more gentle curve. This creates the need for a lot more bog and a lot more difficult and time consuming fairing job. So I cut more kerfs into the plank turned it over so that the kerfs are now on the inside of the curve and the plank curved much more evenly.

With the first plank on I noticed a dip in the roof between my very last frame and the last of the originally provided frames, so in other words over the cockpit. The dip is about a 10mm deep and about 2 meters wide and long over all. That is a lot of bog to fill (and sand!) not to mention the converse shape on the inside. It appears on first glance that it is just the most rear frame too high but I cant be sure that it isn't the correct height and the 2 in between too low until I check it properly.

Upon finding that fault I had a closer look at another area I thought looked a little out and sure enough the 2 frames in front of the last of the pre made frames have a hollow on the sides only (not the top) suggesting at first that the frame was not centred but as the hollow is both sides then it must be that I have not fit them the correct distance from the 0 datum (the front of the roof). It could be that I have incorrectly measured the distance between the frames, it is supposed to be 400mm front face to front face but I may have measured 400mm back face to front face on 2 in a row meaning the second one would be about 35mm off where it should be (the thickness of 2 mdf frames) and given that the width of the frame is relevant to where on the roof it is, this would effect the fairness of the sides of the roof.

I did not have time to properly check the frames so I will need to do that next but today (Sunday) I was asked to crew in a race and agreed so no boat work today. My first Sunday off in a long time. I woke early (guilty conscience) and briefly considered a few hours this morning but couldn't drag myself out of bed, so be it.

So in effect, because I have to re do work already done I have lost an entire weekend. I only mention it because from time to time these things happen and are not cause for concern, they are part of the ups and downs inevitable on a 5 year project.

18th October 2008 Back to the future

After a difficult week where I didn't get a single hours work on the boat I finally managed today to fix the problems with the setting of the roof frames so in effect I am back to where I was last Saturday night. In fact where I was on the 6th, 2 weeks ago! Anyway, sh*t happens.

As I said I had a difficult week that knocked my motivation around a little. I had a bit of an unexpected business setback, nothing to do with the build but sometimes life overwhelms you and it can either be de-motivating to the build or I use building to forget other problems and I get more done as I immerse myself in the build. I had time this week to do some building but I just couldn't shake my disappointment and it meant I left the build alone for the week. Totally unrelated and totally silly but I am over it now and today I got back into it.

I was not the only one with problems this week. Unfortunately there have been some problems, misunderstandings, I am not really sure the correct terminology as I want to stay neutral, with the Nine Lives build. The builders and the owner have disagreed on how long the boat is taking to finish. Whilst I am not taking sides, it highlights the importance when hiring a builder to build you anything let alone a boat, of having the exact terms set out on paper so that there is absolutely no ambiguity about what everyone has agreed to. The upshot is that the builders and the owner have parted company with a little over a months work to go, maybe 2 months (that is part of the problem, how long to go depends on who you ask and when you ask!). New painters were in looking over the boat yesterday in order to quote on how much work is required to finish and what it will cost.

I guess when building your own boat and you only have yourself to blame if it isn't finished on time!

Anyway back to today, I basically had to reset each of the frames. I started by cutting spacers to run in between each frame. I should have done this to start with, it ensures that each frame is the exact distance behind the one in front and is an additional brace to hold each frame square (provided they start square!). Each frame is supposed to be 400mm front face to front face from the next but because I have the memory of a goldfish at times I have inadvertently made some of them 400mm back face to front face and of course once you are out with one and you are measuring off the one in front then all of them become out from then on. Probably a better way to measure them out is to know the exact distance each one needs to be from 0 datum which is the way the plans set out the hull bulkheads but the roof plans did not set that out and I didn't think to add the measurements up. 

Once I had them all reset the correct distance from each other I then set about raising and lowering some so that there are no highs and lows. Last week James took a quick look at was I was doing and could see some highs and lows just by eye, so I fixed them today. The best way to ascertain which are high or low is to run a batten or straight edge along the frames that are the same height and it will instantly show any high or low, and with a batten in place screwed to the first and last frame (the ones all the same size) then lift those that were too low to the batten without pushing on it and those too high needed the frame lowered a little, this is a little more difficult but fortunately I did not have any too high just some too low.

I have run clear tape over the molds so that the planks don't stick to them when I glue the roof strips together and also around the edges on the ply base. So now I am back to ready to start strip planking the roof. Maybe I can get started on that tomorrow.

22nd October 2008 Some dry planking

Slow progress on the roof at the moment, much to my frustration. When you are building an exciting section of the boat that will dramatically alter the look of the boat, you want to finish it as fast as you can so that you get the benefits of that high visual impact. When small things get in the way and stop or slow progress it is all the more frustrating. There are 2 reasons for the delay at the moment. Well 3, a lack of time to dedicate to the build being one of them. The other 2 reasons are a lack of material. I ran out of duracore and I simply don't have enough money at the moment to buy as much as I need. I used some of it to plank the foredeck that I already had duflex for, which means I still have the duflex. I will be gluing some duflex panels together to get the length I need and then cutting that up into strips to use instead of duracore and I have some material arriving next week that will also solve this problem.  More on that once it arrives. I may also need to glass the joins in the duflex unless I build my own z joints so that the join can withstand being bent around the roof curve.

