Hi Bram,
I appreciate your comments about the cradle. I would never use a dolley with
simple webbing to support the hull. I had a bad experience with one of these in
my previous sailing life.
You were right - constructing the cradle when you just want to get the hull
flipped and glassed is a time for patience!! - not always one of my strong
points.
I am taking care to ensure the hull gets good support at station 10 & 6 to
make sure it retains shape after it comes off the assembly. As I am now making
the full cradle I am thinking about some mini wheels at the front of it so that
even when mounted on a dolley I can drag the whole boat instead of lifting -
important at the end of the day when you are knackered. Another thing I will do
is put a couple of loops of spectra through the hull (may need a bit of cedar
blocking at this point prior to bonding) at station 10 when you get back to
shore you simply secure the boat to the dolley with some hooks on trapeze
cleats that are attached to the dolley. Voila your boat is now much more stable
on the dolley (You are basically increasing to beam of your boat to the full
width of the dolley) plus it is secured ready for trailering
The bit about Christians idea that appealed was that I wouldn't need to do
the support for station 6 plus the hull in station 6-8 area retains its shape
absolutely as it should. The point you make about no hybrid under these
bulkheads would be a concern to me as the compression loads at this point of
the boat are going to be very large.
I am really starting to look forward to meeting everyone at DeSoto and
learning more about the Swift Solo. The stuff about Geogeon Bros and hull
stiffness sounds especially interesting.
Cheers,
Steve
BDally6107@xxxxxxx wrote:
Steve,
A couple of things to consider regarding the cradle.
First, you need a trailer cradle, launching dolly / storage cradle anyway. I
use mine for dock storage/launching, for launching off the beach, and for
storage and transport inside my van trailer. If I had an open road trailer, I
would use it on that as well. The strap system that comes with the Seitech
dolly is marginal and not too good for storage when the wind is up--even when
the boat is tied down. The extra weight can be mitigated with "beach tires"
which have about twice the contact area of regular tires. Always best to store
a boat on something that is molded to the hull shape or to suspend it by the
gunwales. It is important that the carpet be something that is very open and
dries-even with the boat on it. Also, you'll see that the one I built doesn't
require having an independent dolly.
Construction methods:
I don't really see much of a problem with running the strips straight other
than appearance (they don't show on the bottom of the boat anyway). I would
want for Christian to get some time on his boat before trying his bulkhead
method. I'm not entirely certain how Christian dealt with tying the hybrid
together under the bulkheads (Christian)?
We will be giving a talk a Fort DeSoto about the finding of the testing we've
done with Gougeon. We believe we've isolated the majority of the problem of
hull stiffness degradation to bulkhead, mast step, and chain plate compression
where these items load the deck and hull (tee into the deck and hull). The
integrity of the hybrid or cloth spanning these loaded areas may be crucial but
probably less on a wood cored skiff than on a foam or Nomex core.
Best regards,
Bram
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