second float half laminated

I know it looks like a mess, but I think this one will come out better than the first (which had two bubbles)

First float half popped

The learning curve of building a farrier is steep and expensive as collegue farrier builder Nico Peursum (www.nyker.nl) mentioned. The first laminate really sucked, and I pulled it out before the epoxy set. The second time I tried vacuum bagging it, and that also sucked. I've now decided that I'm only gonna vacuum bag the parts that really matter like bulkheads. And the parts where resin buildup is likely (like the stringer in the floats). For a slightly curved surface manual layup with peelply is sufficient for what I want to achieve (a really fast cruiser). If you oversaturate carbon, slight wrinkles in the peelply appear. And I've deciced to live with some of them as I want to be sure the carbon is saturated. Some grams will be added.

When building a boat it's nice that you get to reverse engineer the plans. When I was laminating the front beam connection in the float I was amazed that Ian prescribed as much as 6 layers of the heavy fabric. (I'm using 400g/m2 as heavy fabric and 200 g/m2 as light fabric)  But then I realized that the whole weight of the boat would concentrate on this point when falling down a big wave. It's nice to work with plans from a really experienced multihull designer.  Anyway: on to the pictures.

This is my float plank bending rig. It's a terras heater combined with some mould cutouts. It works really nice plus I got a tan.

This is the laminated first float half with bulheads fitted. In case Ian is reading this blog: yes the fibres in the bulkheads are at 0-90 degrees.

One lives one learnes. For the second float half I've decided to go for narrower planks (20cm instead of 25-35 cm). These are more easily handled and extra time required is minimal. The second hull half looks to be much nicer that the first. (though I think they will be just as strong). I use Bison polyurethane glue which foames up while setting thus making sure the whole seam is covered.

Finally some progress

Ok, lots has happened, but not all building the boat. First I had to change suppliers as my original supplier, well, didn't supply. After 3 agreements on delivery times they didn't meet I said goodbye to them. This cost me about a month and a half delay (finding, getting quotes, etc)

Second I decided to go for an all carbon boat. I put the jigsaw to some glass laminate and was itching for days. Furthermore I found out that carbon isn't all that more expensive. I compared prices by taking a square meter of primary laminate. I sum up the price of foam, outer laminate and inner laminate plus the price of epoxy (same weight as laminate). Surprisingly  some quotes I got for corecell and glass were more expensive (around 60 euro/m2) then the carbon and pvc foam I decided on (around 55 eur/m2). I know the whole boat will still be more expensive because of tape and local reinforcements, but not by that much.

Last monday I finally recieved the bulk of the materials, and jumped at them like a junkie.


Anyway, on to the pictures, and let's start with the failures:

This is an attempt to make a daggerboard out of endgrain balsa. A little advice to everyone trying this: don't. The stuff falls apart too easily, and it makes a hell of a mess. I shoved the half finished daggerboard halves in the attic, and am still contemplating if I'll use them. But I think not.




Last monday was a happy day:

The foamycell (comparable to divinycell) and carbon arrived.



So after a few days I got the foam in. The second half will probably only cost a day and a half or so.

Meanwhile I'm vacuum bagging bulkheads TellSell style! The bags used for shrinking pillows are cheap and excellent vacuum bags with a nice zipper. I admit the coat hanger doesn't look too professional. Still looking for a really large one (or I'll make one). Also nice that you can reuse them.

In the rear you can just make out the sticky stuff dispenser I got since yesterday. So far really pleased with it. Makes mixing up a batch a clean job of only a few minutes.


Hoping I can get the inside laminated this weekend.

Supplies!

Went over to a corecell supplier to get some corecell and other supplies. Never would have dreamt I would be paying this much for some trapped air. Got a nice discount though. Anyway, I can get started and get some laminating experience. Float bulkheads will be first. Rest of the corecell will be delivered. Also ordered balsa core for daggerboard and rudder from www.merrem.nl

tooltime

Building a boat is probably one of the best excuses for buying some decent tools.

Making float mould

Building the shed and the frame