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Continuing on the rudder

Spent this week continuing on with rudder and centreboard finishing. First, there was a bit of fairing after last week's adventure (and I have to say, fairing the filler down took just as long as actually fairing the board itself).

Next, I decided to fill the top of the boards with epoxy, to finish them off. I painted some acetone into the rudder to clear out the blue foam... but neglected to consider how quickly acetone burns through foam. It burns through FAST. I ran inside and dumped some water inside, and that seemed to calm things down - but now I have a wet interior of the board, and I need it to be bone dry (especially the wood) before I seal it off. I placed it upside down on a heat register in the den for a couple days, and that seemed to do the trick.

Next, I drilled the blue foam with the dremel, and then filled the top inch with epoxy/410/403/graphite. Because of the acetone adventure, the rudder depth was a bit more than 1”; I filled the bottom part with epoxy/410, and then poured in some (heavier) epoxy/403/graphite, which just fell to the bottom.

Of course, 1” deep of epoxy boils. Just like dregs of epoxy in melted red cups (and some not red ones). I knew this from building the bow fitting. And I saw it start bubbling. And I felt the side of the board get hot. And I thought "gee, I bet that isn't going to work". And I didn't pour out the excess which hadn't yet boiled. And I went to bed. And I made a giant mess to clean up. Man I was mad. I knew better than that.

So, the next night, after stomping around the kitchen during dinner and explaining to Tristan that I had made a mistake and was angry with myself and now I had to fix it, I got right back in the saddle, drilled out all the poorly set epoxy, and routed out the top 1” of the blade - so I can do it again, 1/4” at a time. (Routers are crazy powerful tools - this is the first time I've used one since 2004.)

Then, I put in a layer of epoxy/206 (to slow the reaction)/407 into the very bottom to fill up the drill holes and made a level bottom. I let that cure, and came back and sanded off the top edge and sanded off the sides. I then cooked up a recipe for all the filler, and filled it in three squirts at a time. Even the last layer of epoxy/207/graphite had small bubbles in it - and it was only about 3/16” thick. Of course, immediately after having done that I read the line in the instructions which says "slide the board into the hull and mark along the top so the top edge matches the angle of the deck". Oh yeah.

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How much epoxy was that?

At some point, I realized that I had gone through a lot of epoxy. I set out to find out how much. When I first ordered my big order from John R. Sweet (who has since sold the business; now it's Sweet Composites), I ordered two 4.35 gallon containers of West 105-C resin. The first one disappeared around 2004-08-30. The second one disappeared on 2006-08-19. And since then, I've bought six cans of 105-B resin - another one and a half of the big tubs. Could have saved myself a bit of money there... (As an aside, a lot of the time there's a small amount of epoxy left over after a job - and it just cures in the plastic cup. And I've gone through quite a few plastic cups...)

While I'm at it, I should mention that the quantities specified in that Sweet order for 403 microfibers ($150, 20 lb. carton), 407 filler ($290, 14 lb. carton) and (to a lesser extent) 406 colidial silica are way too much. They're the size of moving boxes - 14” x 16” x 21” - and I've only taken small amounts from them. Better would have been to buy the large cylinder containers from Fisheries. (Psst, hey buddy - need any filler?)

Here's my laundry list of purchases for various West products:

epoxy pics:

• 2004-08-30 first tub gone, start making cradle
• 2004-10-04 hull off forms
• 2005-02-27 confirm big tub
• 2005-04-17 confirm big tub
• 2005-06-12 confirm big tub, dregs (tipped)
• 2006-08-21 confirm big tub
• 2006-08-28 big tub gone.

Tiller, Reloaded

This week was focused on two tasks: fill and fair the centreboard and rudder (primarily to burn time up while waiting for another tiller blank to arrive from Greg), and then to build the tiller when the blank did arrive.

I started in on fairing the centreboard, and moved on to the tiller. There are definitely some low spots in places, particularly on the side which was curved down, so this filling is necessary.

