Warren's Build Log, CAN 573

[Warren Nethercote]

I have been making some progress on varied fronts (aka, running pillar to post).

I finished off the forward deck beam and sheathed the forward bits with 2 laminations of left over 3mm Okume so that I could camber the breasthook, but then I had to plane a flat for the stemhead fitting. Lack of forethought perhaps?

I ripped up some leftover 6mm Okume to make bensons and glued them in place.

I chopped out a section of frame 110 to make the companionway opening. It is big, suggesting conflict between the spirit and letter of the rules, but the backing plate for jib tracks goes all the way to frame 110. So the foredeck does still go there. I free-formed the companionway coaming out of three laminations of 3mm Okume, cut across the sheet to make it 'bendier.'

[Warren Nethercote]

Two days of little progress, first making a mess with a baby backhoe, but then, oh then, my sails arrived! Need to take them back to the loft next week to show where I want my recovery patches on the spinnakers.

[Warren Nethercote]

Had a bit of time in the workshop around running my spinnakers to the loft for recovery patches to be fitted, so I dry-fitted the stem-head fitting. Next I need to mix up some high-density filler to make a flat pad for the stem tang portion of the fitting. Fully rounding the stem makes glassing easier, but leaving it square above the prod receiver would have been a good idea. Less planning = more work.

[Mist]

Warren, looking good! Open up to sails so we can see what’s inside. Please!!

[Warren Nethercote]

It's p______g rain today so I can't spread the sails out on the lawn, but I have a suitable avatar. My sail maker (Sandy MacMillan of North Sails Atlantic) based the design on the PDX sails out of the North Sails loft in Portland OR. For main and jib I had a choice of cross-cut or radial Dacron, or radial film, and went with radial Dacron (so the sails were made in the North Sri Lanka plant). My 'big' spinnaker is a nylon copy of the PDX spinnaker (about 39M2), and my smaller chicken chute is a new design is something like 2/3rd of that area. The photo is of the Moran's PDX, and should be a good representation of what my rig will look like, but with a solid red spinnaker.

When the grass dries out I will be spreading the white sails out, since I need to check bolt-rope fit to my sail track, and will take a picture then. I left my spinnakers at the loft.

[Warren Nethercote]

I have been picking away at small stuff rather than being productive, 'cause I HATE fiberglass. But the other day I bit the bullet and glassed the cockpit sole, because I have to do it before the decks go on. But afterwards I wasn't totally happy with the flexibility of the centre panel of the cockpit sole, so today I added a layer of 9 oz biaxial carbon. A centreline stiffener, or a series of transverse stiffeners like Thomas' build would have been cheaper and more effective, but that would have required forethought.

[Thomas]

all you builder in the future , use airex foam for the decks , glass it on both sides , https://www.gulfstreamcomposites.com/pr ... 8_each.htm

[Warren Nethercote]

Thomas, I have used divinycel foam as a core between sheets of 3mm plywood when building DN iceboats (for the cockpit sole). Not exactly what you are proposing, but it did show the advantages of foam core over conventional framing.

There is (was) an i550 build started in Brazil that used panels of glass-sheathed foam for the hull too, and someone on this site (Mist or?) did foam-cored glass decks.

[Warren Nethercote]

I thought I would get the side decks on over the weekend but came a cropper when I ran short of peel ply, so if I installed the side-decks I couldn't sheathe them. I decided to frame up the foredeck instead, first with 3/4 x3/4 strip to get a fair surface, then adding 6mm ply webs and flanges, or a 3/4x3/4 strip flange for the centreline longitudinal. I also took the opportunity to add some doublers to the inside of the side-tanks for fittings, before it was too late. This morning I glued on the first (port side) deck, after having added carbon-fibre stiffening to the underside on the weekend. Perhaps the second side-deck tomorrow before sheathing the side-decks. I am going to paint the cockpit sole before the centre part of the foredeck goes on. Then things slow down as I judge at two local dinghy regattas and the Sunfish NAs at Waukegan, IL.

[Warren Nethercote]

Regattas behind me, so back at it. Three weeks lost if your glass is half empty.

Got the second side deck on this evening. I had peel ply shipped from Toronto (Noah's) so I can sheath the side decks and then paint the sole before the centre portion of the fore deck goes on.

