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Buildlog 2015
22 dec 2015 This time I did not have many days to work on the boat, but one long day was enough to finish the laminating job on the hull. This actually was the biggest job I've done on the boat so far. Not so much in terms of area laminated, but because of the extra laminate on the bottom. I mixed a record amount of resin. It took me nine hours of uninterrupted work. I started with cleaning and degreasing the hull, attaching the split vacuum bag and then placing the basic laminate. I used the dry lay-up for the first layers. As I knew it would be tight time wise, it was easy to step into the trap of hurried work, but I made sure to get a good wet out of the laminate. Ian specifies a reinforcement for the middle part of the hull bottom, with optional extension to the bow. I opted for this as I want to dry out frequently. I replaced part of the glassfibre with kevlar as this is lighter and more tear resistant. Where possible I wet out the cloth on the laminating table. I was ready laminating in a reasonable time, but as the vacuum bag was really big it took a long time of kneading the tacky tape edges before I started to hear any hissing and was able to focus my search for leakages. I use four tubes for pulling the vacuum via two taps. Using the taps to direct the vacuum alternately to the front and the back I was able to slowly eliminate the leakages. In the end it took more than two hours before I got more than 0.6 bar and was able to relax. For the first batches of resin this was a bit too late. Not a big problem as I had made sure the basic laminate was neatly laminated. On the thicker parts the vacuum had nicely compressed the laminate and pulled out the excess epoxy. Such a large laminating job with vacuum bagging actually is a bit too big to do on your own. With two or three people you can work much faster. If you have to work alone, it is probably better to use vacuum infusion, like here or here. All major lamination work is finished now though. From now on there are only smaller jobs. Before turning the hull I first had to tape the front of the water ballast bulkhead. In preparation for glueing the front bunk I had to glue a conduit in place. Also I found out that one of the glue ridges was 3mm too high, so I redid that one. With the hull on its side I have good access.
 5 dec 2015 I soon was ready to laminate the keel, but found out I had run out of vacuum foil. Luckily Arno still had some to spare. Still, it turned out I couldn't start laminating as I need to be able to work 7-9 hours in one go for this big job, which I couldn't this week. No problem, as there were many other things to work on while the hull is inverted. On three places I had to reinforce the underside of the deck. I did them all under vacuum. In these cases I reuse the vacuum foil that I used for the outside of the hull. Sometimes there is a small leak in the foil, but this is easily repaired with some duct tape. At the rear end, under the cockpit floor, there were a few jobs as well. In the build book Ian writes: "Yes, you have to crawl in there". It is very tight indeed and I'm glad that I have a good carbon filter mask. Otherwise the fumes of acetone and epoxy will get to you in such a cramped space. Now I didn't smell a thing. First I laminated the water ballast control guide tubes in place. These also serve as air vent. Then I placed the reinforcement tapes for the rudder mount and started taping the cockpit floor underside to the hull. Lastly I glued the front bulkhead of the water ballast tank in place ( no picture I'm afraid ). In the mean time my easy cutter also gave the ghost after five years of service. Time for a new one!
 16 nov 2015 After the cold October month this time November was much warmer than normal. It allowed me to take it easy on the heater. According to the instruction booklet it was very important to leave the slots in the exhaust uncovered. I quickly found out that this way I still got fumes into the shed. Time to cover the slots. After that the heater worked perfectly. Laminating the cabin top is another big job. Initially I did not have a workday with enough time to tackle this, so I diverted my time to a few smaller jobs. Last spring I had left the beams partly faired and I took this up again. Also I placed the aft bulkhead. Ian specifies aluminum of glass tubes for the aft mast support which are to be glued on the aft face of the bulkhead. As my rudder mount is different than planned I'm able to make them inboard, like on the F-32. It looks a lot better. I wrapped some glass around two PVC tubes and glued them in just before the bulkhead. I kept the tubes long for alignment. I also placed the rudder mount which I had made earlier. The mount is a highly loaded part and I want to be sure everything is taped well. Access will be good when I tape the underside of the cockpit floor later on. The only downside is that the hull still lacks some stiffness. That is why the plans call for this step later in the build. Now I have to check alignment every time I turn the hull around. I don't mind doing that as it gives me peace of mind regarding the taping of the rudder mount. For laminating the deck I used the dry method. This means I first laid the fabric on the hull and then applied the epoxy. It is more difficult to get a good wet out but saves time. I think that laminating such big areas under vacuum is on the limit of what you can do on your own. This time when applying vacuum I found out I had a leak in the temporary foam of the cabin entry. Even though I could reach the leakage on the inside I could not completely close it off. In the end I was able to reach 0.6 bar with both pumps. Enough. Now I was able to turn the hull upside down and the whole circus of sanding and filling started again. Only a few reinforcements were needed and this time I did not use HD foam, but carbon reinforced putty. To check if I had drawn them in the right position, I put a bright light in the hull. This is a major advantage of building with glass. With a carbon hull you can't see anything, but now I was able to see the internal reinforcement. For laminating the bow I did not use vacuum. The nose radius is sharp and with four layers of glass you will get wrinkles there. Now I used the 'poor mans vacuum' method. I wet out the glass on a plastic sheet. After applying the glass and the peelply I also applied the sheet and used a scraper to remove all bubbles and excess resin. It gives a nice result.
