lamination almost complete

Last few days I've laminated the gunwale area and the cabin side, planked the deck and laminated the deck. I glued the deck-foam with putty instead of PU-glue and this worked much better (see earlier post about glueing the deck of the first hull half).
Although I worked really hard to get it right, there were still some bad spots and bubbles in the laminate. I know, it's not a big deal to patch them but it was still very frustrating. I thougth I should by now be able to make a flawless laminate. I suspect using the peelply might be part of the problem, as I was sure the laminate was perfect before I put it on. Maybe the laminate has shifted/lifted while I was putting the peel ply on. For the future (outer skin) I'm going to try to laminate the large areas without peelply.

Picture of the aft beam bulkhead, held in place with a jig (see the posts about building the first hull half).

Now I'll only have to fix the front beam bulkhead and make and fit the bow web before I can join the two halves. Looking forward to that.....

bit of progress

I know, last few posts show the same sort of pictures of a half build half-hull over and over again. In case people are interested in the progress I'll post them anyway.

gunwale area + cabin side plankedcloth cut prior to laminating

I ran out of cloth (again!), while I thought I now had ordered plenty to finish the whole project. GRRRR have to use precious time to get a few meters of 400 gr cloth.
Maybe I'll try to laminate the gunwale + cabinside this evening (or maybe I'll stay at home for a change).

lower hull half laminated

Lower hull half has been laminated with the help of my brother. Temperature is dropping in Hollland. I have to use three small heaters to keep the workshop the recommended minimum of 24 hours at minium of approximately 18 degrees C.
I'll plank and laminate this hull half in three steps: first the lower part (done), then the gunwale area and cabin side (in progress) and finally the deck. This will result in one extra glass-overlap compared to the 'two-step' I did on my first hull half, but it's much easier when working alone (better access and smaller areas to laminate).

Been there, seen that, done that

It took me quite some time to finish the planking of the second hull-half. It's slow work because of the restricted space. Anyway, the lower hull is almost done. Today I'll 'dremel' the grooves between the planks and fill them with bog. Hopefully I'll be able to laminate on sunday.

Second Half started!

Repositioning and leveling the strongback....

Tube filled with water to check the level along the whole length of the strongback.

Frames and battens in place.
First planks in the mold. My broter Hans again lend a (big) hand. We tried a 40 cm wide foam-strip on this half, but that turned out to be too wide to be handled with ease. After that we used 20 to 25 cm wide strips, like we did on the first half.

(not so floppy) whale part 2

I was afraid the hull half would be a very difficult to handle floppy 'blob', but the opposite is true. Even though this half is only sheated on the inside, it's already very rigid, I guess mainly because the floor, settee and bunktop have been fixed.

"Free Willy"

Hanging by a thread from the ceiling....
Because of the height of the workshop in the back, I can't lift this hull half very high. Only about 20 cm above the frames. I put one frame on the strongback to see how much space there is. Well, not much as you can see.
I'll have to figure out how to position the built half and the strongback/frames the best way. First attempt will be to position the strongback and the hull-half a bit crosswise.

It will be really cramped, but at least I don't have to cut belly-holes in my frame like Henny did.....

operation 'floppy whale' part 1

After fitting the settee a few days ago and taping the last joints, the hull was ready to be lifted out of the mold.
Tip for other builders: the dimensions given in the plan for the settee, the cockpit-floor and the bunktop are the dimensions for the underside of these panels. Because the hullside is angled a lot where these panels meet the hullside, there is quite a big gap on the topside (at least, if you cut the outer sides of the panels straight, like I did). Of course this gap can be filled while taping, but it's probably easier to cut the outer sides of the panels with a jigsaw angled 45 degrees to make sure the outline of the topside of the panel is a bit larger than the bottom side.

OK. Now for the unmolding of the hull. It turns out to be a bit more work than I thought. Because my workshop is so small, everything has to be done in small steps.
First I had to free the hull from the frames a bit. I thought that would be easy, but it turned out to be the hardest pard. I hoisted the hull with a loop through the centerboardcase and with a line attached to the front beam bulkhead. For no apparent reason the hull seemed to be stuck in the frames, and for no apparent reason it suddenly came loose.
After that me and my friend Eelco started to remove the frames.
....and then it was getting too late to work on. Half of the frames are still on the strongback. I''ll have to remove them first before I can turn the hull-half and lift it out of the way. I hope to finish floppy whale part 2 this week, so I can start on hull-half number 2.

Forward bunk/cockpitfloor/setteeflange

With the help of my brother I taped some panels.
The cockpitfloor was easy. We had to brace the cockptfloor a bit to keep it straight while taping...
Forward bunktop is also placed. Laminating the bunktop to the centerboardcase was a bit messy work (difficult to reach).
Here is another picture. In real it looks less messy.
By the way: I'm glad we used peelply, because while taping it's really difficult not to spill and leave drops of putty and epoxy all over the place. Much easier working when you know you can peel the ply and get rid of all the spills once the taping is done.
Note the pre-formed flanges on the bunktop. The flanges to glue the sette top are also molded.
Next few days I'll try to do some small taping-jobs, glue the settee top on and fix a HD-doubler at the hole of the pivot-pin on the centerboardcase. After that I can pop this half out of the mold and start building the other half.

CB-case part 2 & transom taped

Yesterday night I taped the centerboardcase in place, so now I can continue fitting the forward bunk top, the settee and the cockpitfloor. Before I can fit the settee I'll have to pre-mold tapes in this area, as this area will be fully enclosed with the settee fitted.
Later I'll have to decide wether I'll make some access hatches in this settee for storage, or just an inspection hatch. Any tips on how-to-make nice looking locker and 'lift-out' hatches are much appreciated. I made the hatch in the front bunk top by cutting the hatch outline, filling the edges in the bunktop and hatch with putty, sanding the edges and laminating a glass rim to lay the hatch in the bunktop. It looks allright, but not super. Is this the way to go, or are there better ways (using a router maybe?).

I also taped the transom. It has to be angled 5 degrees, and Jay shows on his site http://seattle-f22.blogspot.com/2007/09/transom-taped.html it's possible to calculate and mark the angle using the law of cosines and a plumb bob.
I used a bit easier method:
Draw a 5 degrees angled triangle on a scrap piece of wood.....
Screw it under a straight-edged piece of 18mm wood, clamp this jig to the topside of the last formframe, and....
clamp the transom on this jig and use a level to make sure the transom is positioned vertical.

This method worked really well. It's fast and the transom is firmly clamped so taping is easy. Beside that the bottom aft end of the transom is exactly alligned with the front end of te form frame as required.

Fitting Centerboardcase part 1

To fit the centerboard case I first cut out the required slot in the main bulkhead. The bulkhead was pre-cut near the edges prior to fitting, so this was an easy job.
After that I cut the slot in the hull. It was more difficult than I thought to mark the outline of the case on the hull. I couldn't think of a good way to do it (and I was a bit in a hurry) and ended with a not very well cut out slot. It's a bit too wide. Nothing to worry about, I'll just need a bit more putty to fill the gaps. With the centerboardcase in place it already looks a lot better.
Detail of the backside of the centerboardcase. The cockpitfloor will be glued on top here, and the control lines wil go through that floor to two camcleats on the main bulkhead.