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Howard

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Everything posted by Howard

  1. A bit more progress. BTW, not sure if it was something I did or if the plans need more fine tuning, but with the sides installed and bulkhead #1 in it's designated position, I was getting some "concave" in the side panels at bulkhead #1. Ultimately, if left that way, if would mean a dished in / reversed curve section through that area of about 1/16th to 1/8 inch that would either be left as an eyesore or something requiring major fairing, neither of which appealed to me, so decided to bite the bullet and find a way to fix it. Ultimately, that simply meant moving bulkhead #1 forward about half an inch which allowed the sides to adopt a fair curve through the bulkhead #1 area. Anyway, once I was satisfied with that, I was free to permanently fix the stringers in place and get going on the remaining forward bottom panels. I initially started dry fitting each of the bottom layers of bottom panels but once I got about 6 of those in, they started distorting the stringers out of shape. Talked to Graham and abandoned the plan to dry fit them all first and go back and start gluing them permanent, inside and outside. So far, I have 4 of the bottom panels in and 3 of the tops. As the curve starts to take place, pretty incredible how solid that area is becoming. Tapping on the 3 bottom panel that bends over the top of bulkhead #2 is about like tapping on the concrete floor beneath it. Plans suggest "notching" the interior panels at the chine to get them to get them to transition from lying on top of the chine to blending into it. For the notching process, I'm using a 45 degree router bit chucked in a small Bosch router. When that is fitted over the outside edge of the side panel at the chine, it allows the inside edge to drop down almost flush with the sides. As I move forward, I deepen the notch. By the time I get forward far enough for to ditch the the notch and go to a vertical butt joint at the chine, the step down will be nominal and should blend in seamlessly. For the first few panels, I used an Arrow pneumatic stapler with 1/2" monel staples. They work well, but I'm not excited about digging all those out (don't have to but I don't want to leave metal in the hull to potentially damage tools), so now have the plastic Raptor staples to try. Jury is still out on that one. BTW, even though this is an outside bend, something you might think would clamp itself, it is also a compound outside bend, so without the staples, one edge or the other or both may "pucker up" a bit. To get them to conform and lay flat to the desired shape, you do need to staple them. Bottom line this is not as big a deal as I have been worried about. Does take some time to fit these individual panels into place, but slow and steady will get there eventually.
  2. My guess is the fastener of choice for laminating the plywood panel strips on a convex of outside bend curvature remains the staples? The brads seem to have nominal heads along the lines of a finish nail, but not sure that is what a persons should use for laminating panels. In my case, it's 1/4" on top of 3/8". I can see where a finish nailer or brad gun would help to hold seat tops or other flat panels down to the supporting cleats in areas where clamping would be awkward. My point being if a person was only going to spring for one gun / system, which would it be?
  3. Time flies when you are having fun. Looks like it has been a year since I first asked, but I'm now into it.........fitting in the diagonal panel strips. After one run, what I found was that normal steel staples will get the job done, but are not tough enough to survive the extraction process. They break off, leaving the legs in the plywood.......which in my case is Meranti. On the other hand, monel staples are tough enough to survive extraction, but with upwards of 20 to 30 staples per panel, and with about 20 panels in all, pulling each and every one of those is going to be a big job. I'm still leery about leaving anything like that on the surface.....even below a glass coating.........where water could eventually wick into the plywood. Seems to be asking for trouble. Then there are Raptor plastic staples, which in theory, can be left in. Or can they? They won't rust, but will they wick water? Or just trust it under the glass? http://raptornails.com/product-catalog/staples.php Anybody know if these can be run through a normal T50 staple gun? I have the Arrow pneumatic gun and it shoots monel staples fine. Not sure I would pop for the Omer gun just for this one job.
