Boatbuilding Girls - Do You Want to Join ?

[zeyang]

hi,
We are running a kind of sailing coop "sailing to middle kingdom" and in need for more participants. The boat is construced in Norway.
Will be finished by autumn next year.
We need more people to help sewing etc , (sails, interior etc)
The welding parts is soon finished.
Here are some pictures.
There are more pictures at 彩翼飞鸟_新浪博客

zeyang(at)laowai.no

[pressuredrop]

dont think too many of us here can decipher the website, but keep up the good work!

[clausont]

Here is part of the deciphered first blog entry on their website:
Choi Wing Asuka: Because everyone's comments to see that blog update was too slow, Lin quickly wrote the following letter to me. He was due to the shipbuilding, but also to repeat the work every day, so we do not often write I hope you bear with me.



Hey, everyone

We're sorry, blog updated very slowly. I usually spend all day on the ship, sailing for the early realization of my dream, there is no more energy to update your blog often, but I am very grateful to you can give me a message, I always try to read them.



Last week, the two girls to help me, this Tuesday there will be a 20-year-old Norwegian girl over, she said that she likes sailing, hopes to be able to peer with me. I hope that she can also enjoy shipbuilding. :-) The two girls, although not had such ship, but they learn quickly, done a great job. For me, have a friend who can help best, however, because dogs and cats every day and chat with a very dull monotone.



Now only two welded aluminum does not, then I can weld the ship's external. And then can ship was over, welding inside. After the ship's internal structure can be, as well as deck and mast, there is still a long way to go ah! ! !



The last coming in January, said that the Swedish girl, when she could wait a month to help me sail. This is really good, so the sail should be at least 200-300 hours it.

Rain this weekend, so the snow had melted, but soon will be another snow. Last year, under a lot of

[David M]

Is this being welded together similar to a lapstrake hull or am I looking at it wrong?

[Blue Stocking]

You know the most heartening thing of this thread, is that in spite of the poor English grammar (not by you clausont, from the originator), we call all appreciate his passion, and admire his dedication

[zeyang]

Originally Posted by David M

Is this being welded together similar to a lapstrake hull or am I looking at it wrong?

Correct. You can easily see here.
its 8 mm aluminium alloy (5083) with 2 cm overlap. then will have t-bar formed frames on inside.
Maybe not normal way of building a boat, but we manage to keep a nice wineglass form and will avoid any hungry-horse look at the frames.

The girls think she looks very feminine even in metal :-)

zeyang

[Not Sure]

I see an incredible amount of metal galling and pitting in the aluminum fittings on my boat, particularly where they are mated to stainless steel...to an alarming degree. It usually isn't visible on the surface, and is only evident when you take apart the mating surfaces, at which time you discover that the aluminum has been eaten away almost entirely where it has been in direct contact with stainless steel. In short, I'm not impressed with the durability of aluminum as a structural anything, let alone a hull, in a marine environment.

[zeyang]

Originally Posted by Not Sure

I see an incredible amount of metal galling and pitting in the aluminum fittings on my boat, particularly where they are mated to stainless steel...to an alarming degree. It usually isn't visible on the surface, and is only evident when you take apart the mating surfaces, at which time you discover that the aluminum has been eaten away almost entirely where it has been in direct contact with stainless steel. In short, I'm not impressed with the durability of aluminum as a structural anything, let alone a hull, in a marine environment.

Electrolysis could be a problem with different metals. But today there is many big ships out there with alloy. many of the passanger cats are made in alloy.
What kind of alloy do you use?
Will try to keep dissimilar metals away from each other.



zeyang

[James S]

Looks pretty cool to me...seems a very unusual method of construction.
Catchy tune!

[Not Sure]

Originally Posted by zeyang

Electrolysis could be a problem with different metals. But today there is many big ships out there with alloy. many of the passanger cats are made in alloy.
What kind of alloy do you use?
Will try to keep dissimilar metals away from each other.



zeyang

I don't know what specific aluminum alloys they are. They're aluminum, and less noble than stainless apparently, so when they come into contact with stainless, they're toast around salt water. This was readily apparent on both my aluminum outboard motor mount assembly where the aluminum plates that the laminated plywood mount itself bolted to were severely pitted where they had been in contact with the stainless bolts, and also on an aluminum rudder plate assembly which was severely honeycombed on the entire underside where it was in contact with the rudder and stainless attachment bolts. These are all 'manufacturer installed' assemblies, so simply claiming that 'boat manufacturers do it' isn't an answer to the problem. My point is that zinc/galvanized seems to corrode uniformly and more readily apparent to visible examination, while aluminum appears to corrode in stealth mode, and where it can't be readily seen until the components are disassembled.

