Main hull form frames cut

Well, it's been an interesting lean inexpensive but healthy summer. I sold my Northstar 26 sloop on Georgian Bay, hiked daily with the dogs on the trails, and became an expert again at job hunting and doing interviews.

The only progress I can report is that I have the form frames for the main hull now cut out in plywood.



This was a reality check for the family on the true size of the F22, small, but small is becoming beautiful again and I am still quite sure this is the right boat for me at this time. It looks like I will be building the main hull in the back yard and I have purchased the build tent and prepared the back yard area. However, it may not be until the crack of next spring before I start building the strongback up again. I still have some flat panels to make and I may make this the first priority.

I have the daggerboard, daggerboard case, full rudder assembly and many small parts and bulkheads for the main hull already complete so my aim is make the main hull build a true kit building experience that goes very fast over one summer.

Boat build suspension

I'm saddened to report that there will be a (hopefully) short suspension of boat building activities. More materials need to be purchased to properly initiate the construction of the main hull and I cannot justify the expenditure while I am looking for new full time employment.

Daggerboard in case

My daggerboard was always on the thick side so I was a bit worried that with paint the board might stick in the case.  Not to worry, the paint seems to make it more slippery and it slides in and out, horizontally, freely.  I'm sure that in the vertical position it will be fine.  

Daggerboard and rudder mostly done

I've painted the daggerboard and rudder now, with a number of coats of the 2 part Interlux VC performance epoxy.  To apply, I simply used a foam roller and tried to cover with as little paint as possible.  Next time I will to use a foam brush to see if I can get an even smoother application. Of course, the rolling does not finish smooth and does require post wet sanding.  As they are now,  I am still working with 400 grit but they can still be taken a lot farther.  However, at this point they look like they will work out OK so I might leave them like this for the time being and move on to the next step, cutting the form frames for the main hull.

I highly recommend the performance epoxy, it does wet sand very well and I think the product is perfect for parts just like this, that are under the waterline and need to be very smooth.  

I weighed the daggerboard, it's about 16 lbs.

Daggerboard and rudder blade ready for painting

It was a love-hate relationship with the fairing work on these foils the last week or so.  This was especially true of the daggerboard.   I think the root cause being my lack of experience to know when the foil shape is good and fair enough.  Thankfully ... it is mostly love now.  I thought I would post some pictures before starting to paint.

Daggerboard

Hanging up I can verify that the board is straight and fair enough.

Trailing edge view.

End view

Rudder

The rudder shape is close to ideal I believe.

End view

The trailing edge of the rudder blade.  I'm glad I sandwiched the layer of fiberglass in the foam block.  It is visible in these shots and I'm sure it is helping to strengthen the edge.

Fairing the daggerboard and rudder blades

I've started fairing the daggerboard and rudder.  I had thought that the blades were actually quite fair but I'm finding that there are a number of areas that need building up.  I want to keep the final quality of these parts quite high.

I'm also quite sure that the trailing edge thickness will be greater than 2mm when I am finished fairing.  So... I'm told that to prevent humming when the boat is planing, the sides should be made asymmetric.   The following picture is from a web page that Menno kindly brought to my attention.  

Ian Farrier also describes this approach in his sailing hints document.  

Anchor well and cuddy cabin cowling laminated

The cowling for the cuddy cabin and the anchor well are now laminated, and I cannot really do any more work on these parts until later when there is a hull to fit them to.  It did give me a chance to use up some of the remaining carbon fiber cutoffs to laminate the inside surface of the parts.  I wanted to see what an e-glass - foam - carbon structure would look like in terms of stiffness, lightness etc.  

Later on I will have to purchase more material for the inside hull surfaces and the thought had occurred to me to use the 6oz weight carbon fiber cloth.  There might be an advantage to using the carbon fiber on the inside for stiffness and the e-glass on the outside for abrasion resistance.  The candidates for the inside surface are carbon and s-glass (as in my floats).  No doubt when I price out the cloths, the small weight benefit with the 6oz carbon over the 9oz s-glass, may well be overwhelmed by the price difference.

Outside of the cowling laminated with 2 layers of the 8.9oz e-glass finely woven aerospace cloth.  It will still need a small amount of fairing.

Inside surface covered with a number of scrap cut-off pieces of carbon fiber left over from the rudder parts.
The anchor well laminated with e-glass on the wear surface for good abrasion resistance.  Carbon fiber on the inside.  The part did seperate about an inch from the mold dimension when it was removed.  I'm assuming I will be able to clamp it somehow into the correct position.  The part still needs final trimming.

Cuddy cabin cowling and anchor well

People who know me well are not surprised that I have decided to build the cuddy cabin main hull.  It's faster, cheaper and very fashionable with the large cockpit and ultra modern racing rig.  What finally closed the deal for me was the wonderful pictures of Loyd Crisp's (and his family) 'Stick Shift' in action.  Then,  as a testiment to the fact that you cannot make a good designer a manufacturing engineer for long (for the production F22),  there was the release of Ian Farrier's concept for the F32SR, which looks to me very much like a stretch F22.  

