2010 building logs

September 2010 Nose cones and moving boats

After 3 years sitting where it has the boat is about to move for the second last time on land (well perhaps it will be back on land at some point via a travel lift for maintenance). The fairers want to get started but in order to to that they need the nose cones on, but in order to do that I need the boat turned. Because the boat is at its longest from the port bow to the starboard stern and that length is slightly longer than the shed is wide, I have to turn the boat 90 degrees so that it is side on to the shed before the nose cones go on. I have about 200mm to spare before the noses are on. The noses are about 400mm so you dont need a math degree. So over the next few weeks work will centre around getting the hulls finished so the fairing can commence.

Sep 1 Dagger cases glassed to decks.

Well another season has come and gone. Pureseal second test plate (remember first test was an abject failure) has now been in the water 3 months short of 3 years. And it continues to impress me by continuing to do its job. As happened last year, a huge storm blew through a week before the end of Winter and when I went down to check on the plate it was dangling high and dry after the deeper water from the storm surge enabled the cord to tangle high up the pier pylon so that after the storm the water receded to a more normal height leaving the panel swinging in the wind for a couple of days. I am not sure if this had any effect but the plates were almost already clean and as usual just a light rub with my finger cleaned off the algal growth and a flick with my nail lifted off the few tiny starts of crustacean life that had managed to lightly adhere to the surface. I say lightly because it took no effort at all to remove them and no tools.

As impressed as I am with Pureseal I am still concerned by 2 issues with it. The first panel was a complete failure. I have 3 tins of the stuff, but I am not 100% sure it is the new stuff or the old stuff, nor do I know if 9 liters is enough to give each hull 2 coats, nor do I know if I can get any more for subsequent coatings because only more of the same can go over it or else a full sanded removal is necessary and if I cant re-coat it I am not sure 3 or even 5 years is enough life from it. If after 5 years I could recoat this stuff with a minimal clean up I would be happy to use it. But I cannot get an answer on availability from the manufacturer. Their website is still up but I get no reply to emails. Next step is to try ringing them. They are in the UK. But I will have another year of testing before I get to that decision making crunch time.

Some of you may have noticed that the website was down for a week and reverting to an older version ending in Feb 07. This for some reason is the file the web host has as a back up whenever their main server is down, and what's more it seems to have a virus in it. I answered a question about setting up a website and I noted on it that I only pay $1 per month for hosting and they are pretty reliable, and apart from being down for a week a year ago they were good. Well Murphy read that and down went my site again with exactly the same problem as last time. I still cant really complain given I pay about $30 a year to own the domain name and host the site.

One of the tasks I have put off for a while is glassing the dagger case tops to the decks. Not for any particular reason just that it is not a particularly glam job or visually rewarding! But every job has to be done sooner or later and often it does not matter if it is later but sometimes other jobs cant proceed until they are done. So it is time that this job must be done.

As with the hull to case glassing I de-cored the case edge and replaced the core with uni rope but unlike the hull I did not decore the deck panel edges also (on the hull I de-cored the hull panel edges around the cut out and filled them with uni as well as the case edges, just to be safe).

I made the uni too big for the de-cored edge when wet and rolled up (I did not allow for the resin, I rolled one dry to size it and it fit but of course soaked in resin it was too big) but this turned out to be a blessing in disguise because it game me an idea to make the edge more rounded (a sharp edge is impossible to glass) and of course the edge is hard to make round before it is glassed. So by having to unroll some of the rope and cut off about 200mm of it I decided that rather than waste it I would use it instead of double bias which although already cut to length could be used on other taping jobs. And because the uni was running in the same direction as the edge it worked around the corner beautifully to make the glass hold all the way around what was otherwise quite a sharp edge. I even hit upon the idea of allowing some of the uni rope to remain unwound from the rope and drape over the edge to further ease the sharpness of the edge. I had to be careful not to apply to many layers of glass because the tolerances of the dagger and the case are not huge, so I dont want to close the hole over so that the dagger no longer fits into the case, and of course I wont know for sure until I try to slide them in again but I am not worried, in fact the opposite, I had worried for a while I may have made them too loose and would need to fit carpet into the top and bottom to tighten them. I may still need to do this. And if on the very very slim chance they now fit too tight I know my daggers are a bit over-size and can be faired down even further to fit again.

