This is taking forever!

I've been working on the centerboard  and case for quite a while.  There are several small little jobs that go into getting them built and installed.  I've taken some small sidetracks just to get a little something else done.

I've cut some holes in the bottom of the boat so I could dry-fit the case.  It all worked fine, so I went ahead and epoxied it together.

I still need to drill the holes for the pivot pin through the epoxy that I cast into a larger hole. Then it can be mounted into the boat.  I will still need to make the case top pieces.  I also shaped the centerboard.  I managed to dull up my rasp, so I broke down and bought an inexpensive angle grinder.  It helped the remainder of the job go much quicker, and will come in handy when I need to shape the rudder.

 

 The silver stuff inside is lead to weight it down.  I went back and forth on this but finally decided to add the lead.  This way I don't have to use a quick release cleat to avoid damage in a grounding (likely in the shallow waters I shall be plying) and it will give me some ballast down low for stability.

I wanted to avoid mounting lead because it would take a bunch of time and incur some additional cost as I am not currently set up to melt lead.  So instead I sourced some ingots that I can drop straight in and embed in epoxy.

In an effort to get something done I made and installed the mast step, mast partner and added some belaying pins. The belaying pins were actually from an old paper towel holder that was here when we moved in.  I'll need to oil them and I don't know how long they will last, but they look great and were free.

Making parts

I'm at the point of the build where rather than making pieces for the boat structure, I'm making a bunch of parts for sailing: mast partner, mast step, centerboard case, centerboard, rudder and such.  It's a bunch of marking and cutting without much to show for it.  I'm trying to save up the glues jobs so I can get a bunch done at once and minimize the waste.  When gluing flat panels, there is a lot of squeeze-out.  If I have several things to glue, I just put the squeeze-out on the next part and keep chugging along.



The plans for the mast partner specify a simply trapezoidal shape.  I didn't care for it, so I drew a more curvy version.  I cut out the 1st piece a few days ago and after marking and cutting some other pieces I cut the last 2 pieces out of remaining scrap.  It's a three piece lamination of 1/2" ply.  I'm pretty sure half the glue I used came out after clamping, hence the plan to glue several things at once and take advantage of all of my clamps.  This pic is after removing most of the squeeze-out.

This morning I cleaned up lamination and beveled the rear for mounting.  I will dry fit it tomorrow and then glue it once I have a handful of things to glue.  The mast step is next on the list.

I also didn't care for the bluntness of the bow (seen below) after cutting the gunwales to length.  It's looked a bit sphinx-like, as if it's nose was chopped off.

So I epoxied on a chunk of wood.  I wasn't sure how I was going to clamp it.  I ended up just using duck tape pulled tight.  Once the epoxy cured it only took about 20 minutes to go from this:

to this.

Not it looks like it's ready to go forth upon the water.

Cutting out the centerboard and floor stiffeners

The last couple days have seen little physical work done, as I have spent a ton of time figuring out the rigging.  I had to place an order for some more fiberglass cloth as I neglected to take into account that I needed to glass the interior of the centerboard case, so I decided to save on shipping on try and get everything else ordered as well.  Undoubtedly I have forgotten something and will need to place another order later.

The rigging plan for the boat is pretty sparse.  It calls for a mainsheet traveler running across the rear.  The location of this was determined by the sheeting angle on the sprit rig option, so it can be used boomless if one want.  The shorter lower spar on the lug as compared to the boom means that the rear traveler gets pulled forward into the area of the rear thwart, getting in the way of anyone trying to sit there.  I decided to move the traveler forward to the center thwart as I am not worried about sheeting angles because I will be using the lug rig.  If at some point in the future I want to change things around, it will be simple.

So here is what I have done:

Cut out the centerboard trunk sides and case logs.

Cut out and installed the floor stiffeners.

Note the cutouts in the end for drainage.

Epoxied into place and curing.

 I also ran a little experiment based on some stuff I had read.  By covering fiberglass with plastic sheet after it has been wet-out with epoxy, it holds the surface flat.  This eliminates the need additional coats to fill the weave and the subsequent sanding needed to get a flat surface.  As you can see, it came out pretty flat.