[Warren Nethercote]

Well, judging regattas behind me for a bit. Went sailing at one too, at Chester Race Week where I did foredeck on a Laser 28. We won our PHRF class, beating a sister ship, some Solings, a J24, a Kirby 25 and a Santana with a 2,3,1,1,(5),1,1 record. Our windward-leeward races were middling, but we aced the distance races, even in the fog.

Finally some progress on the boat, with the second side-deck sheathing going on this afternoon, with peel-ply on top. As ever, I used my favourite 9.5 oz biaxial carbon. Should start the fairing and painting process for the cockpit sole tomorrow before the centreline deck goes on, although forecasts of progress are proving troublesome!

My glacial progress is doubly embarrassing with Thomas reporting his first sail today. Well done!

[Warren Nethercote]

So much for progress. I came out of Chester Race Week with a bunch of cuts, scrapes and bruises, one of which turned into an infected and swollen elbow, and associated downtime.

The sail maker said could pick up my spinnakers so before going down this week I took the chance to finally check the main against the mast, as I feared the bolt rope wouldn't go up the track. (Laying out the rig offered no risk to the infected elbow.) It was as feared, but it wasn't the bolt rope per se, but heavy chafe doubling at the ends and at all batten pockets. We should be OK if we take the chafe doublers off. Not that straight forward, but better than a new bolt rope. And I'm not sailing around the world you know.

And Mist finally gets his photo .....

[Warren Nethercote]

It has been too long, and too slow ....

Recently I have been poking away to fairing and priming the cockpit sole and side decks, and then painting the sole under the fore deck, because once the fore deck goes on, access under it will be limited. A Viper-style build is not all roses. I HATE FAIRING! I still have one more coat of paint to go on under the fore deck (Fighting Lady Yellow does not cover well), but I needed to see something different, so I dry-fitted the fore deck.

Back to sanding and a coat of paint .....

[Warren Nethercote]

Talk about coming off the rails. I had a diversion to go ice boating in Minnesota and even got a ferry ride in along the way, crossing the Ottawa River near Masson QC. But during the first of three days of the regatta I had a heart attack on the ice. Two days, two ambulance rides, two hospitals and two stents later I sit up typing this, all wired up to the electronics in ICU. Ugh! But it is better than the alternative.

[Tim Ford]

HOLY COW, Warren! I am so sorry to hear this! I hope you get out of the ICU soon and make a quick, total recovery. Keep us posted, please!

[lohwaikin]

Wow dear Warren, please take care!

[Warren Nethercote]

Update .....

I got a third stent to deal with some arrhythmia and then was sprung from hospital two days later. The docs didn't want me flying so soon after release, or driving home, so my wife drove me to Winnipeg where we joined the 'Canadian' for an old-fashioned train ride home. We stopped overnight in Montreal and take the 'Ocean Limited' to Halifax this evening.

If you want my opinion, the Sanford Medical Center in Fargo gets a ten for medical care.

[Tim Ford]

Glad to hear you are sprung from the hospital, Warren, and that you got great care in Fargo. (I can't type that word without thinking of Frances McDormand though)

Keep on getting better!

[Watershed]

Oh, my. So glad the people around you knew what to do and whom to call.
Susan and I will keep you in our thoughts.
Tim

[Warren Nethercote]

There is life post-heart attack, although the return to normal is a slow one. But today, with the help of a friend I (we) glued down the missing bit of foredeck. Now I can follow on with some gunwale taping and foredeck glassing at my own glacial pace.

[Tim Ford]

As Kevin said, he being one of the first to complete a boat here in Los Estados Unidos, any progress is progress! (or something to that effect)

Point is, keep on plugging! Can't even remember how many boats have made it through extreme events, health crises, cancer, divorces, more divorces, cross-hemisphere moves, divorces (seeing a theme here?) and severe weather events.

i550Jan6c.jpg

And remember, we are here to offer words of encouragement from the comfort of our couches and warm, sunny, climes!

[jerome]

Warren, keep it up !
I can clearly relate to "divorces and cross-hemisphere moves" as Tim puts it ......Overall it took me just about 7 years between end of build and splah !!! But i dont regret a thing about the whole process. The boat is fantastic and the whole process of building-sailing your own boat was a true dream come true for me. A one of a kind life experience !
Enjoy the process my friend and follow whatever your rythm is !

