Progress

Actually went out and cleaned the shop and worked on the boat today. I've been in a state of perplexity concerning this project and how I was going to fit it into my life, it just ended up being me needing some decompression time, and I'm back on it now.




Finally filled and sanded all the low spots, perfect fairness and ready for more duratec. (this will be the final coat, I swear.)



After spending so much time making the hull perfect it seemed like a shame to leave the deck mould surface wavy, so I started fairing that as well, tomorrow I'm going to fill all the depressions with some duratec bondo (duratec/acetone/duratec dust). Its a good filler, easily sandable, and the next coat of duratech will stick to it really well.



And just for fun heres a little foil CFD porn for ya. (thanks FMG)

Be back soon. (I hope)

not much

I've really been slacking off on the build front. I have been working 40 hrs a week at my real job, and 20-25 hrs a week At EBS (doing my best to soak in as much about the dark arts as possible). In some ways its a really good thing because all this knowledge and skill that I'm gaining will lead to much better boats, and I'm saving some money to buy supplies, but its drawing away any energy and time I would have for the build. I did get out and sand for a couple hours tonight, and I'm really going to try to get back on track a little. It seems its taking forever to build this thing, but its happening, slowly, but it is happening.

Pretty pictures

Been sick as a dog this week so haven't got any work done, but Jon has sent me some new renderings of the boat he made from my designs, so here they are. The new rudder is in place, we're still working on the main foil. I would show the horizontals, but "someone" might steal the design : ).



Here's one with a "small tramp" idea we've been kickin around, not sure if they will be needed, but may also be really nice to have especially in light air.

Next chapter please.......

So, I have once again been laggin a little on the build and the blog, but as usual a lot has been going on behind the scenes. I have started to resand the hull tool so that I am happy with the finish and the fairness. Its funny how life will sometime give you just what you need just when you need it. I just spent the last couple weeks working on a huge windsurfer mould at work and learned a ton about sanding for fairness and also the way the pro's use duratech. Its used for everything, you can mix it into a fairing compound, a mould sealer, a guide coat, a sealant, a bonding coat. I love this stuff. Anyway, I've found that sanding through isn't that uncommon when your sanding moulds for fairness, and that its pretty standard to shoot and sand 3-4 times before it looks really good, so that made me feel better. (Like Eric says "Do you want to fix your tool or fix your parts?) On a personal note, I have been offered a job running the cleanroom full time at EBS, and I'm leaning towards taking it, so I may be a real professional carbon monkey here soon. Looks like taking time off the build to get in there to hone my skills is paying off for the project. This whole sailboat build is having a huge life changing effect, if you would have told me 1 1/2 years ago when I started that I might be leaving electronics R&D to get into composites I wouldn't have believed it, but I very well may be..........Awesome.





Here we go: All the places where I originally sanded through were high spots. It wasn't as bad as it looks, before being resanded those bright spots were just the slightest of ripples, but they'll be gone now. (are you happy now doug?)



Please note the high tech cardboard flooring, it saves the floor and will make claenup easy.


I'm really proud of how this one turned out, she's ready for release. For once I'm going to start small and work my way up, going to bag this foredeck first, then the crew deck, then the hull.

argh............

Finished polishing the deck and foredeck tools and started patching the hull tool. My patch's look like sh!t I still have a ways to go on my feathering technique, so I'm seriously thinking about just shooting it again and starting over on that one. On the materials front: My core is in and I have orders for bagging supplies. I'm in negotiations with a carbon sponsor, so still waiting to see how that's going to work out before I spend the $$$ on a roll. Anyone want to send me 15yrds of Biax cloth? Lol

Still "pluging" away

Did a bit of wetsanding this morning, had some help from my little one Sierra. She does a really good job, she wants to be a carbon monkey when she grows up, but I need to get her a better fitting mask and smaller gloves. She really wanted to help and I couldn't say no. Didn't let her work to long because that duratec residue can be a little much. But I let her get a little taste. Its in the DNA. Grandpa, dad, now her. The tools are coming along, been doing other project related things but I'll get back in the build groove 100% soon.
On the foil front, new "super high tech" foils are in the works for this machine. That part of the project is shrouded in secrecy, but eventually will come to light. All the cutting edge tweaks you've come to expect from this black art are being included, so hold tight. I have given the designer (not me) total creative control of the design, lets just say things are looking super fast so far and that I'm really excited. Can't wait to get started on the High-temp/autoclave/prepreg moulds for them.
I also had a long Skype session with Alex Vallings from C-tech about carbon tubing, a custom 2 piece HM 42mm carbon stick and boom for the beast, so I'm really excited about that as well. A 2 piece High Modulus mast for less than $1000USD, that might be the best deal in all of sailing.

