Some Recent Work

Things have been a little busy lately.  Trying to sell our house, kids sports, work travel.  It all seems to add up to little boat progress and even less in the way of meaningful blog postings.  Here are some pictures of a little work that has gone on.

Removing this masking tape was a rather terrible job.  While designed not to stick if it is left on too long it becomes the biggest waste of time.  This marked the level the original builder planned to cut the cabin down.  I used abit of heat and a scraper to support the original tape to prevent it from tearing then alcohol to remove the left over glue.  Not terribly satisfying work.

 

 

 

I try to add a coat of varnish every time I am out at the shop.  The original builder planned to paint the hatches so he ended up clear epoxying over writing and pencil marks.  Lucky I don't mind a little industrial character and I'm just varnishing over it all.  

This is epoxying in the backplate for the lower gudgeon (the English language should have more words like that).  I will overlay some fiberglass once this is set.

Loose fitting some closed cell foam.  I got a cheap roll and some cutoffs so I thought I would try and see how it look.  I don't like it.  I also put a layer of clear epoxy on the inside of the cabin.  I'm still too chicken to cut the holes for the windows even they are cut.

Dave B gave me the brilleant idea of using shipping tubes as forms for making the vent stacks.  Here it is primed with packing table and some Vaseline.  Like the varnish this will take a layer every time I am out at the shop. 

After several measurements the piece of tape marks where the mast hole will go.  Measure it a few more times and then I'll drill a pilot hole to check for positioning from the inside.  You can see the lower pindle on the rudder and the pivot hole for the tip up part of the rudder.

The pilot hole looked to be in a great position from the inside.  Line the mast up to use as a rough guild for the angle of the hole.  I will also use a protractor while drilling using the hole saw.

Ahhhh.  Even though it appears to be correct there is something wrong about cutting through a hull.

Mast fits after a some clearance dremeling. Get that masking tape off quick.

Windows III

I've been doing a little too much business travel for a lot of boat time.  My lack of progress has of course make more window options to appear.  A set of windows that look promising appeared in the local kijiji ad.  They are unused.  Here is a rather poor rendering.  The good news is the installation would likely save time and weight.  They don't come with screens or the ability to lock the window from the inside. Even at half price they aren't cheap.  I'm not sure I like the look.

Ports that open have some obvious advantages  provided they are light and sturdy.

Windows II

    After a busy December I got to spend a little time on the boat.  I wonder how much I'm going to vacillate about the windows.  Just that fear of making big holes/adding weight/making the whole thing ugly.  I've kind of gotten used to the windowless look too.  I rather liked what Matt did with his elusion and tried to mock up some windows to see how it would look.  Going purely for esthetics I couldn't help but wonder about the blind spots in the rear quarters.  Because the windows won't be black I expect them to look smaller/less dominant than what is shown here.

This is my first run at a prototype window for the side.  Should have tried it a little farther back.

It almost looks too big but keep in mind the 2 cm overlap where the windows will screw into the frame  The actual window will be quite small.

I could live with something close.

I hope I won't need side mirrors.

My plan right now is to add some vent stacks like the ones on Elusion as painted in here.  This provides some flexibility by being able to add a canister dorade box, mosquito screens, sealed cap, small fan or wind scoop as needed. Looks kind of salty too.  I'm amazed how short the bow section looks from this perspective compared to the first pictures.

Hatch Details

  I can appreciate how a boat like this is put together and I can imagine doing it reasonably well given that you get the pieces to mate together and fill gaps, fillet over corners and given some patience get things square and neat.  The hatch on the other hand is 2 moving parts that are light weight, have tight tolerances, 3 or 4 mating surfaces and a slide with a detent when it closes.  It is enough to haunt my inner handiness and at the same time inspire it.  The original builder did such a great job and in order to haunt/inspire others I thought I would post some detailed pictures of it.  Also a few people have asked about the hatch and I am at a loss to adequately describe it without pictures.  I am still debating whether I should protect it with paint.  The wood has a very nice look.  Earlier I think I posted too many pictures detailing the design of the hatch.  I think a person can go to far in publishing details of a intricate nature of someone else's intellectual property.  While nobody said anything I would certainly be happy to receive any requests should I push such boundaries.

It would be tough to paint over this hatch.  I'll just have to do the maintenance.  Notice the tolerance.  Even though the front part of the hatch is fixed it is only tied down and can be slid right off the front of the cabin top.  Here the back part of the hatch is pushed forward - opened.

A closer view of how perfectly the hatch fits the cabin top and how even the spacing is between the forward and back part of the hatch.  Both these pieces are light weight I'll have to think about how I can stow them safely.

Here you can the back part of the hatch in the closed position from the front.

Here the hatch is open and you can see the rail that the rear hatch rides on. The lip of the rear of the cabin top acts as a detent for the hatch when it is completely closed.  The hatch lifts up and over it and won't go any further.

Here you can see the rear hatch pretty much flush with the cabin top lip so the back isn't riding on the sides of the lip but you can see the hollow where the sliding surface is.