Plastic Classic Forum

and i got a start on the deck paint removal.....
now this is back breaking work!
thats about an hours worth of work with the roller sander
its a first pass to remove all gelcoating. the final pass will also remove the original non-skid print

was raining today i couldnt work on the boat
i was able however to remove the peelply i had applied onto the fairing.
its a neat step, applying peelply i could "iron" the surface with my bare hands, displace and shift some of the fairing underneath to get it to fill spot and conform to a better shape.
in the end you also end up with a much nicer surface to sand
the temperature dropped suddenly in Macau so it will take a few more days for it to harden up properly.

its been cold, miserable, and Chinese new year means no one works!

dragged myself to boat today, cleaned up a few things, and coulnt resist cutting things up
i should´ve kept quiet as i knew damn right i was going to weaken the structure. but being the stubborn guy i am, i didnt care and off i cut the thing

got some lines onto it first before cutting the windshield after cutting bow view stern view portside view
i had already cut the excess on the top also ´
the uglies i need to fix
in essence, "wavy" bits of the first lamination i have to fix from the inside problems with compound curves
you will be able to see the gaps between the arch and the lamination. it is just how it wants to sit when you bend the frame in 2 different axis. i will patch that much like we patch thru hulls: several layers of a pre cut cloth shape. slap them together tightly and be liberal on the thickened epoxy to bed and bridge everything together. it will take a fair amount of thickened epoxy to glue the dodger in its entirety.
only after glueing the dodger and applying those patches will i be shaping that fairing and laminate some more layers of cloth and G10 strips

hello to all
finally got the epoxy and other stuff, just in time for the raining season and "summer" to start!
which means i wont get much done, unless i start working at 5/6 am and calling it a day at 12/13 pm. im actually considering that seeing how i just lost an entire dry season waiting for stuff.
all this waiting probably pushed the end of the refit by 18 months, at least.

i continued to prep the main bulkhead to receive the reinforcing metal work, that i also finally receive after 6 months waiting.
for that install to happen i needed to fill some voids and laminate some spots

voids to be filled voids filled by epoxying G10 cut outs, also took to the time to fillet some corners laminating over the G10 pieces i just epoxied in, just one layer of biax cloth (more on that later) reinforcing the main bulkhead port side area with the customary 2 layers of biax

mast step reinforcing metal work

received the stainless steel pieces
and proceed to install them.
they are pretty heavy, on my next trip i want to take a scale to do a weigh in on both, then weigh in the original goal post and compare numbers. my gut tells me i will be heavier with this arrangement, but overall i still think the boat will be lighter than it was.

at least the weight will be centered and at deck level (which is the second best/first worst place to place weight)

its all done in 6 mm place, they actually bent the sheet as apposed to welding it (as i had specified initially) and i think that might just add more integrity to an already beefy piece.
its not perfectcly centered and it ended up with a slight slant towards port side (which is exacerbated on the fwd piece by quite a bit)

aft piece fwd piece
one can clearly see the slant, im not going to fix it. just going to pack the gaps with G10 sheets, biaxial cloth soaked in resin plus a generous topping of thickened epoxy which will hopefully squeeze out as i thighten the whole thing together, thus removing any gaps and ensuring some nice flat contact surfaces.

since i was done laminating the centre part of the bulkhead it was a good time to remove the deck vents on the outside

before removing the vent after removing the vent after a quick pass with a a flap disk on a grinder and after a good scrub with some acetone i gaff taped the holes, should last the summer i hope

remember the cockpit floor?

i also got around to that, and started the new lids project by cutting some trips of 3mm G10, epoxying and laminating them in

taping the bits together filleting and laminating the idea is to cut a lid ou of 3 mm G10, tape everything around so i can lay some cloth over.
Eventually the fabric will drape over the corners (with some persuasion i might add) and then i laminate it all together, using the packing tape as a demoulder agent.

water tank works

continued the works by reinforcing corners that werent glassed before

aft wall inside wall lams dry fit of pvc pipe and opening the hole at the bottom of the tank
this pipe will be used to route the battery cables to the windlass and from the battery bank to the switch board.
i think its an elegant solution, iintending to keep cable runs as short as possible and keeping then out of sight. pipe glassed in
applied a couple of layers but will do a couple more. this isnt something i want failing anytime soon as that would entail cutting the lid to access that job and then re glassing the lid again. finally i got around to glass some lid supporting lips around the perimeter of the tank, to enable a surface for the lid to set in.

more laminations

i took the time to laminate both side bunks walls to the hull (only stb is depicted) another view. note the insertion of a a small "shield" piece which ensures the watertightness of the bunk whislt creating space to undo the transdcer from the inside. V berth cabinetry reinforcement semi partition laminations

the new enlisted refit crew
not sure how this is going to work in the peak of summer, but aniway the dehumidifier is something i would have always need to get for the future.
the fan sure does keep the air moving inside. i have a portable battery operated one that i keep closer to myself at times

the weather this weekend was surprinsingly cold and not so humid and with the help of the dehumidfier i consider the chance of doing some "outside" work, namely laminations that need done so i can crack on the reflooring of the cockpit.

