No work today...

No updates. To frazelled to work on boat. Maybe tomorrow.

More after shocks!

Just been woken by after shocks
A 5.4 followed in quick order by a 4 then a 5.2. Really over them now. Especailly as it is only happened just before midnight!

Earthquake!!! And 2nd coat of No3

Wow Earthquake 7.1 on Richtor scale!!!

I was airborne at time so missed it. Glad I did as my wife and kids are pretty nervous and stressed about it.
Last night we had a 5 richtor scale while I was on FaceBook at 1038pm. I asked my son how that compared to the big quake. He said "2 out of 10 dad." Well I was freaked with that little quake so can't imagine what they went through.

There have been heaps of tremors almost every hour over the last 36 hours. Fortunately our house and suburb has been let off lightly. My mates have a pool of water 6 inches deep around their house and under it. It is on piles and close to river. The shaking caused liquafication and shaked up groundwater. Canterbury has had wet winter. Their neighbours have about ankle deep mud and silt over their lawns.

Another mates house shaked and walls exploded apart. Pretty new house on a concrete pad. Others have had pads broken and half the house raised 150mm. Amazing heaps of brick chimneys have fallen. Some have toppled onto roofs and then on to drive ways. Others have crashed through the roof into living spaces.

Power back to 90% of city. Some suburbs have sewerage and no water. A few areas have contaminated water supplies.

A few websites you can look at:
http://www.civildefence.govt.nz/memwebsite.nsf
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news

Check out the frequency of the aftershocks. There have been a few 5's
http://www.geonet.org.nz/earthquake/quakes/recent_quakes.html

Anyway I reckon the best thing to do is keep busy. Keeps minds of quake etc. Had a game of soccer with neighbours. Then we sanded the boat for a while. All hands on deck. I reckon we could all stand with arms outstretched holding sand paper. Thus every time it shakes we will sand boat :-).
Actually. Hand sanding took to long. Fired up orbital with 120 grit. Flattened off ridges from No1 undercoat quickly. We painted on 2nd layer of No3. Went on quick and thick. Actually the thicker amount flowed out very nice. I reckon the lighter amount we put on yesterday was draggy on tipping brush.

Anyway here are a few pics. No real damage at our place. Only a few books off shelves and drawers open. But about 8km away in town old buildings smashed! Amazed my big heavy unsecured drill press didn't fall off work bench!

Only a few books down. Shelves stayed up.

A few draws open.

But only 8km away carnage!!! Pxt msg from my Captains, 17 year old, son. He got up and cruised streets and took this photo. We got diverted to Auckland as we had been enroute Rarotonga-Christchurch that night. When I phoned Kelly they had no power, radio, TV or internet. Thankfully cell towers worked on back up power. They were in my suburb shaken but no major damage. When I PXT this photo to them their jaws dropped. It was there first indication that all wasn't that well in Christchurch.

Nothing like working on boat to keep busy

Roll on.

Tip off.

It is weird and surreal staying at home and working on boat when 10-20% of the city is pretty damaged. The local Civil Defence has asked everyone to stay put, look after neighbours and be prepared. Structural engineers are looking at virtually every commercial and public building and assessing damage. All local schools are shut until at least wednesday.
I just hope the aftershocks stop. A lot of people a very over it! I know I am.

If any Cantaburians are reading this and need some help send me a message and I'll drop anything to help.

Cheers
Brian

Altex No 3 Epoxy primer undercoat

Have put on Altex No 3 Epoxy primer undercoat. Went on pretty well. A lot smoother than the undercoat. It leveled out pretty nice. Will need a light sand tomorrow and then another coat. We just beat the cold 'Southerly' Heater on and windows open!!! Snow to 200m in Canterbury!!! Spring aye?!?

Roller on.

Altex make great products

Cleaning mixing tins, brushes and roller trays.

Minor filling, rudder blade and heater and pink batts.

Went around boat with daughters post-it notes marking minor blemishes. Not to many. Filled them with West System and micro balloons. Left over mix went onto rudder blade. I keep my shed heated with this kick-ass heater I bought for $3 on trade-me. Kept shed at 20 degrees today!

Good use for post-it notes

Blade faired with left over filler.

$3 Trade-me special.

Pink batts help a little in Christchurch

Warmest shed in town!!!

Altex No1 Epoxy Primer

Final sanding done today of of bare epoxy. Time to paint. Have decided to use Altex two pack 'Elite 321 brushing polyurethane' paint system. I have had great results using the spray versions. This time I have very close neighbors and don't need to overspray their house. I am also interested in seeing how the roller and tipping works with the top coats.
We degreased with thinners and then used a tack rag. (After about 5 good vacuums of the garage)

Today we put on one coat of No 1 Epoxy primer. It took a short while to figure out how much area you can work at once. I reckon about 1 sq metre is about right. Kelly rolled in on and I tipped horizontally and then vertically to finish. You have to work quickly or brush gets draggy. Took about 1 hour for whole boat. Hopefully I will be able to sand the bulk of the boat tonight and fill any minor imperfections. Tomorrow hopefully will get two coats of No. 3 Epoxy Primer undercoat.