  4. What "plastic" is used for the mast plugs? HDPE? I ask, as I made some plugs for my aluminum Spindrift mast from Doug Fir and Spruce. They slid into the ends of the mast sections easy enough, but after some moisture got to them, they swelled so much the lower mast would no longer slide through the upper mast step ring on the fore deck. I had to work pretty hard to get the plugs back out. It was about then I decided some type of stable, inert plastic would be a better choice. Thus my question about what type of plastic is being used? Either that or find a hard, stable, rot resistant wood like black locust or osage orange to turn the plugs from. Scott.......on the corrosion with treated wood, that became a serious problem when the switch was made from the original CCA treatment to the first generation replacement, which was ACQ. ACQ proved to be highly corrosive with carbon steel and aluminum, and has since been replaced with MCA and MCQ. But if ACQ was the lumber used in the photo, that would explain a lot. A quick summary for the morbidly curious: http://www.deckmagazine.com/wood/the-new-preservatives.aspx
  5. Steve: For help in planning the rig, etc, I got a lot of good ideas from this book: http://www.amazon.com/Canoe-Rig-Essence-Sailpower-Traditional/dp/0937822574 When it came time to build the sail, I contacted Todd and he not only built me a sail, but designed it to the center of balance and mast position of the Spindrift 10, so is pretty much a one of deal......probably why it works as well as it does. He also gave me some specs for the boom design, which came out to be remarkably similar to the stock spindrift boom. So much so, it would be easy to use either. The advantage of the boom jaws is the elimination of the gooseneck, so you can either slip the mast through the jaws, or use a bit larger line for the parrel beads and tie in a quick stopper knot each time you rigged if you want to leave the mast in place. This can all be done on the water and is relatively easy to rig. On the gaff and halyard design, for that, I borrowed heavily from Storer's balanced lug rig. The way he shows to rig it works really well. Again, as for the advantages, the sail can reefed, but can also be hoisted and dowsed while on the water. To find that it also performs well was a huge plus. Looking at a lug sail, you would not expect it to perform all that well, but somehow it does.
  6. Sam? I also built the nesting version and for about the same reasons, although it hasn't worked out as I thought it might. If I had to do it over again, and I may, I'd opt for the one piece. For my use, I suspect the benefits of the stock, one piece boat will outweigh the benefits the nesting option offers. Others may disagree. On bailing.....and it goes beyond a capsize.......you would be shocked at how much water accumulates in the boat after a heavy rain.........there are the two sections to bail. Best solution is Anderson self bailers, but they are not cheap and if it's a nester, you will need two of them. A nesting boat is really two boats bolted together in the middle. That means two water tight bulkheads in the middle. Not many ways to get water to move from one to the other without pumps or some type of complicated Rube Goldberg device. Then there are the removable (meaning not fixed) seats that can blow away or float away and with the nesting version, you don't have the side bunks to sit on when sailing. You are correct that the two piece is simpler and easier to store. I kept mine nested upright in the garage and it didn't take up much space at all. On the deck of a boat, however, is a different story. Few "smallish" sailboats have that much available deck space, and unless designed for it, that much weight and windage up high will adversely affect their performance under sail. So my plan is to tow the dink, unless I'm passing through canals and such where I am primarily motoring through restricted waters, in which it may be lashed upside down to the top of the cabin. Yet another option is to think long and hard about how much sailing a person is likely to do vs. simply rowing the dink around. To sail means you will also need the sail, mast, CB and rudder, meaning you will need storage space for all that on your smallish boat. All things considered......unless you really need the nesting version, life is simpler with a one piece boat........and make it a 10 footer. If you are not going to sail, one of the smaller, lighter prams might be yet another option.
  7. BTW, there is more to these lug rigs than just sail shape. The overalls shape and size of the boom and gaff is also important. The flex in the gaff and boom is used to tension the corners of the sail to get the shape right, so these have to be designed and built to the spec of the sail. In operation, the gaff and boom are loaded like a leaf spring and are a big part of the performance. That isn't mentioned in most places, but appears to be a critical part of the success with these.
  8. I tried more than a few ways to make a balanced lug rig work on my Spindrift 10 and couldn't. What I did manage was a standing lug similar to what is used on B&B's Amanda design. The problem with the balanced lug on the Spindrift is in the stock mast step position, it moves the center of effort of the sail too far forward. A standing lug gets it about right. The benefit of the lug, as I see it, is a sail that can be raised and more importantly doused or lowered while on the water, and can also be reefed if need be. I also got to try it recently and found it performs really well. I doubt it would compete head to head with the standard cat rig, but for knocking around, but I was pleased to see it points well and was cooking along pretty well on most points of sail. I know it was pointing better and had less leeway than a leg of mutton sail I tried. On mine, I have managed to graft this lug sail to the stock rigging pretty easy. For the mast, simply use the bottom two of the three aluminum mast sections and you can use the stock boom with fixed gooseneck. You tension the luff with the halyard, same as on the stock sail. You can also use the same main sheet and vang positions on the stock boom and could probably even use the same jiffy reefing setup. Option B is to build a different boom using gaff jaws to simplify the setup and instead of the reefing lines, use that third line position as a downhaul on the boom to tension the luff. You would still need the vang to control the twist. Anyway, I tried it and like it. While I still have the designed cat rig and sail, I suspect the standing lug will be what I use most of the time. Unless you are racing against the designed cat rig, I don't see any downside.
