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Murray

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Posts posted by Murray

  1. Coamings cut roughly and steamed into place; 2 pieces of Jarrah cut into 3mm strips. I'll epoxy them together with filler from the sawdust; it's pretty fine so should work. 

     

    But the next real step is the rub rails at the bottom of the top strake. I've cut the strips out but still not sure how to hold them in place while the epoxy goes off. Brad pins will stop them sliding up or down, but will not hold them close the plank. While I ponder that I'll carry on with getting the deck trimmings ready to glue on. So rubrails, then decks, coamings, and gunwales, followed by deck trim. Then the wood is basically all in place. 

     

    Sanding and painting the interior, varnishing the timbers and - well - getting close!

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  2. I've been meaning to show the stem since I fixed some time back. I cut a batten the width of the finished stem, drilled many small holes along the centreline, then wrapped it in plastic. Then I marked out the centre line of the stem of the boat, and the bits that would extend past the batten and sanded those back. Then after nailing with little pins, the batten bent to the shape of a straight stem. Backfilling with epoxy and fillings between the batten and the hull was relatively simple. Removing the batten and the stem looked like the photo below. A bit of cleaning up and now it looks like the second photo.

     

    haven't been able to work on the boat for some weeks but now the sails are here, and the trailer ready to collect, I better get back to it...

     

     

     

     

     

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    • Like 1
  3. Carlins sorted, a little shaping left to do on the transom top to blend all the differing angles in, next on the list was Gunwales. I had thought I'd scarf two bits of Jarrah together, and have a single piece I'd bend to the inhales. Jarrah is so short grained though, it wasn't long until I heard the unmistakable sound of a single piece of wood becoming two bits of wood again. So I resorted to laminating strips together. Makes a glue-up and positioning of 12 pieces (???) against the boat a lot more complicated, and the 3mm bite  the tablesaw blade takes meant I was not sure I'd have enough wood to get it done. I did, but that was all that was left over.

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    Oh - a man can clearly never have enough clamps... I've taken the gunwales off to sand clean, hope to complete that tomorrow, then the decks can go on.... Still a long list but we are getting there.

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  4. On 8/25/2023 at 11:54 PM, gray duck said:

    Carlins look great! I'm confused with your previous post with what appears to be a drain going from the mast (or mast step maybe) through the hull. ???  Never seen this before. My $0.02: When people say a mast step needs to be drained...

    As Dave ( @Hirilonde ) says, the plans call for it to go through the hull, after thinking on it, I thought why not?

     

  5. But necessary. I found a piece of rubber tube in the garage, no idea where it came from but after wrapping cloth and resin around it, it makes a good fibreglass tube to drain the mast step outside the hull. It was a good little project that has allowed me to avoid doing the carlins. I can't quite see how to get these things set up - with 15 degrees of 'backrest' - when you pull them against the hull, they twist and rise up at the ends. what else can I do next to avoid this...

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    • Like 1
  6. 16 hours ago, Steve W said:

    ....actually still quite a list....

     

    I have a friend who jokingly says "80 percent done with 80 percent to go". I use it myself now.  Even when you are done the tweaking never ends. Looks great though!

    I’ll use that quote - very apt!

  7. IMG_2924.thumb.jpeg.904600a4e1ac5187b74046c60ed92bb5.jpegThe resin on the transom yielded to the gentle persuasion of 80 grit, but it was astonishingly hard. Still it sanded off and now with some stain in place it will probably look OK when varnished. I guess also with the white paint going over onto the edge of the planks, a rudder and other things going on to distract the eye from small  blemishes, it will look fine. 

     

    Suddenly I am at the point where the list of tasks is becoming manageable; Carlin supports tomorrow, then carlins can go in, hatch covers, decks, then sanding for a few weeks... Then tipped over for final coats of hull paint, gunwales, rubbing strips, a rebuild of the rudder stock, oh then.... actually still quite a list...IMG_2924.jpeg

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

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    • Like 2
  8. 18 hours ago, Hirilonde said:

    @Murray I am trying to remember what I meant by foot steps, and I can't. Are you referring to something to make stepping the main mast easier?  I'm getting old.

    ...Nah - still just a boy!

     

    I should have asked at the time I saw the post, but I think it was in reference to sitting on the sidedeck, and needing some foot strap arrangement to prevent falling over the side?

