2005

On January 1st, 2005, I cut out openings for the forward CMM (which makes a huge mess), and hang the CMM in place.  After 2 weeks of labor, the forward CMM is basically complete, except for fairing the outside of the CMMs.

I spend the next week installing the aft CMM.  It's easier in some ways because it doesn't require the big box structure, but it's just as hard to crawl underneath as the forward CMM was.  Plus I don't eventually cut part out for a passageway, so I have to crawl underneath every time I need to glass aft.  I suspend the CMM from two 10-foot 2x6 beams and shim them up to level it.  I experiment with a laser distance finder but it basically doesn't work, presumably because it's really ultrasonic and I'm getting echoes off the hull side.  I end up with the good old tape measure stretched between the forward and aft CMMs, with the L-girders from my high-school model railroad bench as temporary beams.

On the aft CMM, instead of cutting a hole in the hull at the lower bracket plate, I cut an inverted U shape and slit the inner skin with the Sawzall.  Then I force the CMM down onto the hanging piece.  I cut it to roughly the correct length to save having to fair in the bracket plate to hull join with lots of putty.

We have a week of unusually warm weather, high 60s even, but then the temperature plunges into the 30s, 20s, and finally single digits.  I go from wearing a t-shirt to wearing 4 sweatshirts, 3 t-shirts, and full thermal underwear on the 17th of January, as I fillet in the aft cockpit sole.  After much deliberation, I decide not to move the cabin bulkhead forward.  Too much work, and I want to go sailing.  Instead I use part of my old cockpit floor at seat level, so there is no footwell between the CMM and the cabin bulkhead.  This gives more headroom and storage space aft of the cabin bulkhead.  I construct a lip to join the CMM top (1/4" thick) to the cockpit seat (1/2" thick), and I realize after carefully clamping the whole thing together that I've put it together backwards.  I'm glad it's cold out, because the resin would have kicked long ago in summer.  Now my aft cockpit floor is too small, so I glue on the parts I was going to use for the v-berth (since Matthew has already installed half and kindly provided me with the other half) and add a layer of 9-oz glass to the top.

I also "sew" a piece of foam to the port aft end in an attempt to extend the seats a foot further aft.  It seems to work OK but I will have to try to heat and bend the foam to get it to conform fairly to the hull.  I will only glass the inside up to the cockpit floor and save the heating for a warmer day.

It's so cold in the garage that my resin coolers are at 45 degrees inside, so I store them in the boat with the radiator.  When the radiator is on full blast and the boat is sealed up it gets to almost 50 degrees inside, even when it's in the 20s in the garage.  I set up a fiberglassing station in the basement to make the last of my flat panels.

I've started building the rudder bulkhead and central bulkhead, and I'm slowly figuring out how I'm going to piece it all together.  My old cabin bulkhead volunteers to be the new rudder bulkhead, so after a few minutes with the jigsaw I'm really committed to not moving the cabin bulkhead.  I was going to work on the interior during the extreme cold but something tells me I'm going to have plenty more really cold days, so I might as well keep going on the cockpit.  Plus the interior isn't going to take long since I'm going to keep it simple.

Since most of my previous parts were made from epoxy, and the hull itself is made from vinylester, I have a problem.  Vinylester and polyester resins come in two forms: waxed and unwaxed.  Because air inhibits full cure of -ester resins, you need to select the right type depending on what you want to do.  Unwaxed resins are used for laminating, because the surface doesn't completely cure until the next layer of glass is laminated over it, which contributes to bond strength between the layers.  Waxed resins are used for finish coats, because unwaxed resins remain tacky for a long time (years) and can't be painted.  With waxed resins, the wax "floats" to the outer surface as the resin cures, blocks the air, and allows complete cure.

I am sick of glopping Poly Fair onto unfinished parts of the hull where I need to bond, and grinding it all off.  It makes a huge mess.  So I commit the ultimate boatbuilding sin and buy a gallon of Bondo resin.  I need a waxed resin to bond epoxy to unsurfaced parts of the hull.  I try an experiment in laminating a piece of glass to an unwaxed part and after several days of curing I can peel it right off.  So it's more grinding for me.  I should try adding microballoons to the polyester resin to make it easier to sand.

