Spindrift 10N #1621 Build Log

[Bryan Rolfe]

Still mostly spending tape glass taping (re-enforcing the nesting bulkheads, inside/outside of the aft seating). Apply epoxy coats to the interior of the aft seating too. Haven't come up with good technique for the epoxy coatings -- the epoxy is quite viscous and does not paint well. This might be a product of my cooler temperatures though (low 60s). I did use a heat gun during the process to help a little. Might also switch to a roller for the rest of the interior. 

 

Seat tops are not glued on quite yet, nor is the bow seat. I'm actually not totally clear where in the assembly process to glue on the bow seat top/frame, but I'm also not in a rush to do it. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Aphers]

I know what you mean about the epoxy coating. It doesn't flow out and self level like paint. And when you do paint, every little bump and ripple will be magnified.

 

I took the approach that, as a tender, I wanted as much epoxy on there as possible. I didn't try and flatten it all back, just removed the very worst runs and bumps. Sometimes I regret that, bit it saved me probably several days in the build.

I made more of an effort to get the outside smooth, to prevent any marine growth getting a foothold.

[Bryan Rolfe]

The boat has been turned over and I'm gearing up to glass the bottom. I just realized the glass cloth I purchased for this job is actually 10oz woven rather than 10ox plain weave.
 

I think the consequence is that it's going to be more annoying to work with (as the weave has much more tendency to separate, especially at cut edges), and probably won't handle the chines as well. I'm also worried that it will absorb more resin than the plain weave and make the boat heavier? 

Should I ditch the woven cloth and get some plain weave? 

 

 

[gray duck]

Yes. You DO NOT want this boat to be heavy. All of us were first time builders and early boats tend to be overbuilt and overweight.

[Hirilonde]

23 hours ago, gray duck said:

Yes. You DO NOT want this boat to be heavy. All of us were first time builders and early boats tend to be overbuilt and overweight.

Yup, I didn't even glass the bottom.  Easily carrying a dinghy is a big deal to me, and sailing or rowing fast is too.

[Bryan Rolfe]

I ended up ordering some plaineweave and will sell the woven fabric. 

I'm still going to glass the bottom entirely though -- weight does matter to us, but durability of the hull will ultimately be more important for cruising plans. Luckily it's shipping fast and will arrive in time for me to get this job done next week! 

[Bryan Rolfe]

I put on a layer of glass on the starboard side last night, and will likely do the other side tonight, with the transom as well. 

 

I used peel-ply for this job, but it was a different fabric that I have been using. One thing I noticed is that the peel ply left tiny holes in the surface in certain places. I'm thinking maybe these are places where the peel ply didn't fully wet out (although it appeared pretty well wetted out). 

Should I come back to these later when I'm fairing the hull (e.g. with fairing compound or epoxy), or deal with it now while the epoxy is still in it's chemical-bonding window? Presumably the surface will need to be cleaned for amine blush in these cavities.

 

Corners rounded:

 

 

10oz plaineweave cloth laid out and cut with a ~2" overlap on the keel. I used painters tape to protect the gunwales.

 

Wetted out with peel ply applied:

 

Removing the peel ply:

 

Result:

 

Pinholes/voids at the surface (above the glass I believe):

[Bryan Rolfe]

I took some close-up shots of what the pinholes look like under a macro lens. Definitely seems like the holes exactly line up with the weave of the glass, and are probably from not having enough resin for the peel ply. 

 

How it should look:

 

How it looks in some places:

In any case, I applied a very thin fill coat (it really didn't take much since these holes are so tiny). Sort of defeats the point of using the peel ply since I'll need to sand the whole surface now, but given it's already very smooth and even from the peel ply, it won't be too bad. 

 

[Bryan Rolfe]

Both sides of the hull are now glassed. I spent a lot more time trying to wet out the peel ply this time. In fact, I probably spent twice as long on the peel ply as I did on the glass, which just seems wrong. The issue is that I can see the tiny bubbles under the peel ply and getting them out requires a lot of pressure from the spreader and extra resin. Even then, I still can't get them all out. I suspect maybe it's a viscosity issue with the resin I'm using, or the temperature is too low. 

 

Another possibility is that, even though I'm working with a slow hardener, at the end of the day, I could be taking too long to get the glass wetted out and the peel ply down, meaning by the time the peel ply goes on, the underlying resin has gelled a little and is struggling to bridge the peaks in the glass beneath. I might do some experiments playing with different time intervals later. 