  9. Scott: Several years ago, I purchased a sheet of 3/4" marine fir that I used to build a laminated rudder. Two sections glued together to make it 1 1/2 inches thick. I seem to recall it was listed as A/B, and the B side may have had as many as 10 or more "footballs" in it and both sides did eventually develop a lot of surface checks. I also found a lot of internal voids as I started cutting it up. But having said all that, it was structurally sound and everything I used it for worked out fine. But even though I did epoxy coat the surface prior to painting, any areas that had the "footballs" did eventually show print through.......again, a cosmetic blemish, but not a structural one. I found the same thing with a sheet of 1/4" marine fir ply. Same cosmetic issues, but no structural ones. If this was going to be used for internal bulkheads and internal decking........in places you would not likely see it or if it's going to be painted, it should work OK. I would make sure any edges are sealed up, but anything glassed into place with tape along the edges would do that. You might also consider the moisture content when new..........it may need to dry down some to become fully stable. I have found that to be the case with some exterior plywood. When new, the surface seems to be bit wetter than a month or so later, once it has been exposed to air movement. That might be the case with the marine fir too. It didn't come with the surface checks.........those developed over time. My current glass boat has cockpit locker divider (painted) made of 1/2" marine fir and it has been in place over 30 years with no apparent issues. As near as I can tell, it was simply tabbed along the edges and the surface just painted.
  10. That is one BIG dingy!!!!!!! She looks really good.
  11. What JP said. You could probably do most of the cuts with a circular saw, except for forward sections of the bottom panels, plus the forward bulkhead, which has enough of a curve to it a circular saw might bind in the cut. So would probably need a jigsaw for those. Those could also be cut on a bandsaw, as could the knees and breast hook. You will likely need a jigsaw or bandsaw to do the CB and rudder parts. In any event, when cutting sides and bottom panels, do cut them both together to create exact mirror image duplicates and for best accuracy, cut slightly outside your line, then plane back to it, and again, plane them together.
  12. Would it shock anyone to know I do all of those? I have pump sets from B&B. The spacer looks to be 1/2" pvc pipe, cut to a certain length and a slice cut down one side so it will fit over the pump handle stem. I've measured........they are accurate. For the Part A epoxy side, 30 ml. For the hardener, 15 ml. One pump and one pump is then a 45 ml. batch. Without the spacer, it's two pumps.......60 ml.......and one pump.......30 ml.......so combined, that is 90 ml. That is a pretty big batch. For some jobs, 45 is even way too much...........I have small medicine dose cups that I can go as low a 7.5 ml. On the other hand.......if mixing a pint or two for a large glass job........pumping from either source amounts to heavy aerobic exercise..........so for those, I pour into calibrated mixing cups, or weigh. So I'm pretty flexible. All depends on the job. One thing I don't do is get sloppy on the mix ratio. I'm usually paying pretty close attention and to date, have never had a bad batch. Other thing I normally do is save the mixing cup for a day or so to make sure each and every batch kicks off and sets up as I expect it too. If what was left in the cup set up, I assume what went into the project did too. I too pulled a jug of B&B part A epoxy that had been in my basement all winter. Jug was full and it had a pump in it and at least half of it had turned solid. How to loosen that up? I put it in a 5 gallon bucket, then set that in the back of my truck with black bed cover and parked it in the sun. After a couple hours, it had all turned back to normal, including the now cleared out pump.
  13. Each section was glued together prior to shaping. The three planks what will become the boat's keel deadwood were glued together. The three planks that will become the plug for the lead keel were glued together as a group. Then the two of them were joined with clamps and later threaded rod for shaping. But now that they are shaped, the plug can simply drop off and head for the beach (sand mold). Missing in all that are two additional plank sections.........wedges for the keel deadwood at the nose and tail. The bottom has a bit of rocker, so curves......the deadwood is straight, so wedges will need to be fitted at the nose and tail and need to continue the same shape profile beyond the shape profile given in the plans. These will have to be scribed and fitted as the keel is being installed.
  14. Stainless rivets with aluminum track and tube? Doesn't that get you back to galvanic corrosion again? Are aluminum rivets strong enough?
  15. Yup.......really good news. I'll be needing 48' or 6 of those myself.
  16. If my math is correct, 50mm amounts to nearly 2 full inches. That seems like a lot to add. Several years ago someone from the south pacific posted about making spindrifts.........I thought it was more than one for a school or something........but at any rate, he referenced adding freeboard, but only 1 inch. Don't recall what his reason was but seems to me it was to increase the height of the oar locks or something. It may also be that he felt it needed it for rougher water. Curious what your motivation is for adding that much? In addition to adding a lot of weight, I suspect it might start affecting things like scantlings and perhaps stability?
