I fxxked up!

The pic on the right is the boat laminated on the inside with carbon - the pic on the left is all the carbon that peeled straight out of the inside of the boat after the first time I laminated.

I used the exact same process of fair, fill, fair, fill, fair, clean, resin, lay cloth, work resin, peelply (as shown in the previous post) but despite the cloth wetting out beautifully nearly half of the cloth laid didn't bond to the hull!!!!

The only difference in the outside of the hull to the inside was that I used a Nylon abrasive brush (type that goes into a drill) to fair some of the trickier spots - and it seems that nylon dust caused the resin not to bond in areas. So after several heartbreaking days of pulling out carbon, sanding, fairing, filling (and cleaning with acetone) I am now happy with the inside and am ready to put on the foredeck and bulkhead. As it is now New Years Eve that may have to wait until tomorrow.

More Progress

A quick photo before I get busy with the spatulas and squeegees, man I'm glad I chose (Geoff strongly suggested) slow resin hardener as getting this carbon to go around corners has been challenging.

On the trolley - our tame aluminium welder bailed on us so I put together a very simple bolted trolley which I plan to get welded later. 

Back to the shed.....

Now the work can really begin

The boat is off the mould (and about to go on the cradle so I can start work). It was a three person job with 2 of us lifting, and 1 looking under the hull to free any tight frames or spots where chines were tight (chines come out with the frame).

And it is a girl, as it is definitely pink on the inside.

Having a couple of issues separating the hull from the mould - nothing too major but I just need to wait until a couple of people can come over and help (as I don't want to force anything)

A boat or an expensive blob of carbon resin and foam

Well the resin is curing with plenty of peelply, in a couple of days we'll know whether it has the structural integrity to be called a boat. I think its kay, but the laying up and resining always felt rushed. Time to shut the shed door and walk away for a couple of days.

Boat is faired, filled and faired and filled and faired - I am certain that I could do this four or five more times but i think I am ready to Carbon the hull now (hindsight will be 20/20 on if I am right). So the weather is looking good, the rain has cleared up so the next post should be of a laminated hull waiting to dry while we build some aluminium boat trolleys. I am nervous and excited, I don't think I have rushed anything so i hope it all goes well.  In the picture you can see the boat with the carbon and peel ply hanging up at the back of the shed:

• I'm using a light glue spray on the carbon to hold the fibres together when I cut
• I bough a really good pair of scissors (like $40 dollars) and they are worth every cent

SO I need to cut and lay up the rest of the carbon, vacuum (the cleaning kind) the hull again, cut the peel ply and then mix resin - and pray I don't/haven't screwed it up! 

Test sample of carbon

My test sample of carbon and foam. While we wait for the rain to ease up (humidity is to high in the shed) I did a couple of test samples of carbon to practice to make sure I don't go too heavy on the resin.

In this sample I had 35gms of foam, 19 gms of carbon and a total cured weight of 79 gms - just need to use the spatula a bit ore after I put the peelply on.

1% of the area 99% of the effort

Well we delayed laminating today until next Tuesday as I was not happy with the bow shape. Geoff has forwarded me templates for frames 1 and 2 that have the foam factored in so I should be able to sight from these as to whether I need to keep sanding or fill and fair. It's frustrating but it is worth getting right.

I also did a test lay up of carbon on foam last night, so we can approximate if there may be a weight issue and look at vacuum bagging ....

More rain, and Bubs on antibiotics have cut seriously into boat building (but family comes first), but if I get my arse into gear and finish fairing by Wednesday we'll still be able to laminate the carbon Thursday morning (touch wood). If not it will be next week, as it's my brothers wedding this weekend.

Sorry it's been a bit quiet, but there isn't much to say (or take pictures of) when you are just sanding and fairing.

The plan is to laminate next Thursday so pictures and posts will be coming thick and fast then.

does cladding the mould ever end?

I know most of the other websites with male mould building show a bit of foam and next picture a lovely faired hull. For me, the transition from frame to a smooth faired hull ready for laminating has taken the best part of a week (working around work and family). However the end is in sight, and after lunch I will mix up another pot of resin/filler and put on the the last of the bottom of the boat and the two side panels that taper into the transom swing rudder. Then a couple of days to dry and I'll start the fairing.

Okay,

It's my first ever boat build and I have just learnt a couple of important lessons:

1. Peanut Butter consistency on Filler means super crunchy and not smooth - I had a few runs to clean up joining the bottom to the sides and spine
2. It takes more filler than you think to fill the chamfer and join the sides
3. It is really a 2 person job (for a beginner)
4. You can check the line up a million times, but once resin has been mixed nothing sits where it is supposed to (I now love my staple gun)

So, after an intense morning I have the two aft panels drying and one aft side as well as the two panels that hug the centrecase. I'll continue this afternoon with the next batch of panels (depending on how the weather is - rain in Adelaide in late November???). I've leant some lessons, and I'm much more confident with putting on the rest of the foam.

Laying foam is not as easy or as fun as it may seem. But we have the boat clad and will be glueing the bottoms to the sides (and all the other bits either tomorrow or Friday. It's kind of starting to look like a boat now, which is a good thing but we have a long way to go.

Foam is going on

We have started from the back, but the foam is going on tonight (taken a break to watch Top Gear - no not the crap Aussie version). Hope to have all the foam on before Sunday (as we're going to the Test Match, day 3, so I hope the game is still going).