 

In any case, all that extra resin led to wrinkling in some locations as the resin soaked through the fabric and cured. I also still have pinholes in places so I will need to do sand and do a fill coat. 

 

Glass laid out and peel ply cut to right lengths and ready to go on the right:

 

Glass and peel ply down:

 

Close up of one of the locations where I I wasn't able to get all the bubbles out (before cure):

 

Close up of a location that turned out good:

 

Close up of some of the wrinkles that formed after I was hands-down:

 

[Don Silsbe]

I’ve only used Peel Ply once, with mixed results.  There’s a learning curve, I guess.

[Bryan Rolfe]

Definitely seems that way. 

 

I decided to forego using it on the transom, and instead did a fill coat, But maybe I'll need to do a few of these fill coats, we'll see. Either way, it was a lot faster and a lot less hassle then having to deal with the peel ply. 

 

I also glassed the dagger board, though I didn't specifically see this called out anywhere in the directions. I used a 6oz cloth I had from a surfboard I made. I did use peel ply for this as it was a small enough surface for me to easily control. 

 

 

 

 

[Don Silsbe]

An argument against Redwood is that it is soft, and won’t stand up to the banging that gunwales are subjected to.  On the other hand, when using it as a tender, hard dinghies are usually required to have padding on their gunwales.  If you’re going to do that, the Redwood would be OK.

 

I must disagree with you about attaching your sail with Velcro.  This is what I use on my boat, and it is very aerodynamic.  The secret is not to cinch the sail too tightly to the mast.  Graham has even suggested using zip ties!  Those would probably behave more like hoops for lowering the sail.  

[Bryan Rolfe]

I ended up not using any of the redwood and instead went with a combination of pine for the inner strips and ash for the outer strips. There will be a sacrificial rub rail outside of this too like fire hose or similar. Beautiful boat! For the sail I'm planning on doing a lacing, but we'll see how much we like it. 

 

Today I cut the boat in half! I did this before attaching the keel or finishing shaping and sanding the gunwales, but that's ok. I can still complete those tasks, and just use my Japanese pull saw to get a thin kerf when I cut the keel. 

 

The only hiccup I had was when I first started cutting, the blade engaged into the plywood of one of the nesting bulkheads and I didn't notice it until I cut about 3-4 inches down, so I'll need to come back and epoxy that up. Additionally -- should I glass the outer faces of the bulkheads? It seems like I should, but it would also introduce a small gap between the bulkheads that may not be aesthetically pleasing (e.g. at the gunwales). 

 

The other thing I'll note is that cutting the boat in half from the top was more work than I thought it would be, mostly along the sole portion. I think this is primarily a result of my saw being only about 2 inches long enough to cut through the bottom, meaning I was only working with a 2-inch stroke for this length, and the fact that the blade is cutting through a long thing channel with lots of surface area and room for the saw dust to collect and jam beneath the blade. I think a longer saw would have helped a lot, or flipping the boat once the cuts were started on either end (I spent some time laying under the boat putting the saw through and this was a lot easier). 

 

 

 

Here's the part where I cut into the plywood a bit:

 

Did a test fit (I haven't added the blocks for the middle thwart yet):

 

[Aphers]

It's a relief to get it actually nesting!

My boat was upside down when I sawed it in half, I don't remember it being too difficult. In fact, it was alarming easy, definitely a nerve wracking moment.

 

From memory I think you are supposed to glass over the outside corner at the bulkhead, but I don't think you need to cover the whole bulkhead. It doesn't really matter if there is a slight gap between the bulkheads when assembled, it's all hidden by the seat anyway.

 

Of course you don't want a gap showing at the job itself, and to glass that corner you'll need to have a bit of a radius.

 

To get a really neat join, I used epoxy thickened with micro fibres to finish off the edge at the bulkhead, with stiff plastic sheet as a former. Gave a really clean edge and sand almost no visible gap. I like micro fibres, I think they're stronger than silica and easy to mix.

 

[Bryan Rolfe]

Yeah cutting from the outside would have been a smart move so that I could use the full length of the saw to cut with. I'll probably end up glassing the outside faces of the nesting bulkheads just for added impact protection. I'm pretty paranoid about busting one of those by accident while the dinghy is overturned on deck and people/hardware are moving/flying around. 