[Warren Nethercote]

Happy days (I think …)
Just got the following message from PHRF NS: “I550 PDX - Blondie - SMSC (Flush Deck), Carbon Mast, A kytes 150 provisional”

The PHRF NS website doesn’t reflect the assignment yet, so I don’t have a ‘certificate’ (‘Yacht Data Sheet’ in PHRF NS parlance), but the number is workable, albeit no gift. PHRF NS gives a J24 162 and a Soling 144. A typical SMSC Wednesday night course is a 1 ½ mile W/L/W followed by a reach home in the dying sea breeze. Whether the reach home will be enough to recover from two beats in 10-12 kts and 2 to 3 ft seas remains to be seen.

What I submitted to PHRF NS follows:

The i550 is a 5.5M (18ft) long sport boat with an asymmetric spinnaker. It is a one-design, but only in the sense that the hull, keel and spar dimensions are controlled. Sail dimensions are only controlled by little more than E, P, I and J, and by limiting JSP and spinnaker halyard height, and by prohibiting sheeting of jibs outside the shrouds. Most boats run square-top mainsails, as will I, and spinnakers are typically about 39sq.M area, but as large as 45. The rig on my boat is a double-spreader carbon fiber mast with swept spreaders and no backstay, and a carbon fibre boom and bowsprit.

Class rules at http://i550class.org/files/i550ClassRulesV2.pdf

There are two basic versions of the hull: one with a coach roof and another with a flush foredeck, the so-called PDX version. I am building the PDX version.

There are boats sailing in Canada (BC), the US, Australia, New Zealand and Eastern Europe, but mostly as ‘onesies and twosies’, under handicap. The PDX version was developed by a group in Portland Oregon, who are the only ones to sail the boat as a one-design, as well as in PHRF.

PHRF ratings are hard to find, apart from those reported on the class forum (http://www.i550class.org). In 2013 there were 15 North American boats afloat, with 11 having ratings:
Hull Name Type Fleet Rating
061 Critical Twist Coach Roof MT 140
108 Lunatic Fringe Coach Roof MN 138
129 Alchemy Coach roof WI 147
172 Wild Child Coach roof FL 165
214 Cheap Date PDX OR 150
240 Carbon Offset Coach Roof BC 150
250 Portland 3 PDV OR 150
268 Portland 4 PDX OR 150
269 Poker Face PDX OR 150
410 Whatever PDX OR 150
130 Frank Coach Roof FL 150

Carbon Offset, with Coach Roof, often sailed competitively with the PDX boats in Portland.

I attached four photos to my application: two of the PDX boats (one white sail, one spinnaker, noting that my sails were to the North Portland design), one of an i550 fin and bulb (noting keel weights between 150 and 185lbs) and a fourth of my hull upside down, showing the hard-chine hull form). Photos repeated below, with apologies for missing photo credits for those pinched from i550Class.org..

[Tim Ford]

Warren, I'm working for ORA these days, as the Chesapeake Rep. and member of the national marketing team. Our club-level product is called ORR-Ez and a surprising number of clubs around the country are moving away from PHRF and choosing ORR-Ez, to wit: Massachusetts Bay Sailing Association, Gulf Yachting Association, Chesapeake Racer Cruiser Assoc. among others.

https://www.offshoreracingrule.org/orr-ez

ORR-Ez is a multi-number VPP rating platform that takes wind speed and course configuration into account. And this year, due to some of the wishes from light air venues, we've added a fourth wind speed rating called "Very Light."

What's cool and slightly amazing is: we are now offering One Design certificates for OD class boats, like J105, Viper 640s, Melges 24, etc. As long as there are 5 boats in any OD class, anywhere in the country applying for a rating, the total cost is $25.00 per boat! That's just 25 bucks for a VPP rating. This probably won't help many i550 owners, but in areas where they now score with ORR-Ez, the i550 will not be penalized by poor performance in certain sailing conditions (mainly very light air).

So, progress!!!

[Warren Nethercote]

Progress on a couple of fronts ....

I had my 'three months after heart attack' echo-cardiogram and my cardiologist was REALLY pleased with the results. Better, he now doesn't see any need for a defibrillator which would have put paid to my MIG welding. And I am up to two, 25-30 minute walks per day.

So I felt the need to get back to boat building again. Tonight I used up the last of my 9 oz. biax carbon fiber to tape the seams around the foredeck (my supply of biax glass tape was used up long ago) and will glass the foredeck in the next couple of days.

All I need now is my truck: we foolishly told the shipper that 'we weren't in a hurry' and he took it to heart. Two out of three isn't bad.