No major achievements on boatbuilding the last days.
Just sanded and impregnated the rudder, tiller and daggerboard and yesterday got the first epoxy layer on.
Today I have my weekly shift at de Middelste Molen, a local industrial heritage site www.demiddelstemolen.nl
Later today we go up North for the weekend so I can continue painting the hull of the Peapod.
After laminating the tiller first one of the cheeks has to be glued to the rudder. This "half assy" will be the mold for cutting the tennon that will fitt between the rudder cheeks.
Before that the inside of the tiller hole has to be coated in epoxy.
Apparently I had made the laminations to thin or the hole between the cheeks to large with the same net effect that the tiller had a loose fit.
As a quick and dirty remedy I glued one short laminate on top of the tiller. Later after sculpting the tiller it will be less noticable.
Now I could cut the tiler tenon for a snug fit and glue on the other cheek.
You will have noticed that I still have to cut the foil shape for the rudder blade. Also the tiller itself is in need of some TLC.
I checked with Arch Davis whether the snug fit of the tiller in the rudder would be enough.
Quickly as ever he responded that it would be sufficient and any case the lines that raise and lower the rudder blade will keep the tiller in
place.
Now I had decided in my ultimate wisdom to make a fixed rudder....
Yesterday back home I have ripped a piece of red cedar in 6mm thick, 50 mm wide strips.
Together with some mahogany strips left over from a previous project this is just enough wood to laminate the tiller.
The mold was made out of an old piece of solid wood and the form taken from the full size pattern drawing from Arch.
Although the outside temperature may reach an all time hightoday I foolishly decided to glue the lamination. Sorry for the bad picture but the camera and myself almost melted...
So tomorrow we will see how good the epoxy has cured under these environmental conditions.
I went op North for 2 days to mowe the lawn and work on the boat.
The bungs in the seats were removed, the seats lightly sanded and a layer of epoxy applied.
After a few hours when the epoxy was still sticky I did put on the next layer. Now the epoxy has to cure for at least 48 hours before I can sand it again and the polyurethane varnish van be applied. Work for the next trip.
There was a small quantity of the white polyurethane paint left so I decided to paint already the top of the stems. That is a place a bit difficult to get at when the boat has been turned.
As there was no workable work on the hull I continued with the rudder.
I smoothed the top of the rudder stock and screwed on both rough cut cheeks. Those cheeks are made out of remaining pieces of mahogany. A bit heavy but I hope it looks better than the plywood Arch David is using. The rudder was then put on the router table to machine the cheeks to the right shape of the rudder stock.
As I don't know when I can go up North again I packed the rudder parts, wood for tiller and thwart knees, some tools and an epoxy kit in the car. I can continue to work on these parts at home.
This morning I did put in the flotation foam.
To avoid the white foam to be visible between the planks of the aft seat I did paint dark stripes on the foam.
The middle, side and aft seats were screwed to the seat beams and the screw holes bunged.
While preparing the foam for the front seat I noticed that I had forgotten to cut the mast hole in the flotation bottom.....
The flotation is not yet ready as I still have to cut out room for the mast support below the seat.
The second coat of high-gloss was put on. Tomorrow I will put on the final coat of satin-gloss.
Thereafter the seats still have to be coated but that will not be done this week.
This morning we went up to the North again for a couple of days to relax, some gardening and to work on the Peapod.
Yesterday night I woke up with the thought that I had made no draining holes in the flotation bottoms. So first thing to do was drilling some holes and put epoxy on the hole edges and also on the rest of the bottoms.
Next step was some fine sanding of the epoxy parts to be varnished.
The varnish I use is polyurethane two component high-gloss. Luckily I noticed in time that this varnish is mixed 1 : 3 in stead of the 1 : 2 of all other stuff.
I will apply two coats of the high-gloss and after that one coat of satin-gloss.
After mixing the magic potion again has to pre-react for 30 minutes. Good thing because it enabled me to watch the finish of the Laser Radial final on London 2012 and see a Dutchwoman win silver!
Applying the first layer went quite smooth. Because of the sanding you can see were you have to put on the varnish. The second layer can be applied after between 24 and 48 hours without sanding so that one will be more tricky.
Now 24 hours time before the next layer. Maybe I will put in the flotation when the varnish is not sticky anymore. I will need some parallel processing to reduce throughput time :-)
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