The daggercases have a slot for the ropes used to raise and lower them to fit into and at the top of the outside slot is fitted a pad eye for the rope to end at and be tied off. I do not want a through deck fitting so I will make a solid glass pad eye that will fit into the slot de-cored on the 120mm panel that forms the outside daggercase wall. I have de-cored it much deeper than the uni rope troughs so that I once I make the glass pad eyes they can be buried deep into the slot and glued and glassed in.

I have been attempting to source insulation for lining my fridge. This has proved a difficult task. Well actually sourcing it is not the problem, I can get plenty of it but not at a workable cost. The conventional wisdom on fridges and freezers is that you need an insulation value of R20 around the base of a fridge and R25 around the base of a freezer and a little less (R15 and R20) from about half way up the walls (because cold air falls therefore will want to leak out of the bottom rather than the top of a fridge or freezer) and about R10 for the top and lid. Polyurethane is the most effective foam for this. There is a manufacturer that makes foam panels that a lot of boat builders use to make furniture, that has excellent R value of R6 per 25mm (they only make up to 25mm thickness) but it is $440 per 1200mm x 2400mm panel and because I need R25 across the bottom (1300mm x 600mm) it means 4 thicknesses and 1300mm x 900mm walls x by 2 of them by 2.5 thicknesses and 2 end walls 900mm x 600mm by 2 by 2.5 thicknesses and 2 thicknesses across the top of 1300mm x 600mm. All that adds up to 9 sheets, which at $440 each adds up to way way too much. $4000 in fact. Add that to the $3500 for the eutectic workings and you have a very very expensive fridge/freezer. Super effective where power on a boat is an issue. There is other polyurethane foam available that is not a thermally effective but nowhere near as expensive and it made in thicker sheets (100mm or 150mm) where it approaches R15 for 100mm or R20 for 150mm but it is still $200 per sheet and I would need perhaps $1500 of foam but that is still a $5000 fridge/freezer.

Which brings up a different cost benefit analysis. Because I have galley up I dont have the height for a domestic single unit fridge freezer so I am confined to under bench top height bar fridge units.  If I bought a side by side set of domestic bar fridge and bar freezer for less than $1000 for the pair I would have $6500 to invest in a deeper battery bank and more solar panels and bigger inverter. You can buy a lot of power management for that much money. Perhaps the domestic units would be far less efficient and wear out fast in the marine environment but at $400 each they would be virtually disposable and simply replaced if and when they fail. But running 2 units is not as efficient as running 1, even if you could turn the freezer off when not on passages etc. No, I dont like this idea.

So a compromise is needed. One that is not as inefficient as running separate fridge/freezer domestic units.  Or not as expensive as making my own fridge. And the compromise solution is a production marine fridge. I have found one that suits my needs perfectly. It fits under a standard height bench top and is smaller than the space I have set aside for the fridge because ready made fridges do not use anywhere near the thickness of insulation. Because I have space I fit a ready made unit into a box that is also foam lined. In other words insulate the fridge itself to add some efficiency. This is the unit I will buy. They are about $3000 wholesale and $4000 retail but I have boat builders that can buy them wholesale for me.

And I will also have a 300mm x 600mm x 900mm space to one side of the fridge (to port) to add another cupboard. The space will be between the new fridge side and the electrical cabinet down in the port hull. Jo and I have decided that this is a great place to put a slide out rubbish bin. Our galley is compromised for cupboard space because of the bathroom being directly below most of it so this solves another problem that had been worrying me. I will have it slid out into the stairwell. The slide out is to make changing the plastic bag that would be suspended in it more easily and for dumping larger items into it, smaller items can be scraped or dropped through a flap in the bench top above it.

