Topside Fiberglass

I can safely say I have figured out how not to do this.  The first thing to note is that this is now a 3 step process. I cut the fiberglass in two places so I could do a third at a time. I know cutting the fiberglass is not optimal. But I just can't work on it that long to get it all done in one shot. Doing the bottom was an entire day's work, and it did not have any odd features to work around.  It think I've whined about that before, so I'll move on to lessons learned.

My approach of clamping the fiberglass in place did not work. I ended up with waves in the glass around  the corners of the hatch opening trim.  I'm not that worried since I will have plenty of filling and fairing work to do anyway so I can fix the waves at the same time. The filling and fairing is mostly going to be to hide a the overlapping layers of fiberglass.  Next time I will fiberglass corners and odd features using fiberglass tape first.  Then I will cover the large sections with fabric.

It was good to be out in the boat shed. Even though fiberglassing is my least favorite job.  I'm beginning to think everyone should build a boat.   It does not have to a boat exactly, I suppose it could be anything, but it has to be an ambitious, personal project, sans a due date. Even though I haven't made it to the boat shed much lately. My life is better for it.

Below is a picture of how I left it. One more section of topside glass to go.

Back to Work!

A lot has been going on, just not much to do with the boat.  My brother and his family moved here from Texas, so I flew down to help him drive up, lots of fun and a cool experience. The other piece of news is that I am now officially back in the workforce. I took an aerospace job, so the boat will become a weekend project from here on out.

Speaking of the boat. I did do some good stuff today. I heeded Bernd's advice and used a router to round all the deck edges. Having this bearing bit helped since the roller at the end of the bit prevents gouges. I first got this bit to make mouldings for a house remodel it has been an incredibly useful thing ever since.

Here is a shot of sine of the edges after seeing the business end of the router.

I have talked about how cool it is that fiberglas moves in its weave before, but got a picture of it doing so where the deck hatch opening makes and outside corner on the deck. You can see the weave tighten near the corner.

I blocked up the hatch opening to get the fabric to settle itself to the shape I want. When I apply the epoxy I will try to sneak up on this area in the hope of keeping the glass from moving.

Last picture is how I left the boat to sit until tomorrow.

The Seahawks are playing an early game tomorrow. So after the game I'm heading out the boat shed.  

Falling Off The Wagon

This week I was keeping up mild pressure on the boat, but completely fell off the blog-wagon.  So this post will make up for some lost time.

Finally finished the decking.

And trimming the deck hatch opening.

I made the standoff for the bow light and the stern light. The one for the bow light is a wedge so the light can be mounted at the bow but still point forward. This was a PITA.

Also on the inside a made a cavity to hold the wires. This way I can maintain access to the electrical connection.

After some final sanding and glue application I laid on the topside fiberglass.

I'm a little apprehensive about this step. The last fiberglass application was no easy feat and the bottom did not have all of these features to work around.  The beam reliefs are particularly concerning.  I won't be able to actually do the fiberglassing until this weekend so I have some time to mull my options.  To the extent I get boat time this week it will be cleaning the garage (again) to make room for a return to rudder work.

Beach Cat Sailing

We had a great day on Lake Washington with friends. Charlie brought his waterproof camera so we actually got some photographic evidence.  Nice steady winds all afternoon. Even got the bigger kids to do some of the sailing.

It is this sort of thing that inspires me to carry on with my project. Beach cats are fun but there are some specific things I want to do that are difficult on a beach cat (read sailing while comfortably seated with a cooler of frosty beverages).

Getting Close

Quite a bit done today. Trimming on 2 large and 3 small decking pieces done, stern beam T-nuts installed, round of epoxy coating completed, and the last piece of decking was installed. Here are a couple of pics of the nearly completed decking job.

                                  

At my last attempt at T-nuts I had a problem of exactly lining up the center of the epoxy filled hole with the center of the hole made to accommodate the T-nut. This time I used a nail as a center punch to keep the drill bit form walking. Very happy with results.

Not sure I will get out to boat shed tomorrow. If I do I will trim, and coat remaining parts of decking, build hatch riser pieces, and make some navigation light standoffs. Then it will be time to start considering topside fiberglass.

Centering Myself

The good news is that my decking task seems to be accelerating.  The bad news is that all that new decking covered my centerline marks. I re-shot the centerline so I could insure that the bolt hole locations for the stern aluminum beam were drilled orthogonal to the centerline.

I am still slow at this but improving, now it only takes me and hour instead of a day.  All the decking panels are on now except for the very aft one. which I can't put on until I have the stern beam T-nuts installed (need the access).

Build note. Bernd's plans call for placing the inboard stern beam bolt aggressively near the shear. With me insisting on using T-nuts I had to move one of the dimensions outboard just a bit. So I don't forget what I did I'm recording it here.