By around January 17th the cockpit floor is installed.  I try to vacuum bag cockpit seats in the basement and remember why vacuum  bagging was so frustrating.  First my bag, sealed with an electric bag sealer, leaks, so I try a thicker piece of plastic, sealed with PVC tube and pipe insulation.  This works fairly well.  But my vacuum switch isn't working anymore, so after a while it turns on the pump and keeps it on.  I return in the morning to find my peel ply and bleeder permanently fused to the parts, and the parts are warped.  I assume the warpage is from unequal shrinkage of the carbon on top and the 12-oz glass on the bottom, but I've never seen parts warped this badly.  I strap a beam to the seats to straighten them out while I install them.  I'm hoping that once they're glassed to the gunwale and seat fronts I can remove the beam and they won't spring out of shape.

I install supports for the starboard part of the v-berth, using all polyester resin and fillers.  Two of the strips down the center of the berth were originally intended as gunwales for the Foamee, so I'm glad its legacy lives on.

I'm still messing around with the transom area and rudder bulkhead.  I finally glass the added part of the port side aft because the poly-fair I used to attach it starts to crack with repeated flexing.

I fabricate a cockpit seat corner over a 5-foot section of 3" PVC.  It turns out OK.  I might try doing the next one inside the pipe instead of outside to get a better surface, but this one is usable.  In the end, I use ready-made moldings from Lowe's, glued up to match the seat and seat front thicknesses.

The transom is one of the hardest parts to complete to date, which I do during the last week of January.  I get lots of epoxy in my hair trying to reach in underneath to complete the taping.  I order more DB120 tape from Raka, but they send 6" instead of 4", so I try to cut my own tape from my DB170 roll.  The first few pieces I cut across the roll, instead of perpendicular to the roll, and they stretch like a Chinese finger trap.  I seem to recall doing the same thing a long time ago.  I decide to wait for further taping until the 4" DB120 arrives.  I squeeze in the aft end of the hull sides with ratchet straps and glue them to the cockpit seats, and tape them in with 6" DB170.  I also assemble the rudder parts for a trial fit, complete the v-berth, and tape in the port and starboard setees.  The interior is very minimally complete, for now.  I plan to add a galley that can be completely dismantled, seatbacks with storage, and a storage area just aft of the beam on starboard, but all that can wait.

I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. "3/4 done and only 3/4 to go!"  After completing the CMM glassing, I will fair the cockpit and forward deck, then prime and paint the whole cockpit and deck.  As soon as that's done I can start buying and installing deck hardware.  I think that will be a great inspiration for getting the rest done.  After that, I'm going to tilt the hull on each side to complete hull fairing and glassing the bottom of the daggerboard trunk.  In the meantime, I'm still pondering the hatch.  I have the plans for Farrier's new hatch, but like so many other things it seems unnecessarily complex.

First week of February: I wanted to be able to say the boat was "structurally complete" in California last week, but all I could manage was "the boat is basically structurally complete."  I was stuck waiting for DB120 from Raka and an outboard motor mount, so I would know how large to make the backing plate.

By February 10th, the only things remaining to glass in are the anchor locker floor (and I'm not too impressed with the pour foam I just got from USCI, since it requires ambient temp of 70 degrees to work), the cockpit locker fronts, and the aftermost cockpit seat fronts.  I still have to do some taping inside, put 2 pieces of glass at the top of the daggerboard trunk, glass the rest of the swim step, and finish glassing the outside of the d/b trunk when I roll the boat, but all of that should take less than a gallon of resin.  I've completed the extra layers on the aft CMMs, which was the biggest lamination hanging over my head.  I've been working with Fiberlay resin, which smells identical to some other resin I used in the distant past, maybe USCI.

I purchased a nice Lewmar hatch at the West Discount Outlet; it will become my emergency escape hatch.  A slightly scratched J/24 hatch will go on my foredeck if I can figure out a way to mount it flat without building some kind of complex coaming.

