Lapwing #5 build

[Daniel Gross]

Looks great John :grin:

Keep up the good work.

[paul_stewart]

Well done, John ! 

--Paul

[John Turpin]

The 6mm Okoume that I got from Noah's is wonderful wood.  Many photos on the Lapwing #5 Build thread where it's being twisted and tortured.  And, it's quite light.  When completed and painted, the Lapwing's hull only weighed 140 pounds.  That Okoume is great stuff.

John, what is the state of completion of your 140# hull?  Sounds light to me for the completed boat.

Hi Tom.  That's just the hull, bulkheads, keel and cockpit sides coated with three coats of epoxy and four coats of paint.  Quite a bit of weight will be added when she's flipped.  I'll fillet and epoxy coat (with some fiberglass cloth) the interior, add centerboard/trunk, add bench tops, foredeck and side decks, etc..  As quite a bit of epoxy will be required for all the filleting and taping and coating of planks and panels, that's where the weight will begin to creep in.  But today, with the hull inverted and only real external work done, she weighs in at a nimble 140 lbs..

[Tom Lathrop]

Thanks John,  now I feel much better.  Lapwing came out all finished at either 220# or 240#, I forget which.  I will weigh again when the weather gets better.

[DeanHerring]

Tom, John, Thanks for the weight clarifications = 240 pound for a 16 foot boat - good grief my Precision 15 was 450 pounds. Lapwing should be fast with all that weight gone. Thanks for your continued posting of pictures and lessons learned on Lapwing Blue Peter John. Can't wait for Herb and I to take a gone down east NC road trip to see Tom's lapwing. We've come up with a color scheme for #7 and will name her the Black Ruby. You got to say it like this though - arrhh - welcome aboard the Black Ruby. 

[John Turpin]

Great name, Dean.  I can imagine a silent, black boat with tattered sails emerging from the fog.  "ARRRRR.  There be the Black Ruby."  

It will be interesting to sail such a large (to me) ultra-light boat.  I can't imagine how it will handle and have never been in a small racing dinghy.  In light to moderate air and flat water, it should be a rocket ship.  Where I sail, however, we tend to have high winds and messy water.  I will definately need to learn how the boat sails before heading her out into the wild stuff.  I'm also brainstorming ways to add some ballast.  Internal ballast would be pretty easy, as I could find a home for some bags of lead shot alongside the centerboard trunk.  Given that the keel is only an inch below the keelson, and that the keel itself is only 3/4" deep, adding external ballast seems silly.  So, if the ride gets too wild in choppy seas, I may take some friendly bags of ballast along for the ride.  But, who knows, this light boat might handle the chop like a dream; skipping over the tops of the seas.  Hopefully, I'll find out how she sails in 98 more days when I launch her.

Assembled, aligned and glued the aluminum mast tubes this week.

[Diddle Dally]

I think you have to say " Arrrggg, welcome aboard the Black Rooooby matey!!"

[Tom Lathrop]

John,

Don't even think of adding ballast until you are sure that you need it.  Lapwing, with moderate sail area and the CE kept low by the two sails, is not a particularly difficult boat to handle in wind.  Lapwing also has a generous beam that gives a lot of form stability.  I am considering adding some lead to the CB but not because of stability issues.  I would like to try having the CB drop from gravity rather than working the lines to adjust it.  I will add only enough lead to sink the CB.

[John Turpin]

I'm making some progress these days, but slowly.  It seems like I'm always stuck waiting for some painted part to dry.  But, I have the masts completely assembled now.  I need to do a little touch-up painting, but I should be able to start on the sail tracks in the next day or so. 

As for today, I'll be spending my free time on the keel band.  After some polishing, I'll be drilling and countersinking some 3/4" stainless bar stock.

But, I have to hurry.  They've announced yet another winter storm headed this way.  I've lived in Oklahoma for fifteen years and I don't remember a winter this harsh.

[Dogdad]

We've come up with a color scheme for #7 and will name her the Black Ruby. You got to say it like this though - arrhh - welcome aboard the Black Ruby. 

I'm imagining a black hull with red trim. The black is finished with a red-tinted clearcoat so all the reflected highlights look red....

[Richard Whitney CS#70]

Hi John

What material is your keel band made of and how wide is it.

[John Turpin]

I don't know much about metal, so I just sort of picked something that looked close from onlinemetals.com.  My keel is about an inch wide and I ran a small rounding bit down each side to knock off the sharp edges.  The bar stock is 3/4" wide and fits nicely.

Here's what I ordered and what I'm attaching this week:  STAINLESS STEEL FLAT BAR T-316/316L 0.125" x 0.75" T-316 Stainless Annealed Rectangle

I ordered three, six-foot-long pieces and it cost me about $30 US.

I'm attaching it with #10, 1 1/4" stainless screws that will be countersunk and go through the bar, keel and plywood into the keelson.  The screws are coated with 3M 4200 as they go in.  Should be plenty strong.

[John Turpin]

Keel band on.

[John Turpin]

Turned!

[John Turpin]

And, this is what she looks like.

[Richard Whitney CS#70]

Congratulations John - Great work and the boat is looking beautiful.  You must be pleased to reach this milestone.

Are you planning to finish the sheer strake bright (I am thinking of doing this but trying to figure out how to cover the scarf join which is a bit messy)?

Also were you able to easily bend the stainless keel band around the curve at the stem?

Two of us were able to lift my boat to shift it to a different position in the garage yesterday - it surprised me how light it is at this stage.

Can't wait to get to the same stage - a lot more work to do.

[John Turpin]

Hi Richard,

When I first saw it upright, I was shocked by how big it appeared. Quite a surprise.  Just a perspective thing, I guess.

That top plank will be painted, but I haven't worked out all the color details yet.

Yes, the stainless bar bent easily. No issues there at all.

Turning the boat was exhilarating. My heart just pounded when I finally got to step back and see her.

[Travis Votaw]

Beautiful, John.  Won't be long now until she's in the water.

[DeanHerring]

Hi Richard,

When I first saw it upright, I was shocked by how big it appeared. Quite a surprise.  Just a perspective thing, I guess.

That top plank will be painted, but I haven't worked out all the color details yet.

Yes, the stainless bar bent easily. No issues there at all.

Turning the boat was exhilarating. My heart just pounded when I finally got to step back and see her.

That's looking good John! Lapwing #7 is on strake #5 and everytime we look at her we comment on how big a 16 footer she is. Here in NC we are supposed to be in the lower 50's but this winter has been just cold for our area we can only get in the low 40's. But in NC we are used to this kind of stuff one day 40 the next day it will be 70. Dean

[John Turpin]

Finally, the masts are finished. After tripping over them for many weeks, I'm glad to get them completed and up on the wall.