I am supposed to be concentrating on getting the outside of the boat ready for fairing, which included getting the dagger case tops glassed. Check. And making the nose cones, and preparing the boat for rotation before I can glass them on, and getting the sterns ready for the steps to be glassed in so that the sides are completed ready for fairing. But I have been stepping into the hulls only plastic milk crates for years and every now and then you catch an edge on them and they tip. I am really fortunate that in the dozen or so times this has happened to me I have not broken an ankle or hit my head or arm hard. I have the starboard steps glassed in because I fell once too often and I tripped again last week and decided time was up to get the steps finished. We take steps for granted and people that climb in and out of the starboard hull down give them a second thought, but I often catch myself thinking how nice it is not to worry about being careful where I step so as not to tip the crate over. So I have made finishing the port steps a priority.

As usual I started by setting out the shape options with cardboard stencils with blocks under them to see if the footfall works and the shapes work aesthetically. The top step is not really a step, it is just a shaping piece to make the top step match the rest of the the steps. You have to be careful not to draw people too far into the well to the point where they hit their heads on the cabin side if you make the top step too deep but otherwise it is just a matter of creating the shape. Two of the steps have been glassed in for some time, the 2 steps on the chamfer panel. Under the bottom of the existing steps I needed to convey conduits across the stairwell to take water pipes and power from the front of the boat where the water and power is to the bathroom, kitchen and laundry (behind the shower). I will have an escape hatch on the other side of the bathroom wall adjacent to where the top 2 steps come out so the best place for the conduits is the step on the edge of the chamfer to hull panel corner. Fitting them was a simple matter of cutting the holes out with the die grinder and router bit and glassing them in in.

Once I had the shaped decided on, as with the starboard hull, it is a matter of cutting the shapes out of duflex, de-coring the front and filling before glassing them in. Setting the step shapes was more difficult in this hull because the stairwell is further forward in the hull than on the other side, bringing it out directly opposite the dagger case instead of to the space behind the case. That meant that the space between the bottom step and the edge of the case is a little less in this hull than the other. In the starboard hull the space is 500mm, but I could only manage 400mm in this hull. It is the narrowest point in the boat. Fortunately it does not feel restrictive because the well is wide and feels open so it is just the walkway at foot level that is narrow.

Because of the size of the bottom step it needs a web under it as well as a kickboard to hide it all. And as with the kickboard under the starboard bottom step, it was just a matter of kerfing the inside and screwing it to the underside of the step a set distance (30mm) from the edge so that it set at the same shape as the front contour. I put a sheet of plastic between it and step as I did not want it stuck to the step as I need to be able to get behind it to glass the step and webs in then the front will be glassed on from the outside only (because you cannot get to the inside) as a fascia. The fascia is glassed in so the appearance of the kerfing is not important so I full and glass it fairly quickly.

Sep 21 Access holes cut into 0 bulkheads.

I have been preparing the shed and the boat to rotate the boat. I have cleared up down one wall but I still have to clear the other wall, which includes removing some of the long bench I have built and to further complicate that job, I have used the space under it as a place to hoard long lengths of timber and other junk (yes I know, I am going to have to stop being a hoarder) so first I have to clean that up.

Using the pallet jack I have raised the boat off at each corner to remove the chocks from under the cradles to see if the wheels that were up to the task when the cradles were used to move the hulls into position prior to joining but I pretty much knew they would not be up to the job now. I have beefed up the cradles but the wheels will need to be replaced. They are only rated to about 50kgs each but I am going to need 200kg rated wheels. With 4 on each cradle and 4 cradles means a carrying capacity of about 3200kgs and even that might not be enough when the boat is fully finished and being removed from the shed so it is pointless not making them strong enough now. So I have to find some suitable wheels for the cradles before I can continue. If I cannot find them soon, I will use the temporary method we used to move 9 Lives out, they are a heavy duty dolly but uni directional, so each time you want to change direction you have to jack the boat up and change the orientation of the dolly. I would prefer to fit multi directional (castor) wheels so you can just push the boat in any direction needed.