By Feb 13th, I have the last parts of the seat fronts glued in place.  I decided at the last minute to glass over the crack between the edge of the aftermost cockpit floor (underneath the seat ends) and the hull side.  This will stiffen the entire cockpit floor, particularly the rudder assembly, and prevent water from getting into the rudder compartments.  But I should have done it last week because it's a pain to do after the seat ends are in place.  I cut a 6" access hole in the aft seat fronts so I can bolt on cleats and the outboard bracket later, and of course one of the cutouts pops down into the slit and under the cockpit floor.  Some fishing with a stick covered in duct tape gets it out.  I will probably cut access holes in the aft bulkhead anyway, to check on the rudder compartment once in a while.  I also complete the foam filler in the bow compartment and tape in the anchor locker floor, complete the glassing on the aft CMM and start cleaning up and fairing, and am nearly finished taping the safety/cockpit compartments in place.  I still haven't decided on what kind of hatches to put in the safety compartments.  I will just put t-handle access hatches in the bottom, but there are no commercially available access hatches that will fit on the fronts, and I know from my kayaks how difficult it is to fabricate a waterproof hatch cover.

Feb 18th: forestay tang in place, final layers of carbon on bow, swim step glassed, assembling safety compartment fronts (with hatches), starboard bow and above gunwale poly-fair applied, most of cockpit rough faired, cockpit lockers trimmed, working on interior storage spaces, foredeck hatch has a rough frame of putty.

The USCI thick resin is simply too thick to be usable.  Even heated in the cooler, it's too thick.  I can't add much filler, and by the time there's any filler in it, it's too thick to spread.  It will only be useful for gluing, and maybe coating wood parts.

Fun winter activities.
 
Feb 28th.  I've had a frustrating couple of weeks.  Everything I've done recently hasn't worked.  The hatch slider idea that seemed so good on paper and worked on the workbench, didn't work on the boat.  Once I glued the grooved rails onto the cabin top, the aluminum channels would no longer slide along them.  I think I got too much epoxy inside the grooves.  Even after a bunch of sanding, sawing, and grinding, it was obvious that there was going to be too much friction, so I ordered some dinghy track and sliders from APS.  The PVC pipes that I glued alongside the rails didn't stick.  Epoxy doesn't stick to PVC, even if you sand the PVC with 60-grit first.

The cockpit locker idea didn't work.  I made an H-frame from PVC and sliced it in half.  Then I glued it under the locker top.  It would have made a great drain system, since the ends of the PVC went right outboard at the gunwale.  I taped the tops of the PVC in with DB120.  As soon as I put weight on it a few days later, the PVC cracked right off the bottom of the glass.  I could conceivably have ripped out the PVC and left the glass, but it was too flexible and would have required lots of reinforcement.  I ripped the whole thing out and glued the locker top back in.  I will use a commercial access hatch on the front of the seat instead.

The fairing compound from FGCI is too thick and heavy.  Maybe I was spoiled by the stuff from System 3, but this stuff is more like Bondo than anything else.  It's not easy to sand, and you can't spread it very smoothly, or into small gaps.  I guess I'll be shelling out another couple hundred bucks for more System 3.

The stiffeners I glued to the back of the galley front all popped off because they were glued on with USCI thick resin.  After I glued them on again, the galley front was warped.  I had to glue more on to straighten it out.  It's really a mess inside, but hopefully nobody will ever need to get down in there.

The birch plywood I am using for the seatbacks is doing reasonably well, although it too is somewhat wavy.  I had to stitch a piece of wood to the bottom of the seatback before gluing it into the boat, to force it straight.  I think I'll put some kind of framework on top to support bins, instead of a full shelf.