the summer/raining tent has been already up for a few weeks now, tryin to keep water out as much as possible

outside view this is how it looks on the inside keeping the tent and blasting the fan and dehumidifier enabled me to laminate new gutters in

more lamination work

portside semi bulkhead before filleting and lamination after main bulkhead stb side lam (portside was also done) stb side semi bulkhead lam im rounding up the profile of the plywood to accept a glass wrap around.
from my experience i would say 6mm radius is the minimum one can conform biax cloth, though 10mm is much more confortable to do. sometimes you simply dont have the thickness, but it ended up nicely rounded edge lam i also got around to tab and laminate the water tank baffle (which is still missing the very corner of it) and this is how the boat looks on the inside. a very tight glass workshop
it works and its temporary....well a few more months i suppose......

final laminations and cockpit floor

i dont need to tell you guys how hard and difficult it was to laminate this piece over head......
lots of cursing on this one and still go time to clean the edges on the openings on the cockpit floor piece, prepping it up for the next step> building the lids
because i reinforced all the edges, both inside and outside the piece ended up pretty stiff which was what i was looking for in the end

the refit continues

im trying to gain some of the time lost during the dry season.
start working on the boat at 5am, by 0930 am was already tired and hot as f"#$ inside.
Will try to keep that going. its almost 5 hours of work, but not really sure how feasible its going to be, going forward.

aniway got some stuff done today and yesterday

got the under cockpit partitions glassed in (completed)
i did set the cockpit floor in to have a look, and some trimming will be need. nothing much, max 5mm taken for the top of the middle partition to keep the floor leveled had enough time to glass the reinforcement lams onto the dinghy storage locker to starboard.
it isnt finished as i need to complete the overhead lams that connect the semi bulkhead to the cockpit seat then proceeded to make a template for the water tank lid
this ist the moment where i realized the template was locked in place, making it impossible to remove, thus impossible the make a one piece lid.
the center strip marks the place where the split will be done. it is purposedly staggered from the baffle to give me some anchoring surface to glass the aft lid in. after splitting the template aft lid section
i will epoxy a small lip in which the aft cut of the fwd lid will sit, to help support it, not really worried as it will be all glassed from the outisde in all sides lastly i got enough time to scribble the fuel tank lid inside the locker
eyeballing it to be around 150litre, is definetely less than the water tank, so im trying to judge one from the other. aniway when all its done and upon the first filling all will be revealed.
te lid has a somewaht pronounced tilt built in, towards the centre of the boat and it will drain straight onto the gutters ive built keeping as dry as possible

starting the cockpit lids

i had the cockpit floor piece cut for a long time now
i kept the cutouts and that was a smart move because i ended up using them as the lids
you will notice on the aft lid the cutout was placed inverted, somehow it fit better that way i then applied taped all over the surface as a release agent
cut the strips and glassed them
this is a initial step to enable a surface where i will laminate a couple more layers onto to achieve the necessary rigidity it had cured enough to be demoulded in a couple of hours
small lid outside view inside view big lid inside view i've yet to clean and trim the edges to its final shape, its a "next weekend" project i guess

water tank lids

cut the G10 pieces following the templates previously done
after a few additional cuts i was able to fit everything together
i will glass a strip on G10 on the aft lid to act as a stopper/lip onto which the fwd lid will rest.

i was feeling like templating a bit more and decided to have a crack at the V berth cabinetry
felt like it was a good idea to template the port and center lockers in one piece since i had kinda guessed the actual piece would, not only fit in one half sheet of G10, but also fit thru the main bulklhead.

i actually got it right this time, yay!

templating port and center lockers transfering to G10
bit of waste there in wierd shaped pieces but cant do anything about that for now.
im thinking of finally getting my router inverted onto a table, with a decent fence, and square up every bit of waste and laminate all of it together into a "full" sheet...maybe when the boat is finished....... cut piece rough fit building this as a one piece meant that i had to decide on the position for the composting toilet (the plywood you see on top of the "counter" is the toilet in its stored position) and, by doing that, i had noticed that there was real estate for yet more storage.
this, in turn, meant an extra partition to be glassed in, thus more templating

backlit for a better understanding of the space available templating the partition
i do all this with with a simple 9 inch spirit level, some battens, and a carpenter square, and a sprinkle of eyeballing
if you are reading this, please be smart and get yourself one of them tiling laser levels, that makes the job way easier.
partition cut fwd storage space with the lids cutout

additional storage to STB

i have yet to decide whether the composting toilet will slide out on heavy duty sliders from it topsides (like a regular drawer) or some floor sliding...thing.
this decision imposes a design change on the front facade for the toilet.
if i make the toilet coming out of a cubby hole it means a have to glass cubby opening which will further reinforce the whole cabinetry and im inclined to do that. i need to devise a way to secure the sliders (topside or floor ones)

this is also importan becase it will determine how much wall space i will have to make an additional storage unit, on stb
im hoping you have enough of a 3D vision to see how the storage is going to look.

looking aft looking fwd