I marked around the areas which needed filling with a pencil - in order to attempt to avoid the mistake I made on the hull, where I marked with red marker, then epoxied over it, then sanded back down to the marker - which still shows through. Perhaps using a (graphite) pencil won't be similarly afflicted. Sand all the low areas out with the random orbital, then fill with a mixture of epoxy/205/407/graphite. Return and fair. Sanding these down takes a while, as long as sanding the black does. At first it looks like it will be quick because all the high spots disappear, and then you hit the big meaty area and slow right down.

Next up was building another tiller. Cut the scrap hybrid (again, pulled so it was on a bias), and shape the mylar sleeve. Learning from my last mistake, I wrapped a few pieces of newsprint around the blank to model all the hybrid and graphite, and then wrapped the mylar around the newsprint. Without the newsprint, the blank slips about 14” past the end of the mylar.

I bought 9’ of 2” light 7.5 (700 tensile strength) weight carbon sleeve. When expanded, this fit nicely over a larger PVC pipe through which I could slide the blank as well as the mylar sleeve. (Tip: Poking the end of the blank or mylar into the flat sleeve opens the sleeve up a bit and allows it to slide onto the pipe a bit easier.)

Then, it was all down to time. Wet out the hybrid, apply the 3” uni-carbon tape, slide the thick end of the tiller into the PVC pipe and cover 24” worth. To do this, I slipped the (wet) tiller into the pipe to the right depth, and pulled it out while squeezing the tubing in place. It would have been better to have a slightly longer pipe, so the end of the tiller wouldn't have touched the slack tubing (thus saving it for another day). Then put on another layer of carbon sleeve over the entire tiller, wrap in peel-ply, slip into the mylar sleeve (which was exactly the right circumference, lucky me), slide that into the foam core, and clamp to the bench top.

While I sliding the mylar into the foam saddles, I had a moment of "oh f*** I've ruined another one" - sliding the mylar into the blue sleeve, there's no easy way to cause it to go in, and the tiller buckled and bent the mylar. It didn't break outright, though, and I decided to just clamp and hope for the best.

From the 9’ of carbon sleeve I had, 66” remain. Were I to build another tiller, I wouldn't use mylar as the separation layer. I'd either put it directly in (with peel-ply) and then sand off the blue (ug), or I'd use plastic wrap or the release film I bought from Fibreglass supply. This would let me bend the mold, which I still think is cool.

Finally, I filled the other side of the centerboard and rudder. I also have a picture of the spreader collar - one less part to build. After looking at this I probably could have made it myself. But I'm building the rest of my boat. ;-)

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Bill's building method for the tiller

Bill read my disaster post and wrote with his proposed building method. As always, Bill has great ideas - I like the look of his tiller (the curved look - he clamped it to the jib track to get this; Bram is now using a straight tiller with no upturn at the end). And the idea of bonding it with just the hybrid, then slitting it and bonding in place, and then putting the carbon sleeve around it seems like a better way to approach it than building the tiller all at once and attaching to the rudder box. Ah well. Next time.

Warren,

I read your recent blog about the tiller handle disaster and am sorry that you broke the foam blank. When you get the new one from Greg, try my method for the layup. Buy some hybrid sleeve from Soller Composites.

Cover the foam blank with one layer of hybrid sleeve while dry, stretching the hybrid so that it shrinks to the shape of the foam blank. Hold the stretched hybrid in place with small cinch ties placed beyond each end of the foam blank (like the twisted skins on sausage links). Set up your jig (I used my jib track because it has a nice curve) to shape the foam blank into the desired tiller handle. Wet out the first layer of hybrid and squeegee it with glove covered hands to ensure complete penetration to the foam core. Cover the wet out blank with peel ply and plastic sheeting and place this into the tiller handle saddle. Place the saddle and lay up into the jig and clamp to shape while curing.