I desperately want to get some paint on the boat, even if it's just primer, and even if it's just on the deck, to see how much fairing I've got to do.  But before I paint I need to clean out the entire garage, which means rolling the boat outside.  Before I put the boat on rollers, I have to finish anything in the interior that needs to be leveled.  I should also roll the boat onto port to finish the daggerboard and finish fairing starboard, since it won't do any good to clean out the garage if I'm just going to be grinding and making a lot of dust afterwards.  So the upshot is that I should just keep doing what I've been doing, finish the interior, and rough fair the cockpit, then finish starboard, then put it back on the casters and roll it out to clean it.  It's not even warm enough to paint anyway, and it's not going to be for a long time.  I could start painting the interior once I've gotten it reasonably complete.

I've been ordering lots of hardware and parts: cleats, mainsheet traveler, halyard winch, masthead light, electrical panel, interior lights.  My excuse is that it's all on sale at various internet boat outlets, and that if I buy stuff as I go, I won't have a huge hardware bill at the end.

Some shots of work on the interior.

March 3rd: paint at last!  I have painted almost the complete interior (except ceiling and floor, and around the forward beam).  The interior parts are all complete.  I haven't glued in the shelves behind the seatbacks because they seem too floppy, so I'm reinforcing them.  Plus I have to put the diagonal brace U-bolts there eventually.  I'm still fairing around the forward beam because there were so many layers there.  There's also a lot of fairing work in the cockpit.

March 9th: I put the boat stands back onto the casters, and rolled the boat outside to clean it.  It's a lot heavier than it was in the fall, not surprisingly.  I roll it back into the garage and pull it off the stands.  I have to reinforce the rafters with 2x6s so the chain hoist will load three rafters instead of just one.  It's easy to roll the boat onto the port side once it's off the stands, but I can't get it to roll up onto the port gunwale.  My choices are to grind and sand the bottom while lying on the floor, holding the sander above my head, or to reinforce the rafters more, buy another chain hoist, and try to lift the boat by the CMMs.  Neither is a good option.

I'm starting to like the look of the bow section.  I sanded with 50-grit on the rotary sander, then 80-grit.  The 80-grit seems to have taken out most of the gouges from the 50-grit.  I won't really be able to tell until I get a coat of primer on.

I think I will paint the bottom with a good exterior enamel primer.  I don't know where the real waterline is going to be so I will probably wait until the boat has been in the water for a few days before marking it and painting the bottom for real.

March 11th.  After adding some support beams to the rafters, and finally buying another chain hoist (this one a 1-ton, so it doesn't require another chain hoist to get it up to the rafters), I lift the starboard side of the boat high enough to get a floor jack underneath the port side of the bottom.  I can then jack the boat enough to sand the starboard bottom well.  After applying a coat of primer, it looks like there's still a lot of work to do in filling the small gouges, but I'm getting there.

2005-03-07: fairing starboard.

In Spain for 2 weeks, I'm trying to figure out what to do with respect to the trailer and floats.  After I get the bottom and deck painted, I could put the boat back on the rolling supports, and roll it out of the garage enough to do the work on the shed floor, or I could put it back on the trailer to do the same.  I am inclined to wait until the last moment to put it back on the trailer, because it will be much higher, and it won't be as maneuverable.  It should only take a day to fix the foundations of the shed (I'm going to bury the piers at least 2 feet down in gravel, and fill the tops with clay for drainage, and bolt the floor frame thoroughly to the garage floor).  Then I can move the wall back, build the side walls, and put a tarp temporarily over the whole thing until Chris or I can get to the roof.  I could probably fix the floor without moving the existing "roof", by propping it up on the sides with 2x4s and by pulling out half of the 4-foot walls in back at a time, and pulling up half the floor at a time.  Then I could talk to Chris about redoing the walls or I could take it on myself.