  17. With the keel and CB case ready to go when the time comes, have resumed work on the hull. Next step was the stringers, which I have been fretting about since the first time I saw the plans. It turns out, those are not that big of a deal. About the only fitting involved, once you have the notches cut into the bulkheads, is at the stem knee. Wasn't sure how that was going to turn out, but after scribing and fitting, they came out flush to the bevel off the stem. There is some twist to those......about 80 degrees or so.......that takes place inside the span of about 10 feet. A person can twist those easy enough but how to you get them to stay put? I finally decided to add some glue blocks to the bulkhead notches and after twisting the stringer staves into place with a big wrench, screwed them down so they would stay put. As near as I can tell, they look like the plans, so will be glued in place. (Had to deal with the obligatory busted one. Had extra length, so cut that off and started again.....with double screws to spread the load.......which is substantial). It also helps to use long screws.......so they won't pull out. Next step will be to glue the stringers in place, but before doing that decided to mock up some of the bottom panels. Those appear to hit the high spots, but do not conform directly to the stringers. Plans say some twist may have to be planed into those, and I suspect that may be what the reference is. Plane the high spot down so those lay somewhat flat, then start trimming the edge of the keel planks as well. Somewhere about the top of BH #2, those stop laying flat and no amount of pressure will make them bend into place. So.......time to start trimming and fairing these into the keel. For those who have actually done this, does that sound right?
  18. Congratulations Peter. Absolutely beautiful! To those who might wonder (including the builder) why someone would build their own boat, that is why. The emotion when she slides off that trailer and floats can be felt but cannot be described. Nothing quite like it. PS: I will be in Norfolk in August. Just saying.
  19. I had not considered using the foam. The tail section gets pretty thin.........mine is now 3/8" and plans suggest is should be 1/4". Not sure if foam is rigid enough to avoid side to side distortion of the tail when packing the sand for the casting. But if it is, and a builder was careful to check it, to make sure it remained straight, foam might be a good option. Come to think of it, you can put a single layer of glass cloth on it and that would stiffen it enough to keep it from distorting side to side. Or simply check it often with a straight edge as you are packing the casting sand around it. If blue (or pink) foam can be used, that would be a piece of cake to shape. Make your templates, top and bottom, but for the bottom template, hold off on final shaping the pinched in section on the bottom. Shape just the dead wood section that goes on the boat first......identical templates on both sides. When that looks good, you can add the foam, then cut the foam with a hot wire foam cutter. It will come out perfect. At that point, all you would have left is the nose section. You could then cut out the shape of the nose section similar to what I did. A big advantage of foam or plywood is once shaped, it will remain stable and the shape of the plug won't distort over time. If you are not able to make the sand casting right away, it shouldn't matter.
  20. Keel has been shaped to it's final form. Not much else to add, except how I shaped the nose. In addition to being swept back or raked, it also pinches in at the bottom in a variable curved shape The top and bottom come together and become one uniform shape about 2 feet aft of the nose section. To form this shape into the nose, I again used a hand saw to cut score marks at 1 inch intervals. Cut down to where the saw teeth barely score the top board of the deadwood and down to the line marked on the bottom board. Remove the excess until you get to the bottom of the score marks and the shape should take place. To bring the sides down flush, I hit the sides with acrylic spray paint, then hit is lightly with sandpaper to find the high spots and then started working them down to flush. Although the sides are shown as 90 degrees on the plans, I actually took a bit more off the bottom......about 1/16" per side, such that there is a slight bit of taper. This should help when it comes time to pull the plug from the sand casting. I eventually wised up and went from dowel rods to align things and clamps to hold them together to threaded rods with nuts top and bottom. Made it a whole lot easier to roll this thing over and over and over and to keep it all aligned. Doing this again, I might consider using plywood scraps to make the bottom plug part. Just glue them up with tightbond or gorilla glue (not epoxy). They would be easier to shape and will remain stable. Glue up the entire plug to rough overall shape, then run that through a bandsaw. I did find a problem with the one plank of deadwood I cut with my jigsaw. Somehow that blade managed to cut inside the final shape line. It will have to be cleaned up, then backfilled with thickened epoxy to bring it out flush. The painting trick really works to help find the high and low spots. My eye alone could never do that well.
  21. Rikk: Congratulations on being able to take over stewardship of such a fine boat. Tony also took me for a ride on her and it was that ride that convinced me to start a P26 of my own. I hope to do as well as Tony did. Great guy and he built a great boat. You got lucky!
  22. Since you now have nothing better to do, why don't you come over and help me install the rest of the bottom on the P26? I'll make you a chocolate pie. Bring Chick and we can knock it out in about a day!