The other problem I have that is slowing me down is that I have some fairing irregularities with the frame mold that I would rather get out before I glass it so that I don't have to bog and sand the bumps out too much later. I have checked and rechecked the positioning of the frames so I cant figure out how I have the hard turn on the roof, I have also tried a variety of kerf spacing's to see if that would alter the curve but it is still there, perhaps there is no way to get around it and that kerfing is an imperfect art and eventually bogging them out is inevitable. The roof looks fine from the front and once the curves left to right start to happen on the sides of the roof perhaps this will also minimise the effect of the fairing irregularity. It is also probably only a couple of millimetres of bog to fix it but the instinct is to try to avoid that. I just want to be sure before I set it solid by gluing and glassing.

I am hoping to have this planking finished before the end of the month. And with any luck perhaps even have the top glassed. We have very cool weather at the moment and it would have been a perfect time to wet out such a large section of glassing. No doubt Murphy is watching and the moment I have glued the strips together and have ground out the excess glue smoothed ready for the glass and the heat will return!

25th October 2008 Salvaging duflex

I think I have solved the problem of the hard turn on the roof. Because the hoop pine veneer is not as strong as the glass on duflex I have been cutting the kerfs down to only about 3/4 of the way through the panel to leave a bit of strength in the board, but this is not allowing the kerfs to work properly and it is only showing at that spot because it is the biggest drop in height between frames. The rest of the roof can deal with it because the curve is gentler. I will cut these kerfs closest to the frame a little deeper to fix the problem. This is probably a good time to remind readers that I am very much an amateur boat builder and these issues are not obvious to me immediately because of my lack of experience.

I spent today doing salvaging offcuts of duflex to make long strips for planking the roof. The warm weather returned which slowed me down a little but I got a lot of strips glued and I think I have close to enough to now do most of the roof, if not all of it. I have found some quite big pieces (including the 2 pieces that were the foredeck that I used duracore on) so I glued them into one big panel about 1 meter wide and 4.7 meters long (the length of the roof). I am thinking I might kerf the front of this panel in 1 piece (Hans idea, thanks Hans) as this section is almost flat across the middle. The 2 pieces that would have been the foredeck were about a meter short for the roof so I had to cobble together a few other pieces. These will end up over the cockpit and at the front where the kerfs will be is one piece with no joins. Joins tend to be weak points but more importantly hard points in the curves. So I should get the curve right even thought I will have one panel a meter wide across the middle.

Then I will use the existing duracore planks either side of the centre duflex panel, then finally all of the thin duflex I have been extending. These are the long tab panels that made up the edge of sheets. I will strip these down into 40mm strips to go around the tighter side curves.

So with any luck, tomorrow I might have some progress on the roof to show. I really thought I would have had the roof finished by the end of the month. I still have a good couple of weeks to go on it. Once I have the roof fully planked I still have to sand back the glue then glass the outside, turn it over, sand the inside before glassing the inside. Then before I fit the roof to the boat I have an idea that I might make a glass panel using the inside of the roof as a mold while I have it upside down. This panel will become a roof liner. My idea is to put a sheet of plastic down inside the glassed roof pr some other kind of mold release, then lay a couple of layers of wet glass down to set, then when removed it will be an exact fit to the saloon roof. I will then cut it into say 3 more manageable pieces and then upholster them. My thinking is that these will be quite lightweight panels and can be attached to the roof using automotive Velcro.

26th October 2008 Finally gluing roof planks

An early morning start (7am) was needed today and I am glad I did because by noon the shed was hot again but fortunately working under the bridgedeck is actually a few degrees cooler so I soldiered on until 3pm making 8 hours for the day. I also had a few visitors through the day meaning I lost a little time chatting with them. I would have preferred to work another hour and get the last of the duracore planks onto the roof but it now has to be striped and the rest of the roof striped with 40mm strips as I hit the big curves on the side. It gets very tight at the front as the strip wants to twist as you try to achieve the curves side to side and fore and aft. I was tired and hot and this next bit is tricky so I thought as keen as I was to get it done, it would be better to be fresh and thinking straight to get a good job of it.

What I did get done was to plank a little over half the roof from the centre out each side. The roof is about 4.8 meters wide and I have about a meter to do each side. I started by cutting the excess duflex off on one side to make it a parallel plank. I then kerfed the panel, in the end I probably over did it on the kerfs. When I dry fitted the panel it wanted to sag between some of the frames and I had to use the duracore planks either side to keep the shape. I also had a pine brace on the back to stop the kerfs from folding forward and snapping at the glass. The space under the boat is not quite enough to turn the 1 meter wide panel over (I need it upside down to apply the glue to the kerfs) and almost cut it in half but decided to go ahead with it in one piece and I am glad I did, I had room to pull it forward to turn over, I filled the kerfs with glue, turned it back over and attached it to the frames. I left one of the duracore planks attached so that I could butt up against it to ensure it went on square and to regain the correct kerf shape where the duflex wanted to sag a little, using pine tabs to pull it up or push it down flush where needed. I have also taken out most of the hard turn with deeper kerfs but that comes with its own problems as occurred later on a duracore plank. I had filled the kerfs with glue and had turned it over and placed it on the frames but with only a mm of balsa the pine veneer tore under the plank weight and almost completely broke in half, a nightmare to fix as it causes a hard turn at the break. But because it had just hung on and I caught it before it completely broke I was able to gently fix it in place and back fill the tear with glue and get some long screws from the panel along side into it to hold the curve shape while it sets.

