Sheeting and rudder work

This weekend the starboard side of the backbone and the adjoining garboard were sheeted.

To cut out the glass fiber cloth I used the same piece of plastic foil that I used on the other side.

Here is the result. On this side too there is a small spot where an air pocket is trapped below the sheeting. On the port side I cut out the pocket, sandet the spot and epoxied a small patch slightly bigger than the “hole” on it. After the epoxy is cured I’ll sand away the surplus material and see what it looks like…

The rudder was bevelled at the trailing edge. Here the contour is marked with tape.

The leading edge was milled so that it has a radius large enough to enable sheeting of the port and starboard side in one piece. I left two spots, where the rudder hinges will be mounted, on the leading edge untreated, as I don’t know exactly what form is needed for mounting the gudgeons.

I also glued a trim on the lower edge of the rudder to protect the plywood. That part of the rudder is the lowest part of the boat! For this job I used a good quality waterproof wood glue in stead of epoxy. Let’s see if that does the job as well.

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More small jobs

Another consequence of installing the bigger electrical outboard motor is that the well needs to be longer than designed. For that reason I modified the longitudinal bulkheads of the motor well. The slots that will receive the aft lateral bulkhead have been moved aft a few centimeters, and the original slots filled up with a piece of ply.

Besides that, to fill up the waiting-for-epoxy-to-cure-time, I started work on the rudder. The two blades were glued together, as well as the two plywood pieces at the top of the rudder. On the second rudder-picture the other two pieces that will form the rudder head (receiving the tiller) can also been seen. In a next stage these three pieces will be joined together, but before that the rudder blade will need some work and sheeting.

In preparation of sheeting the backbone and garboard, I temporarily mounted aluminium strips where the brass keel band will be mounted permanently later on. (I haven’t got my hands on the brass keel band yet). This created the chance to finalize the form of the backbone.

The next step was to cut out a plastic sheet that will serve as cutting form for the glass sheet later. It looks like the area that is going to be sheeted is very curved, so I expect a not so easy job. For that reason I’m not going to do both sides in one go, but start with the port side and later do the same job on the starboard side.

I also applied one layer of epoxy to the port side. Looking nice 😉

Two small jobs

In the past few days two smaller jobs were finished. First of all the motor hole is finished on the outside of the hull. After mounting a trim inside the hole and thereafter a trim around that first one and on the outside of the hull, I sanded them down to about 5mm.

The inside needs to be done at a later stage, after turning the hull. I’m not really sure whether or not to give the inside the same treatment with the second trim as on the outside. The whole idea is to protect the hull against damage from the oversized propellor when attaching or removing the outboard motor. The reason for the second trim on the outside is that the position of the propellor is not controllable when removing the motor, thus having an increased chance of hitting the hull when doing so (prop diameter 29cm, hole width 22cm). When mounting the motor, the propellor can obviously be turned vertically manually in order to be able to move the propellor through the hole without hitting the hull. So maybe I’ll just make a nice fillet around the first trim on the inside, and go with that.

The second job can be seen in this picture as well; the big fillet along the backbone and garboard. It has a big radius (20mm) in order to enable glass sheeting. That will then be the next job. Keep you posted, thanks for reading!

Clamp festival

The hole in the hull for the outboard needed some work; because the electro-outboard motor has a big screw and underwater-motor, there is a big chance of scratches and dents every time the motor is passed through the hole. Therefore, I’ve reinforced the inside of the hole and the backside of the backbone with a trim of mahogany.

Because of the many clamps needed on a small area, today only the trim on the port side of the hole was mounted. The starboard side will be done later.

False keel and cutting a hole

After the false stem was mounted, Marjolein and I glued the false keel in place.

The mahogany beam was already prepared: the front end and the back end were cut narrower, and in the middle section the slot for the center board was cut out. So we lined the false keel up and epoxied it in place. I used 5*50mm stainless steel screws to make the bend towards the stem, but two of them broke just below the head…..I left the broken ends in. In order to get a nice fit, I held the false keel in place with a rope tied to the stem.

After that, there was the challenge to cut out the hole for the outboard motor, which is cut to fit the actual motor of choice. I have spend several hours in the past time researching the possibilities of electrical propulsion: removable outboard or fixed sail drive, what battery capacity (type of battery, fixed or portable), weight and cost of installation, etc, etc. In the end I decided to go with an 3,5hp electrical outboard with two removable batteries. Advantages: removable when not in use, anywhere rechargeable, no hassle with gasoline, no noise. Disadvantages: expensive compared to gasoline, rather large screw that creates relatively much drag when not in use.
To get an idea of the size of the hole in the hull that needs to be cut, we made a wooden dummy of the outboarder.

With a paper mould I marked the hole and cut it out. Felt kind of strange to destroy the nice shape of the hull…..

The dummy motor seems to fit nicely. The blue marking on the backbone is to be cut out in order to create some more space. The only concern I have is that when I use the motor for braking, it might tilt aft and hit the steering pin. If that is the case, I’ll have to mount some sort of beam in the motor well to mechanically prevent the shaft of moving aft.