When the main hull is essentially finished, I will pull the trailer into the yard, lift the floats off the trailer, put them on the grass, back the trailer into the garage, put the boat back on the trailer, park the trailer in the street, put the floats in the garage (q: should I build rolling stands like the main hull has, or just hang them from the rafters?  Stands are more convenient, but I have to hang them anyway to paint them completely), back the boat next to the garage (will require some re-grading of the lawn near the street, which I should do when we do all the other tilling), finish and paint the floats, and then either hang them from the rafters or put them back on the trailer, awaiting the beams.  I might want to build flat rolling stands using the casters so I can put the trailer back in the garage and roll it sideways for attaching the beams, assuming I'll have enough space to do so.  Main hull beam is about 8 feet and overall beam is 23 feet, which means one side unfolded should be around 15 or 16 feet, which should leave enough space since the garage is 24 feet wide.  Of course, once I've attached the beams, I won't be able to get the boat out of the garage without removing them.  The alternative would be to find some level parking lot somewhere, but that means toting tools and whatnot around.

Even though I've made lots of progress lately, I still have a really hard time estimating how much longer it's going to be before the boat is complete.  None of my spreadsheets can tell me, and I'm thwarted as much by my random travel schedule as by uncertainty in the work.  I have put together an estimate, which I'm sure is going to be absurdly incorrect, but theoretically, if I don't have to travel much for work, I could have the main hull complete by the middle of July.  Float finishing should take no more than another month, and I would be ready and waiting for Erik to finish the beams, which he says will be done in September.  In theory, I could have the boat in the water in Ohio before it gets too cold, for some trials, than head to Florida and the Bahamas in the dead of winter.

(8/24/06: it took close to a year longer, but I did end up travelling extensively for work and making my own beams).

March 28th.  Back from Spain, I spend a week sanding and fairing the starboard side.  By the end of the week, I feel that I have the starboard bottom ready for paint.

April 11th.  Back from the west coast, I put what may be the final putty on the starboard topsides, and begin "painting" a layer of epoxy/micro/grey pigment on the bottom.  Unfortunately, I made the bad decision to paint the waterline with clear USCI thick resin, so as not to obscure the waterline marks.  It runs and sags, so I have some major sanding to do.  At the same time, I'm trying to get the daggerboard faired.

April 13th.  The epoxy "paint" has a lot of blush, which I try to scrub off, mostly unsuccessfully.  I finish the epoxy coating and do another layer of putty on the daggerboard.  I'm already behind schedule!  I was supposed to have the whole starboard side faired by the 12th.  Oh well, I guess that's why I didn't create a schedule until now.

I'm still debating whether to paint the waterline high or low.  If I paint it high, I'm guaranteed that the bottom paint covers the entire underwater surface, but I might have a lot of waterline out of the water.  If I paint it low, I might have to add finicky topsides paint, which is much harder than just slapping some bottom paint on.  Maybe I'll just put it exactly where I've drawn it and hope for the best.

I go through several rounds of fairing the starboard side, and I'm getting frustrated.  Maybe I'm not trying hard enough with the longboard, or spending enough time with it, but it doesn't seem like I'm getting anywhere.  After priming the bottom (gray) and the topsides (white), I decide to roll the hull back upright and work on the deck.  I should probably paint the deck first anyway because, like most liquids, paint drips downhill.

After a couple of days fairing the deck I'm much happier with the whole situation.  Even though the deck has many fabric overlaps, it's mostly flat so it's easy to sand.  Plus I'm going to paint the whole thing with nonskid so I don't need it to be perfect anyway.  My attitude towards the topsides is this: I will fair reasonably well, and paint with the West 1-part polyurethane, which should last for about 5 years before fading.  At that time, I'll remove the beams and floats, and if I'm rich I'll pay somebody else to longboard the hull; otherwise I'll do it myself.

I'm debating whether to use acrylic windows or buy ready-made fixed ports from Beckson.  The Beckson ports will cost around $700 for 6 rather than $300 for a sheet of 1/4" polycarbonate, but will probably look better since the fastenings won't show and since they will have trim rings.

April 22, 2005.  Five years since buying the first batch of fiberglassing supplies for the Foamee.  Today I patched some pinholes and glitches on the deck and below the starboard gunwale, slathered filler on the port fabric joins, around the CMMs, and on the cockpit seats, filled in dings on the daggerboard and rudder, and started assembling the hatch slider.  As I was waiting for all the resin to dry and trying to figure out what to do in the interim, I had a moment of panic when I realized that there were no major projects left to be tackled on the boat.  The main hatch is the last.  Theoretically, after I get the main hatch done and the port side faired, I could roll the boat out and store it next to the garage until the beams come.  Scary.