So, as I am  committed to getting this project completed before someone can build a F32SR, I moved forward this week by starting the cabin cowling and the anchor well parts for the main hull.  I do believe that after these are finished, I just have to review, inspect and finish the remaining flat panels.  Then, the next step is to cut the form frames for the main hull.

Above are the form frames for the blister cowling.  No battens to be used here.  But you say, 'what is a blister cowling?'  It's a removable shield that is placed over the cuddy cabin main hatch, so that spray and rain does not enter the cabin, as well as offer a bit more headroom.  I simply have to panel this shape with foam and fiberglass it.  No problem, eh!  

Above is the form frame for the anchor well.  This one looks fairly straight forward, although the one bend looks like I will have to use a heat gun for the first time.  

The above two pictures show my attempt at planking the cowling.  I took the designers advice to keep some of the strips to 25mm in width.  This is not for bending along the longitudinal axis but rather so the strip can flex transversely. Wider strips will not allow this.

I now plan to use my polyurethane construction glue to bond the strips together.  I'm hoping that the glue will drip through, lock to the frames below and allow me to remove all the screws for fairing and laminating.  This will be a matter for next weeks post.

Slots in the bow web - another part waiting for a main hull.

This week I finished cutting the slots in the bow web that I first laminated a long time ago now. There is a project management saying that there are 3 descriptors for a project,  'fast, cheap and good'.  You can take any two.  It certainly looks like my methodology is following the priorities of cheapness and quality.  At least I certainly hope I am holding to some quality.   I'm certainly not fast.  In terms of materials I do not mind paying a little extra for quality but these costs come along infrequent enough that they are not noticable.

Anyway,  I found another use for the cut out scrap from the wingnet rail, washers for the chainplate slots.

I made sure that the width of the slots took into account Ian's comments on a builders update. The slot for the Precourt deadeye (optional dedicated forestay) and the two slots for furling systems (jib and genoa) will easily accomodate a Furling system that will accomodate a clevis pin.  It looks like Precourt Systems have developed an appropriate unit and I will definitely be using sails and rigging to support roller furling.  No more hanking sails on and off.   But,  I do need to learn more about endless line furling and sails that can eliminate the need  for a dedicated forestay.  I found  some very interesting pictures at Sigi Stiemer's F33 site.  I had never thought or heard about using a double mainsheet system to replace the traveller, thats very interesting.  Would it be possible to put a self tacking jib system on the F22?   Interesting questions.  Anyway, here is the finished bow web.

Everything was done by the books, all the exposed foam was dug out a bit and  sealed with high density putty and covered with a layer of lightweight fiberglass cloth.   The G10 tube was also glued into the part for the bow pole pin.  The whole part weighs about 1.4lbs.

Rudder sleeve assembly completed (more or less)

First, I cut the sleeve to accept the shaft to connect to the rudder mount.  Not having the S.S. shaft yet I used a wood dowel to verify the fit.   The big question here was how far to cut into the sleeve.  The deeper you cut into the sleeve the wider the angle the sleeve can rotate before there is a hard stop to the gudgeon.  The picture below shows the angle I can achieve.  It is not a full 90 degrees,  but it's getting close.  My understanding is that the tiller will hard stop in the cockpit before this angle is achieved.  

I also finished the  tiller stub, which went together fairly straight forward, and glued on the sleeve.   Straight enough I hope.

Here is my access hole, through the tiller stub, to get the shaft in and out.  

The tiller stub is my first carbon tube, and I am thinking about molding the tiller itself with carbon when I have the hull and traveller completed.  You can also see that I sealed the exposed foam at the end of the tube with a piece of carbon cloth.

Here is the complete steering system for an F22.  The sleeve and rudder combined weigh about 7 lbs.  Not all that much when you think about it, but isn't it funny that we go to all this trouble to reduce weight and then stick a heavy outboard at the end of the boat.   Anyway, you can also see that I have not yet finished the plastic end strip yet.  I'm think about using the option for 3/8" nylon hardware to keep the plastic strip in place.   

Final laminations on the rudder case

Just a quick post to show the final laminations on the rudder case.  In preparation I smoothed everything out with the lighter weight QuickFair putty.

And then in one session I added the remaining layers of carbon fiber cloth and uni-directional.  I can see why people love to work with carbon fiber  The resulting patterns from the weave are most attractive.  One other comment.  You have to be careful cutting the cloth to size with the loose weave of the carbon cloth.  It will fall apart.  Orientation of the fibers at 45 degrees is also interesting as the cloth will stretch like an accordian in the most extreme way.

As it stands currently it weighs 1.8 lbs.  

Now I have to think about attaching the stub for the tiller extension.  The foam is rough cut to size but I have to shape it to the profile of the sleeve itself. Then more wrapping in carbon fiber.