[Don Silsbe]

Welcome to the club!  It was an interesting day for me, too.  I tried different methods, and found an old saw that belonged to my carpenter grandfather worked best.  I agree with Aphers.  Glass is unnecessary.  Just remember how many layers are on the other side.  If you do, only use 4 oz.

[Don Silsbe]

I meant to include some photos.  I even tried a roto-zip, which was a disaster.  Grandpa’s old saw worked best.

[Bryan Rolfe]

Thanks for including the photos! I think I made the same face when I started sawing too. 

It's been a little while since I've updated. I lost a week to COVID, work has been busy, and I've also been using my time work on Christmas gifts, and with such a small workshop, it's a huge hassle to re-arrange everything for other wood working projects, and back to boat work. 

In any case, I did manage to get a few things done. I've started glueing up the rudder pieces, filling holes with epoxy, making repairs from my clumsy sawing, and I glassed over the nesting bulkhead faces just to provide surface protection.

 

I also started using a fast curing epoxy (TotalBoat), the slow curing one I was using is just not suitable for the cooler climate I am in. I still have some glass I laid up a month ago that is not fully cured (if I start sanding it it gums up the sand paper). Which doesn't surprise me since the garage is rarely above 60F this time of year. 

 

Here's the face that require the most significant repair:


Glassed and peel-plyed:

Tight working conditions:

 

I also created a 3D CAD model of the dinghy to go along with the 3D model I created of our Westsail. Should be roughly to scale, and the main purpose was to let us experiment with where we want to stow the dinghy on the boat. I'm leaning towards under the boom, behind the mast. 

 

 

[Crazer]

Hey that's pretty cool! I stored my Catspaw under the boom on my Cape Dory 28 and found that to be a huge pain. You have more space to play with than I did but I found the dinghy arrangement so frustrating while cruising that I actually sold the mothership and bought a Morgan 364 that could carry the dinghy on the foredeck (among other things - I also got a shower and an aft cabin...) I found it frustrating to try and wrestle the thing up onto the cabin top when I was getting underway and most often just towed it. Your mileage, of course, may vary. I am not a particularly patient person!

[Bryan Rolfe]

Yeah I'm very curious to see how things go with the the dinghy on deck, as well as launching and retrieving. On my last cruise I had a small inflatable, which honestly was its own hassle to inflate on deck and then try to  lift over the lifelines, but at least it stowed away nicely when deflated. 

In terms of the build, now that Christmas wood working projects are behind me, I've had some more time to continue the build. This week I: 

 

1. Glassed the inside surfaces of the dagger board trunk (4oz cloth)  and glued in the spacer pieces to one side. 
2. Glassed the rudder, also with 4oz cloth -- primary purpose of using the lightweight cloth was an alternative to applying 3 layers of epoxy. But the cloth probably does provide some strength. 
3. Glued on the aft seat tops and glass taped these edges (I don't know if the plans call for this exactly, but I figured why not).
4. Glued in the bow seat and its support. Had to fill some gaps as things aren't perfectly symmetric there with the way the wood bent during the unfolding. 
5. Began sanding the bottom of the boat (still need to fit the keel on). 

 

Gluing the spacer pieces for the daggerboard box (though I wish I hadn't, see below):

 

Test fit:

 

 

Had to get creative when glueing down the aft seats:

 

Glueing in the bow seat/mast support:

 

Starboard side had more of a gap than the port side:

 

Glueing down the seat top:

 

All done:

 

 

Now here's the bad news. When I installed the nesting bulkheads, I didn't pay careful attention to which one was which (I mean they're the same size and shape) and as a result, they are rotated 180 degrees from how they should be. The only consequence is that the bolt hole and associated epoxy bushing is on the PORT side of the keel, rather than the STARBOARD side of the keel. This means it's right where the daggerboard trunk is meant to go.  

 

I think the best solution is to just fit the daggerboard trunk on the starboard side of the keel instead of the port side, as shown below:

 

However, because I already glued the spacers onto what was meant to to be the starboard side of the daggerboard box, the box when glued together will not match the slope of the hull and the box will not fit correctly . I think what I'll do is use the starboard side of the box (the larger of the two sides) as a template to cut a new piece of plywood. Then I'll use the intended port side of the box (the smaller of the two box sides) as a template to trim the already glued up starboard side of the box down, thus making it the new port side of the box. 

I don't have the right thickness of marine plywood for this, but I do have some high quality birch plywood that's the right thickness, and given the small size and that it will be glassed, I think that should be ok. 

Is there any reason why I can't switch the daggerboard from port to starboard?