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Summer Breeze - Core Sound 17, Mk-3


Chick Ludwig

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I am not quite that far, but my plan is to face all the insides of the water ballast I can going around each tanks periphery with a single piece of fabric. Then carefully trim the green epoxy at the base and top. After installing the unitI would run a fillet around each tank, and then put a single panel that wraps up the side for strength an inch or so above the fillet. It seems that would keep the mess down a bit. But I'm open to suggestions. 

 

Take Care,

Steve

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Steve, sounds good to me. I'll glass the hull under the tank with a single piece before dropping the unit in. Then fillet and tape. Let's not forget to glass the bottom of the sole before installing it. Either that or leave a couple of trained mice in there to glass it from the inside---nawwww, it costs too much for traied mice to waste them like that...

 

By-the-way, be sure to scuff any cures glass or epoxy before glassing over it.

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I am no where near that far, but I am pretty sure there is a really heavy piece of glass that runs the length of the boat, and substitutes for the inner keel. I am at work but I'm sure that I got that piece from B & B, but I can't remember when you add it. Maybe Alan or Graham will chime in about that.

 

Take Care,

Steve

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Steve,yes, that heavy piece of "bi-axial" fabric does run the length of the boat in place of the inner keel. You build up a "flat" with epoxy putty in the bottom of the "V" and then glass over it. On top of that, I'll add my cloth as stated before that extends beyond the front and sides of the ballast tank.

 

Now, on to other things. I'm here to tell y'all that glassing the inside structure of the ballast tank is just about more fun than this old country boy auta be allowed to have in one day!!! But now it's all covered except for the outside of the longitudinal baffles that were sloping the wrong way. Gravity was the enemy here. I'll do them after flipping the module over---probably when its installed in the boat. Here are the steps I followed:

  1. Fillet all corners. I did this previously and let it cure before moving on. Be sure to scuff and feather the fillets after they curie for a good bond.

  2. Cut a piece of fiberglass for each flat plywood surface, overlapping the corner. If you try to go around two or more sides of the compartment, the glass will want to pull out of the corners as you work it. I found that 6 oz. glass clung to the ply dry, but 10 oz. would fall off. I layed glass on all surfaces before starting to wet it out. Then I wet all four sides of a compartment at once, then moved on to the next compartment. It really helped having the module at a convenient working height.

  3. Tomorrow I'll trim edges and holes and add a couple more coats of epoxy.

 

I used to know a fella that had to clean out grease pits at McDonalds---that was more fun than this. I've watched another fella clean out septic tanks---that was---no wait, I think I'd rather do the ballast tank.

 

The first two pictures are of the dry glass layed in place in all of the compartments of the module and the bottom of the sole sections. The next picture is of the module wet out with resin.

 

post-1823-0-61801200-1430783030_thumb.jpg post-1823-0-97201200-1430783031_thumb.jpg post-1823-0-20736800-1430783033_thumb.jpg

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Steve, I had temporarily put the floor (sole) sections in from underneath while I was filleting everything. I took them out to glass. I had let the fillets cure over the weekend so they were solid---and yes, I scuffed them up for a good secondary bond when I glassed them. Can't imagine doing it all from the top with it on the boat.

 

Today's "Dummy report". I assumed that the ballast tank went all the way to the aft end of the module. There weren't weep holes going to the aft section, so I added them. I thought that Alan just didn't have them in the cutting file right---shoulda known better. After going back over the manual pages about glassing the module, I discovered my mistake. Gotta go back and fill in the holes now. (Insert "Gibb's slap" here. If you don't watch NCIS, you'd call this a "head slap".)

 

I remember Graham telling me once that a mark of a craftsman is not that he never makes mistakes, but that he knows how to fix them well. I guess with all of my mistakes, I must be a true craftsman. 

 

Well, time to go fix my mess-up, flip the module, and glass the sides of the webs that were angled the "wrong way" with it upside down. I was up early this morning to trim all of the edges. See y'all later, alligator.

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"I remember Graham telling me once that a mark of a craftsman is not that he never makes mistakes, but that he knows how to fix them well."

 

One of my high school shop teachers told me that very thing and I've tried to share it with my kids.

 

So the ballast is just the forward to sections and the aft part is just air? I guess I sort of new that (ha!). Are you going to put a port into that area?

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Steve, I don't like to have non accessible areas. The tank baffles continue all the way to the aft bulkhead, but have limber holes so water can drain into the center. In the aft section, they are no longer baffles, but support for the hull bottom and cockpit sole. I'll install an Armstrong hatch like the one for the ballast tank. When the boat is not being used, I leave them open for ventilation of any water that finds it's way in or condenses there. When I used to be in the fiberglass boat repair business, I found that "watertight" compartments never were. 

