Glueing stuff

Two hours today to glue the stem doubler and the OB motor mount supports. We used more than half kg of thickened resin.

Here's the stem doubler for which we used a temporary screw since a clamp cannot reach down there

and here are the two supports for the OB motor mount, cut from 20 mm plywood and glued to the hull sides

Here we used a stud forced between the two sides to keep the pieces against the hull.

Total work time to date: 367 hours

Stem doubler

Two more hours today on the stem doubler. This is not considered (as it should) in the early stages of construction, nor is it present on all drawings. Other drawings show a stem cap... anyway, it is there to allow enough thickness to bore a hole for the forestay eyebolt.

The stem doubler has a tricky shape due to the various angles. Here is what we came up with

Next time we'll glue everything.

Total work time to date: 365 hours

OB motor mount

Last night, with the help of our friend Raffaele, we turned the boat rightside up again to work on the deck. This was easier than I had imagined even if the boat is now much heavier than before because we installed the bottom and the massive centerboard trunk.

Before decking the boat though we have to install the OB motor mount, which is a 2x6 which protrudes through the hull on the starboard side just abaft of the aft aka. It was quite stressing to cut a rectangular opening through the hull, but here is the whole thing ready to be glued and filleted.

Total work time to date: 363 hours

Vaka bottom glassed

Three hours today to glass the vaka bottom.

Here's a pic showing the fiberglass in place. We decided to use 2 layers of 160 g/sq.m. cloth: the first goes 5 cm past the chines, the second 10 cm.

And here it is after wetting out with resin. We prepared about 900 grams of resin and used a roller and a squeegee to spread it.

Total work time to date: 360 hours

Waterline, fiberglass

Three hours today. We first used a laser level to strike a waterline on the hull. The are no offsets on the plans, so everything should be measured on the drawings (scale 1:12).

As already noted, the plans mention two waterlines, one at  28 cm and the other 36 cm (canoe body draft), but only the latter is drawn. That's the one that we marked on the hull.

We then went upstairs and used Cinzia's living room to draw the shape of the bottom on the fiberglass cloth. We'll laminate two layers which will cover the chines by 5 and 10 cm respectively. We tried to save as much cloth as possible optimizing the nesting.

And here are the two sheets ready to be laminated on the bottom.

 Total work time to date: 357 hours

FG taping: daggerboard slot

One hour today to FG tape the daggerboard slot. We used our 10 cm wide, 160 g/sq.m. tape

and then peel ply. Going around the corners is tricky though

Tomorrow we'll see how this turned out.

Total work time to date: 354 hours

Vaka bottom fairing done

Four hours between yesterday and today. We completed the fairing of the vaka chines. Here are two photos that show where we are now. Here is the bottom forward

and here is the daggerboard slot

We also filled several screw holes with thickened resin

We're ready to glass the bottom now. So we had to face the problem of tracing the waterline. The waterline is not parallel to the sheer: the freeboard is almost 16 cm larger at the stem than at the stern. The plans though show two different drafts: one number written on the boat specs is 11 inches (28 cm) but there's another value of 1.17 feet in the lines plan (about 36 cm). I'll ask John Marples about that. We'll need a laser level to trace the line...

Total work time to date: 353 hours

Still fairing the chines

We missed the past week end due a scientific meeting in our hometown. Problem is that we were the organizers so we really were stuck all day with it from the 24th to the 30th. So we could go back to work on the boat only yesterday morning for 3 hours. Not much to show: again, rasp, Surforms and sanding board. We switched to 120 grit this time, so most of the work is done. We also sanded away epoxy drips, so the main hull is almost ready for fiberglassing

Total work time to date: 349 hours