  9. On 7/17/2023 at 1:59 AM, Hirilonde said:

    I bet it is to keep the step from moving while the opoxy cures, there is no way to clamp it.

     

    You are so right; one look at my stem issues prove that point.  You mentioned somewhere Dave, that you put footsteps in - where did you locate them?

  10. On 7/13/2023 at 6:16 AM, Don Silsbe said:

    Graham once told me that adding screws to an epoxy joint actually weakened it.  I wish I had quizzed him further on that.

    That's interesting. In the plans he specifies screwing the mast steps as well as gluing.  Maybe the screws add sheering strength.  I wonder maybe differing coefficients of expansion between the screws and the epoxy could see a joint working over time?

  11. On 2/8/2022 at 7:01 AM, Designer said:

    I remember my first employer telling me "the art of a craftsman is being able to disguise or work around your screw-ups. 

     

    I have been where you are more times than I want to remember.

     

    I have not seen your problem but my instinct would be to trim some wood off one side and make it up on the other side with epoxy. A little adjustment with forward gunwales ends might be necessary. There may be some tweaking of paint edges.

     

    While you may not be able to eliminate the visual effect completely, reducing it will make invisible to most folk.

    Thanks for this comment Graham @Designer- that was the pathway to solve the problem. 

  12. On 7/5/2023 at 11:42 PM, Don Silsbe said:

    I think what Hirilonde is saying is that the epoxy bond will provide more than enough strength for the loads.  I can see the benefit of them for precisely the step.  But after the glue has cured, they serve no purpose, other than an entry point for water.  Just be sure to include a drain hole, so water doesn’t accumulate in it.

    Well - belt and braces. I don't know the loads on the mast steps, but I'd guess as shock loads - approx plenty. So making sure for sure, I'd start with hoping the epoxy bond is good. Then the four screws in the step are more good. Then the four screws under the bearing give even more mechanical security - so more good. If redundant, then it's just four screws. 

  13. I had decided to use a resin bearing in the mast step to allow easy mast rotation. As I was about the pour the resin I pondered that since the mast step can be subjected to significant and sometimes shock loads, I might bury 4 screws into the keel plate under the bearing. With these, the four screws in the mast step itself, and then gluing, filleting and taping the maststep to the centre case at the side and the the keel plate underneath, well it hopefully will stand the loads...

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  14. On 6/15/2023 at 1:39 PM, Kennneee said:

    Murray- Lot’s of room for angst and creativity.  She will be beautiful.  I went round and round on what I wanted to do with my transom.  Found a scrap piece of WRC and resawed it into 1/4” book matched panels and glued it on the existing transom.  I like the result.

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    WRC - assume that is Red Cedar Ken? Certainly a great result. I'll have to look up book matched panels to see how this is done. Meantime I'm thinking of going cheap and painting the transom white, running just a vertical strip of maybe Jarrah as pretend runner support, maybe a cap on the transom in Jarrah as well so it hopefully ties together. There will still be paint/timber contrast. Sanding back the resin on the transom brings the fear of going through the outer skin of ply, and as noted, timber stains I've tried (so far) are not convincing. 

  15. On 6/10/2023 at 9:09 PM, Hirilonde said:

    Are you doiing the sheer strake bright?

    The end does come, just not as quickly as we may like. Keep paying attention to the details.

    There is a lot of the Devil in the details... Sheer strake will be inky blue, with Jarrah gunwale and bump strip along the bottom of the sheer strake. Too much filler on that strake to go bright. Now my mate across the road says the deck should be bright (was planning to that) but it needs to be dark - like a Mahogany ply. I've already cut the deck panels out of current ply stocks, so it would be wasting ply, but I've tried staining the current ply a dark colour too and it's not a convincing result. Then there is the issue of the transom being a bit 'yellow' in colour but with three coat of resin on it - do I just ignore it or put another false transom over the top? Or paint it white? Or....

  16. Progress continues on the boat. But suddenly there are 'off-site' issues to consider; fittings, mast base plugs, sails - so actually a lot of progress has been made, only so much to see... And now, with great sadness, starting two weeks holiday in Fiji.... Nothing against Fiji, just I want to actually finish and get on the water...