Sore arms

I've been plugin away on the tools, with work and other work and the kids and the wife and the boat, I have kinda let my blogging slip a little. Well the hull tool is getting shiny.......up to 800, still need to sand some, and use the touch up gun in a couple (to many) spots, I have found that I don't like power tools (stupid DA), every time I try to use them to speed things up a little, I always have to go back and fix some things. Glad I've already learned how to patch and feather Duratec down at the shop.



All the tools in different stages of sanding.


The little guy has all the guide coat off (220 wet by hand) and is waiting for some 400 wet.


And I'm still working on getting the guide coat off the deck tool. Just going to keep on it, and I should be ready to start laying up soonish. (I hope)

Deja Voodoo

Well, Cliff and I shot Duratec late into the night, and thank God (or whatever) it went off this time. Hard as a rock and ready to fill. So that's the next phase. Fill, dust with guide coat, sand with 220, and start wetsanding. The make shift spray booth we made also worked a charm, no paint where it shouldn't be, and no toxic smells made it out if the yard, at least no one complained. Time to go and sand.

Hangin in there

So, I've finally set a date to re-shoot the tooling (this Thursday night), been a while, so I'm really itchin to get back into build mode. I have a new gallon of Duratec and some "new" Mekp that I'm sure works, so it better go off this time. Over the last week I've hung some 8x10 foot tarps from the rafters in the shop so I don't get overspray everywhere. $3 dollars each at Biglots, quite the score, so I bought 6 of em. They should also come in handy when I start sanding the tools to keep the dust manageable. I also found some time to line the whole floor of the shop in double walled cardboard so that the garage floor doesn't turn gray and get full of goop when that whole mess gets started.
I spent the day making templates for the carbon and foam. I Took some huge pieces of paper and dusted one side of it with Super 77, then smoothed them onto the moulds. Traced the shapes I'm going to need on them, then pulled the whole mess off and cut out the shapes. Worked out really well. I could have pulled templates out of CAD but felt like doing it old school so I could feel like I was actually doing something (that and I'm sick of dealing with the techs at Kinko's). I haven't been sitting around or anything, since I couldn't really do much on the boat lately I've been spending a lot of time working at EBS getting my hands dirty. Its all prepreg work, but is teaching me a lot about mould building, mould prep, bagging and autoclaves, so that should come in handy down the road.

More changes

Since I'm at a stand still in the physical sense, I figured I could go back to drawing. I've had a couple changes I've wanted to mess around with, so today was the day for that. After some experiments with PVC tubes, I've decided that 2m was just to wide for the rack, it was to big of a step from the deck to the tube, so I've brought that back down to 180cm. I just think that's a better distance and will be more comfortable. I also brought the rear wing struts forward on an angle, because if I'm that far back on this thing its not set up right. I also found the time to pull all my bulkhead and rib layout specs from the 3d drawings, so now that's done. Tomorrow I want to work on a new Gantry. I'm thinking with the transom being 15cm shorter at the upper connection point with the new reverse trany, I might want to go with a 40cm gantry instead of a 50cm, just to lower the stress's a little. After that, maybe draw the jigs for building the sweet new rack. So much to do.

I have also added the new pic of the boat on the blog header, looks sexy eh?

Holding Pattern

I'm waiting to spray the tools again. It might be awhile, waiting for my schedule to open up a little bit, and trying to find a good time for Cliff as well. There is no way I'm moving all this stuff 1/2 way around the world again, so we are just going to shoot it in my new shop. Just need to find a "big" compressor to borrow. So while I'm waiting for all that to materialize, I've moved on to other things. I found some downtime at work to cut out the trimming templates for the deck and hull, and I've been staying up late making a big mess with foam core. I got some offcuts from EBS that I've been messing around with. I found out that it bends into most of my curves without the need for scoring, so that's good. I was also able to get it to mould into the tight "trouble area's" with a little thermo-forming help from my trusty heat gun. Another thing I've done is rethink how I"m going to foam my bow, I blunted the bow by 1/2'' so I have a nice flat bonding surface instead of a pointy tip. So, all in all, even with the recent problems I'm still making progress. Pictures of progress coming, just a little lazy right now.

Step away from the ledge

I've settled in to my new space, its twice as big as my old one, its great to have so much room. Spent the whole day in the 90deg shop with the respirator on scrubbing all the Duratec off the tools. Got pretty far, just a little more to go and I can re shoot.

Devastated

It finally stopped raining, so I went to pick up the tooling from the paint shop. Haven't been up there in a week, figured everything would be ready to go. Nope. The Duratec never catalyzed, the finish is still sticky. I mixed everything perfectly on a very accurate scale (2% MEKP), I must have got a bad batch of either Duratec or MEKP. I'm so bummed. Instead of buffing and polishing, I'm going to spend the next couple weeks stripping and cleaning. You live, you learn. All I can say is I'm pretty upset right now. Nothing I can do but move on. I'll get everything ready and try it again in a couple weeks (if I don't go nuts and throw everything in the trash or smash it with a sledge.) At least I know what everything is going to look like when its done, so that's kinda cool. I also know now to do a test shoot to make sure everything is working. I already have most of the big mould stripped (heavy acetone wash and a puddy knife). Its not as hard as I thought it was going to be. The Duratec basically sheets off, then you wash off whats left with an acetone soaked rag. While searching the Internet for a cure, I found hundreds of pages of painting horror stories, it seems like getting the paint right is as common as flying pigs. I would post pictures but I really don't want to look at it right now.