This will give you a base tiller handle that you can install onto your rudder cassette before you add the final layers to the handle. When cured, remove from the saddle and peel ply. Hollow out 12" to 15" of the end to be connected to the rudder cassette so that you can fill it with epoxy filler made with West System 406/410 filler and polystyrene pellets (crumbled foam cups or packing material). The polystyrene pellets melt during the curing to make a strong but lightweight, rice-krispie treats-like, structure. You will cut a 10" to 12" split into the top and bottom side of the hollowed out tiller handle that will allow you to bend the hybrid around the rudder cassette for bonding. Mix up the filler, stuff it all the way into the hollowed out tiller and position it onto the rudder cassette at the desired angle to clear your foot rails on the wing steps with the rudder swing. I had positioned the pintle with several 1" long nylon-sleeve bushings in the correct position for the tiller handle to be bonded with the filler. You will end up with something like the picture below:

You can see the tiny holes in the sanded filler where the polystyrene pellets melted. The tiller handle was held in position with a jig to line it up with the cassette while curing. I then hollowed out the handle end to accommodate the tiller extension bungie cord. Once the tiller was shaped and sanded to remove the excess filler that oozed out while curing, an additional hybrid, straight carbon and fiber glass sleeve was applied individually, with peel ply, giving me four layers. Each sleeve was split to wrap around the cassette aft end for strength and was allowed only 2 - 3 hours cure time so that a chemical bond could be achieved. The sleeves were cut extra long and wetted-out on the handle, with the extra stuffed back into the hollowed out tiller handle end to strengthen the hole for the bungie cord. The extra sleeve material was packed against the inside of the hollowed out handle. When the final fiber glass sleeve, wetted out with epoxy/graphite powder, had cured, I cut some flat hybrid/glass stock (left over from the main sheet cleat base) and bonded it to the tiller to fashion a flat block to mount the tiller extensions. I drilled a 1/2" hole thru the bottom of the tiller handle for the bungie cord knot. See photo below:

The finished handle and cassette was coated in several coats of epoxy/graphite/406 to give it a nice smooth finish. See photo below for the final product:

I hope this helps make your fabrication easier. Let me know if you need any further details.

Bill

Here's a picture of Bram's latest tiller:

Black on the rudder/centreboard

This week I put another layer of black onto the centreboard and rudder. Fairly straightforward — one two three — although there were a few gotchas. Once I completed the first layer of epoxy/graphite, I decided I was going to try and fill in some of the divits and low spots with filler. I mixed it up and painted it on, but it didn't take too well — it drooped and didn't stay in the right place. I should have done this prior to painting the whole board. (And even better, let it cure and fair it out before doing the layers of graphite.)

Each application took five hours to cure. I believe this was because the temperature was low enough to be a problem in the garage. (Although that meant that I put the epoxy on at 8pm, 12:30am, and 5:30am. Odd, compared to the previous times I've done this.)

Then sand off the high parts, and prepare to fair.

I also took a picture of the mast base (a.k.a. "butt plug"), courtesy Greg. My list of needed parts is slowly dwindling.

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Requirements for sailing

I thought this post from Sailing Anarchy hit the mark.

Observations From The Check Book

Many of you know that I have purchased a Flying Tiger 10 Meter. This is a pretty big departure for me - back in my previous life as a sailmaker I was used to getting the checks, now I have to write them! I don't dig that. (Truthfully, it is not that bad, especially with partners, and so far worth every penny.) Plus I was used to just stepping on the boat, race, then head straight for the bar. Okay, that has pretty much stayed the same, but now I at least pick up the empties before I hose the boat off.

One of the reasons I decided to get back in the sport, this time as an owner, was that I wanted to have fun, on my terms. Sure, there is fun to be had on other people's boats, but I'm done with that. I wanted to have my friends sail with me and create my own particular brand of fun. We've just done the one race, and I'm never going to be the "here's a tip from the expert" kind of guy, but here are a couple of quick thoughts.

Find Your Fun. Sure, we all race hard, but in my book, there has to be an unyielding fun factor during the race or forget it, it just ain't worth it. Jokes, ball busting, ridicule (especially the other boats) and a general level of verbal anarchy is what I like. Kept within limits of course. No yelling. Ever. Sure the occasional bark of "What the fuck are we doing over here?" is fine, but yelling is for assholes, plain and simple.

