Bevels for top plank

I make my bevels for the side planks using my rebate plane. I have drilled a hole in a bit of scrap Kahikatea and put it over the 'guide attachment'. It works very well. Once there is a resonable flat I sometimes use a bigger plane. I plane down to a pencil line which is the same width as the stringer behind.


Also planned king plank today. Away for 3 days now. Random Orbital sander on my shopping list soon.

Third row of planks all done.

Yep. 3rd row done. Had been holding off puting it on as it is easier to work on fwd floor etc. with it off. Easy to work and reach between stringers. Also been sanding floor.

Kelly puts on raw epoxy to wet out planks and stringers

Pat screws in stainless wood screws.

I just lean on the plank a little to help it take bend to stringers

Jack enjoys the heated garage. He's not allowed on the sofas in the house so this is a treat for him.

Tape seam floorboards...

Joined two front floor boards with tape today. Also joined floorboards to sides of boat. I figure will help a bit with strength but more importantly help redude the chance of water getting to the edge grain of the plywood.

Shed has also been a hive of activity this evening since it is bad weather outside.

Wetting out two layers of tape at a time

Rolled it onto roll and then unrolled it on boat

Making sure it is in right spot

Peel ply.

Patrick is making a FockeWolf 190

Kelly has re-covered our 'Playstation' Chair. Yay!!!

Cooler jobs etc.

Last couple of days been finishing some odd jobs before seats go on.

Sanded and recoated fibreglass in cooler bin, Added a couple of stringers to cooler top and two layers of glass over foam to seal. Also glued in a fibreglass tube to drain cooler locker into footwell. Last night added a layer of 400gm DB (double bias) glass to floor under neath the forward seat hatch. A bit of abrasion resistance against the odd tin of bake beans, spare beer etc. Also added two layers of 200gm boat cloth to port seat top and raw epoxy coated seat bottom.

Cooler, epoxied, stringers and glass added to seal foam. Also fibreglass drain fitted in low part into footwell

Drain will have a bung in it

Glassed floor under fwd seat hatch

Glass drain. Rough and ready but unseen

Seat plywood joined by 4 layers of boat cloth, belt sanded and raw epoxied.

Beer Cooler, Drains and Seat tops

Been concentrating on getting all jobs complete at rear of boat prior to installing seat tops. IE Rear insulated beer cooler/wet locker, front floor drainage. Also covered seats in cloth for some abrasion resistance. Hopefully seats on within the week.

Chilly bin/wetlocker glassed with 400gm double bias

Forward drain from forward floorboards. Made a foam blank and made custom widemouth drain out of glass.

Drain pipe through to footwell

Drainoutlet in footwell

Seats covered in two layers of 200gm boat cloth and peel ply

Floorboards in...

Floor boards in. Sika Flex along stringers to allow a little give. Will fillet and epoxy tape sides shortly

Glassed inside of rudder cheeks.

Girls can woodwork too

And boys too.

He may well be the helmsman. We'll see who the Captain will be...

Dry fit Centreboard, Fwd Floor Stringers...

My friend Simon came and lent a hand to dry fit centreboard Wanted to make sure it fits prior to putting floors in. All went fine. Pretty heavy. May get a winch to raise it.

It fits!!!

Stringers epoxied in ready for floor boards tomorrow. Stainless eyelet for centreboard will also get epoxied in tomorrow

Small job. Epoxied nuts and washers into inside of lower rudder cheeks. Bolts are coated in Mold release. Tomorrow will remove bolts and assemble rudder cheeks.

Tiller and Rudder Cheeks

Cut a hole in transom for Tiller Handle, Flattened tiller with belt sander to right width. Sawed and planed to right profile then routed the edges. Figured out a good height for tiller so it clears knees etc. Have tried to save some weight in the rudder cheeks by hollowing them out somewhat.

Fine tuning tiller position...

Yep, Clears knees

Nice two tone tiller

Centre piece of cheek blocks hollowed. Save some weight.

Bit more boat cloth and centreboard work

Glad Kelly is lending a hand. She is a great at fibreglassing. We added another layer of 200gm boat cloth thus making 400 gms on the floor. Hopefully will last the distance. Boat shed full of other boats. Finn, 2 Opti's and a P-Class.

Drilled out half the pivot hole in centreboard oversize. Then reinserted pivot tube (coated in mold release) back into hole. Epoxy and colodial silica added to make a bush. Tomorrow will bang out tube and do other side the same. Once done I'll then drill hole oversize by about 1mm. All this is so the centreboard can pivot on a 2-3mm epoxy/colodial silica bush. Hopefully this will help stop water getting into the centreboard, swelling and falling apart.

Tiller Handle

Kelly helped with tiller handle. I reckon if she at least builds something she will have 'ownership' of the project too! Kel is a great epoxy and glue mixer. We are using Kahikatea and I think Kwila for the handle. We screwed some wood to MDF to get the right curvature for the handle.

Lammels ready to epoxy

Wetting out with raw epoxy

Epoxy glue going on with notched trowel.

Look what I made. A big gluey mess.

Rudder loosely hanging

Managed to sneak out of the house on mothers day and work on boat for a bit. Rudder cheek blocks mocked up at the moment. Will decide what profile shape tomorrow. 

Centreboard continued - Kevlar/Glass leading edge

More foil work today. Leading edge strengthened and sealed. The Lower 3rd and bottom of centreboard have two layers of 400 -600gm (Can't remember what thickness) of Kevlar and two layers of 200gm glass all cut on the bias. Cutting 45 degrees to the weave helps around corners. The Kevlar needs sharp serrated scissors to cut. I am sure the board will last a few hits now. It also is supporting about 35kgs of lead.

Made some stands for board to allow work on both sides. The other table is for wetting out cloth.

1st Kevlar strip went along bottom and 1/3 up leading edge.

When cut across the bias (45 degrees to the weave) it is easier to get around corners with out having to cut and use overlapping joints.

Rolled up Kevlar and glass was easier to apply when cut across the bias

Rolling peel ply on.

Centreboard Kevlar/Glass

Here is the centreboard being coated in one layer of 400gm Kevlar and two layers of 200gm glass. I want lots of torsional rigitiy incase I hit something. I had to sharpen my scissors to cut kevlar. One edge has fine serration's and the other is straight. Made a big difference to being able to cut kevlar. I used two layers of glass as it is easier to sand the glass than kevlar. Kevlar just goes all fuzzy.

You can see the fairing compound over the lead.

Wetting out wood and Kevlar

All done and coated in peel ply.