So far so good, the boat is coming along nicely and Geoff has patiently answered all my stupid questions (no such thing as stupid questions, just stupid people).

Spine is in, ready for foam

Spine is in,  chines are faired and on, gunwales are attached - I'll get the foam on during the week so that we should be looking at fairing and sanding next weekend and laminating the following week. Fingers crossed.

The Spine has gone from 3 pieces to one, as the resin holding it together dries in my shed. 

It slotted together beautifully (although reading the post 'DC Designs' on Sailing Anarchy made me second guess the rocker - but then stuck with what  Geoff recommended....). The only real hassle was the $20 scales that would reset before we could add the hardener to the resin - FRUSTRATING.

We'll be dropping the spine into the mould tomorrow and then start cladding the mould with foam.

More Progress from Geoffs Workshop

Yes, we have a spine (or at least parts of a spine).

The rudder box, aft section of spine, centrecase have all been machined. All the rest of the parts e.g. rudder pivot, stiffeners, mast stump, forestay plates have been made.

The centrecases (building 2 boats) and end blocks received their final coat of epoxy today so assembly starts tomorrow.

One giant MECHARno set. 

Broken bones

I just got the email today that the designer, Geoff, has broken some bones in his foot - so there'll be a bit of a delay in getting the spine here. With the spine pre-fabricated with the centreboard cassetted, rudder slot (we're using a kick up stern mount rudder, forestay fitting, and mast stump the build should progress quickly once it arrives.

On the plus side, the Western Red Stringers (chines and gunwhales) are made up and ready to fit, and the mould is covered in packing tape. The delay will give me a bit more time to practice working with the resin and get an idea on pot life.

Get better soon Geoff.

A short delay

As with any new build, there are often delays. The flatpack design is built around a pre-fabricated carbon spine which contains the forestay mount, centre case cassetted, and rudder cassette space - the backbone is the key for making amateur construction quick and simple (relatively anyway).
With this project about creating a kit IC that anyone can build, it is worth taking the time to get this stuff right, as it will save new builders lots of time and effort.
So this weekend I will be fitting and fairing the stringers, and messing around with the Resin (AMPREG21) so that we're already for the spines arrival (hopfully by late next week)

The Mould is together, just out of picture on the right is enough Divinycell to build 2 IC's (so long as we don't screw up). Just waiting on the spine (boat is built around a spine which seat in the mould - hence the slots), resin, and carbon, and the stringers (Dad has knocked them up and is bringing them down during the week).

Mould is ready

The Mould is built (albeit up in Queensland), it is being packed up and shipped down to SA so we should begin building shortly.

Masts were ordered yesterday from C-Tech, there is a 7 week lead time at the moment so we thought it wise to get in early.

So hopefully the next post is of the mould set up in my shed and us starting to cut up the core.

The waiting is the hardest part

Ahhhh, I don't have a canoe! After picking up 2nd place in a very light and shifty Nationals over the October Long Weekend AUS26 'Trouser Friendly Kiss' has moved to Albury and is in the hands of the current IC junior world champion.

So yesterday I borrowed my brothers nethercott (AUS13 'Hurt') in conditions that made the nationals look windy - I missed the start by about 6 minutes (thankyou Hobie 16 sailors!) but managed to claw back some boats by the end of the shortened 1 lap course. AUS13 has a couple of things that need updating, it has all the gear - carbon stick, good sails...., but because it hasn't been raced in a couple of seasons since some changes have been made it needs to be sorted out. Sailing a high performance dinghy that isn't set up right is just painful and unrewarding.

Anyway, the good news is the male mould frames should arrive this week so we can start putting that together and then get on with building the boat. I'd still like to have it built by Christmas, but the critical deadline is the 2009 ICAA Nationals which will be at my home club of ASC in Adelaide.

The Flatpack Model

Let the Shopping begin

Putting the shopping list together now for the stuff we need to buy pre-build. I have to say that Guy from SP Gurit in Sydney has been absolutely awesome, as has Scott from ATL Composites, and Tim Wilson from Tim Wilson Yacht Design. Geoff at MECHAR gets the major kudos though, as he's put all this stuff together into a design/build program.

Rig wise I will be ordering a C-Tech mast from New Zealand and setting it up as to how I have AUS26 currently set up (GNAV vang and lowers). I will probably be using Irwin sails again, but we are still investigating whether to go with a self tacking jib.

Next post should have the pictures of the delivered Mould - ready for us to assemble, as well as hopefully a positve update from the IC Nationals (where AUS26 goes to her new home).

The Flatpack

After several months of design reviews and dicussion, I have finally ordered the mould so that I can begin construction of my new Flatpack IC (developed by MECHAR Pty Ltd). The Flatpack International Canoe is an IC built to the current rules, with the goal of allowing easy construction of a high performance IC. The mould, frames, mast step, foils/cassettes are all pre-fabricated at MECHAR Pty Ltd and are purchased as a kit with build instructions.
I will be building the first of these Flatpack boats (actually we will be building 2 or possibly 3 initially in Adelaide), with the build commencing in October 2008 - our build is the beta for the Flatpack IC before it is available to everyone. We will be regularly posting pictures and articles as the build progresses.