In the meantime I will continue with the work needed to finish the noses before the nose cones go on (later after the boat is turned). This work includes cutting access holes in bulkhead 0 in order to get inside between bulkhead 0 and 1 in order to glass the inside of the side deck to the inside of bulkheads and to the deck and hull. Once this glassing is done, and the dust inside this section is cleaned up (I didn't do it before putting the side decks on) knowing I would have to access the space from lower after the access holes were cut in. After that I will put some uni glass in the very bottom of the hull to beef up the keelson. Another task will be to glue a ply pad to the space between the end of the forebeam and the side deck. I am not 100% sure why the plans call of this, perhaps to ensure that should the boat flex that the forebeam cannot print through the hull side, but I cant imaging that this could happen, there is an awful lot of glass holding the beam to the bulkhead each side. Anyway, the plans call for it and it is an easy enough task.

The final task will be to add a ply pad to the inside of the bulkhead to beef it up where a stainless steel strap (8mm x 50mm x about 250mm) with 3 12mm holes drilled into it. 2 of the 3 holes are to bolt it to the bulkhead so that it protrudes out onto the deck revealing the 3rd hole at the top as a mounting point for a forestay sail. Whilst the masts are unstayed, the sail plan can include foresails, either small self tacking sails or larger overlapping genoa type sails. On a beam reach the windward sail blankets the lee sail so another option would be to run just one main and a foresail on either the same or opposite hull. Also if the sailing calls for lots of tacking a foresail makes tacking a little easier so whilst they may not be used often, the provision to have them has to built in. The plan will be for them to be on flying furlers, and stowed furled, then you deploy them by attaching the halyard to the top corner of the sail and the bottom corner gets attached to the eye I am fitting then the sail is unfurled, the opposite to stow it again. Pretty simple really. And I figured the most effective way to attach the pad eye was a stainless steel strap bolted to the bulkhead beefed up with ply pads each side. But because the bolts wont be accessible once the access plate is back on I am going to have to glue the bolts in from the inside and apply the nuts from the outside before glassing the nose cones on.

So with the base plate angle changed to 45 degrees and with a roughly marked out cut mark I cut the access holes into bulkhead 0. The angled cut enables the piece to be fitted back in very easily (if you cut square to the face you wont be able to hold it back in without adding a rim plate behind the cut, not impossible but extra work for no gain) and the other thing it does is ensure the cut-out cant fall in, it can only fall out.

With the access fronts off the space I had covered over a few months ago was opened again. I had trimmed the forebeam down before attaching the side deck leaving enough space to fit a ply panel between the end of the beam and the inside of the hull sides. When trimming the forebeam I dropped pieces of beam into the space but did not worry too much about it then as I knew I would be cutting the hole which would get me closer to the bottom. But it is still too deep and narrow for me to reach the base so with a combination of vacuum cleaner and screw on the end of a stick I got all but a few hard blobs of glue and one last piece of cedar when pushed hard on it with my stick with a screw through it and bugger I broke the screw off. Anyway, either a magnet will get it or I will put a piece of glass over it and pour some resin in to glass it to the inside of the boat so it cant move. I had always intended to put some wet glass into the bottom of the very tight V to act as a keelson anyway so it will just cover over any last bits and pieces in there!

I should be able to get glass to the joins and have the ply pads cut to shape and glued in this weekend, and get the fronts back on. Or at least be ready to glass the fronts on once I bolt the stainless steel stay plate.

Sep 25 All glassed behind 0 bulkheads.

