lncc63's blog

I dropped by the drugstore and the local Handyman to pick up some supplies. As luck would have it I bought the last pack of tongue depressors. The drugstore also had a 60ml measuring cup for dispensing medicines so I picked up 4 since I figured they'd be very handy for making small batches of epoxy. At the Handyman, I suprisingly found those wallpaper squeegees another boatbuilder had told me about. A little bit too limber for squeezing thick epoxy but they should do nicely.

The wife was waiting when I got home eager to do our 1 hour of work on the boat. We installed the inside transom

Took leave today to attend my daughter's first graduation. The cermony finished just before lunch so after a nice celebration lunch I had a few hours to work on the boat.

Decided to improve a few of the fillets. Some just did not feel right - too wide, too shallow. Trimmed the seat supports at the transom so I can lay a full width fiberglass seam on the vertical transom edge. I think joint strength will be more important. I can replace the small batten peice later. Wasn't able to glass these joints though becuase we ran out of the "tape" we'd cut from the cloth.

Glassed the inner joints between the transom and the bottom panels. Put 5 layers of the 6oz cloth. Was also able to glass the keel, also with 5 layers, between frames C and D.

Finished filleting the joints on the inside though after sanding it seems there is still work to be done. Was also able to install the various battens as well as the seat sides. The seat sides made the hull much more solid. Was also able to install the inside keel glass - 5 layers of 6oz woven cloth with a 45 deg bias.

Traffic was a breeze. The normal 1.5 hour trip came in at only about an hour. Classes must be winding down. More time to work on the boat!

Glassed up the vertical transom edges. Boy is it hard to work on a vertical. Should consider some kind of harness to rotate the bigger boats on their longitudinal axis. Seams will be have to be glassed so the hull does not move so much. Will post this on the forum.

Also, did some sanding of the glass edges as well as the thick spots of the epoxy coating.

Have a picture of the cracked bottom panels:

Put in about an hour of work fiberglassing the starboard chine. The evening was cool so we did not use an icebath which was a mistake. We were laying the 3rd layer when we noticed the epoxy starting to get heavy. So instead of doing the port chine glass as we had originally intended, we instead used the hardening epoxy to coat the uncoated areas of the bottom.

Just as well we stopped when we did. Got a recommendation from Bateau, the designers, to instead of glassing over the cracked bow panels to replace all or at least part of them.

NOTE:
3 layers 6oz woven cloth = 1 layer 12oz 45/45 biaxial cloth

We removed the plastic ties and completed the fillets. While waiting for the fillets to harden, we prepared the glass for the seams. For the seams the glass specified is 12oz 45/45 bias biaxial which is not to be found in the Philippines. Actually the only "structural" fiberglass available is 6oz plain woven cloth. So, after consultation with the designer, I set out to use 3 layers of the woven cloth where 1 layer of biax is specified and 5 layers where 2 layers of biax as specified. To make matters worse, the cloth is not sold in tape form. Dreading to import, I bought a roll and rigged up the setup below to cut the cloth into strips (sorry about the picture, all my pictures are taken with my Nokia 7650 cellphone).

Today was assembly day! After a few hits and misses we finally got the panels assembled. The epoxy guys came later in the day and showed us how to mix epoxy and prepare filler.

On big "miss" in the assembly happened at the bow where both bottom panels broke under the strain. After some serious thinking, I decided to just go ahead use the panels and make up for lost strength in this critical area with more fiberglass and epoxy. The image below shows the filler we used to compensate the unfair surfaces that resulted.

Put off our weekly billiards game, so I got home at before 7PM and could not resist doing the side panel butt joints. This time instead of using bar clamps, I followed everyone's adviced and used something heavy - 4.5 HP of electric motors.

Again I stacked two joints one on top of the other for lack of space. Thinking I'd get a more even spread of forces, this time I put a piece of 3/8 plywood between the boards being joined. Each layer was of course lined with plastic wrap to prevent them from sticking to one another.

Got home just before 9PM and could not resist taking a look at my first butt joints. Here is what they look like:

I noticed some of the epoxy was squished out which is what I had wanted so hopefully the epoxy layer is even and without voids. The panel outside surface is not a smooth as I'd hoped however. Notice also the shreds of the plastic (grocery) bag liner stuck to the joint, now I know to tape them down.

To test the results, I tried lifting the panels at the joints and making them flap to stress the joints - no cracking sounds so I suppose the joints are ok.

After about 6 weeks of preparations, I finally started building my first real boat - Bataeu's Corsair 13. First thing Saturday, we went over to the local hardware store where I picked out the best pieces of exterior plywood I could find. Most seemed to have voids so I picked those with the least and later rearranged some of the panel placements in the nesting diagrams to avoid them. After cutting each panel, I checked the edges for voids but found only a few.

Carrying the 4 - 1/4, 3 - 3/8 and 1 - 3/4 into my workshop was really tiresome. Wish I had some help doing all that heavy lifting. Working on each sheet was not so much a burden since I got to rest while drawing all the patterns to be cut on a given sheet before having to lift it again for cutting.