[zeyang]

Originally Posted by Not Sure

I don't know what specific aluminum alloys they are. They're aluminum, and less noble than stainless apparently, so when they come into contact with stainless, they're toast around salt water. This was readily apparent on both my aluminum outboard motor mount assembly where the aluminum plates that the laminated plywood mount itself bolted to were severely pitted where they had been in contact with the stainless bolts, and also on an aluminum rudder plate assembly which was severely honeycombed on the entire underside where it was in contact with the rudder and stainless attachment bolts. These are all 'manufacturer installed' assemblies, so simply claiming that 'boat manufacturers do it' isn't an answer to the problem. My point is that zinc/galvanized seems to corrode uniformly and more readily apparent to visible examination, while aluminum appears to corrode in stealth mode, and where it can't be readily seen until the components are disassembled.

Im not an alloy expert but ive seen and used 5083 alloy below water and in connection with stainless steel without any problem. Maybe the 4.5% Mg in 5083 makes its less prone to corrosion. Anyway i will watch closely and stay away from mixing metals. (Ill plan to use nylon in between where i cant avoid this).

But youre righ,t aluminium is less noble than many (most) other metals and should be treated carefully. But when treated correct I have a boat which hardly need any kind of upkeep, dont even need to paint it.


zeyang

[Not Sure]

Originally Posted by zeyang

Im not an alloy expert but ive seen and used 5083 alloy below water and in connection with stainless steel without any problem. Maybe the 4.5% Mg in 5083 makes its less prone to corrosion. Anyway i will watch closely and stay away from mixing metals. (Ill plan to use nylon in between where i cant avoid this).

But youre righ,t aluminium is less noble than many (most) other metals and should be treated carefully. But when treated correct I have a boat which hardly need any kind of upkeep, dont even need to paint it.


zeyang

It sounds like you've got it covered then. Like I said, the surprising & disturbing part was that the severe corrosion/pitting/honeycombing of the aluminum parts wasn't apparent until the parts were disassembled and the mating surfaces examined. From the outside everything appeared 'normal', and sound. And that can add up to a sudden and catastrophic failure in the water.

[David M]

Originally Posted by Not Sure

I see an incredible amount of metal galling and pitting in the aluminum fittings on my boat, particularly where they are mated to stainless steel...to an alarming degree. It usually isn't visible on the surface, and is only evident when you take apart the mating surfaces, at which time you discover that the aluminum has been eaten away almost entirely where it has been in direct contact with stainless steel. In short, I'm not impressed with the durability of aluminum as a structural anything, let alone a hull, in a marine environment.

Aluminum when done correctly is very durable and very resistant to all the old problems that aluminum historically had such as electrolysis and stress cracks. There are tens of thousands of commercial and military vessels made of aluminum. The key phrase here is "when done correctly". No offense to anyone but in my opinion aluminum boat construction on a larger scale is not something that should be done by amateurs. There is a large learning curve to doing it right.

[zeyang]

Originally Posted by David M

The key phrase here is "when done correctly". No offense to anyone but in my opinion aluminum boat construction on a larger scale is not something that should be done by amateurs. There is a large learning curve to doing it right.

Yes, welding alloy means a little more careful work than steel and more timeconsuming in preparation.
But amateurs dont run by the clock, and there are no customer hanging over their shoulder so i would say that an amateur with right equipment and some skill is basically doing as good job as a professional welder, but use 2-3 times as long to fix things up.
When an amateur has been welding his own boat, he gain one major thing: He knows the boat inside and out and know how to fix if somethings happens.

One more plank to cut and weld, then ready to work on the keelplank.

zeyang

[zeyang]

hehe. wrong picture. that was the dog trying to steal food from the cat without success.

here is the boatpicture.