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CS17 mk3 hull #3 "Carlita"


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post-127-0-93753000-1450925438_thumb.jpgpost-127-0-25938000-1450925475_thumb.jpgpost-127-0-50990300-1450925512_thumb.jpgCarlita is now upside down, the hull cleaned off and epoxy filled. Tomorrow the epoxy filler will be sanded ready for glassing.

 

The rudder is made. I am going to try a tripod leg for a telescoping tiller extension. It is quite short when stowed and allows me to steer from anywhere in the cockpit when extended. Alan suggests that I carry a piece of PVC pipe for the race as a backup.

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Graham, if you guys produce a set of plans for your wind vane I would like a set.  Years ago I built a vane designed by Walt Murray for a Columbia 29.  It worked well but was very heavy, no I think the word was clunky!  I currently have a Cape Horn on the "other" boat.  I know your design will be more elegant and Southern Express could use one for the times Carol needs a break!

 

Merry Christmas, remember the day, remember the man!

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After a great Christmas I got to glass Carlita this afternoon. I decided to go for broke and glass the whole boat in one shot after Beth very kindly offered to help. We laid out all of the glass and cut the peel ply.

 

We glassed the transom first and applied the peel ply. You can see that we worked forward 5 feet at a time so that we could lay the peel ply before the epoxy could kick and move onto the next section working all of the time with fresh epoxy. It took 5 hours to complete the epoxy work. She looks good, all of the glass is filled and there will be very little sanding or fairing. The transom was partially kicked as well as the first section by the time we were finished.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The EC start date is getting ever closer, I am working hard to get the boat sailing by the end of this month. This will give me one more month to ready the boat for the race. A lot of progress has been made since the last post.

 

The cabin top will go on today if yesterdays epoxy had cured enough in the colder weather. I have finished as much of the boat as I could before putting the lid on. The main mast has been fitted to the tabernacle, plumbed and rake set. The ports are in. The anchor locker is all finished. Hatch decision has been made and framed.

 

I decided that $500 plus for four plastic ports was more than I wanted to spend, I could put that money into sails and hardware.  I feel that elliptical ports suit this boat better. I followed Jay with homemade fixed ports. To improve ventilation I put a 6" Beckson screw-in port on the upper starboard side of the forward bulkhead. I can unscrew the port and get some air through the anchor locker. Being protected by the foredeck, I should be able to leave it open in all but hard driving rain. At anchor, it should send in a nice amount of air. As the boat will have a dodger, I should be able to leave the main hatch open while sleeping.

 

While we have been using Rivnuts on masts; Jay showed me that he was using them successfully on plywood. He glued on his ports with some super caulk and he gave me some to try. As good as the tape seemed, I felt that the port that he removed to correct a small leak came off easier than I would like as the only means of of support. I decided to go old school with a new twist. Having a CNC machine featured largely in the decision. I sized and positioned the ports to my liking on the hull model and put in the Rivnut spacing on the ports, expanded out the sheer strake and cut out a template on scrap ply. I clamped the template on the boat, marked the ports and drilled for the Rivnuts. One of the pictures shows the template in place and another shows the Rivnuts installed set in epoxy. If you look hard you will see that I have inserted some caulk in the Rivnuts to prevent epoxy from filling the threads when the outer ring is glued on. The outer ring is 6mm okume ply which was CNC cut with holes counter-bored for the Rivnut heads. The inside ring was cut from 9mm ply and drilled for the inside of the Rivnuts and for the 10 32 machine screws that hold the ring and 6mm Lexan. There is another picture of the completed port. I will not caulk in the Lexan until the boat is all painted. Having test fitted one complete port I am very satisfied with the results.

 

In future kits we will cut the ports and frames at no extra cost if the builder requests them. For current kit builders, I have the template which could be mailed to the first one to respond, maybe they could pass it on. For our overseas builders we could print the parts full size on some used Mylar for free, just pay the postage.

 

It was far easier to install the lower section of the mast before the cabin top went on. Being to be able to reach both sides of the bulkhead saved me untold trips into the boat and eliminated a helper.

 

As I have mentioned earlier, I decided to go with the more watertight two hatch solution rather than the trench. I am still agile enough to duck under the deck and come out of the forward hatch. I have tested for mast raising and I think that it will work well. I can reach any part of the anchor locker while standing on the bunk. 

 

Yesterday I fine fitted the cabin top and screwed it in place, marked for the beams and removed the top. I laid it upside down and glued on the two permanent butt blocks and two temporary butt blocks at the two hatch cutouts. I then gave the underside two coats of epoxy.

 

You can install the cabin top one side at a time but I prefer to do it this way as it eliminates a potential peak down the centerline join. The deck can be fastened down tight around the sheer line and into the beams where necessary. The hatches will be cut out after the epoxy dries. This helps to eliminate any tendency for the deck to develop a flat where the tension has been removed by cutting out the hatches before bending. I can crawl inside before the main hatch is cutout to clean up the glue.

 

 

 

 

 

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I decided that $500 plus for four plastic ports was more than I wanted to spend, I could put that money into sails and hardware.  I feel that elliptical ports suit this boat better. I followed Jay with homemade fixed ports. To improve ventilation I put a 6" Beckson screw-in port on the upper starboard side of the forward bulkhead.