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  17. 12 hours ago, Hirilonde said:

     

    I was trying to sell it as I wasn't using it much.  I was hoping to get enough to fund another build, a small, classic, powerboat.  In limbo for now.

    Why not both? Just make the powerboat smaller. The older I get, the bigger my powerboat is getting - harder to manage on land, still not big enough on the water. Question on your Lapwing; I think I read somewhere you did not bother with a mast tube for the mizzen, just the main? Would you change that? (I've made the tube for the main, just wondering how lazy I am thinking...

  18. On 5/24/2023 at 10:32 PM, Hirilonde said:

    What surprises me the most are the prices people are getting for well built B&B boats. I followed Wes's build, and he was a perfectionist.  I hope he can get his asking price, the boat is worth it.  But history shows lower prices are the norm.  I have re-evaluated selling my Lapwing for that reason.

    you're thinking of selling your beautiful craft Dave? Time for a change?

  19. On 5/24/2023 at 8:22 AM, Don Silsbe said:

     

    I took a design of experiments class once.  The teacher told us to write down our expected results before we ran the experiment.  If the results weren’t in line with our expected results, we should consider the results as “learning”.  I suggest that you do the same.  You might learn something.  From what you said, you sort of already admit it.

     

    My wife loves the high sprit, since it doesn’t come close to her head.  She says my cat ketch is the best boat I’ve ever had.

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    Your wife is probably right - at least for you...! One of the things I appreciate on this site is the honest, direct comments made. And I consider them carefully - thus the three 'Silsbies' now installed. @hirilonde has had many useful things to say too. I guess I could try and set up a jury rigged sprit and see what I think - just a question of time - something I may not have as much of as I expected. So I'll start with what I know, and keep an open mind. Cheers Don.

    • Like 1
  20. On 5/21/2023 at 3:55 PM, Kennneee said:

    Looks great Murray.  Why did you decide to go with a different rig?

     Good question Ken......! I guess I'm a stubborn old guy who has fixed ideas about rigs. I've sailed cats with wishbones, windsurfers with wishbones, keelboats with all sorts of boom configurations, racing dinghies with booms, and a number of racing days on a Hobie which has no boom at all. Years ago I sailed OPTI's which have a sprit, and I freely admit I couldn't tell the difference in speed one tack to the other. I even tried a windsurfer with a single sprit, and the sail cut into two pieces; one above and one below the boom. That was a terrible experiment. In all of the sailing I've done, it's always been performance oriented, and in all of it, I've found booms are good. True, when they hit you on the head, it can be unpleasant; the bigger the boat, the more unpleasant it becomes. But they allow great sail control. Even the cat with wishbones was interesting in that we ended up putting a vang system on it so we could get sufficient leech tension. Without, it looked like the Hobie with massive twist in the sail which creates drag and makes control difficult. 

     

    With the Lapwing, the sails are small so you can probably get sufficient leech tension by using a sprit reasonably easily. And there are those who argue that the sprit does not make a noticeable difference to performance - especially in a cruising type of craft. I accept that a sprit  has advantages in an application like the Lapwing, but as a guy who in a previous life made hundreds and hundreds of windsurfing sails, and many sails for land yachts and various Moths, everything was geared to making the most efficient sail, the easiest to control sail and the fastest sail possible. And in my experience, that's booms. So it's just something I had to do.

     

    And I freely acknowledge that a Lapwing provides 'sparkling' performance, rather that the ultimate racing dinghy performance - hell - witness the 'brake' in the bottom two planks; the garboard and the next plank trap water and force it through a narrower slot as it gets towards the stern - acting like a brake. I acknowledge I have much to learn about cruising boats, slowing down and enjoying the ride, but now retired, I didn't feel ready to look up and see a sprit and feel good inside. Oh, and I had spare booms...! 

     

    I am using a sail plan very similar to standard, I'll just put slightly different seam shaping in and since the masts are stiff carbon - I'll use a little less luff round - especially at the head. Why carbon masts?  Well I had them in the loft too (experimental carbon masts for Lasers) so rather than use my stock of Alaskan yellow cedar on making masts, I thought maybe I should keep that for my next boat...? Sorry that's a long winded reply, but while your question is simple, the answers were not. At least, not for me.

     

     

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