Now that I am at the sides where the curve down gets more acute I will have to cut the remaining duracore planks into strips and to strip the rest of the duflex offcuts into strips and strip plank the roof in the same way I did the hull to deck curves.

I have been waiting to get this roof done for many months and am really happy to finally have something to show for it. After a few false starts this month I finally have some planks glued. I was disappointed to stop today but on reflection it was probably better to stop here then sand the joins when they set from along side the planks each side whilst still standing on the ground rather than when the roof is complete and having to climb onto the roof to get to the centre joins to sand them. I want to avoid putting my full weight on the roof until it is glassed. Patience is definitely a virtue when building sometimes.

The next task of stripping down the planks and offcuts will take a day or 2 then I can glue them on to finish planking the roof next weekend. Perhaps if I am lucky I may get to finish the strip planking before the weekend and spend a day next weekend glassing the top.

30th October 2008 Still on roof planks

I forgot to mention last week, on the 24th I passed a milestone, I passed the 3 year anniversary of the start of actual boat building. I made the strong back in early October 2005 and on 24/10/05 I glued the first of the panels together on the strong back. I originally set myself the goal of finishing the boat in 5 years, so Oct 2010. I am sure I will achieve this. My current thinking is that 2 more years is my worse case scenario and another year is my best case but the most likely outcome is finishing around March 2010, 18 months from now. I am still hoping to have the boat at lock up by January (minus windows and doors) and then working inside the boat all of 2009 and then fairing and final finish starting late next year. I also think, if business improves or to be more precise if we have no more business disasters, that I will hire some help to fair and paint the boat which would save me about 6 months of normal build time. 3 different builders have told me that fairing can take up to a whole year on your own. So if I get a crew in and it takes them 2-3 months then I will be very happy to save 9 months of really hard work.

I have not had as much time to work on the boat as I would have liked this week, but I did get a couple of hours today. I stripped some more of the duflex offcuts ready to glue down on the weekend. I have enough material now to finish most if not all the roof now. I still have some more shorted pieces to glue together which I will do tomorrow so that they are set for use on Saturday. I really should have done them today but I didn't so tomorrow will have to do. I also cut some mdf to the radius of the curves on the front of the roof to help with the shaping and bedding down of the planks.

Tomorrow I will also sand the glue from the roof so that it is ready to be glassed. I will still have to glue the planks on the side and then sand them back once set but I can do them from the side. I have put my full weight on the roof to get the screws out, and will need to again to back fill those holes (tomorrow) then once more to touch these up with the sander just before glassing, and I will probably find it easier to wet the glass out by getting on it and working from the middle out by pouring resin onto the top then spreading it around with a squeegee and rollers. I will probably also spread a thin layer of bog onto the glass once it has tacked off but whilst still green.

I doubt I can get that done this weekend but you never know. If I do get it glassed on the outside by Sunday night then I should have it turned over and started on the inside the next weekend and by the end of November I may have it up on the boat. I still have to fair the top, which is a pretty big job but the bulk of the roof is flat so I think I can get it done around then. That will give me December to get the massive saloon wrap around onto the boat.

31st October 2008 More work on roof planks

Today was a 35 degree day. By mid afternoon I guess it to be 40 in the shed at floor level and 45 at deck level. Fortunately I am working at floor level. I am hoping for a cool change soon as there is no way I can wet the roof glass out in such heat, the resin goes off fast meaning you have to work fast which is hard to do in the heat.

As I predicted yesterday, I glued the last of the duflex offcuts into long planks today and sanded the glue dags off the roof. You have to have a smooth surface to glass to for 2 important reasons, first the dags catch on the glass as you try to position it causing threads to pull which in turn causes lumps in the wet out, they smooth out but it is more work, but more importantly dags cause voids to form under the wet glass causing air bubble. These are more of a problem so having a smooth surface to glass to is very important.

I also managed to glue another plank onto the roof, so I now only have about 900mm either side to do but all of this will be thin planks and more difficult work as the roof curves both ways. Tomorrow I will strip the planks down to 30mm - 40mm and glue them down. If it is also hot I may use the same method I used on the side decks, that is leave a paddle pop stick gap between each plank and then squeeze glue into the gap without removing the planks. The planks are not as long so buttering them is not so much of a problem but if it is hot you really have to get the glue on fast if you don't want it setting hard before you get the plank back down!

I am a bit disappointed that I am back to working 66 hours a month after a few months of 80 plus hours. I really have to keep getting 80 hours each month if I am to get the boat finished within the 5 years. I missed nearly 2 full weekend days this month so with them I would have been in the 80's so I worked the correct amount for the rest of the time. I just have to avoid missing days now.