Unfinished business

While I was looking for an image of the infusion around the daggerboard case, I discovered that the photo gallery about the deck laminate and vacuum infusion has not been finished. Sorry about that. I now have added a lot of photo’s about that event.

You can find the gallery here.

After I had turned the hull I wanted to quickly begin fairing work on the deck and in the cockpit. Yet there were still some details that need to be completed.

In the previous post I have described the work around the deck hatches. The photo’s are here.

Furthermore moreover:

After installing the engine I definite closed the cockpit floor. If it’s ever necessary to lift the engine again I will have to cut out a new hole with the jigsaw.

Shaped the cockpit coaming ….

…. finished the laminate on the cockpit coaming in front of the beam bulkhead and released the upper folding strut recess in the aft beam bulkhead.

The same for the forward beam bulkhead. Until now this recess has been closed off for the purpose of the vacuum infusion of the external laminate.

Completing the ending of the cabin roof.

Completing the inside of the bridge deck, designing a system to store the two acrylic washboards inside the bridge deck and mounting a molded glasfibre U-section for the washboards.

Completed the base for the sliding hatch.

External laminate for the anchor chain tube.

Determining window size, making the molds for them and completing the window cut outs.

Furthermore, making a mold to find back all the HD inserts in the deck which will be covered by paint and thus not visible anymore, finishing the forestay chainplate, finding back and finishing all drain holes, etc, etc.

But finally all these details (at starboard side, there is still a port side to do) are completed now and I finally could start the fairing process for cockpit, deck and cabin roof.

… to be continued …

 

Flush deck hatches

Trial fit of the flush deck hatches. I have updated the gallery with the latest photo’s.

Below deck drainage of hatches

With the hull now upside down it is much easier to make the below deck drainage of the deck hatches.

At first I had the idea of molded gutters and I did made them. In hindsight this was a bad idea, they do not fit very well and an acceptable finishing will be time consuming.

A PVC hose does a better job and is laminated against the underside of the deck and connected to a short piece of fibreglass tube through hull and through the molded hatch recess.

For the underdeck drainage of the foredeck hatch I choose for two straight fibreglass tubes.

Also under the bridge deck in the aft cabin one straight fibreglass tube is reponsible for the drainage of water coming from the cockpit seats as well from the aft cabin hatch.

You can find a photo gallery with much more photo’s here.

Aft cabin hatch.

I am awfully behind in updating this blog. However, progress in the past months was hardly visible, just being busy with lots of smaller but time consuming parts. More updates will follow soon so stay tuned.

In this photo gallery (click in the picture) the making of the aft cabin hatch base. The preperations for all Lewmar flush hatches are now finished.

Vacuum bagged laminate around the molded hatch recesses

I choose for a separate laminate around the molded hatch recesses and daggerboardcase opening instead of adding these layers in the vacuum infusion proces. Reason for this is that it is difficult to get the rather thick laminate in the tight corners of the molded recesses. So (for me) it is better to do this in two steps, first the extra layers with wet hand-lay-up finished with the help of the vacuum bag and second (later on) the resin infusion of the whole deck laminate. This is extra work (and time) but I want to be sure to make it structurally sound as the hatch openings are quite large holes in the deck. For these vacuum bagged layers I removed about 1mm of the foam (the bogged area in the photo) with a router to prevent to much local laminate thickness wich would require more fairing work as an unwanted result.

Fitting the molded recesses of the deck hatches.

It took me some courage to make the holes for the molded recesses.

It worked out as planned. Still one escape hatch size 60 to do in the fore deck.

Cabin windows and deck hatches.

Sorry there were no updates for a while. It is just a lack of time on my side. But also I have to confess that my focus on the project was a little low lately. Progress is still going on, but too slow and I’m afraid I cannot do anything about it due to other obligations, business as well as private.

Anyhow, I’ve started the work around the cabin windows. The design calls for screwed down windows, but I don’t like that solution. Instead I want to glue them in a rabbet. The outside of the window is then about flush with the outside of the hull. Determining the size of the intended windows, also a little different from plans, was a challenge to get it right. Finally I found out that I get the best appearance when the length halfway the height of the window is about the same for all three windows.

The intended glazing material is still under consideration. The choices are polycarbonate, acrylic or tempered glass. The windows are curved in two directions and I prefer to make them pre-curved instead of pressing them in the right curve. So, first thing is to make a mold with the right curve in it. I did this by infusing a sandwich panel against the outside of the cabin wall. So far the easiest part. Next is depending on which glazing material will be used …. to be continued.

For the deck hatches I choose for the more difficult option of flush hatches, which I found in Lewmar as the most economical ones. I like fresh air and lightness and ordered one size 60 in the fore deck, two size 10 in the head and opposite passage way, two size 30 in the cabin roof and one size 54 in the aft cabin. Flush with the deck means also a water drain below the deck and that will be the next challenge to resolve.

Oh yeah, our vacation was great. To get an idea about canal boating click in the picture below.

Finishing the bulkheads and cockpit area.

The finishing of this first main hull half with all the structural bulkheads and the making of the cockpit coaming, emergency escape hatch and the safety compartment.

Also a video of the infusion of the escape hatch coaming.

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.

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.