port side stern steps

Here's a start roughing in the boarding stairs for the port side hull. I chose to go with the boarding platform and radius the stairs to eliminate exposed corners on the steps. I also decided to go with the under slung kick up rudder box so after I build the stairs, I'll go after them with a saws all and create the rudder support portion that will kick up.

unde cover

snug and dry inside the shop......

tucked in for the winter

This is the first posted photograph taken with my new Canon Rebel digital camera. From here on out, hopefully you should see an improvement in the quality of my photographs.

Here's a shot with the morning sun shining through the starboard side hull foam. The make shift scaffolds allow me to risk falling to my "harm" onto the cement floor between the two hulls. Since the cold won't really allow me to lay up the bridge deck floor, I'll most likely build a better temporary walkway between my hulls.

Stern view

Here's a 3/4 stern view. Lot's of work to do but it's nice to see all this expensive foam, glass and epoxy beginning to look like a ship.

Putting the pieces in place

Since the Pacific NW chill is beginning to make her way off the cool Pacific and onto the North west coast, It's time to put the pieces together so that I can set up a protected place to work....mainly "Inside" the boat. I decided to position the hulls as they will eventually go, throw a big 6 MIL plastic cover over the shell and create a snug place to work me through the coming winter months. Of course, the curse to avoid is becoming bogged down in details at a time when large brush strokes are still required.

brother kevlar

My brother flew in from Santa Cruz to help me sheath the port side hull with Kevlar. Unfortunately, "Big Brothers" latest wars have made this stuff fairly expensive. With new leadership, America will most likely be able to reduce the need to turn this stuff into vests. I think it looks better on a boat than a desert tan Hummer.

port side bullet proofing

One advantage of finishing the bow beam is that you can use it as a scaffold when you're sheathing the port side hull with Kevlar. I used three 1 ton harbor freight chain hoists and a few straps to flip my hull upside down. Here, I'm applying resin before laying down my 9 oz. Kevlar along the keel and bow section.

Kevlar option

I chose to go with the optional 9.oz Kevlar sheathing on the hulls. This option begins by laying down 8 inch wide, 9 0z. unidirectional kevlar along the hull center line "keel". This is then covered with 9 oz. twill kevlar fabric sheathing from 48 inches aft of the mast bulkhead, forward to the stem and 8 inches above the waterline. Kevlar is very difficult to wet out so using slow hardener, lots of patience and peel ply over the big sticky mess is about all you can do.

Someday, maybe I'll feel better about myself after I beach this ship onto the only hidden rock on the sandy beach.....

another view...

here's another view of the same. I was able to hand work the entire length of the boat one section at a time. By working about 6 ft. of epoxy, glass and peel ply at a time, it is possible to control the resin glass ratio to a high degree. any excess resin is simply moved along onto the next 6 ft. section. and on and on and on until the carpel tunnel syndrome kicks in. NOTE: high density foam core keel section can be seen lower right hand.

final outer starboard hull laminate

Although it's not advisable to skip too far out of sequence, I'm guilty of putting off laminating the final outer starboard hull exterior section. Here's the result of my weekends work......8 hours sat; 11 solid hours sunday laying two full runs of 34oz. triaxial glass, resin and peelply. Note 3" overlap section recessed into foam w/ power planer.

Also, In the upper background, you can see my cabin top. In order to preserve shop space, I winched it up into the rafters and tied it off.

back to the cabin top[

Here's the final run of "B" (24 oz. glass) going down over what will be the interior top of the cabin. This photo shows my 10 step lamination technique.

1) lay foam over stringer mold
2) fair all glue joints
3) skim foam with a slurry of epoxy and micro balloons
4) roll wet coat of epoxy over foam using a 3" paint roller w/ 3/8" fur
5) lay glass over wet coat
6) wait until the glass soaks up from below
7) roll another wet coat over glass
8) lay peel ply over wet glass
9) wet top of peel ply with left over epoxy that is on the roller ( this makes it easier to work)
10) work excess epoxy from center to edges using bondo spreader.

bonding the big burly bow beam

Here's a look down the inside of the bow beam. For bonding, I used System three Gel-Magic which is a thixotropic structural epoxy adhesive. It's a pretty handy epoxy "glue" that mixes 2 to 1 like epoxy but it's formulated to turn itself into a gel that will stay put. I spread a decent amount along both bonding surfaces, placed the top chanel over the bottom, rolled them on their side and fixed the bow beam together with temporary screws. The photo confirms that I have 100% internal squeeze-out along the entire length of the seam.

poping the 2nd bow beam section out of the mold

Including building the mold, fabricating the two 19ft. bow beam sections has taken about 16 hours. Considering that I am paying myself 0 dollars / hr, that comes to a total labor cost of 0 dollars. Shown here, after popping it out of the mold, is the 2nd half of the bow beam section. Next step will be trimming it down to spec, bonding the two halves together and skimming the beam with a mixture of micro spheres and epoxy to smooth down the seams and minor imperfections. To eliminate bonding prep work I placed peel ply into the mold top and bottom. Peel ply is my friend.

Solar post-cure using the green house effect.

After bagging one section of the bow beam, I used pressurized air to blow the bag up and then set it out in the sun. Thanks to the green house effect, on a sunny day, the temperature inside the bag can easily reach upwards of 120F.

Inthusiasm

It's nice to have enthusiastic workers to keep the project moving along.

Composite bow beam mold

Here's my helper smoothing down the packing tape along the length of the bow beam mold. The two upper cap beams are in-set about the thickness of what I think the sides will be; thus forming an internal flange. After layup and vac bagging is compete, I'll remove the cap strips and lay up what will become the other half of the full 19 ft. length. Then the two channel sections should fit together and be bonded to form a composite beam that is 7 in. tall, 9 1/2in. wide and 19 ft long.

mast base core installed.

The one inch thick end grain core insert is now in place. To the left, you can see the piece that I cut out. Again, I used system three polyurethane glue and made sure that it was flush to both the top and bottom surface of the one inch thick core cell deck foam.

installing a high density core section

The portion of the deck in front of the cabin gets a very high density insert. Here you can see an 8" x 16 in. end grain oak core that will transfer the compressive loads of the mast into the deck, the mast bulkhead and the forward center section bulkhead. Your looking at the under side of the forward portion of the cabin top.

getting closer ...

So I've used my oven to form all the foam to fit the cabin top mold. I've used two inch squares of 3/8th in. plywood and sheet rock screws to hold the planks in place. Once all the pieces are "dry fit" together, I found it easier for me to start from the middle; edge gluing the planks together one by one.

I'm using SYSTEM THREE polyurethane glue ( similar to the one part, moisture cure, Gorilla glue)

another angle

This is actually the inside of the starboard side cabin top......seen here up side down.