  23. Made some progress on the keel. Reminder, keel is formed from two parts. Permanent keel stub, plus 750# lead keel that goes on the bottom. Permanent keel deadwood is 3", lead keel part is 3 3/4". These are formed and shaped together, but need to be two separate parts. The wood part that becomes the lead keel is nothing more than a plug, so was able to use "iffy" lumber for that. Since I had it, I used a combination of 2 - 1 1/2 " planks, plus one 1". That would have made 4 inches of lead, which by my calculations would run the lead weight up to 800 pounds. So did some thickness planing and brought them back down. For those wondering how more draft and ballast could be added, not sure what Graham has in mind, but having done it, a builder might be able to insert an additional deadwood plank in the mix to lower the same amount of ballast (would increase the righting moment), leave the lead part as 4" and hike ballast to 800 pounds, or any combination of those. Seems to me a lot of ways to skin that cat, but I'll leave that for others to worry about. I'm trying to stay as close to the actual plans as possible to see how it goes. So for shaping, early on, I developed a shaped pattern that I could use to trace the required shape onto each plank. Two dimensions are given. Full shape, and shape at the bottom edge, resulting in a swept back nose that is narrower at the bottom than at the top. Keel also pinches in or rakes forward aft. Decided the best way to set these shapes was to trace the large outline on all planks, the smaller outline on what would only be the bottom edge of the bottom plank, then cut the nose and tail sections in one piece to set the angle on all of them. To do that, you need some type of saw to be able to cut that. A chain saw came to mind, but then remembered I had a hand saw that would do it. This one is an Atkins 65, rip saw with 5 1/2 teeth per inch, but is filed crosscut, so is able to (slowly) handle a cut of this size. Extra tooth size is needed to carry the dust out of the cut. Was a pretty good workout, but it did work. After that, did a rough cut out of each plank with a circular saw. Tried both circular saw and jigsaw and circular saw won hands down. About 4x as fast and 2x as accurate. When all were pinned together, rough outline takes shape. Next step will be to glue top and bottom halves together, then reassemble for final shaping. One additional step is included. Plans also make reference to small wedges that will be needed under the nose and tail sections. These are needed to conform to the curvature of the hull. I went ahead and included these in the nose and tail sections, but final shaping will come later. Outline shape given in the plans does not take these into consideration, but the builder will need to. Lastly, the most helpful part of this entire project has been the plywood pattern. I would do one for the top and bottom to increase the speed and accuracy of the shaping. On the tail section, note how far apart and staggered each piece becomes. Ideally, each plank would be dead straight, and these were when they were purchased, but didn't stay that way. Most of them managed to stay mostly flat with no twisting or cupping, but nearly all of them developed a slight bow. I was able to get all these planks from 5 1/2" (1 x 6 and 2 x 6) boards, but it was tight, and required some fitting. However, once they were all cutout, they all had the same shape. They are now pinned together with dowel rods and getting them glued before they distort anymore will be important.
  24. ON CB case, rails and doublers are glued on. Was going to go ahead and glass it, but decided to hold off until it is fitted and ready to go. Plans say not to drill the pivot pin holes until then, so have held off on that too. Also seem to recall there being a slight difference in where the LWL on the CB trunk mated up to the LWL on on BH#5, so figured it best to stop here until time to actually fit it. Good to get it ready, however. BTW, even as shown, CB trunk is heavy. Have not weighed it, but could easily top 40 to 50 pounds. Glued and glassed in, it will be hell for stout!
  25. Ricardo: Your question about the ability of a Princess 26 to cross the Atlantic is probably one best left for Graham to answer directly. Granted, the Atlantic isn't the Capes, but does have it's share of rough water potential. My guess is if that is your plan, there are more more robust designs to consider. Peter has built a 28 footer with CB and Scott has started a larger boat of 32+/- feet with solid keel. I would think either of those two would be better suited to that task. My thoughts are that the Princess 26 should be considered as a coastal cruiser best suited for places like the east coast, where shallow waters are to be found. But even those can get dicey at times and she should be able to handle it, but in coastal waters like these, if you do break a mast or are somehow disabled, help is not far away. In an open ocean crossing, help won't be found, so there would be some areas where you might want to beef up some things......but in doing so, that has the potential to change a lot of design criteria, that may not be for the better. Again, those are good reasons to consider a boat that is designed for that duty. But as far as a plywood boat of this type making it, I always think back to Yankee Girl. It has been done. http://www.sailingbreezes.com/sailing_breezes_current/articles/Nov05/yankeegirl1.htm
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