Make it stop.......

Still raining, first sunny day on the forecast is Saturday, so keeping my fingers crossed. I have found some time to cut the trace templates for my bulkhead and internal supports, so at least that's done.

The Waiting Game

I am really ready to get going on finishing the moulds but mother nature won't cooperate with me...... I need to drive them in an open trailer 35 miles out to my new digs, but its rained every day since shooting, so they just sit in the shop.........waiting.

Touch of Grey

Drove 45mins to the paint shop early this morning to meet Cliff because its shoot day. We put all the forms up on whatever could be found (yes those are tires under the deck tool). Then one final hit with some 80grit to make sure there wasn't any dirt left from the ride through the mountains. Washed everything really well with Acetone, and it was time.



My painting skills are not up to standard for something this important, so I just stayed in the corner playing mad scientist, mixing batch after batch of Duratech/MEKP/Acetone, while Cliff shot everything.




The foredeck, I know a strut is lighter/less windage, but I don't think it looks right.


Crew deck (not perfect fairness, but better than I thought.)



The Master admiring his work.......It's almost impossible to get a real feel for the hull shape when the tool is splotched with 5 different colors of fairing compound and wood, so its an awesome feeling to see everything primed. Took about 4 hours to shoot everything with 3 coats (25min between coats for gas-off). It took exactly 1 gallon of Duratech, I have to go to EBS and bug Eric to sell me a pint for Monday, because I don't have any left over to do the fill. All three pieces are curing and should be ready to move to my new shop for fill/sand/buff/polish, hope to get around to it within the next couple days.

Moving the tools.........again.

As I've posted before, I'm moving, and today was the day to move boat related things. My Buddy (and finish guy) Cliff Wege was nice enough to drag the hull tool the 30 miles through the mountains to his paint/body shop where we'll be spraying everything later next week with Duratech. I loaded the other two plugs into My Ford "Pimpstar" and followed him out. I don't want to spray that stuff around my family and animals, and I also don't want all my new neighbors first impression of me being "that's the guy who makes the whole neighborhood smell like toxic stuff". I guess if you have a Friend with a huge shop with pro spray gear who lives in the middle of nowhere, you should take advantage of it.



This is Cliff, he's shot more paint than anyone I know. Speed boats, cars, motorcycles, rock crawlers.......they always look fantastic. I wouldn't trust anyone else to do the job. ( And he likes to get paid in whisky, so that's easy)



Here she is, just waiting for me to find the time to get back in build mode.

Hold please......

So I'm in a pretty good spot with everything, all the tools are sanded and faired and ready to be shot with tool surface. I'm on hold for now, because my family and I are moving down the mountain (thank God). I currently live at 8500ft, where vacuum bagging isn't possible, but I will now be taking up residence at 5100ft (with a huge 2 car garage) so its all coming together for the next phase. Best part is there is a nice sized reservoir about 2 miles away out in the flats, so pretty nice winds that arn't crazy shifty. I'll keep y-all posted.

everybodys favorite itchy stuff

Faired in the blunt tip. Hope it holds up.




Cut out a little glass.



Gooed it on up. Into the oven it went. Should be ready to sand tomorrow night. (If I feel like it, have to fix a windsurfer sail, so might do that.)

15% Tip

Brought home the little tip for the foredeck and bogged it in. I had a little piece of Maple for it, but I messed it up on the sander, so I just used a MDF scrap I had laying around. Should work fine, its really nice and bogged in there. Tomorrow night I can shape it down and, who knows, maybe fiberglass the little monster.

faired up last nights filler


And added some more. Big thanks goes out to Phil Stevenson for answering my endless rig questions today.

My seven year old has caught the bug, and has made a boat of her own, looks like a very aggressive bow down stance is what she likes.........




Mounted the decking and started filling the bigger gaps last night, I see sanding in my future. I have decided to make the foredeck a little stubby so that I can fair in the cedar bow block where the forestay gets attached. Of course I forgot the chuck of hardwood that I'm going to use to finish off the tip at work, so it looks like that will have to wait till Monday.

by a nose.

Stayed up late last night and stripped the foredeck tool. I wish they where all this quick and easy. Want to true it up a little more today, add a little extension to the tip, and mount the decking. Then onto filling and fairing. Who knows, I might actually get to start building a boat this summer.