2005-05-24: more fairing, hatch, daggerboard slot

April 29, 2005.  This week I put the first coat of primer on the deck.  It looks reasonably good.  There are a lot of small bumps near the bow hatch, where all the different layers and unidir come together, but I think the nonskid will hide a lot of that.  I must use epoxy fairing compound for all the small dings and scratches because small volumes of Poly-Fair don't cure (at least not after a week of around 50 degree weather).  Still, just to be getting to the point where I'm filling in tiny dings is a relief.

The hatch slider seems to be working.  I trim the hatch opening and install the guide rails for the hatch boards.  Next, I will see if I can install the hatch cover on top of the slider.  There will be quite a bit of finishing trim work to do around the hatch opening.  Should I do it now or try to get the port side faired and do it once the boat is out of the garage?

The rudder and d/b both have a coat of primer on each side, so I can start the fine-tuning.  I glue a dowel to the aft edge of the rudder, which cleans it up significantly.  I also need to glue a reinforced dowel, or a piece of G10 tube, to the back of the rudder for the pull-up line, and add jam cleats to the tiller assembly.

I will sand the deck for (hopefully) the last time when I get back from kickoff, and paint the deck and cockpit.  The cockpit looks a lot better with a coat of paint than it looked before.  I figure I have about a month of fairing to do on the port side before I can paint the hull.

I also have to resolve how to keep the batteries on once place and keep the toolbox tied down.  Plus I need to build the d/b fairing pieces and install them while the boat is rolled to one side or the other.

5/7.  I meet Mike Leneman, who is going to supply my mast.  He has many good ideas for rigging the boat.

5/16.  I spend a week fairing the port side.  I'm going to have the topsides and floats professionally sprayed.  I will fair the port side and prime it before painting the deck.  The question is, should I wait until the boat is assembled before painting?  If I wait, there will be hardware to install on the floats after painting.  I could install the hardware but not bed it, and remove it for painting, but what about the access hatches?

Fairing of the port side is turning out to me much easier than starboard was.  I don't know if it's because I'm getting better at it or if  Matthew just did a better job of glassing.  He also applied a base layer of poly-fair that provides a good start and in many places doesn't require any additional work.  Those large spans where there is nothing but 50" of smooth glass really make a big difference.  I'm also doing more longboarding on this side, with 60-grit on the 18" board.  I have to keep reminding myself to concentrate on the bow before the beam because that's what everyone is going to see.  The daggerboard fairing pieces turn out to be much easier than I expected.  I install them with fairing putty as glue because I may want to tear them out someday to try a different daggerboard.

If I can pull the boat from the garage after painting the deck and cockpit, should I?  It would make a lot of space in the garage.  We could probably fit Tanya's car in next to the floats, although I'm sure she won't park it there.  I could also pull down the shed and use the floor for the new deck.  The downside will be walking around to the outside every time I need to get to the boat, and walking back inside every time I need a tool.  Still, with a door in the back and some kind of path and stairway, it shouldn't be too bad, and I won't have to worry about banging my head on the rafters all the time.

What's easier?  Shuffling boat parts around or trying to load everything on the trailer at once?  Maybe I can finish the floats and get them painted first, then store them somewhere and put the boat on the trailer.

5/30: I'm sick of fairing the port side, and it looks pretty good, so I roll the boat back upright and continue working on the cockpit.  I build the hatch boards and am getting the hatch cover into shape.  The rudder is coming along as well.  I have to fair the areas around the hatch that would have been covered by the hood, but that's not difficult.  I might still install the hood at some point.  Since it's so easy to roll the boat back and forth, it's much better for me to fair a bit on one side, then roll and start to work somewhere else, so I don't get burned out.  Plus every time I go back to a place I haven't worked on for a while, I see new areas that need work.

