Rudder, Daggerboard and more

 

Somehow I can´t find what was left from the 1 meter long G10 tube after I used a couple of cm on the rudder mount. I nearly turned the whole shop upside down but no success. I think I paid around $98 for that tube! No way I was going to order another one! So I took on the task of making one by rapping 68 cm of 120gsm BD glass on a 16mm OD steel  tube after laying down 6 coats of wax. I used the metric version on the rudder mount ( 16x19mm) so had to make the same bore. Was a bit sceptic about the outcome but with the help of some searches on the net it came out way better than I could imagine. It looks almost like a factory product although it did put on a fight jacking it out of the mandrel. I’m only sorry about the precious time I lost trying to find a supplier close by.

 Also made flat table to have better control when cutting the rudder case flange molds. Using the jigsaw in this way avoids any angle in the cut out which can be very annoying. By using a remote control on the power main I didn’t need to bend under to turn on and off the tool. It also allowed to use the blade almost like a router to refine the surface. It took some time but after some filing and sanding it worked out just fine.

 The moldes are now in place ready for the carbon fiber. Here I used some vinyl I had around to create the desired thickness and then used plastic tape as mold release. The angled molds are locked in place with hot glue on the outside and wax on the inside to fill in any voids so resin doesn’t get under. As for the fillets I may just use putty and then sand it back to the carbon to get the desired fillet radius after the part has cured. I did buy some plastecene  but was not satisfied with how it handled and how it was releasing from the laminate on a small test I made. Now I'm just waiting for drier weather to lay down the carbon.

By the way the rudder came out super light! At this stage (only need to prime and paint it) it weighs 1575 gr which is incredible! It took me 3 vacuum bagging processes to do it and it was visible the amount of excess epoxy  that was soaked up by the breather every time.  I started with a 825gr foam core with central re enforcement and used full carbon all the way trough.

 

Here is a side view of the daggerboard after 1^st layer of BD carbon and unidirectional carbon. At this point it weighs around 5500 gr which is not bad for such a large part, I think. The perspective of the photo shows how reasonably straight it is.Those who have followed the blog may remember that at the routing stage I ended up with a serious warp due to uneven heat distribution as I was shaping the foil. For a moment I thought the whole thing was ruined beyond repair. I’m very happy the way it is as in fact I can’t find any visible foil misalignment .

 

As if I didn’t have enough thorns on my feet already I ended up with a friend’s Vaurien to work on ( so I believed!) some minor repairs. Oh man,  what a nightmare! Once we inspected the inside it looked like as someone who came out of  a car crash,alive but with every single rib broken in several places! Now I'm stuck with the thing and have to get rid of it to make space for the floats. Always learning! There's always a worse time for something to come up.

Sanding, sanding ..... and sanding!

 Not much posting lately. Not really that much of a change other then sanding. Most work has been around fairing. I don't know about other builders but the fairing compound I'm using is as hard as stone! Normaly I start with 50 grade on the long boards to read the contour and then go up to 80 then 100 until the surface is ready for the primer. I think I can skip the epoxy skimming since I nearly have no pin holes. I didn't go crazy by applying thick fairing compound. Just didn't see it necessary and I guess it paid off. Just about 1-2 mm and here and there some extra fills.

 



In the mean time managed to vacuum the first DB carbon on the ruder blade. Temperatures were around 10-12ºC and had to use a make shift heating chamber to get proper curing. It came out just great. I just hope next layers (UD and final DB carbon) come out just as well. Right now weather has turned very cold and most of the time wet too so I keep on fairing until an opportunity shows up to resume vacuuming de ruder and dagerboard.

wingnet lashing rails

 The way I made the berth with metal tubing made it easier to anchor the straps to keep the PVC tube in place.

 Vacuum under way of 5 layers of 200gsm carbon tape. I used a T splitter to allow vacuuming on both molds. Given the temperature ( 10-16 ºC) I used a 50/50 ratio of slow and standard hardeners to decrease curing time and reduce vacuum pump consumption. It worked just fine.

 Carbon lamination done. It looks good.

Repeating the proccess on the port side. Here Fernando whose been giving me a precious hand lately is dealing with minor vacuum leaks. The port side was a lot easier and faster to make given the learning curve development. On the starbord side it took us an extra hour to deal with major leaks ( I guess some tack tape got some resin under it and just wouldn't seal. As a result we ended up having lunch way past 3 o'clock. Vacuum was a bit below optimum but enough to get a proper lamination. On the port side it was just a breeze and vacuum kicked in just a few seconds.

Progress is realy starting to show. The cabin floor and rudder mounting area is done and all of a sudden I feel I'm left with just the dagger board, rudder and rudder case ( and some other minor details) to put an end to composite production.

Things are looking good and beating the launching timeline seems more possible than ever. Will see!

Deck Hatch

 

Vaccuming the recess for the Lewmar Low Profile size 40 hatch.

 Vaccum close to maximum.

 Done.

Off-cut puzzle for the cockpit floor. Not bad. Used up much of the recoverable off-cuts, and still managed to save about 1 and 1/2 of full lenght airex foam for the settee back rests and some other details. However I feel I'm running out of epoxy and probably will have to order a few more kilos of it.

Anchor well

 

 

 

As I promised I will try to fill in the steps I completed since july 2014.

 

Anchor well .

 

The part was laminated and trimed probably in 2012. All I had to do was to glue and tape it in place. The pictures below show the process. 

 

 



Here found a simple way to hold the part in place.

 

Precut glass and ready to laminate.

And done!

Quick update

It has been a long time since my previous post but a lot has been going on regarding the project. In fact during the last 2 months many hours have been put in the building process.
I intend to post some stuff regarding that period.
At this stage the platform is nearly finished. Still ahead are the cockpit floor, cabin top, rudder case ( rudder and daggerboard are ready to laminate). Main hull lower end is faired and ready for epoxy skim coat ( top side still need tobe faired).
Now it's time to look for a trailer and source for mast and other rigging stuff.
Close but yet so far!
Timeline is still next summer. I hope I can make it.

Update



 

I have resumed the project on May as soon as the weather conditions improved although only managed to work three or four days before another long rainy period held on until mid June. I did atempt to push forward but it doesn't pay off working under limit humidity and temperature conditions. Curing takes forever and it's dificult to keep a steady rythm.

 

The boat inside is nearly ready waiting for the boat to be turned upside down to do some taping easier to do in this position.

 

In the meantime I tackled the aft beam rear coamings and cockpit seats.

My plan is to do as much as I can with the boat upright before I turn it over to do the underside taping on some hard to reach and work spots.

 

Have also spent a lot of time ( days !!) searching for gear and acessories to prepare some areas for the correct fit ( front hatch, safety hatch, engine mount, side windows,etc). Have been also inquiring about mast and sails. Although the platform is suitable for the R version I am considering both F 22 or F 22R. I would like a faster boat but I plan to do a lot of cruising too under much safer and confortable conditions. On the other hand there are significant savings between the two versions and I must keep the costs under a controled budget.

 

 

At this stage a lot seems to be done but then just as much is still left to do and I haven't even started fairing!

It's mid July and rain has set in again! ( Thursday through Sunday!). Althouh I try to keep up with my professional activity taking advantage of the rainy periods ( and heat waves too!) it's not always possible to acomplish that and I find myself often bogged in professional agendas in weather conditions ideal for boat building and vice versa.

Still the projects keeps going ahead and launching is estimated for the summer of 2015.

 

There a lot more photos of other jobs done this year but I'm having some trouble getting them off my new smartphone. These were taken with my old phone which I use now for camera purposes only.