Speed is King. I know, Captain Obvious just walked in the room, but for me it has always been about sailing fast. The essence of the sport is getting the boat going fast and keeping it there. I've always loved that. Get on board and sail the bitch as fast as she'll go. Sure, you need all the other ingredients to make a good cake, but i always like the fast part.

Good Vibe. This probably ties into Find Your Fun. Is there anything better than a crew that just seems to all be on the same page? Everybody gets along, everybody digs the vibe that they helped create. When we sailed New Year's Day, it was with guys I have known for up to 20 years. There is a camaraderie that is worth building and keeping. If it isn't a blast with your mates, for me, it isn't fun. And it's gotta be fun.

Four years!?!?

When people read this blog, I get one of two reactions: 1) Egads, four years?! You've been working on this for FOUR YEARS? or 2) You have two small kids! How do you possibly find the time? (Or: When I get home from work all I want to do is read a book!)

When I first started this project, I told my Dad "I'll use my reading time in the evening to work on it". Certainly I've done that. I kinda miss reading now and have to squeeze it in somehow...

Basically, it goes like this. The kids go to bed by 7pm. Household cleanup is complete by 7:30. At that point, I venture out into the garage and work for 2 to 3 hours on the boat. On weekends, I will occasionally spend naptime working on the boat - another 2 to three hour chunk in the afternoon. (Weekend afternoon work is nice because I'm less tired from the day's events and more motivated to get out there and work.)

I work on the boat on the evenings maybe three to four nights a week. A slow week is one night; a busy week is four. Every Monday is "computer night" and I do website updates and bills and whatever else needs doing. One night a week is TV night (usually Thursday or Friday) and I spend it with Tamara. And there's usually something else going on that I have to participate in: work runs late and I have dinner at work, sailing J/24s on Tuesday nights, parenting classes, or I just want to read a book.

Of course, working on building a boat two nights out of the week means that it takes four years to get it done. I have one of the earliest sail numbers (013) and was one of the first to buy plans after the WoodenBoat article, but my boat is also one of the slowest boats to be built. You can align the forms in two days; it took me a month. You can strip a hull in a day — it took me a month (although I did sand in there a bit). I admit that stripping I find very enjoyable and would take my time doing it to make it last a bit longer — but that's still a long time to be stripping a hull.

But four years is still a long time. When I started, Tristan was still taking afternoon naps - now, on the weekends, he builds with me. And Pascal wasn't even born yet...

At this point, boat-building has become a kind of pleasurable time occupier. I'm not really pushing myself to get things done by any deadline, so going out to work on the boat is just an enjoyable way to spend an evening. I still enjoy the problem-solving nature of working on the Swift - every night there's some new problem I need to think about. And planning what needs to happen next is also fun — acquiring parts, seeking out the best way to build the next part, how to make things work a bit better.

Building the tiller

I decided this was the week to build the tiller. Nice easy way to get back into things. Little did I know.

I began by cutting the materials - per Greg's instructions, I started out with a layer of hybrid. I further decided to pull this hybrid on the bias, so that the strands will transfer load further up and down the tube rather than right along the same position. So I pulled the hybrid along the bias, rolled the foam core, and cut.

Next up was preparing the carbon sleeve. The wisdom of the list is to slide the sleeve onto a tube, and then pass the tiller through the tube, feeding the sleeve on to the part as it goes through. Then work the tube into place, tightening it and sliding excess off the end. I slid this on to a PVC pipe kicking around - the PVC is wide enough to let the foam core pass through unimpeded, and then I will slide the carbon sleeve off on to the layup. I couldn't get all of the sleeve on to the pipe - part of it I just rolled up on a newspaper around a vacuum tube of about the same width.

Then, wet out the hybrid, apply two layers of 3” unidirectional carbon, and then slide through the PVC pipe.

And then, disaster. The foam core with the layup wouldn't fit through the tube. And when I was trying to get the layup back out, I broke the foam core. Disaster. I tried to rescue the foam core by bonding a layer of carbon along it and clamping it to a straight edge, but that just left a bunch of divits that I would have to go back and fair and sand. Alas. I need a new foam core.