 

Now for today's progress report. When I left y'all this morning, I had just given you a "dummy report". First thing today, I fixed it. I cut filler pieces from scrap ply to fill the weep holes ( I guess we should call them "limber" holes.) that I wasn't supposed to cut. To hurry things along, I hot-glued them in place with my trusty hot glue gun, then I glassed over them. (See the picture below.)

 

Next job was to glass the "sloping" side of the longitudinal baffles that the dry glass wouldn't cling to. I know that I said that I'd do this after turning the module over---probably with it in the hull. Nawww, did "plan-B" instead. I left the module upside down and  defeated "Mr. Gravity" by wetting the sloping sides before laying the dry glass on. Worked great. Now it's all done and we won't have to worry about it later. That, and a bit of grinding of rough edges was all that happened in my li'l-shop-in-the-mountains today. Had some honey-do jobs, ya know.

 

That's it for today. After-while crocodile.

 

Here's that picture of the patched "dummy" thing that I promised y'all: 

 

post-1823-0-84509100-1430865237_thumb.jpg

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Aft of the mizzen step is just "air" I hope, I did put a sealable hatch aft of the mizzen step to confirm nothing but air in that area! I also have some plumbing from my ballast pump experiment aft of the ballast tanks.

Steve, when I assembled my module I used some calibrated 5 gallon cans. I placed the Saran Wraped sole panel on the buckets and assembled the module around the sole, when completed I removed the sole from the what I hoped to be square module. I had several very minor items to relay to Graham and Alan on the cut files, yours should be corrected. I had filleted my module completely before installation, just had to add fabric to the webs after installation. Much much easier before! After 3 full coats I added West 422 barrier coat additive as extra protection. Makes the blood rush to your head!

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Not much has gotten done here in the li'l-shop-in-the-mountains in the last couple of days. Well, that's not totally true. Things were moving along pretty well yesterday until my trusty Craftsman cheapy job-site table saw bit the dust. Lot's of smoke. Kinda cool---and stinky. Burned up the motor. Not totally unsuspected---been smelling like burning wiring for awhile. It was a cheap saw and had had lot's of use. I was in the middle of ripping out a batch of cleat stock when it happened. Kinda brought things to a screeching halt. At least it was almost time to quit for the day.

 

So, off to my friendly neighborhood Lowe's first thing this morning for a brand new (Kinda like Christmas, doncha know.) Porter Cable saw for $329.00. It's a MUCH better saw than the Craftsman---highly recommended by purchasers. Head back home, adjust everything. Oh, it was a floor model so it was already assembled, just not adjusted. Then, finish ripping and radiusing the cleat stock, and then on to today's job. Assembling the hull panel sections. A bit of a Chinese fire drill getting all of the joints gooped up before the epoxy kicked in the mixing cup. Ya assemble one side and bottom, then stack the other on top and assemble it. This assures a perfect match. Just follow the directions in the manual and you can't (Uh-oh---never say "can't".) go wrong.

 

Below is a picture of the completed assembly. Hardly fit's in the garage. Am I REALLY gonna build this boat in here?

 

post-1823-0-19855600-1431037105_thumb.jpg

 

Sorry about the picture quality. Couldn't get a good angle on it in the garage. That's the new saw behind. It's doing double-duty as a shelf.

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In between "life" this last few days, I've gotten a bit more done on Breezy. Finished  gluing my newly cut cleats on some little bulkheads. (Y'all remember the table saw adventure from last week, doncha?) And then built the official, B and B approved hull cradle. Of course, it's serving double-duty as a storage rack for the hull sections and some of the aforementioned little bulkheads for now.

 

post-1823-0-27421800-1431381417_thumb.jpg  Little bulkheads with cleats.

 

post-1823-0-95144600-1431381415_thumb.jpg  Cradle/temporary storage rack.

 

post-1823-0-44555500-1431381418_thumb.jpg  6 inch castors so I can move the cradle with hull around and out of my shop to make room for something else.

 

See y'all in a couple of days. Gotta head to my friendly-neighborhood podiatrist tomorrow. It's about time for new orthotics. Wish I'd worn better shoes all those years building boats for a living on concrete shoes. I always bought the cheapest shoes I can find 'cause they only got ruined with the fiberglass resin. No support in those cheap "tennies" back then. Just take this as a word-to-the-wise. After that, gotta go get my @#///*** van outa the shop---more brake problems. I had more time to build my little boats back when I WORKED for a living....

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   Time to "check-in" with y'all. Progress has actually been happening a little at a time. The stringers have been glued on now and the sides are attached to the bottoms. Hey, with all of the bending over the last couple of days, MY poor old side-to-bottom joint is a bit sore. Anyway, it's done. I'll be heading off camping for the weekend with Miss Debbie and grandson Carter. Gotta do some kayaking and turtlin' over on Cascade lake, in the campground at the Cascade Lake Recreation Area. 