This all happened yesterday, and I hope to spent a good bit of time in the boat shed today. I need to start trimming the hatch opening and making appendage pieces for lights and the AV Panel.

I didn't write this up last night because I was busy watching the Seahawks lose.  It's only preseason but its nice to have football back.  

Doh!

I started out just getting in some epoxy coating this morning and thought that would be the days progress. That was until we got home from a very fun afternoon sailing beach catamarans with friends on Lake Washington.  With the fire burning bright I went out to glue on a panel that now had the requisite 2 coats of epoxy. First a shot of how I left it.

Note that all the large decking pieces are installed, small pieces, trimming, coating left to go. And now a picture of the crime scene.

I used two clamps and 4 screws to hold this piece of decking in place. The tip of the driver bit, my favorite bit, broke in the screw head. I left it in place for now and will fool with drilling this out and removing the screw tomorrow.

A Good Day In The Boat Shed

I continued progress on the electrical panel. It is missing one more ground wire (from the battery). Then it will be done. I also cut some stainless standoffs and a plexiglass window as a cover. But I am waiting until I'm done making dust in the vicinity before I install it.

Also got the third and last big piece of decking installed aft of the second beam holder.

A couple of journal notes:
For the aft side of the aft beam holder the beam holder bracket bolts need to be installed at 1-3/4"

For the forward side of the aft beam holder the beam holder bracket bolts need to be installed at 2-1/2"

Looking ahead, there is lots of epoxy/carpentry to be done. Several small decking pieces, the aforementioned beam bracket bolt T-nuts (stern beam too), and the hatch opening trim and cover. The hatch work is going to be a lot of steps to finish.  If have any discipline at all I will start making nav. light trim pieces at the same time.

Lastly, I noticed I never put up a pic of how the second pieces of decking looks now that it is fully trimmed and coated.

Progress Not Entirely Stopped

I haven't been posting this week because although I was making progress, it was in baby steps, and not very interesting. Posts would have been something like, "went to fishery supply store today", or "bought some stainless fasteners".  So if my blog has been boring this week, so has my project. Today things improved tremendously. I installed the electrical panel this afternoon.

The panel was a kind of keystone, now that it is in, I can do a lot more things. Since all the wires are in I can now install the next two pieces of decking.  Then work on the aft beam mounting holes and trimming out the hatch opening and cover. After that it will be buttoning up topside details and glassing the deck.  The next phase will be dealing with hull appendages, antivortex panel, rudder, and nav lights.  Then, dare I say, paint.

Trimming The Deck

Yesterday I did spend a bit of time in the boatshed and did most of the trimming on the deck section. I was happy to get this done since it makes it look like a deck and not a shapeless strip of plywood stuck to the hull.

It's done except for belt sanding the last bit to flush. This will have to wait for me to get a new Shop-Vac since mine died and running the belt sander without the vacuum is unwise.  In the meantime, I will focus on completing the electrical installation. I'm not looking forward to this since I expect it will be mostly chasing down little parts and fooling with squirrely little hardware.

Today is our kickball game I want to win and I want to stay uninjured. If I had to choose, I'll take the win.

2nd Deck Section Installed

I had this backed into a corner so much that when I finally did it, it wasn't much work.  First an embarrassing build notation has to be made (since this blog is actually my build documentation).  The offset for the aft side of the forward beam bracket bolts needs to be 1 - 3/4".  I need to write this down since it will be harder to verify now that the deck piece is installed.

The reason this is embarrassing is that on the forward side of the beam the offset is 1 - 1/2".  Technically none of this is a problem except when it comes time to build beam brackets I will need to match small size differences to various locations.  Some of this is my fault due to the way brought the beam cradles into square. But I think at least 2 sizes are implied in the design, since you are necessarily working off two different sides of the bulkhead. On one side you have bulkhead superstructure to work with, on the other you don't.

Here is the picture of the installed piece of decking. Went on easy, two clamps and three screws.

From here there will be lots of fiddly little jobs. The following is a quick look ahead.
     Trim 2nd deck piece at hatch, mast partner and gunwales.
     Install beam holder T-Nuts
     Install interior ladder
     Finish electrical installation

After that it will be considering the next deck section and finishing out the hatch opening.
 

Let There Be Light

All I managed today was a rather paltry effort at wiring. But I did get this far.

The light is the LED wired inside the hull near the mast step. Next step is installing the next deck section, still.

Out Of Commission

So last week we had company so I was out and about enjoying myself, including 2 days of sailing. Then Sunday we had our weekly adult kickball game which was a disaster. Not only were we soundly spanked by a mediocre team (24-4), seemed like half our team (including me!) came away injured.  In my case I pulled both hamstrings.  I used to do this in high school and maybe a couple of times in college. This is the most serious muscle pull I've inflicted on myself as a grown adult that should know better.  Today I'm more mobile so I got the last coat of epoxy on the next piece of decking.  Next step is to finish a bit of wiring and get the next deck section installed.