Well, while that's in progress, back to completing the rudder and centerboard finish. I sanded them both down so everything is rough (and the epoxy will bond).

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A few links

I was searching in the Swift mailing list archives, and came across a number of interesting links:

• (link) Trapeze harness report. Ron says that the Magic Marine Ultimate (XL) harness is much better than the Gill offering.
• (link) How to cut hybrid like a hot knife through butter - wait until the epoxy is tack-free, and then cut with a knife or scissors. Greg also says:

  I do second Bill's suggestion of covering the whole sheet of material used to make the CB trunk and internal bulkheads and soldiers with peelply before cutting out the shapes. The lighter weight fine grained peel ply is just as good as the coarse woven stuff for our purpose and when the bulkheads are recoated with epoxy after installation, the fine woven texture that it leaves behind holds less epoxy on the surface.

• (link) Greg's comments on Christian's instructions on how to build the rudder box.
• (link) Greg's comments on vacuum bagging, and tips on how to ensure the bagged part turns out well. Greg bagged the internal bulkhead parts.
• (link) How to make hybrid tape.

  Simply stick two strips of 1/2 inch wide masking tape (or time tape) a few inches apart across the desired length of the hybrid material. Cut down the center of the masking tape strips to release the hybrid tape. When applying the hybrid tape to the job pull the taped sides in opposite directions to create biased fibers. With the masking tape on the underside you usually cannot see the tape but can still completely wet out the fibers. Stray fibers along the edge will also be held neatly and fairly blunt scissors can be used to cut the Kevlar and your leftover roll of Kevlar will not have frayed edges. If the bias hybrid tape is being used to reinforce along a curved shape, say the bulkhead/hull joint on a Swift, snip the masking tape edges of your hybrid tape every 10mm or so to allow it to flex as easily as the tape and conform to the required shape.

• (link) Greg's suggestions on how to strengthen the transom joints. If you do a lot of beach landings, consider screwing (instead of through-bolting) the bottom gudgeon to the transom - that way you loose the gudgeon instead of the transom. Also consider bias hybrid tape on the transom joint. Put hybrid on the back side of the transom instead of s-glass.
• From the same post, a way of glassing small parts and ensuring no bubbles (this would have been handy back in the beginning).

  This method works very well for small parts where the glass cloth is of a manageable size (not wider than your arm span). Paint the part first with resin with a brush or roller before you place the cloth. This allows you to get a much better control of resin across the part, then lay the cloth over the part. You will have no bubbles (unless you pick up the glass) as the resin filling the cloth drives out the bubbles. With practice you will be able to get just the right amount of resin to wet out the cloth but if too much or too little use the squeegee on top and redistribute resin. Make sure to roll up your glass in a clean and debris free way so you wont have to pick it up to remove a boulder of something that got underneath.

• And finally, a comment about the "wax on/wax off" method to ensure minimal resin impregnation at butt joints - save that resin to be used with tape, where the weight will be put to better use. I used something similar to this when I was sealing the top of the bowpiece.

  Dry cedar absorbs a lot of resin, so does endgrain materials but does not add much strength. Its clear that having the glass close to the core with a little as possible waste resin under it is the best situation. So to control more precisely the amount of resin I add to the lay-up, I often paint or roll on, and immediately wipe off with some rags, the base coat of resin. Wait just a bit for it to begin to gel (so that no additional resin will soak in) before placing the glass on top. A wet but slightly tacky gelling surface is good, really well gelled surface is too tacky to move the glass if you need to and past tacky is not giving a chemical bond. Pick up the rags from the floor after your done (or leave them there forever) and feel how much waste resin you saved from soaking in!! I think this method makes a lighter product but not enough resin is left on the surface to push out the bubbles so its not a soak up method as described above. Remove small bubbles by applying pressure with the squeegee though as I described above. If you have saved resin weight you can then afford to reinforce joints liberally to stay near the target weight but then with added stiffness.