Port Hull Skinned

Posted on December 11, 2012 by SeeBeeZee

Completed the skinning of the port hull this morning.

After fairing the chines, there is still the keel to add, shaping the stem and the outboard pod to complete before coating it all in epoxy resin and glass.

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Blood Nose

Posted on December 11, 2012 by SeeBeeZee
IMAG0234 by SeeBeeZee
IMAG0234, a photo by SeeBeeZee on Flickr.

More blood!

Came out from under the hull, and forgot to look up before I stood. Forgot that I’d built that outboard pod on the side of the hull.

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Port Hull – Fast Progress

Posted on December 6, 2012 by SeeBeeZee

Working on the second hull is both exciting and boring at the same time. It is exciting that progress is so fast. Having done it once before on the first hull, there are less questions in your mind. You can rush on without having to think through what comes next. But in another way, that makes it boring too.

But progress has been fast. It is now only 25 days since we started putting this hull together. These are the photos at the end of work today, having completed the sheeting of the outside of the hull.

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Sheeting the Bow

Posted on December 5, 2012 by SeeBeeZee

We have changed the sheeting, again, on the bow of the port hull.

The objective of the change is to reduce, or to eliminate as far as possible, the amount of end-grain plywood that is presented in the bow area.

When the lower chine comes to the bow, the change of angle is so subtle that the “overlap” joint method exposes a wide strip of the ply sheet edge.

On the starboard hull, we reduced that by sheeting vertically up the entire stem in one sheet. We have repeated that again, but have then split the next sheet aft, butt jointing the half closest to the bow, and overlap jointing the aft half.

Where the change goes from butt to overlap, the both sheets must be dry fitted, but then the butt sheet removed, so that the overlap sheet can be planed to allow the fitting of the hull bottom.

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Moving the First Hull

Posted on November 21, 2012 by SeeBeeZee

Here are some photos from last week, when we moved the first hull aside so that the second could be commenced.

Rather than get a big party out twice, to roll each hull separately, we decided to simply move this first one aside, and then roll it later, when the second one is ready too.

To move it aside, I stacked a couple of pallets on packing to bring them to the same height as the jig. With a few extra pieces to ensure that the hull did not fall down between the jig rails, I worked one end, and then the other, back and forward, using a trolley jack to lift by only millimeters, then rolling the jack and hull across onto the pallets.

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Port Hull Frame Assembled

Posted on November 18, 2012 by SeeBeeZee

Last weekend we moved the starboard hull off the building jig, and got started on the port hull.

Progress had been tedious for the last month. I note that it is more than a month since I last posted here. For most of that time, we have been fairing the starboard hull.

Once the hull was sheathed in glass, we applied a Q-cell and resin bog over the outside, about 4mm thick. That was then sanded, using a 1200mm long sanding board, painting guide coat, sanding, more bog, more sanding, more guide coat, and so on, for about a month. I used to sneak up to the boat each night to shine a torch along the sides, looking for ridges and hollows. Eventually, enough is enough, and I have sprayed it with the 2-pack primer.

Once painted, we moved the hull onto a couple of pallets, and shoved it to the side of the shed, where it will remain upside down until the port hull is also ready to roll.

Initial progress on that port hull is rapid. The frames were already prepared, so after one week, the skeleton is almost ready. Most of the stringers are glassed in, and ready to be planed down to shape. Fast work at this stage.

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Rudders

Posted on September 25, 2012 by SeeBeeZee

With the first hull nearly ready to be turned over, the rudder must be fitted.

The design specifies the rudder post to be made using 48mm 316SS pipe, which is embedded into laminated plywood. I again used the NACA foil profile as was used on the keel. As for the keel, I implemented the formula in a spreadsheet, and used that the create a number of points in the cross section. This table of offsets was then used to create a chart of the rudder cross section, showing the size of each piece in the lamination, and was exported into the software that drives the CNC to create a foot in hardwood.

This is the scaled chart of the rudder cross section:

Rudder Profile

… and this table is the list of numbers that came out of the formula.

Half Thickness of Rudder Distance from leading Edge
0.00 0
5.67 1
7.95 2
11.10 4
13.45 6
17.05 10
23.21 20
30.67 40
35.13 60
37.86 80
39.38 100
39.98 120
39.85 140
39.12 160
37.90 180
36.25 200
34.25 220
31.94 240
29.36 260
26.54 280
23.49 300
20.24 320
16.78 340
13.12 360
9.26 380
5.17 400

 

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Upside-down? Not the boat; the blog. I have had questions about why, when you scroll down, the progress appears to be taking the boat apart. That is because this is a blog, so the most recent items are at the top. Here at the top you see an example of a finished boat and the latest photos of progress, and as you scroll down everything is getting older. But this is by design. When you come back to have another look at the page someday, all the new stuff will be at the top.

Posted on August 26, 2012 by SeeBeeZee | 2 Comments

Second Hull Commenced

Posted on August 26, 2012 by SeeBeeZee

We have now cut the frames for the second hull of our Peter Snell designed Easy Cat “Sarah”, a 40 foot sailing catamaran.

The second hull can not be assembled until the first hull is complete and removed from the building stock; the strongback. But preparations have begun, getting ready for the assembly.

Having access to a CNC router has provided us with a “Flatpack” boat. With only minor adjustments to the cuttings that were made to the first hull, I took a load of plywood back to Keith, and assisted with the cutting on the Biesse CNC router. The photos here show the frames being cut, and the complete pieces unloaded from the trailer.

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Hull Clad

Posted on August 26, 2012 by SeeBeeZee

With the plywood cladding of the hull complete, we have commenced the fibreglass coating on the hull.

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