Sunday 29 November 2015

Week 02 before launch - Sikaflex, Varnish and amazing results



 23.11 - 29.11.15

Sikaflex, Varnish and amazing results




Sikaflex is an ahesive which seals the deck against moisture. It is flexible, very strong and....


..... terrible sticky!

As already mentioned, the teak planks were really hard to get round the cabin sides. After some flops and failures we got them into position but the Sikastuff was everywhere. Hard to believe that there would be an acceptable result in the end.





In the meanwhile I sanded and varnished the cabin in- and outside 2 times.















After 48 hours we could remove the screws, washers and the spacers.  Then we filled the groves with Sika 290DC and had to wait for 5 more days. We completed the coamings and I put on a few more layers of Varnish.







This 2 component pu coating is fantastic stuff. Extremely hard, UV stable, and with a good brush easy to apply. The only thing is not to use to much paint to avoid rins and don´t rush while painting... and use a mask!









The reward is a beautiful shiny wood texture everyone wants to touch.











5 days over. I couldn´t wait start sanding of the Sika to see the result and it was really pleasing, although there appeared some voids I had to refill later.












Partly all the deck turned up and finally.....

















isn`t she a beauty?














Sunday 22 November 2015

Week 03 before launch - Coamings, shaping the Roof and Teak Decking

 

 16.11. - 22.11.15

Coamings, shaping the roof and Teak Decking.... 

and the decision not to launch


The plan of this week was to get the teak deck on. While I started to shape the covering boards along the sheer line, Ant produced and fitted the coamings, which will later let us sail dry and well protected.

At that stage I decided not to launch. It was a kind of  the feeling to have lost a race. It was a race against time but in the end I wanted to finish the boat in a good standard on not in a rush only to get it in the water. 







Teaking was one work I´ve been looking forward since the beginning. Together with Ant I cut and laid the pieces part by part on deck. First we temporarily fixed them with screws and washers and Teak Cutoffs as distance pieces.



















The lids, sky hatch and coamings  were framed.











Between this work we temporarily fixed the roof to mark the shape and position of the cabin roof beams. I know, it looks a bit odd at the moment, but we just wanted to get roughly the outside lines.












All part from fore to midship are ready to be glued. The radius around the cabin sides was really on the edge and we nearly couldn`t get them into the right position.






Before we started teaking the deck I glued the covering boards. That would give me the frame for all Teak planks and enough stability to bend them around the cabin a far as possible. 

 

A nicely framed starboard coaming made by Ant
















Sunday 15 November 2015

Week 04 before launch - Decking, Cabin and fitting the lead keel


09.11. - 15.11.15

Decking, Cabin and fitting the lead keel



Monday we finished the decking. To get the boats of our course ready, Yvonne the principal of the BBA announced via Facebook whether there would be some former students to give us a hand. Although everyone of us worked really hard, we all got more and more behind schedule caused by sickness, a traffic accident, one student left the course. All together not the best chances to get projects like ours to an end in time.








Luckily a view graduates came in and helped for a view days. This week I wanted to get the cabin on. The sides and front should be joined with edging posts made of Sapele. I rebated them to get nice joints between plywood and posts.












I ordered beautiful and solid bronce portholes. They will give the boat a very traditional look. To mark the position was a real highlight of this week.











To stabilize the cabin the carlin for the roofbeams was laminated in the same way as I did with the sheerclamp using the cabinside as a mould.













After shaping and sanding....












they were glued into position and the cabin beams fitted by notching them in.












The last but very important point was to get the keel on. We needed a lot of blocks, wedges and a car lifter to get the 720 pd /360 kg lead piece in place. To fix it to the hull we used Sika and 12mm bronce rods with washers and nuts. After two hours work the part was in place.

Sunday 8 November 2015

Week 05 before launch - Preparing parts for decking


 02.11 - 08.11.15

Preparing parts for decking 

 




This week we wanted to start with decking. Together with Pete we positioned Okoume-Ply above the deck construction, marked all positions of beams, carlins, half-deck beams, lids and hatch and cut the parts. Afterwards we taped them on the later glue lines, epoxied and primed them.











Additionaly we primed and painted the Sheerclamp and halfdeck construction.



















All this paint jobs were really a lot of work and I underestimated the amount of time it will take. There appeared a feeling of "We cannot do it till launching day..."














Beside all that work I varnished the mast, boom and yard in the GRP-shop for several times. The problem with all that paint work is that you always have to wait for 24 hours to get the next coat on. So it takes time.....













Varnishing the centerboardcase, bulkhead and knees and painting the bilge.










After we´ve finished all this time-taking work, we taped everything thouroughly to protect it against epoxy and glued in the pads we´ve already prepared last week. After that we removed the tapes or better, tried to remove..... Never use cheap plastic tape :-((( GRRRR! It took us 4 hours to get that stuff off again and to clean everything with lots of acetone. This was really one of the most annoying jobs, we had to do!

.... and time passed by......












Finally we had all parts ready and half of the foredeck could be assembled. What a joy!















We glued and nailed the deck with epoxy and copper gripfast nails every 150 mm.



'







At this stage I got good help from Mike, who made the seatconstruction for the cockpit. In the back you can see the already epoxied cockpitsole ready to be bilge painted.














Sunday 1 November 2015

Week 06 before launch - Deck construction and knees



26.10 - 01.11.15

Deck construction and knees

 





After fitting all the beams fore and aft the next steps were assembling the carlin (the innerframe of cockpit and cabin) and the halfdeckbeams (between carlin and sheerclamp) They also were notched in and glued with Epoxy.







The frames for the lids for and aft as well as for the sky hatch were nearly finished and the king plank along the centerline (departed because of lids and hatch) is already in place.







The complete deck construction is made out of douglas fir a strong and durable coniferous tree.




During all the time of deck construction we looked for a solution getting out the compression post of  the cabin. It leads the mastloads away from the coachroof  and hull to the keel. So it is a very important part of the boat but always in the way. Mike and Joe (our instructors) had serious doubts to change the plans and finally it was also their reponsibility. After long dicussions with them I decided to follow the plans to get the boat ready for launching day. Beside I still was incontact with Iain to find a solution.





In the meantime I finished the knees, which supports the half deck and spreads the rig forces into the hull.











Testfitting!
















On every point, where later deckfittings will be positioned we added pads in the deckconstruction to get more strenght.
















Anchorbox and Aftbox already painted with bilge paint.