i550class.org

Thanks for the picture Phil, Great that you have her out sailing. Sorry can't help with the sideways picture problem.

Man...I've just glued down the cockpit floor and returned to office sleepy-eyed...
I noted that flexibility during dry-fit, therefore I've glassed the cockpit undersides from F124 to transom with 6oz glass-cloth.
It still does flex a little (me of all 125 lb...).
I have long thought of accomplishing the floor rigidity with bensons spanning across F124 and F169.

Please advice/comment if I really need to do some "underground" reinforcement.
Not easy. Need to start training squirrels to apply epoxy......

lohwaikin wrote:
Not easy. Need to start training squirrels to apply epoxy......

...or enlist your smallest child?

...consider I didn't say a thing,, should be fine with light people,especially with extra glassing on the underside.

...I'm 220lbs,,6'3'' tall!

..Phil,,congrats!....nice glossy cabinside!

I glassed in my bensons, and they stiffened the cockpit sole very well. I also omitted the stringer under the edge of the cockpit- once that angle to the cockpit side is glassed, it gets very stiff and makes the corner stringer redundant.

Chad wrote:I glassed in my bensons, and they stiffened the cockpit sole very well. I also omitted the stringer under the edge of the cockpit- once that angle to the cockpit side is glassed, it gets very stiff and makes the corner stringer redundant.

..don't have one there either--have biax both sides,,,but have a stringer ~8'' inside,where the hiking straps mount,and another ~7'' off the centreline.

..yeah,I expect a solidly glassed benson will add some rigidity

..Loh,,judging by your hull #,,,you're definitely making fast progress!

Try this again....let's see here...

Phil,
I see Spinlock line-clutches on the cabin top.
My intent is to use 38mm cam-cleats, or even 27mm ones, or maybe even V-cleats (which I bought about 8 pcs from eBay accidentally....).
Can you feedback what's the line loads (downhauls, cunninham, outhaul, reef) like on your next sortie?
Thanks,

I don't think that the line loads are all that high on the boat and I believe that most people use cam-cleats. I chose the Spinlocks because I like the way the lines always have some clutching action (unless you put the levers all the way back), they can be released under any load, and because they are nice line organizers. They are a bit of an over-kill on this boat. I have the Cunningham, the jib halyard, and the spin halyard on the starboard side and the main, outhaul, and vang on the port side. The vang will be replaced with a gnav sometime soon.

Phil

#381 looks great as seen on the home page too.

I use harken 150 cam cleats for the halyards with no problems. I had a sheeting angle issue from the turning block at the mast step to the cleat which which was causing a little slippage. I resolved this by moving the turning blocks down to the cabin top.

As for cockpit sole stringers, I have a single down the middle from 124 to 214 and then a benson on each side and the floor is plenty stiff for my 220 lbs. The cockpit side to sole joint is very solid too, no need for extra weight there.

Kevin.

Phil,
Do you mind emailing me a higher resolution of the "Boat_in_Fog" photo in your blog?
I want to print it out in 6"x4"photo paper and place it on my office desk.
That'll motivate me to get serious on my boat.
Thanks.

Sure. What e-mail address should I send it to? You can send a private message on this forum if you don't want your e-mail on a regular post.

Phil

All my frames and stringers are in aft of the companionway. Going to start putting the cockpit floor and sides in soon. Front bulkhead needs to be glassed in then build my articulating setup. Then i can deck the front and put the cabin on. Hoping to have the boat sealed up by jan.

here is a picture from my buildy blogg (http://www.nbayracing.com/i550Build.htm)...in it I talk about my temptation to just paint the damn thing but I reckon i'd better Do The Right Thing and get it closer to perfect, key word being "closer." I have adopted the strategy of longboarding to an internal chant of: "D-F-L...D-F-L...D-F-L" which provides a bit of motivation....sort of.

Nothing blog worthy from me yet. I put the first coat of paint on the deck this morning, and let's just say my new spray gun and I are getting to know each other. I'll be doing a wee bit of sanding before the next coat...

Hah, oh boy, that made me laugh. Do I ever feel your pain on that one!

I learned the hard way that, contrary to what the label says, Baltoplate actually can be thinned to the consistency of Apple Juice.

Yeah, with my other gun it worked best to use the slow thinner. I'll be changing to the quicker stuff, fitting a swivel to the hose, etc.

Should I knock down the gloss for the deck? It's ridiculously glossy now, and I'm not putting any nonskid on the foredeck to block the reflection...

Chad wrote:Yeah, with my other gun it worked best to use the slow thinner. I'll be changing to the quicker stuff, fitting a swivel to the hose, etc.

Should I knock down the gloss for the deck? It's ridiculously glossy now, and I'm not putting any nonskid on the foredeck to block the reflection...

....quicker ,cheaper to get some darker sunglasses,no?

Glossy it is then!

(like I needed any persuasion)

Hell yes, keep the gloss...looks like a real pro-fesh-shun-ally made yacthett that way. I think mine will look more like summer camp....

gloss shows more flaws, more clearly... I'm outta paint until Tuesday anyway, so I have time to block everything down and have one more go at it. Going to finish the boom this weekend as a break from all this sanding and toxic painting. Carbon dust, yay!

It can't look any worse than my crappy paint job on my decks. I tried the less glossy approach and that basically made it not cover as well. Some day I'll go back and fix that. But right now, I just want to patch where I need to so she's ready to go in the spring and add some non-skid granules to the cabin top. That's a slippery place when wet with not much to stop you from going right in, I didn't go in, but it was touch and go for a minute or two.

k.

Chad wrote:gloss shows more flaws, more clearly... I'm outta paint until Tuesday anyway, so I have time to block everything down and have one more go at it. Going to finish the boom this weekend as a break from all this sanding and toxic painting. Carbon dust, yay!

...sounds like you've got a good opportunity to do a 2 tone paintjob--leave gloss sections on edges,,just sand where you want the tread,,mask,and go!....a darker color tread works better

I've got a chance to go sailing this year if I hurry, although that would mean undoing a lot of the deck hardware if I want to make it better over the winter. Balancing priorities here, maybe leaning on the sailing side of the scale just a little though.

Have two tone planned (see blog for current paint idea), but the 2nd color doesn't help in the areas I want better. I've laid out the patterns for the hydro turf, so that will help with areas that don't need additional coats (or sanding), which makes the paint sequence more manageable as well. Easier to keep a wet edge that way.

Boom cut to length today, outhaul sheave fitted, gooseneck receiver tube going in next.

I found that having a the goal of going sailing on a specific date was tremendously helpful in getting through the (many) punch-list items. I left a lot un-done and realized that I might have to make changes later. Interestingly, the things that I have to re-do aren't necessarily the ones that I thought I would have to take care of later. I have a ton of items to work on over the fall/winter/spring that I didn't get to, but I'm really glad that I launched before everything was done.

Phil

I feel like setting a date is a good plan. Just making sure its realistic and you don't set it to early in the process or you will cut corners.