Archive for December 2022
The title applies to both the sailing and the boatbuilding. The sailing can be attributed in part to a very dirty hull which for various reasons remains unscrubbed. Hopefully that will be righted over the Christmas break and we will be back to form.
Despite the poor performance the absence from the fleet of several competitors means the results don’t look too bad provided you do not look at the elapsed times.
Last week the winds were the strongest of the season and with a No 3 jib and full main we survived with a crew of four and had a very quick trip twice around Goat island.
This week with a lighter breeze the dirty bottom was more of a handicap but it was nevertheless a pleasant trip around the islands.
On the boatbuilding front I am busy patching all the holes from the temporary fasteners, doing more torture boarding as my muscles will permit and filling in the wet days with work inside the hull with filleting the bulkheads to the hull.
The weather has been frustrating as the covers have to go on with the slightest rain and that upsets the rythm of the boatbuilding.
As of tonight the temporary fastener holes on the starboard side are fully patched with thickened epoxy and both sides of the hull have had a good workout with the torture board. The centre line join and the bow have been fibreglassed with three layer of 420 gsm double bias and the bow has been sanded ready for fairing filler.
The next job is to finish the hole filling on the port side and do a light sanding of the hull prior to more fairing filler. After that I will be happy to coat all the plywood with a sealing layer of epoxy resin.
A wild front just went through with wind gusts over 50 knot so it was a good time to pause and do a progress report.
At the time of the last report the lower rudder stock bearing had been laminated and was curing. The following day I trimmed off the rough edges of the upper flange and lower rim before the resin went rock hard. The following day I had planned to remove the mandrel thinking it would be a major exercise but to my surprise the mandrel literally fell out of the housing. I attribute this to the fact that the laminating was done on a hot afternoon with the mandrel expanded with the heat and in the cool of the morning the clearance created was enough for it to slip out without any assistance.
The next job was to get the rudder stock into position so that the upper and lower bearings could be aligned. That was easier said than done as the weight of the stock exceeds my lifting limit. With the aid of two chain blocks suspended from the awning I managed to get it into position and do the alignment late at night when the lines from the laser level were easily seen.
That meant a late finish as the gluing of the bearing housing into the strongback had to happen later that evening.
Once the glue had cured it was time to add the reinforcements to the housing and as that meant working the laminates upside down I proceeded with caution with first the stern gusset bonded into the transom gusset and glass wrapped around the bearing housing. Next day I glued in place the 12 mm plywood transverse gusssets and the forward one and once that glue was cured I could start the laminating. Again proceeding with caution I did that in three stages until all three 12 mm ply gussets had six layers of 420 gsm double bias glass around them.
On Friday we had an early Christmas get together with some of the family and my two eldest boys lifted the rudder stock out of the bearing housings and helped me get it to the garage for storage. That was a bonus task completed in short time.
In between laminating in gussets I have been progressing the hull fairing along the radius chine and have started glassing the centreline join. I cannot do long periods of torture boarding so I am fitting in less physically demanding interior tasks.
Today with the wind and rain I had a reprieve from the hard work but managed to fit some of ply doublers over the stringer notches. At this stage they are all cut and I am down to the last two frames for gluing.
For the record we did win the spring series on handicap from Utopia. Before the race John said it was time for us to win a seried but then then put on a master display and won the race. We held on by a single point but a win is a win.