Warren's Build Log, CAN 573

[noemar]

Warren, I have used both Quickfair and TotalFair a product by Jamestown Distributors in Bristol RI and had great results with both. Total Fair is less expensive $99.99 for a gallon kit. They advertise free shipping on all Total Boat products but not sure if same policy outside US.
In fact had great success with all of the Total Boat line of products.
Jamestowndistributors.com
Noel Martin

[Warren Nethercote]

More pain ... with a long-board this time. I am trying to 'sneak up' on a good surface to avoid having to sand gobs of compound away, but this may be the wrong approach. Only the area just abaft the stem has any significant thickness of fairing compound because of the panel distortion due to the transition from flared sides to a vertical stem.

[monsters inc]

I think that is a common spot to find fill. I am a big fan of using a serrated edge to apply your first couple coats of bog. The tops get knocked down quickly, and the next coat fills the ridges. I believe it is mentioned in the gouge on' boat building site. I wish I had tried it at the hull fairing stage , rather than at the bulb fairing! Looks great so far!

[Warren Nethercote]

Regatta season is over , with the Oakcliff Triple Crown and J70 NAs (both judging) behind me. Made major progress on the honey do list, at the expense of progress on the build, but 'happy wife, happy life.' Long-board fairing wears thin after a while so I put a first coat of InterProtect on the hull to better see minor imperfections and divots. Some spot filling tomorrow, before more sanding and Interprotect. Then build some bunks and turn it over .... thinking about bunks has also got me thinking about what the trailer should look like: I cannot be accused of serial thinking.

[Watershed]

beauty of a job , Warren
tim

[Warren Nethercote]

With winter coming approaching I decided it best to get as much InterProtect 2000E on the bottom as I could before turning the hull over. I like the way the InterProtect goes on with a short nap roller, but quelle smell! Fortunately it is still warm enough to air out the workshop after the paint kicks off. Not a job for the dead of winter ....

I was going through paint pretty quickly - about a litre a coat - so I picked up more paint and changed from grey to white for coats three and four. International recommends this colour change between coats (or the reverse) to allow easier assessment of coverage, but the white also showed a few divots that had been hidden by the lower contrast grey. Fixed those between coats three and four. With divots filled I am happy with the fairing.

[mmarkomarko]

With winter coming approaching I decided it best to get as much InterProtect 2000E on the bottom as I could before turning the hull over.

Looking good - very good!

[Warren Nethercote]

Honey does keep getting in the way, and ice-boat season is coming ....but I am building trailer bunks so that I can turn the boat over. I say trailer bunks, because 'why do it twice?' Still waiting on a trailer quote to arrive at a 'make or buy' decision.

What are people using for padding on trailer bunks? I am using 6mm yoga mat temporarily: it seems to be compatible with epoxy but is far too grippy for trailer use I think. I don't like carpet because it holds moisture (as I suspect will yoga mat). What is the high density foam or plastic that you see on trailer bunks for things like Etchells or Stars? It looks like the bee's knees.

[Warren Nethercote]

Spent some money today at North Sails Atlantic: a deposit, to take advantage of the fall specials. Dacron radial main and jib and two chutes, one of about 39 Sq.M and the other a smaller chicken chute, as yet only loosely defined (probably about 29 Sq.M). The main and jib and 39 SqM chute will draw upon the PDX designs, since I am building a PDX-style boat. We often get a solid sea-breeze in St Margaret's Bay so a chicken chute seems a better option than a monster runner.

[Chad]

It’s fun watching your progress Warren. I used yoga mat, closer to 12mm, and it’s probably due for replacement. Grippiness has never been a problem. The thicker, softer kind I used does squish a bit too much, but it works.

[Warren Nethercote]

Thanks Chad. I presume you dry-sail: do you crane on and off or wet-launch? The latter would be a better testimonial for yoga mat .....

Sometimes life gets in the way of progress, but don't complain when it's for fun. The plastic-wrapped 'thing' to the right of the hull is a spare DN runner plank that I am taking out west next week. Temperatures willing, the first DN regatta of the year will be in Minnesota, or if I am lucky, only Wisconsin, December 1 - 3. The Minnesota boys have already had two weeks of iceboating on lake Christina ('only' 80 miles short of Fargo ND). Doing a bit of a workshop cleanup to make room for last minute iceboat preparations.

I've got the bunks far enough advanced to roll the hull, but they are not finished enough for a trailer yet. Chad, Lee and Geoff all built 'roll-over rigs' to help. Most people just bribe friends with beer, but a roll-over rig might be cheaper in my case, since my build jig probably weights as much as, or more than the hull as it sits. Not to mention useful: Geoff used his roll-over rig to allow down-hand work when fairing his production plug.