 

 

I find operable side ports do almost nothing for ventilation.  At anchor only forward facing openings do much.  Under sail side ports only seem to let water in.

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Dave is right, but as someone who spends a fair amount of time tied to municipal docks, you won't always have wind over the bow. A good cross breeze is nice. But I am pleased to see that Graham put that hatch there as I was thinking the same thing, but also adding a Nicro solar vent in the cabin top. These things are fantastic on a warm night and can be reversed to blow cold air down on you or set to draw air out. With a screened source of fresh air it should be possible to replicate a wind scoop.

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Dave is right, but as someone who spends a fair amount of time tied to municipal docks, you won't always have wind over the bow. A good cross breeze is nice.

Yeah, that and maybe if anchored and tethered to shore or a mooring with shore tether.  It is very common in the Med.  We did it often on my cruise through Croatia. Many restaurants on the water set these out and waived the nightly charge if you had dinner with them. They call this a laid mooring.

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Lookin' GOOD Graham. You're catching up FAST to my build of Summer Breeze. It's COLD, windy, and even snowing a few flakes here. Won't get much done this week.

 

I like my opening ports. Seems like my boats have always "sailed" at anchor, presenting first one side to the breeze, and then the other.

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We seriously considered opening ports, but they intrude into the cabin, and would hurt when I bang my head on them.  The sides of the cabin are just perfect to lean up on and read. We put a "Breeze Booster" in the forward hatch suspended by the main halyard, and that works great.  So good in fact I am "fixin ta" build a small frame to hold mosquito screening.  Southern Express has exceeded ALL of our expectations so far!!   Alan made us some spiffy trail boards for the state registration,  I have been slo on getting them finished and mounted but they will add a bit of bling!

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I'd like to see the "Breeze Booster". I'd like to do the same. Pictures? Did you make it, or was it "store bought"? I plan on screens for the forward hatch and companionway too. I like the ones from mosquito netting and a fabric edge that will roll or fold when not in use. They stay in place with a combination of snaps and bungee.

 

My ports are located ahead of where I'l be leaning back. The 17 headroom is a bit low compared to the 20. I hit the overhead even without cushions. Maybe Graham could consider raising the cabin top a bit more?

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Hi Chick, next time we use the boat I will snap a coupla pics of the boat, Breeze Booster deployed. It was a store bought many years ago, actually think it was taken off a old boat from the past. On the main hatch I have a piece of netting with a few lead sinkers sewn on and it just draps over the hatch and companionway. Carol is "doing" the cabin Uphostery , spiffy is a word I keep thinking!

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Hey Jay. I tried to send the following by private message, but it said my "quota is full". Sorry Graham!!!

 

Looking forward to your pictures of your "spiffy" cushions. I'll have to pay to get mine done. I've run out of money, so will have to beg to get some from our budget. My wife is a "hard sell' on this stuff.

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While a breeze catcher of some sort near the bows is the best solution in a tropical anchorage, opening ports can have their uses at times.

 

One of the simplest and cheapest designs I have seen for opening ports is in Dave Gerr's book "The Nature of boats".

 

Probably simpler to implement than a fixed port, and definitely cheaper than a commercial opening port.

 

Surprised not to see more of them.

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Hey Scott,

 

No offense to the girls but I do not expect that the anchor will be down long enough to get that fouled, I usually clean the mud off of the anchor before stowing. I am planning an anchor sprit where the anchor will be stowed when cruising.

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I have made some good progress on the cabin hatches. The companionway hatch slides and the fore hatch hinges aft. I am very happy with the position of the fore hatch. Standing on the bunk, I can reach all of the anchor locker. I know that I cannot open the fore hatch enough with the mast down to be able to raise the mast but I have found on the much larger Southern Skimmer that it is not hard to walk forward on the deck raising the main mast. Alan and I did some experimenting and found that we could raise the mast enough with a temporary prop so that I could open the hatch and finish raising the mast from there if I needed to. I will mostly use the former.

 

I need a solar panel to do the EC and later for cruising but there is not a lot of real estate on the deck, the fore hatch is it. I found a 50 watt solar panel by Renology that measures 24.8" x 21.3" x 1.4". I widened the span of the hatch rails and it all fits. I wanted the fore hatch to line up with the main hatch rails. The wider gap between the hatch coaming and the hatch rails will allow me to carry the panel wiring back aft.

 

I increased the thickness of the butt blocks for the fore-deck joint to 3/8" which will allow me to mount all of the hardware to, to lead the lines aft from the mast.  See all of the clamps on the picture.

 

If you look hard at the picture you should be able to see the ply web and reinforcing for the anchor sprit.

 

The lead weights are holding the plywood hatch top down to the frame while the glue dries, this should eliminate any chance of a twist in the hatch while the glue dries. The frame was also glued in place sitting on plastic to prevent it from gluing to the deck.

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I decided that $500 plus for four plastic ports was more than I wanted to spend, I could put that money into sails and hardware.  I feel that elliptical ports suit this boat better.

 

 

Has anyone tried this plastic elliptical port? No screen but looks like it has a rain drain. The price is sure right.

 

http://www.five-oceans.com/articulo/elliptical-white-porthole-16-1-8-x-8-5-8-20x-40-cm-/3622

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