New idea, came to me while sleeping on the plane to Boise: back trailer up driveway.  Carry floats from trailer into garage, next to boat.  Hoist boat.  Back trailer into garage, drop boat on trailer.  Pull boat into driveway.  (Take main hull to painter?)  Work on floats in garage, suspended from rafters.  When floats finished, back trailer into garage, hoist floats onto trailer next to boat OR wait until beams are complete, assemble boat and paint floats after assembly: maybe partly unfolded, on trailer?

7/14: progress is slow because I’ve been traveling constantly for work and personal sanity.  It’s also hot as hell and humid in Ohio so I have a hard time getting out to the garage to work.  It’s actually worse than it was last winter when I had to wait for the garage to get to freezing before starting work.  I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel for fairing, though.  Now my big debate is which kind of paint to use on the deck: 2-part or 1-part?

7/21: Progress is still very slow, mainly because I'm travelling constantly. Plus, even when I'm in Ohio, it's way too hot and humid to even consider working on the boat. I gave Dad the tour and the thermometer inside the boat read 96 degrees. Still, I work for a couple of hours at night after it gets dark, when the temperature drops to the high 80s. I think I am finally just about ready to paint the deck, after spot-priming the remaining fairing putty. I can only mix 50 grams of putty at a time, since it goes off in about 10 minutes. I have ordered Epifanes Mono-Urethane for the deck, and will try to apply it in the 2 weeks I'm going to be home in August, before Ocean City, Ecuador, Brazil, and Europe.

8/15: Still haven't gotten the deck painted, since the "Oyster White" paint I bought is too beige. Fortunately they'll let me return the 2 unopened quarts. In the meantime, I got the acrylic windows back from the plastic place and they look great. I installed one temporarily, but the hardware is a bit too small. Still, it's starting to really look like a boat. I also fabricate and install the carbon fiber chainplates in the floats, since I'm going to try to get the floats painted soon. I still have some work (and some rework) to do glassing the chainplates into the interior, but externally they are nearly complete. I almost passed out lying inside the float in the broiling August sun, trying to get big pieces of glass to stick. Note to Ian: plans should be changed so that the chainplates are glassed in with one piece on each side of the chainplate and on each side of the bulkhead (a multiple of 4, not 2), or the chainplate foam should be left extra wide and rounded to make a sort of inverse fillet. Of course, you're not supposed to be glassing them in after the floats are complete.

Still debating what kind of paint to use on floats and hulls. The spray painter doesn't seem to excited about the job. So I'm wary of committing to a paint like Awlgrip, that can only be sprayed, in case he stiffs me. Maybe I can work out some kind of framework to attach to the trailer and suspend the floats from so he can roll them out of the shop in between coats. Or even rent a couple of engine hoists for a week. I could go with Interlux Perfection, which can be rolled or sprayed, but it seems like it costs over $100 more a gallon than Awlgrip. On the other hand, I could try a quart sans primer and save a lot of money if it sticks. I could also try rolling it to see how it turns out, since if the finish is as good as I expect, I could still paint it myself.

2005-08-17: windows, carbon chainplates

8/19: The mast is delivered right before I get back from CA, and less than 12 hours from when I leave for NJ/OC. The frustration! It's very floppy. I need to start getting parts from Leneman, but first spreaders from Corsair and a base from Precourt.

Also pondering how to find the backing plates that Matthew installed in the bows. There's no way to get a hand within 6 feet of where they are supposed to be. Maybe a stud finder? But then what? I'm thinking about a plywood backing plate, epoxy-coated, with a couple of tee nuts. I'll drill the holes too big and thread some wire aft to the opening, and drag the backing plate into position. Then I just have to figure out how to get a couple of bolts in to pull the plywood plate against the inside curve of the hull. Maybe I just do a Spanish windlass on the wire. The other possibility is to cut a small access hole near the backing plate and then reinstall it before painting.

9/7: In Ecuador, and I'm jonesing for some boat work. It's going to be a frustrating few weeks, since Bob and Uncle David will be in town when I get back from Brazil, and then I immediately have to go to Pittsburgh and Europe. I'm hoping the Europe trip will be short.

