Finishing the final details on the second float.

In this album the completion of the second float. Post curing, wingnet lashing rail and the hatches.

DIY Resin Infusion Starter Kit.

Apologies to all who were waiting for so long for an update. What happened? Well, nothing actually. Have been busy with other things, so progress is not what I wanted it to be. The actual stage is that this first float is ready for final painting. What happened more:

This site is very popular and I’ve got so many questions about vacuum infusion, that I decided to make a do-it-yourself package for the builder who wants to do resin infusion also. With this package one can start with a test panel and going on with other parts, without the beginner failures, just the right injection method from the beginning! Click on the link or the CD-picture below to learn more. 

Do-it-yourself Resin Infusion Starter Kit now available
!!Try it, you won’t regret it.

After the summer break (with a nice sail with friends in the English Channel and North Sea), because of a design change I learned how to repair big holes in the composite structure. I received an e-mail from Ian Farrier, announcing that the preliminarily drawings are now replaced by the final design plans, with some minor changes …… One of them effected my job so far dramatic: the new designed beams are much wider and won’t fit anymore between my raised deck area.

So I had to take the saw for cutting some big holes, really not a nice job. The final fairing was just finished, but on the positive side, due to my sailing holiday I didn’t cut in yet the lashing holes in the molded tube for the wing netting.

Instead of making finally some progress, this winter holiday we went on sailing with a very nice maintained F-27 at the West coast of Florida, owned by Doran Cushing, a real dependable address and to recommend for us North European cold water sailors (and others of course).

And for the insight website enthusiasts:
 - the index page is modified to the width of the rest of the site
 - download time has been improved by replacing the java applets menu buttons by smaller .gif buttons
 - the workshop webcam added. When my computer is on, the webcam will refresh every 30 seconds with an actual photo of my workshop.

- next to come is compressing the float building pages to one page by the use of more web albums. This also will allow me to publish more photo’s without influence on download times.

Finishing the first float.

This photo galery is about the finishing work on the first float.

The wingnet fastening is with an integrated molded lashing rail with a fiberglass tube. Another purpose of this rail is to create three strong deck eyes, as an alternative for bolted SS pad eyes. The extra strength is created by carbon reinforced foam pads, which goes through the hull and are laminated to the inside, the middle one also in the shroud bulkhead.

Also the making of two deck hatches (with invisible hinges) and after all the glassing is done, the final post curing of the whole hull before the fairing goes on.

The fairing and sanding turned out to be a real investment in learning time and finally succeeded by dogged perseverance. It’s the last 300 gram of fairing compound that required the maximum effort.

The making of a tube (attempt)

The wing nets are being attached to the hulls with a moulded lashing rail, made out of a tube. To get some experience with this system, I decided to make 3/4″ tubes for attaching a net inside the float, as a floor to store sails and other stuff in a dry and ventilated matter, and not in the keel section of the float. Second advantage is that things are reachable from the deck hatch, without the need for going in.

Although good enough for inside the float, I decided to buy ready made glassfibre tubes for the moulded lashing rail for the wing nets.