And So it Begins . . . Knottybuoyz' New Project

[knottybuoyz]

Originally Posted by hummingway

Excellent, my is tied up to my float home with the mast up and sails ready to be raised. I picked it up before the weekend and have sailed her once. Mines the RID 305s.

Do you have the performance sail package?

No, not yet. Will likely put a small outboard on it too. More looking forward to rowing it up and down the old canal's here. I will keep my eyes open for a sail kit though.

[knottybuoyz]

Wohoo! Back out in the boat shed tonight for the first time since my skate boarding accident!

Felt good to smell the sawdust. All I did was clean up a bit and organize my work bench but at least it was something. More tomorrow for sure. Knee feels good today. I'll attempt the ladder tomorrow and see how it goes. The wife has me talked into seeing the ole's sawbones and getting some physio therapy. I didn't want to but she beat me down till I gave in!

Carry on......

[DeepFrz]

Good for her. knottybuoyz need a good beating now and then...

[knottybuoyz]

Thnx Frz. I needed that!

Back to the shed. First task was building up the area around the bow thruster tube. I'm no sculptor and can appreciate the genius of Michael Angelo.

The goal here is to get an even flow of water past the opening which should cut down on turbulence that cause unnecessary drag. I'm building up a few layers of thickened epoxy to form a flare that'll help direct the water flowing past the opening out and away from it. Kind of hard to envision here but you'll see when I'm done. I hope!



I picked up this B&D Precision sander at CtC for $50. It's a handy little sander that'll help shaping the flares around the thruster tube. You have to be careful with this little unit, it can remove a lot of material very quickly..



Next task was the Moon Pool! Well not really but I had to cut another hole in the bottom of the boat. For what this time?, you ask? The Airmar in hull transducer. This type of transducer shoots through the bottom of the boat and cannot have any core between the transducer an the hull. The hole is located just behind Frame B.




I cut the hole a little oversize and used the cutout as a plug. I wrapped the plug in vacuum bagging film and peel ply. This way I'll easily be able to remove the plug and be left with only fiberglass covering the hole.



The cutout above and below being covered with film and peel ply.



That's my "Raptor Nails" stapler. I didn't absolutely have to use it but I did anyways! :-)

Here's the plug back in the hole secured with a few screws. This gets the plug almost completely flush with the exterior of the hull.



And on the outside. A little thickened epoxy filler and some tape. Once this sets up I can remove the screws and put another layer of cloth over it on the outside.



There'll be two layers of glass go over top of this patch and at least two more inside. That'll provide the solid fiberglass hull section for the transducer. This sounder will be very near the fwd end of the boat only a few feet from the waterline. It should give us a good indication of what's right under the bow. There'll be another transducer on the transom showing us what's under our keel at the stern.

We picked up our tender yesterday. I have plans for the V10 but decided once this first boat is done it's highly unlikely I'll have an appetite to build a tender. Saw this lil' gem on e-Bay and got it for a decent price. It's in good condition. All we need to do now is find ourselves a small trailer and outboard.



It's a Walker Bay 8'er. Should prove good and stable and sturdy tender. Lori has named our tender "Little Peace".

[knottybuoyz]

I needed to build up the flare around the thruster tube exits. I did this with some thickened epoxy, wood flour and silica.

Shaping it is the hard part. Trying to get it nice and smooth without taking off too much takes some work.

Here's the last layer of goop added to build up the flare.

That'll get sanded smooth tomorrow night and a layer of tape put over it. This weekend I hope to get the final layers of tape on the keel and sides. When that's done it's pretty much ready to be fiberglassed.

[Blue Stocking]

You know you are making headway when the hull you worked so hard to make watertight, is having holes cut in it.

Looks good Rick.

[knottybuoyz]

Originally Posted by Blue Stocking

You know you are making headway when the hull you worked so hard to make watertight, is having holes cut in it.

And then seal them back up with even more expensive material!

Spent the better part of the day on the arse end of one sander or the other. I know pics of sanded fiberglass tape are really exciting but I thought I'd try some vids. A virtual tour of my very messy boat shed. They're on our blog site if you're really looking for some dull entertainment.

M/V She:Kon: Honest, it's not another woman

[knottybuoyz]

Climbed back up on the boat for the first time since my lil' accident. Knee felt pretty good. Was able to negotiate the ladder and got some sanding done on the seams prepping them for more paint.



It was a pretty comfortable 24 C up on the hull. Look at the max temp!



I'm glad I wasn't up there that day!

More sanding tomorrow.

[hummingway]

Gee Rick. That's starting to look like a hull!

[knottybuoyz]

Originally Posted by hummingway

Gee Rick. That's starting to look like a hull!

It's been a "hulluva" lotta work so far hummingway!

You know? It's probably cooler in hell right about now!

Holy Crap is it hot outside! 34C and hotter in the shed 37C even with all the fans going! With the humidity it's over 40C right now.

I had planned to get the first carbon fiber reinforcement on the bow & keel today along with a couple layers of tape. By the time I got the carbon fiber on the heat was oppressive and I had to get out of the kitchen!



The carbon fiber tape I had (got cheap from eBay) runs from the bow to about midway down the keel. This should provide some extra reinforcement in the case of a collision. There's more carbon fiber going on the bow below the waterline and around the thruster opening. These layers will be buried deep under multiple layers of fiberglass tape and cloth. Should a collision occur the carbon fiber is the last line of defense in a hull breach. The upper layers of glass would be easily repairable. That's my twisted logic behind using it anyways. The remainder of the keel will be built up of a couple of layers of basalt fabric and fiberglass. About 5 layers in all.



This is a close up of the bow with the carbon fiber. The epoxy kicked off inside an hour in this heat and was hard to the touch in 3 hours. I peeled back some of the peelply to show the result. Using peelply I don't have to do any sanding before putting on more layers of fiberglass which in this heat is a real bonus!



Extreme close up of the carbon fiber after the peelply was removed. There's a few tiny voids that are only on the surface of the fabric. These shouldn't be an issue. I had a hard time getting the peelply to lay down properly. The peelply I'm using now is really heavy material. It doesn't seem to get any more flexible in the heat!



Picked up this small trailer to use with our dingy "Lil' Peace". I have to modify it a bit but it should work well.

Off to consume another cooling beverage. Stay thirsty my friends!

[FrankZ]

Rick,

Overall it is an impressive project and looks like you are doing a great job with it.

Is there any way for you to add vents near the top of the shed to help vent out the heat?

[knottybuoyz]

Originally Posted by FrankZ

Is there any way for you to add vents near the top of the shed to help vent out the heat?

I have vents in the gable ends Frank. I'm trying to keep the roof in tact so it'll stand up to the snow loads in the winter. Don't want to be cutting a bunch of holes in it. It's usually ok with the fans running. It's just been unusual weather for us this year.

[knottybuoyz]

I'm trying to figure out where I'm going to put all the stuff that needs to go in the boat. I'm wondering if it's ok to put the batteries in the box keel?



I understand the need to keep this area as dry as possible and have a plan to do that. It will make some of the batteries relatively inaccessible without removing some of the drive train. One battery (fwd) will be separated by a full bulkhead from the rest. Anybody have any thoughts on that?

[delmarrey]

Do remember the battery box needs to be vented. 33 CFR 183.420 Sub C (e) of the USCG rules.

33 CFR 183.420 - Batteries. | LII / Legal Information Institute

[Ex-Calif]

Even with infrequent maintenance I would be hard pressed to place the batteries in such an inaccessible location.

What about changing the shape/design of the water tanks and placing them in the keel?

It's great following our project BTW...