   It's a really cool (figuratively AND literally) mountain lake that was formed back in 1909 to provide power to the Little River Community near Brevard. The old power house is still there and feeding power into the Duke power grid. Until recently, the power plant was privately owned, but now it's owned by Duke. Little River flows into the lake after cascading over Triple Falls. If you saw the movie, Hunger Games, that was partially filmed in the area, you saw this series of falls.

   Check-out the pictures below of the side/bottom panels joined. It's a sad use that my noble drafting spline weights (Also known as "whales" or "ducks.) have been put to as weights to hold things while the epoxy goop cures. Oh well. At least Graham (The Master) does the same thing with his. It all will be left as is while we're out doin' our campin' thing. Monday is the "big day" when the hull halves get joined and folded into something that hopefully---scratch that---WILL resemble a real boat. Hope to see you then. Have a great weekend, y'all. 

 

post-1823-0-89391100-1431611860_thumb.jpg  post-1823-0-22109400-1431611862_thumb.jpg

 

If you're interested, here's some more info about the lake. 

    The dam: http://www.examiner.com/article/cascade-lake-dam

    Triple Falls: http://ncforestservice.gov/images/contacts/dsf/04.jpg

    Info of the lake and campground: http://www.cascadelakerecreationarea.com/

    A U-tube video of the lake and campground. (I don't know who the folks in the video are.): 

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I attached a photo of the syringe I've been using for filleting..

 

Its $1 each at Wal-Mart in the pharmacy, and normally for flushing wounds. It works fine with cotten based fillers and doesn't jam up, I clean it our with a little acetone, and resuse. Holds 2 ounces of liquid which it turns out is a lot of epoxy.

 

I can use the west system plastic stir sticks and complety get them inside the syringe for getting epoxy off. Basically it's really fast to load compared to other products. This is a great alternative to epoxy caulk guns.

 

I found these behind the counter at the pharmacy, when you ask for them and they ask "What for" I just said boat and left it at that. The pharmacist made a comment about well stocked first aid kit and I didn't correct him. Oh they also have a nice little cap for the business end of the syringe.

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Edward, I just lay the epoxy onto the joint with my mixing stick. Once you learn how, it goes quickly. I tried "squeeze bags" (Like cake decorators use.), and syringes back when I started building these things, but find the "old fashioned" way works better for me.

 

Scott. I didn't know that. I wonder if I could of stuffed the smoke back in??? You'd think that Craftsman would sell replacement smoke. Well, enough of this silliness---time for an update on "Breezy".

 

Today is a BIG DAY! We're all wired up. Just need a bit of "tweeking". Tomorrow the transom will temporarily be set in, and the forward bulkheads "tack welded" in place. Then the chines and center joints will be tacked. After it cures, the module will come out for a bit, the wires pulled and the chines and center joint glassed. The plans call for a 4 inch wide, molded-in-place, epoxy-covered-with-bi-axial-glass, inner keel sort of thing. Hmmm, gonna be interesting. Check back later to see if it all works out.

 

Got a few pics for y'all:

 

post-1823-0-35188400-1432089858_thumb.jpg  This shows sticks to spread the sides out until they are wired.

 

post-1823-0-88173200-1432089860_thumb.jpg  Another stick in a different place.

 

post-1823-0-46097600-1432089862_thumb.jpg  Doubled-up wires to pull the side and bottom together better.

 

post-1823-0-94673000-1432089863_thumb.jpg  The module and forward bulkheads in place.

 

post-1823-0-42378700-1432089865_thumb.jpg  A closer view. Note the rope to pull the sheers in tight. Transom will be fit tomorrow.

 

I'm sure glad that all of that wiring is done! Got a mess of little wire punctures in my fingers. You'd think that I'd be smart enough to wear gloves, wouldn't ya----NOT!  You'll notice that all of the wire ties are bent back against the hull to keep from snagging or puncturing unwary civilians...

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Looking good Chick.  You're going to pass up Mick & I on the Amanda :)  but we're having fun in our moments of free time and good weather.  Have a 10x20 shelter with screen sides coming for a boat building shed.  Like you I favor my Popsicle sticks and tongue depressors for fileting, but might try the syringe (thanks Edward).  Hope to modify my little lift for the CS15 this week and get her on the water.  Rick

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You have definitely passed me. I knew once summer started, I'd get little done, and I was right. I am trying to get in a half hour a day average, and I don't expect that to change until late October. but then I'll be hunkered down in the short winter days working on her hard. The good news is this live manual you are all providing! I'll hopefully get sailing this weekend. 

 

Take Care,

Steve

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