Update - 6/3

It's been a few days since the last update.  Lots going on in my other worlds, and also quite a bit of 'small work' in this one.
After cutting away everything that didn't look like a boat, it was time to start filling things in.  The basic hull is quite strong, but the deck side and fittings have to be even stronger.  Imagine having a 140lb athlete putting all their weight on one knee and then on a 4mm bit of plywood - probably not a long term good prospect.
Over the past two weeks, we've added additional stringers to the top deck (where the frames were bolted in, laminated plates for the fore and aft hull sections (including access ports), added pink foam for positive buoyancy, filled gaps, and reinforced anywhere we thought we might be weak.
We also spent several hours doing take-offs from the starboard hull, updating drawings, and transferring to the port hull frames.
Clamps.  Lots of clamps.
The proof of doing all the cloning, copying and transferring is that the second set of frames went up in a single sitting, stringers all fit where they should, and the lines look clean.  We'll be able to lock it down and glue in the stringers over the next few days, and hang panels and apply glass next week.  It took nearly 2 months to get there for the first hull!

Tyvek keeps the floor clean. Epoxy doesn't stick, so it makes an ideal medium for reusable drop cloths, separation for laminations.

 Pink foam provides a positive buoyancy of about 200lb in each hull. By concentrating in the ends, this should help keep the hull level even in the event of a catastrophic failure.


The pointy 


Ready to skin and fiberglass

Taking the hull for a walk back to storage

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Launching the Skoota 16

Image
Glassed, assembled, and we recruited about 6 folks from the shop to get it down the loading dock and onto the trailer.  The bench and battery box are mounted on T-track that's screwed to the deck.  You can see the microballoon 'schmeer' on the hulls, but it fairs up so quickly when sanding.  The deck cleats are positioned as far forward from the access cover as I could stick my arm in to reach the backing nuts.  You can see the tumblehome on the bow and shear line here.  I'm really glad we took the time and effort to add this detail. The console is okume with walnut trim.  View from the rear.  It looks slightly distorted perspective.  The motor mount is a stock Garelick, modified to lower it a couple of inches.  The rails are off the old launch  I'm really terrible about getting pictures made.  I haven't made the leap to the full instagram generation, but here it is on the water, first day 18, Sept 2019 It floated on its lines, and has ab
Read more

Assembling the bits

Image
It's been entirely too long since the last post, and much has happened along the way.  The boat is basically finished and put away for the winter.  For those not from the upper midwest, the lake is now 6 or 8" thick and will remain so until March (or April). So for now, I'll try to do some catch-up, trying to remember as many of the horror stories as possible! The last set of photos had the deck sitting in between the hulls, but nothing attached.  A couple of days later, we got back from regatta and started final assembly. After a lot of head scratching, I went of a fairly brute force approach to mating the deck and hull.  The photo on the right shows a 5/8" stainless bolt and 1" aluminum bar, tapped and designed to mount 'blind'.  In hindsight, I underestimated the difficulty of getting the darn things lined up and threads started.  This will get modified in the spring to have access hatches in the deck, and at whatever point the billets strip out,
Read more

Elves...

Image
Not sure who else could've done it.  I got to the shop this evening, and found the strongback gone, and the hull sitting in a new cradle.  Must've been elves.  Port hull off the strongback I couldn't resist temptation and pulled the hull out of the workspace into the main shop, pulled the starboard hull out of its hidey hole, got some help with the deck, and viola!  It's a boat!  And everything fits (or close).   I've been trying to visualize the actual size - it's a lot bigger than I thought, and I'm quite pleased.  A lot of work yet to be done, but I'm pretty chuffed with where it's at today! Thanks, elves!!!
Read more