I have checked out Ian's new information on the F-22. It looks like Leneman has really inspired Ian, since the design is almost complete. I like best his new configuration for the headsails and spinnaker pole, since it looks like what I was thinking of myself: a simple web installed through the bow.

2005-09-18: painting the deck

9/19: Managed to get one coat of paint on the deck, cockpit, hatch lid and boards, and glassed the tops of the float chainplates. Did a sample of Perfection on hull and float, and it looks great. If I don't hear back from the painter by the end of the week then I'm going to roll and tip it myself.

2005-09-26: more painting, traveler, fairing interior

9/26: First hardware installed.  Finished painting the deck, and installed the traveller, end stops, and mainsheet cam cleat.

2005-09-28: first hull paint

2005-10-01: painting hull, installing winches

2005-10-11: Finished painting topsides, by rolling and tipping with Tanya.  It looks good, but unfortunately it's not until you get a high gloss coating on there that you see all the imperfections.  After paint, I hoist the hull up to the rafters and roll the trailer back into the garage.

10/19: Lots of hardware installed: winches, u-bolts, bow cleats and hinges, access hatches.  Also painted the cabin top and have done a lot of fairing and painting inside the cabin.  Major problem: the windows leak.  I try removing the starboard window and it breaks.  Apparently the tape is pretty sticky, even though it didn't make contact in a few places.  It takes me a day to fabricate a new window from the remaining plastic.  First I cut it rough and then use the router to follow the template.  I will try using some silicone to seal this one on, and will inject some silicone in the crack between the port window and the cabin to fix the leaks.  I have been touching up the paint as I go, and have coated the rudder parts and painted the daggerboard.  I still need some parts to complete the rudder assembly, but it's getting there.

I finally figure out how to get the batteries attached.  I will use eyebolts attached to tee nuts, embedded in strips of wood and attached to the cabin sole with glass tape. I can either run a rod through the eyes or attach straps directly.

2005-10-29: today and a year ago

11/1: Lots more tiny progress in small areas. The floats are now in the garage, thanks to a visit by John, Andrea, and Kim. I am cleaning up the floats in preparation for painting. There are hundreds of tiny blisters on the inside starboard float, but fortunately most are between the beams so I'm not going to re-fill after sanding.

I have finally decided to go with Ian's beams. They are more expensive, but should be worth it in resale value. He claims they will be available in January.

The mast is starting to look like a huge project, but all of these components look bad at first, and then become managable as time goes on. Interestingly, the F32 mainsail is slightly smaller than the F9 main, as well as the jib. The screacher is much bigger. I am considering going headstay-less, like Sigi, and using Precourt's furler. I have installed the baseplate, with Corsair ball, and am fabricating the raising yoke from wood and carbon because the yahoos in Columbus are incapable of welding one for me. I also installed the daggerboard, since it has to go in before the mast base.

I keep having leaks. It seems no matter how many times I try to fill the tiny holes I drilled to mark the positions of the high density inserts, I can't keep water out. In a good Ohio thunderstorm it seems like gallons come through a single pinhole. At least the windows don't seem to be leaking anymore.

2005-11-12: racing the clock before we head to San Francisco.

My battery fastening system seems to be working, but is taking a lot of fairing and sanding, as usual. Next time I should use a half-round instead of a flat piece of wood, because the glass would have stuck to it better.

The rudder is coming together, but I'm still having trouble finding the right size pin. 3/4" seems too large and 11/16ths too small. After ordering aluminum side brackets (my second set, since the L-brackets I was going to use would make it impossible to mount a cam cleat for the pull-down line), I make my own from carbon and wood, as usual.

Now I'm debating whether to put the floats on the trailer after painting them, or just leave them hanging from the rafters all winter. As long as we can still get the car in the garage, I might as well leave them on the rafters. Then next spring when I have the beams, I can just pull the boat out of the storage area and install the beams on the lawn, and get Jerry to help me carry the floats over. They would be in the way for installing the beam brackets anyway.