Clean shed!!! Boat ready to paint

Bow come up nice.

Altex Paint system ready to go.

Kelly's own mask. Colour coordinated with her blue painting coveralls

Roll on....

Tip off....  Horizontally and then vertically.

Half done.

Laps make great stop areas.

Gunboat grey.

Yay. All fairing done!

Wow. After days of being a dust magnet I have pretty much finished sanding, fairing, filleting and shaping the hull. Looks pretty good. Have decided to have a fairly sharp bow. Towards the bottom of the stem it is radiused about 12mm and at the top about 6mm. Looks pretty cool.

Me, my sanding tools and dust! Lots of dust!!!

Tomorrows jobs.

Just have a little light sanding around the bow that will only take a few minutes.

Then a huge shed tidy up. Will clear all movable items out and give the shed a sweep, vacuum and mop ready for undercoating thursday.

Have decided on using Altex Paints. I have used them in the past and they hold up very well. We will roller and tip the paint on this time. Time to try a different technique.

No 3 Epoxy primer undercoat

Elite 321 Brushing Polyurethane

Roller brush kit.

Transom and bow work. After J Class racing...

Took a bit of time out to go J Class Racing at the Christchurch Model Yacht Club on Lake Victoria in Hagley Park. A fairly big fleet with some gun old time racers involved. It was opening day today. Patrick did well. Finally feels like spring downunder.
When we came home Patrick put a couple of decorative pieces on the transom while I screed on some filler on the bow section. More sanding and filling tomorrow.

J98 is ours

They go well over the duck weed and are a good One Design class in Christchurch. New sails for next week.

Bit of late night work

Gluing, screwing and making a mess... No worse than dad though.

Bit of fairing. Hopefully can get bow looking goood. May go for fairly pointy bow I think.

Last parts of Keel fitted and transom tidied up.

Fitted last of keel structure. I had done the front so just had the beside centre case and rear half of keel to glue on. Used a generous fillet of glue powder. Hope it holds!

Transom had some work done. After this photo was taken. Pics tomorrow

Little helper. Marking out bits.

All on. Sand tomorrow.

ONLY 12 Days left to win some Emirates Team New Zealand gear

Hi everyone

Two weeks to win some genuine Emirates Team New Zealand Gear. 

Emirates Team New Zealand have kindly donated a team shirt (size large) and hat for my monthly prize draw. 

Proceeds will help me on my way to represent New Zealand at the Noumea Optimist Sailing Nationals in December this year.

Just "ChipIn" any amount on my website www.maddogsailing.com  Winning  donation drawn end of August.  This awesome gear could be yours. 

Good Luck!

Patrick Haybittle

Mocking up keel

Spent earlier in day sanding boat bottom... Dusty.

This afternoon finished mocking up keel and stem cap. Will epoxy up spacers that go around centreboard hole tonight.

Big chunks of Kwilla

Stem cap came out pretty good. Will scarf to keel. Most excess epoxy will get faired in shortly.

Laminating bow cap.

The bow has a lot of exposed plywood if not capped. I ripped some kwila into thin planks so they bend easier. Marked a template of the bow, transfered the shape to some 18mm MDF and screwed on 2"x2" blocks. Wet out kwilla and then glued with thickened epoxy. All clamped. Should work well.

Template

Wet out wood first with raw epoxy and then trowl on thickened epoxy.

Profile

Clamps

Lots of clamps.

Epoxy coated and Amine blush washed off

I was away for a couple of days. My darling wife painted on raw epoxy onto the side planks. This is in preparation for Altex primer and two pack brushable polyurethane.

A good job for a young helper was to wash the amine blush off. This is a by product of epoxy as it hardens. It is water  soluble. We use some warm soapy water and a scotch brite pad.

Me and Dad

Scrubbing time

Fibreglassing

Long boarded lap joints to smooth. After discussion on the JW site, talking to Davie Norris and my experience with plywood jetboats we decideded to cover the boat with two layers of 200gm boat cloth. Hopefully will hack a bit more abrasion on beaches etc. 


Bevan at Davie Norris boat builders suggested laying glass across ways and cutting as this is more economical. Seemed to work well. The bow is fore/aft. All went on well. We added a layer of raw epoxy about two hours after as per the Gougeon Brothers West System book to fill the weave. We have done this before and works well. The last layer we added a mix of micro balloons to add some sandable bulk.


I'm glad Kelly was somewhat over her bronchitis and able to help for a couple of hours.

"This is how you long board Patrick"

Pretty quick and smooth.

Ready to glass.

I love fibreglassing

Two layers of glass. I'm hard on equipment!

Glassed to the first clinker panel

Chief Inspector. 

Yep. Good enough.