I continued looking at trailers this week, and am coming closer to a build rather than buy solution. Buying would be 'easier' and not necessarily more expensive: if I build I would like to use torsion suspension to get the boat closer to the ground, and the keep the tow-car rear wheels out of salt water.

[Warren Nethercote]

Back from ice boating on North Long lake near Baxter MN. Sixty-three sailors had a welcome start to winter, but one hampered by light winds. But three days on the ice were more than worth a 7,000km round-trip.

On returning home I took a little detour on the build by whipping up a sprit receiver tube. I used a 1mm foam wrap for clearance between the receiver and the sprit, followed by a poly-something vapour barrier release layer, a carbon fiber sock and three layers of 13 ounce glass uni. I topped it with release fabric and pallet wrap. The result is a bit ugly, with some wrinkles, but it will do the job. The sprit loads are carried by the stem and bulkhead 18, so the tube just keeps the water out.

I bought some 2 by 4s and some ugly construction grade plywood to start building my roll-over jig.

[Warren Nethercote]

Now, just find a warm body or three and we'll see what the upside looks like.

[Warren Nethercote]

Milestone: never miss the opportunity to take advantage of visiting relatives! I structured the rolling frame to allow me to stand the boat on its side for more convenient access but I won't have that many visitors for a while and went straight to a full roll-over. The volume of the hull is quite apparent when stood on its edge.

[monsters inc]

Good job! Neat view of the jig. Hope to see. More soon.

[Warren Nethercote]

Make or buy decisions .... Make a trailer after Princess Auto put 2000lb torsion axles on sale for $139 CAD (per side). Now I can do detailed drawings with the axles in hand.

[Warren Nethercote]

The view is better with the build form gone. I am glad I own a hydraulic shop crane; otherwise removal of those great lumps of wooden I-joist would not be a husband and wife job.

Slow time now: lots of filleting, taping and other detailed stuff to come.

[Warren Nethercote]

Goop, swipe, scrape; goop, swipe, scrape. Oh how boring the filleting process is. From time to time you need a diversion so I made a transom knee for the rudder support. Probably a great waste of plywood and biaxial carbon given the simplicity and success of the PDX boats which seem to do very little back there. But it was more satisfying than goop, swipe, scrape ...

[Warren Nethercote]

A side effect of biaxial carbon fibre bottom sheathing is that the offcuts make really nice biax tape .... I regret not buying an Olfa rotary cutter twenty years ago.

[Warren Nethercote]

Iceboating continues to interfere - the North Americans this time - but there is some progress. Tabbing in intermediate frames in the two after frame bays.

[Warren Nethercote]

A big hiatus again. I won't say that iceboating got in the way, because life gets in the way of iceboating sometimes. I had a two-week trip to Germany and Poland for the DN World and European Championships. From a results perspective it was a regatta from hell, but I had fun and learned lots of life lessons.

I have started dry-fitting the cockpit sole in the style of Lee, to provide better panel stiffness on the topsides aft. The cockpit sole plywood will be laid transversely, while the forward part of the boat will have the sole laid longitudinally with a centreline joint. With the plywood down it appears not so much a cockpit as a dance floor.

[Warren Nethercote]

The dance floor grows ....

[admin]

Nice work, Warren! Sorta wish I'd beefed up mine similarly....

[Warren Nethercote]

The downside of the full width cockpit sole is the fit-up and inevitably some of the notches for my intermediate frames grow in width to eliminate interference. Epoxy fillets should look after that, but when is the gap too big? The solution lies in 'donut holes.' I'd saved all my cut-outs from frame lightening holes and inside radii on frames, so I had ready-made material to reduce the gaps. Probably of limited utility, and perhaps even unnecessary, but I am reminded of anti-tripping brackets in structural steel practice.

[Warren Nethercote]

Installing the cockpit sole can be frustratingly slow. You think you're ready to roll and the dry-fit tells you that it's a bit floppy. Yes, bensons and the side-tank sides will stiffen it up, but what about in the interim? I decided to attach a pair of longitudinal stiffeners under the deck, 12 inches outboard of my longitudinal bulkheads. Not a big deal, just a picky, multi-day process. With that done, tonight I coated the underside of the aft bit of sole and glued it down in one go. I will fillet and tape the perimeter later, probably after the next piece of cockpit sole goes down. The doubler backing up the joint between the two sections of sole is generous, for it will double as the backing plate for the mainsheet traveller.

The next bit of cockpit sole will get stiffeners too, but largely because of big penetrations for hatches.