Bow Sprit.

The Bowsprit has arrived! 59mm dia. section from Allspars. It will not be the length shown (unless Gerry gets his way). I reckon that the section is marginal for our purposes so we will strengthen the inboard section.



We have been making a tube between the first and second bulkhead today purely as a watertight housing. It is perfectly acceptable just to use a bit of PTFE at each bearing surface instead. I will post on making the glass tube tomorrow.

Hull n Rig

We have been a bit remiss in updating the blog, but that doesn't mean we have come to a stand-still although a bit more time dedicated to the project would be welcome. Another push coming on though!The hull and main bulkheads are all taped in and we have been playing with the rig and starting to produce some of the details. No problems with the hull, we we able to comfortably stand in the boat and tape, the boat getting stiffer all the while. Even the bow are was easy to finish with the flat stem and generous fillets.

We have fitted the outhaul in the boom, we have gone for a 4:1 purchase at this stage. We are using Dyneema 6mm and Tylasker spool shackles (just because they are easy!). We will probably use the same technology on the tack too.


Tylasker Spool Shackle above


For the 4:1 cascade we used in order (from the user!)
HKN 376 block on a small eye
A friction cleat
HKN 421 Thru-deck (through Boom)
Antal 10x7 Low friction ring
HKN 340 29mm Carbo
Tylasker Spool Shackle
6mm Dyneema

It seems Guy has been around to 'steal' my camera with photos taken in the last 2 weeks or so to add to the blog. Some things have happened with the hull, mast, boom and bow sprit, (that arrived last week) in that time. I hope Guy adds the pics and writes a great blog.

Over to you mate.......

Rig Delivery

We went and fetched the rig from the mainland yesterday; boom, standing rigging and mast. Fortunately the Solent was pretty smooth so we weren't too affected by the fact the mast is somewhat larger than my little RIB! Detailed pictures of the section and components to follow when we unwrap. The skill here is to make sure that once we have checked all the components, they are neatly packaged again so there are no dramas when it comes to installation. We will either swage and finish ourselves or more likely get a local rigger to do it on our behalf. Rigs/plans that we will supply will be to the finished lengths but leaving it unfinished and over length for the prototypw means that if there are minor changes to the design (maststep/chainplates etc) we can freely make them and it will not be a disaster.

Ground/Grind Hog Day

One section at a time; a quick key up of the shiny fillets and then bogging any of the gaps and taping in one hit.... why didn't we do this all in one go when the boat was upside down at the stitch stage? However one section at a time is quick easy and manageable. The keel area is next so we might skip this (just do the chines) and come back when the keel trunk is made. I think we will mould the trunk seeing as we have the keel section, but a ply trunk would do just fine.

As an aside, the sail plan is with North Sails and we hope to have something back from them shortly; when we have a itinery I will add to the blog.

Stuff used:

See previous entry!

Taping Up

A few hours on the weekend (thank you Ed) and finally we have begun taping... that's the trouble with this time of year; it should have been a winter project when we had some time. Ed popped in and started the taping on the promise that he will be the third member of our crew when it comes to sailing time. A few hours of prep (sanding back the fillets) and taping and it is starting to look good. The transom was an easy area to reach and finish and has stiffened up the back of the boat enough to hopefully work on the next section easily. This is not the way to do the boat in one hit, but if you are short of time and resource its quite a nice way of working! I prepped the next section early on this afternoon and intend to pop back this evening and tape. If we ever manage to get a couple of us down at once we will finish all the bottom in one hit!!

Note that we added a few tapes at the bottom of the transom to spread the load to the hull from the rudder. This was done before the addition of the longitudinal to ensure continuity of the taping.

You may be able to see that the peel-ply is not fully wetted out; this won't give as nice a finish, but it will mean that we do not have an excess of resin and therefore less weight ... there are arguments either way but we will probably wet out the peel-ply fully where we will add additional reinforcement over the top so that it adheres better.



Stuff used:
Peel Ply
100mm Tape E-Glass 450 +- 45
Ampreg 21 Resin and Hardener
Roller
Paintbrush
Scissors
tongue depressor
Resin/Fibre mix for any gaps

The Longitudinals

A few hours on the boat today; cutting out and fitting the longitudinals.

No measurements required as the templates were spot on (I like this). The same technique as the bulkheads but not surprisingly it all seems to go together a bit quicker now we are little more experienced.

The Longitudinals won't be tabbed in yet as the inside of the chines will need to be done first. Doing the longitudinals at this stage was basically an visualisation exercise to see exactly how much structure we have and whether there needs to be any re-thinks at this stage. It all looks good so far.


Above; Cutting out by hand from printed templates


A little cleaning up of excess resin with this cunning tool, but a circular grinder would have done a similar job. It is so much easier to see with the boat the right way up - not to mention better light in the new workshop.

Items used today:
Full sized printouts
6mm Ply for the longitudinals
Sandpaper
Hand plane
Spikes (for marking out the longitudinals through the paper.)
Grinder