Forgot About Epoxy Coating

I was all excited about putting on the second deck piece, when I realized I had a bare wood piece of plywood on my hands. So I got it epoxy coated and given that two coats are required the soonest I will put the plank on will be Monday.  Below is a picture of little plates I made to hold the hull interior lights, probably better that I wire this before I put the deck over it anyway.

Also its been awhile since I put a beauty shot up so here is what the bow looks like clean and with the forward lazarette hatch in place.

While waiting on epoxy coat curing I will busy myself with either electrical installation or making an anti-vortex panel.

Mast Step Installation

I finally did it.

This was actually done Thursday. I got rained out yesterday, so today is the day for installing the next deck section.

Gotta Have Sole

This is actually yesterday's post. I just wrapped up late and then got busy with non-boat stuff. Building in the sole is going to kill me. It is just taking so long to deal with this and it is likely the least interesting part of the entire project. I added stiffeners and I bolted through one stiffener per plank. It holds up but I can tell that I really need to bolt through both stiffeners. On the upside it seems I won't need any additional hold downs, and the fastener heads actually look kinda cool on the sole.

I finally installed the anti-vortex panel backing plate.

And installed the verticals for the ladder.

For today I will continue with buttoning things up in preparation for installing the next deck section. Specifically mast step installation, cutting out the center stringer and applying epoxy coat at the mast partner, continuing electrical installation, and adding some rungs to the ladder.

Getting Side Tracked, In A Good Way

I made it to about 75% complete in cleaning the garage. But in the process remembered that I need to wire up my test power supply for the boat. And figure out which bow light is green and red.  I bought the power converter from Amazon for $9. It came with a cigarette lighter connection but puts out 12 volts and up to 10 amps. So I cut off the cigarette lighter thing and soldered on some alligator clips. You can't tell which light is which since they come as a set, the LEDs themselves give off the color so you can't tell by looking at them unpowered, and they were not labeled.

Simple work but different than what I have been doing so a nice change of pace.

Playing Injured

The good news is that we won our adult league kickball game on Sunday. The bad news is that I jacked up my foot in the process.  Yesterday I was completely out of commision, but today I can limp around and get some stuff done. I got the second coat of epoxy on the bow deck and coated the sole structure parts. Also the hull is too deep to just step into, so I started fitting a small ladder to the inboard side of the hatch opening. Also added some 4mm shims the the hatch framing. I needed these because these parts are not bent the way the shear is so there would be a gap (between the structure and the deck). I will go back after the glue cures and fair these to the shears. Lastly I started adding the last bits of structure to the mast partner area before I cut away the center stringer.  I'm likely overbuilding this but given that I want to make a removable mast partner piece to interface the mast I think a particularly stout partner is appropriate.  Took some creative clamping to get this all set.

Tomorrow I will continue work on the ladder, try out the beefed up sole, continue working on the mast partner, and start strategizing on how to install the other side of the beam bracket T-nuts.

For the rest of today I have to clean my shop. My habit of not cleaning as I work has gone too far....again.

Back!

We had company in town this past week. It was fun and I even did some sailing (light winds, but still fun). But now it's time to get back to work on the boat. I finally finished trimming the bow deck and got a coat of epoxy on.

I thought I would quickly install the sole between bulkheads 4 and 5 and that is where the problems began. I test fit the planks and it all looked fine, but with the added 1x2 structure pieces I found I added places for there to be small interferences. Also, I weigh entirely too much (220 lb) for the way I put the sole together.  So after a valiant effort to make it work through shear force of will, I pulled out the planks and started adding additional stiffeners.

If I stepped on the planks wrong they would bend at one side. I peeled some of the bonds partially apart. The stiffeners should help to stop that.  In addition I'm going to add 2 fasteners per stiffener to help keep stiffener and plank joined. Also I will sink some polymer brads along the length of the stiffeners to give the beam some additional shear capability. I think I may still need some hold downs to keep one plank from lifting off its neighbor if it is loaded at an edge. I'm reluctant to do that because I want the sole to be removable. Maybe I can come up with a couple of gates at the plank ends that could serve to hold down all the planks at once, while still being removable. First I'll wait to see if the reinforcing works on its own before further complicating matters.

Before running into so many problems with the sole I was going to make and install the anti-vortex panel backing plate. That will have to wait for the sole to function. In the meantime I need to trim out the mast exit hole and shim up the midsection deck section a bit so I can get the next section of deck properly seated. Lots to do, but good to see the inside of the boat shed again.

Lazarette Hatch

I lost a day fixing our relatively new (18 months) LG dishwasher.  After much fussing it turns out the error code it was throwing was due to a clogged drain line. We went for both an LG refrigerator and dishwasher when we remodeled our kitchen, not impressed.

