Here's Cinzia at it. In this photo, on the right panel it's easy to distinguish the recoated part, while the left one is almost done.
We passed the 100 hours of work today!
Total work time to date: 103 hours
Diary on the construction of a Seaclipper 20, a plywood trimaran designed by Jim Brown and John Marples. Our boat's Sail No. is 50. The boat has been named GEODETICA and was launched on september 28th, 2024.
Saturday, April 19, 2014
Epoxy coating completed
Today we completed the epoxy coating of the inner faces of the last two panels. This time it took a bit longer: I gave the first coat yesterday morning but could not give the second coat in due time, so this morning we had to clean the dreaded amine blush from the cured surface, which WAS there indeed. We used Scotchbrite pads and water: at the end, the bucket, which at the beginning was full of clean water, contained a whitish liquid... We then dried everything with paper towels. In the afternoon everything was dry so we gave the panels the second coat. The whole thing took 5 hours, so the suggestion is: do everything you can to avoid the amine blush if you have to do multiple coats, fiberglassing and so on.
Here's Cinzia at it. In this photo, on the right panel it's easy to distinguish the recoated part, while the left one is almost done.
We passed the 100 hours of work today!
Total work time to date: 103 hours
Here's Cinzia at it. In this photo, on the right panel it's easy to distinguish the recoated part, while the left one is almost done.
We passed the 100 hours of work today!
Total work time to date: 103 hours
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Epoxy coating (3)
Two more hours, and two more panels done (inboard ama hull panels).
Now (16 April) we're ready to coat the last two panels. The problem with a trimaran is that one has three hulls to build :-). The last two panels are already on the table; on the left is the stack of the 4 panels wich have been already epoxy coated. The temperature dropped 10 degrees last night, so we should wait a couple of days for warmer weather...
Total work time to date: 98 hours
Now (16 April) we're ready to coat the last two panels. The problem with a trimaran is that one has three hulls to build :-). The last two panels are already on the table; on the left is the stack of the 4 panels wich have been already epoxy coated. The temperature dropped 10 degrees last night, so we should wait a couple of days for warmer weather...
Total work time to date: 98 hours
Monday, April 14, 2014
Epoxy coating (2)
Two more hours and one more kilogram of resin to double coat the inner side of the main hull port panel.
Total work time to date: 96 hours
Total work time to date: 96 hours
Saturday, April 12, 2014
Epoxy coating (1)
Three hours of work today. We coated the inside of the main hull starboard panel with epoxy: the first coat in the morning, the second coat in the afternoon (the first coat was still tacky). We used a squeegee on the plywood and a brush on the stringers. We used about 1 kg of resin.
Total work time to date: 94 hours.
Total work time to date: 94 hours.
Sunday, April 6, 2014
Main hull, starboard panel (2)
Two more hours of work today. We unscrewed the panel (no problem), turned it upside down and cleaned some epoxy runs. Looks great: here it is.
The most important thing: it is identical to the port panel to within 1 mm! Here it is face to face on the port panel
We then taped all screw holes on the outside face, turned it again and filled all holes using a syringe and 120 grams of epoxy from the inside face.
The remaining resin (maybe 20 grams) was used to see how is spreads over the plywood with a squeegee, which seems better and faster than a brush.
Total work time to date: 91 hours
The most important thing: it is identical to the port panel to within 1 mm! Here it is face to face on the port panel
We then taped all screw holes on the outside face, turned it again and filled all holes using a syringe and 120 grams of epoxy from the inside face.
The remaining resin (maybe 20 grams) was used to see how is spreads over the plywood with a squeegee, which seems better and faster than a brush.
Total work time to date: 91 hours
Saturday, April 5, 2014
Main hull, starboard panel (1)
During the past week Cinzia finished the port panel spending one hour to fill the screw holes with resin and and the space between the butt blocks and the bottom stringers with epoxy putty. This space is due to the severe bevel angle of the bottom stringers (40 degrees) which leaves an empty V section space.
Today we worked five hours on the starboard panel. The procedure is identical to the other one, so here are two photos.
This shows the situation after a couple of hours of work this morning: all stringers glued.
In the afternoon we measured, cut and glued the butt blocks, the vertical stiffeners and the bulkhead landing stringers. We're particularly proud that the differences with respect to the other panel are all less than 3 mm (typically 1 mm).
Total work time to date: 89 hours
Today we worked five hours on the starboard panel. The procedure is identical to the other one, so here are two photos.
This shows the situation after a couple of hours of work this morning: all stringers glued.
In the afternoon we measured, cut and glued the butt blocks, the vertical stiffeners and the bulkhead landing stringers. We're particularly proud that the differences with respect to the other panel are all less than 3 mm (typically 1 mm).
Total work time to date: 89 hours
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