I was able to borrow a special tool for picking up things in difficult places, it has a syringe like plunger at one end along a flexible line it pushes out retracting fingers that when pushed out widen and when released pull back closing to grab hold of the thing you are trying to pick up. I got that screw that broke off as well as the piece of cedar that I was trying to get when the screw broke off. I may need to use it again tomorrow as I dropped some blobs of coving putty that will harden into pebbles and if they dont stay stuck may rattle around in there. Nothing serious though, they are very lightweight and cant do any harm, it just annoys me knowing they are loose in there.

The plans call for ply pads between the end of the forebeam and the inside of the hull deck panels. It was quite a task just trimming them enough so that the ply would fit and what's more, because of the curve of the hull both fore and aft and up and down further complicates getting a flat ply pad in and the space filled. The up and down was fixed easily enough, I cut a couple of kerfs in the ply pad and the curved hull fore and aft I ended up needing a double thickness of ply on the forward edge of the beam to fill it up then the rest was filled with glue and glassed over.

Before I did that though I glassed the rest of the unglassed joins inside the front section. I think that designers have a wicked sense of humor or perhaps they know how much people will enjoy these boats that they make us work hard for it. Glassing the curved hull side to the flat bulkhead (curved to flat means bunching on the flat section and stretching on the curved section) through a small opening, working blind because you can only get your hands through and not your head and upside down would have to be about as hard as boat building gets. I bet designers have a chuckle to themselves whenever they think about us builders having to do this.

 

Once all the glassing was done I coated the play pads with resin and stared wedging them in between the hull side and forebeam then coved and glassed them in. I used a number of smaller pieces of glass first then once I had the ply completely glassed over and onto both the beam and the hull side I finished them with longer thinner tapes completely sealing the forebeam to the hull sides. All that was left to do was glue and glass the ply pads for the foresail stay plate in place. Again these were pre-coated in resin and then glassed to the inside of the bulkhead. The glass is just to hold it in place until I drill the holes and the bolts go in. The resin coating of the pad is probably not required, it is a dry cavity, if I get water in there I have much bigger problems than water causing rot in the ply pads.

Sep 28 Bulkhead 0 closed again.

Thankfully no-one will ever see the glassing inside bulkhead 0. Whilst it was stuck down and is effective, I have a lot of very sharp jagged edges in there. But I always knew it didnt have to be pretty it just had to be effective.

I replaced the front bulkhead pieces dry and using the stainless straps as templates I drilled my bolt holes. Unfortunately my drill only takes 10mm bits and the bolts are 12mm so I needed to use the drill to ream the holes out a little, no biggie but not as neat or tight fitting as a 12mm hole. I had already de-cored and backfilled a 25mm area through the duflex around the hole so what I will do when ready to bolt the strap on and glass it all closed is fill the drill holes with glue again before putting the strap back on and tightening the nuts.

I suppose you are wondering how I plan to tighten the nuts with no access to the bolts? I have glassed the bolt heads to the inside ply panel is how. I put a big dob of glue in the middle of a 100mm square piece of glass and positioned the glue over the bolt and pushed it all down with the glass and let it set. This should hold the bolts enough to get them tight enough that the washer inside starts to get serious grip of the ply pad. The bulk of the load that this strap needs to handle is away from the bulkhead so the combination of the bolts and some glass across the strap should handle that load with ease. And the glass each side ensure the nut and bolt cannot loosen over time.

Next step will be to glass the front of bulkhead 0, then glass the ply pad and s/s strap on then I can start on making the shaped bows. As mentioned I cant attach them until the boat is turned but I can make them in readiness. In the meantime I am looking out for dolly wheels capable of handling 250kg each (one for each corner of each of the 4 cradles = 16 x 250kg = 4000kgs) or 4 really serious dolly wheels of 1000kg each and I will make a single bigger dolly about 2 meters square that can the boat can sit on from the underside of bridgedeck.

As usually happens with boat building timing, the fairing or the window workers have not started yet. The fairing is waiting for me to get the nose cones in, but the window guy has just been held up on other jobs. After the fantastic progress last month, this month has slowed again, but I guess progress is never linear and each task completed gets me that little bit closer to launch.