Back to the boat. I'm squeezing in boat time in very small increments in between other things.  Over the last two days I finally got the hole for the lazarette cover cut out and started in on drilling then filling then drilling the holes for it's t-nuts.

Nothing cool to talk about, I'm just happy to have done anything on the boat at all.

Making The Bow Deck Look Right

I spend a little time on the boat today. And I spent it all just trimming the edges to flush to the hull. I had forgotten how much work this is. I got close with the Fein tool and then finished the job with the belt sander. I did both sides and gave a bit of shape to the top of the bow timber. Still have to trim where the deck overhangs the forward beam relief.  A lot of work but it is starting to look pretty.

Bow Deck Installed!

Warning: this is a long post. But only because there is a lot to report. Yesterday the small one and I went to the fishery supply store and bought some wire. With that done I had no more excuses for not having the deck installed on the bow. I installed the wires for the bow light yesterday, note the wires in anchors in the pictures below.

I started out by chasing the threads out of all the trampoline pad eye T-nuts.  I'm going a bit against Bernd's recommendation but I've had many a day ruined by fouled threads. And if I have a problem with these threads I want to know now instead of after the deck is installed.  It was harder to do than it should have been, likely because I was sloppy with the epoxy when installing the T-nuts. But after some fiddling it all looks like it will come together just fine.

I can't emphasize how weirded out I am by installing this deck piece. I think the issue is that I am cutting off my access to this part of the boat. I suspect it is a similar emotion as kids leaving the house (I've done the best I could, and now the this bow has to go it alone).  A symptom of this is that I checked continuity of the bow light wires. Basically checking to make sure that brand new copper wire conducts electricity. It tested fine. I suppose I will to weird stuff when the kids leave the house too.

The next task was to put in the capsize (or holed) flotation. Per Bernd's recommendation I am using plastic jugs. I overshot a bit as Bernd called for 150 liters of flotation in the second compartment (between bulkheads 2 and 3).  I could not fit it all in that compartment, due to the lazarete. So I put in the entire case of jugs (48 gallons) in the first two compartments. Here is the before picture.

And the after picture, showing the lazarette floor installed.

For deck installation I ran into a problem where the flange on one of the 1/2" T-nuts was running into the bulkhead before it was in it's clearance hole. So without panic, I cut off a section of the flange with a dremel tool, while the epoxy was already mixed. While the solution was straight-forward, I'm most proud that I did not freak out. With that issue fixed I installed the deck. I used a couple of cleat and chock holes and the beam holder holes to initially hold the deck in place. Then I went back afterwards and ran a few screws around the deck to get it well seated. Here is a picture of the final installation.

Last picture shows how everything lines up to the threaded beam holder fastener, the entirety of the hole is lined with epoxy.

Still a few things to do on the forward deck. The lazarette cover hole has to be trimmed out and the T-nuts for the last cleat (for a fender) still need to be installed. Access through the hole for the lazarette cover should be sufficient for that. Lastly will be the requisite epoxy coats. Then it will wait for fiberglass with the rest of the deck.

Upside Down T-Nuts

My insistence on using t-nuts is really making my life difficult. I think they are the right piece of hardware for the job (due to large surface area for bonding and load distribution), but they are a pain. For instance, I planned to install the t-nuts for the bow cleat and anchor chock from underneath the buttstrap. But I could not hammer them in from that angle and I didn't want to rely on tape to hold them up (if I used the non-hammer using variety). So I installed them upside down and put shallow counterbores on the bottom of the deck to allow for a flush fit. Here is a pic of the counterbores.

And then a picture of the t-nut "tops" that will fit in the counterbores.

This is only one of the little annoyances. For the 1/2" bolts that hold the beam, I originally drilled out 5/8" holes. The bummer is that I need the hole that big just to accommodate the t-nut (if left like that I would not have an epoxy barrier inside the hole). So I redrilled those to 3/4" and re-filled with filled epoxy. This way I can re-drill the structure part to 5/8" and the deck clearance hole at 1/2". I think I will install the deck and the beam holder t-nuts at the same time so I can insure it is all lining up correctly at the same time.  The last hassle is the cleat for fenders. I had drilled out holes at a location only to figure out I had the fasteners are sitting on the chine. So I fiddled with that (tracing superstructure from the inside) until I found a spot where it made sense to put it, and where I could fit a plywood backing piece on the inside of the deck. The picture below shows the piece of aluminum stock being used to keep this seated as the epoxy cures.

With all this said the good news is that I bought all the flotation jugs today. The main difficulty here is that the warehouse is 45 minutes away. I have a little more fooling around with the deck, and I need to get some wires in that boat. Then I can stat buttoning this up.  Slow going, but as long as I don't think about how long this is taking, it's a good time.