Saturday, October 31, 2020

Vaka bottom: second coat of graphite

 One hour today to give the bottom a second coat of graphite/epoxy resin after a light scrub with 240 grit. 

Later in the evening we removed the plastic skirt


 Total work time to date: 731 hours


Sunday, October 25, 2020

Vaka bottom: first coat of graphite

Two hours of work today. We bought a new roll of masking tape so we could finish to cover the hull with a plastic skirt. We then gave a light scuff with 240 grit to the hull bottom, and finally gave a first coat using about 250 grams of clear resin to which we added 30% (in volume) of graphite powder.

Here's yours truly giving the first coat

 

and here's Cinzia doing a thorough quality check:


Total work time to date: 730 hours


Saturday, October 24, 2020

Preparing the vaka for graphite coating

 Just one hour of work today

 Unexpectedly, we ran immediately out of masking tape 😧 so we will have to buy some more...

 
 
So, we decided to bore 4 holes in the carts and put one bolt in each through the aka support blocks to avoid that the vaka slides over the cart while moving the hull around.

Total work time to date: 728 hours



Wednesday, October 14, 2020

Press stop: graphite!

 The graphite (1 liter of very light powder) has arrived:

This must be mixed with clear epoxy (1 part of powder in 3 parts of epoxy, in volume) and spread on the bottom (2 layers). We'll see...


Saturday, October 10, 2020

Turning the vaka for painting

After much thinking, we decided to coat the vaka bottom with graphite. We ordered a liter of graphite powder but it we have not yet received it. Today, we turned the vaka hull upside down in preparation for the bottom coating. We succeded in the operation with relative ease notwithstanding the almost 200 kg. Here it is lying on a side

and here it is, resting on two 2-cm thick particle board panels on wheels.

 Total work time to date: 727 hours






Saturday, October 3, 2020

Attaching the OB motor support

 Two hours of work today. As anticipated, we prepared 150 grams of epoxy resin.


We then added microfibers and colloidal silica to prepare a glue and make the fillets. Here's the beam crossing the vaka hull under the aft deck

and here is where it comes out of the hull, with a milestone beer

Total work time to date: 726 hours