Pivot tube mounted on the rudder sleeve

Getting the pivot tube attached to the rudder sleeve requires that a spacer plate be carefully cut and joined to the tube and the case.    I found myself using some of the trimmed off material (layers of s-glass) from the wingnet rail.   The pieces cut away on the wingnet rail for lightening purposes were just the right length for this spacer plate.  I glued two pieces together to get the correct thickness.

I just used a high density putty (cabosil and resin) and the best judgement of my  eyes to glue the spacer plate normal and parallel to the fiberglass tube.

In a similar fashion I glued the pivot tube to the rudder sleeve case.  I did not need any special clamping to keep the tube in place while it was curing.  Again I trusted my eye to get the part aligned.

The plans call for some extra carbon fiber to strengthen the tube at the top.

Then in the areas where the tube will be cut away to fit the rudder gudgeons a very high density putty (cabosil, resin and chopped up s-glass cloth) was used to build up the gap.  The middle area will be filled with a low density fairing putty and then the assembly will be ready for the final layers of carbon fiber.

Rudder sleeve out of the mold

The plans actually call for the use of sheet wax wrapped around the rudder blade to build up the nesessary room for the frontrunner fabric (a durable marine fabric) that will line the case.  Like the daggerboard,  the rudder on the F22 design is just pulled up and down in the case. No pivoting, which I know some builders would prefer.  I like the simplicity of this design however. The open transom design should give me good access to pulling the rudder up when needed.

Anyway,  I could have purchased the sheet wax from Composites Canada who sell sheets at a .010" thickness.  This is the proper way to do it but it would have required building up quite a few layers of wax, so taking once again the lead from Menno, I decided to try using the fabric itself wrapped in plastic.  This fabric was kindly supplied by Jay in Seattle at a fair price and I have no idea where to source it in my locale. 

Two 2x4's cut with the profile of the rudder blade provide for the mold edge for the upper and lower flanges.  The picture shows the everthing more or less in position.  The fabric was taped in place and compressed to what I hope is the correct amount.  After this I used lots more plastic tape and some dollar store plasticine (horrible stuff made in China),  then finally a number of layers of a mold release wax.  

Here is the first layer of laminate applied.  I let the first layer cure before adding the others.  I'm not sure if this was necessary.

When all the carbon fiber was applied and cured I knocked off the 2x4's from each end.  Then I removed the plastic strip from the trailing edge and was able to break the part from the mold by prying up from that open trailing edge.  It came off no problem.  I did make some initial trimming when the part was still green  and I still have some trimming to do,  but I am off to the next step of adding the pivot tube to the sleeve.

Strengthening the top gudgeon on the rudder mount

Our excellent designer determined a weakness in the top gudgeon to rudder mount join and very promptly updated the plans with the appropriate fix.  It was a very straight forward modification so I thought to just as promptly get it done right away.

I should have an update on the rudder case soon.

Rudder blade all laminated

The plans call for an extra layer of fabric around the top of the rudder blade and down the leading edge.  I decided to apply this reinforcement before the final complete wrap.   

Then the wrap of carbon fabric went on in one piece.  I also had some light weight fiberglass cloth (It seemed too light to be 6oz, it is probably 3.7oz) and applied this as the final layer for abrasion resistance.  

It would have been a good thing to use peel ply on this final wrap.  Just using plastic results in excess resin sitting on top of the fabric here and there.  But the final result is not bad for a hand layup.

I'm fairly happy with the final shape.  The overall thickness might be a mm thicker than the plans template,  and the trailing edge might be ~3.5mm thick.

The blade weight is 4.78 lbs and with the laminations complete  I can now move onto the rudder sleeve.  In this part the blade will actually be used as a mold.

 

Sheathing the rudder blade

January 2009 is just moving on at lightspeed so I thought I should post some small progress made on the rudder blade.

The Christmas break gave me the opportunity to stand back a bit, review other builders work, and it did not take me long to see that I made a mistake in the rudder blade uni-directional re-inforcements.  You never apply uni-directional directly onto the foam substrate directly.  It is always applied on top of some bi-directional re-inforcement.  In any event I somehow went ahead and laid down the carbon uni directly on top of the foam and the wrapped high density core.  Not as per the plans direction.  The plans call for the uni-directional to be sandwiched between the two layers of sheathing.  This was a strange error for me considering that I laid up the daggerboard correctly last winter.

I considered routing out all that unidirectional, but decided to leave that half of the rudder blade as is and make the other side correctly.  If it breaks at some point - my bad.   It will be my rudder blade half made right.

Here is a picture of the the complete rudder blade wrapped and the 6 oz carbon fiber (2x2 tweed weave) wetted out with the uni-directional apllied correctly on top of the cloth (at least on the one side).  

I'm in the process of smoothing out and rebuilding the appropriate shape over the uni-directional fiber before I apply the final sheathing layer.  The shape and overall thickness seems OK at this point.