 30 okt 2015 After the previous update the temperature dropped quickly. It was sooner than I had hoped for and made further epoxy work impossible. In previous winters I then went to work on smaller projects in the party tent. Those are all finished, so I invested in an indirect diesel heater. It took a bit of work to get the exhaust ducting outside, without drilling a hole in the barn. The barn is well insulated, so a 30KW heater should keep me in business.  13 okt 2015 The next step again had me filling holes and foam edges, followed by sanding. The front part of the hull is a major job. This time it is even more cumbersome as I partly had to work on top of the hull. A year ago I laminated the port side. It took me 5 hours then. Now it took half an hour more. While working on the vacuum bag I discovered that on one point epoxy had seeped under the tape that is supposed to keep the hull clean. Normally that is end of story for bagging a part. I have found a way to work around it, but it takes some time. After that I still had several small leaks to deal with and after 90 minutes I finally got slightly more than 0.6 bar. This is enough, but the epoxy had already started to cure. That was visible next day as less epoxy than normal had been sucked into the bleeder cloth, although the laminate did look good. Next up is the deck. I left an 80 cm wide strip free ( as well as on the bottom ). First I had to place some more HD foam. Where the mast and the cleat will go I also added a few layers of glass. On one position I made an error. Either I had sanded away too much foam, or the router was set too deep. It needs a repair on the inside.  The cut out for the pop top needs a vertical edge. This is important as it will allow the pop top to be lifted easily. Ian gives the choice between a wood strip or foam/glass. The last is a lot lighter of course. As Ian did not define how much glass to use, I stayed on the safe side and used 3 layers of 400 gram glass. Light and very stiff. The edge needs to be placed exactly vertical while the deck is slightly round. I made the edges over sized with an L-shape. This made it very easy to get the edges placed vertical in the ditch that I had routered into the roof.
 23 sep 2015 Before laminating the aft side I did some sanding and bogged all foam seams and holes. On the starboard side I will place a small hatch to have access to flares etc. in case the boat goes inverted. It will go in a curved area, so I glued a flat plate where the hatch will go. With the hull on its side like this I needed to reach very high to work on the highest point, even after I raised my work platform. So, after laminating the aft side of the hull, I made two new stands, based on frames # 5 and # 9. This way the boat is a lot lower. With the cockpit area laminated the hull shape is now stable enough for the hull to be supported at two points only. The supports are placed exactly where there is a bulkhead in the hull. On its side like this would be normal for a monohull, but I hope never to be sailing at such an angle
 5 sep 2015 After taping the cockpit floor and placing the bulkheads at the end of the seats I was ready to remove the hull from the mold. As the daggerboard case is not in place yet, I stiffened the hull with a few battens. Unscrewing more than 2000 screws in three hours felt a bit like a work out, although my trusty bosch did all the work. I did bring in some help for the difficult to reach places. With the hull in one piece stiffness had increased a lot and it could not be worked free out of the mold, so it was time for plan B: cutting through all battens near frame 7. While slowly putting tension on the tackles and wiggling bow and stern it easily went out. After breaking down the mold and the strong back I placed the boat on the supports that I made earlier. They keep the gunwale level, which I need later when placing the CMM's. From the strong back parts I made a work platform to make it easier to work on the hull. Later a second one will follow. Using the window molds I routered the rebates in the foam. It took a lot less time than on the port side, as I now only had to mirror the position. Also I placed high density foam in places where hardware will be mounted on the cabin. With my laser level I checked the symmetry of the join where the deck meets the cabin top. This is a hard spot to get right and I had to sand away a bit of foam to get it symmetrical. The bow was straight and exactly vertical. The plans ask for quite a small radius at the bottom. I don't like it that much, so decided to make the curve proportional to the curve of the floats. As the bow of the main hull is about one third higher than the float bow I took a 120mm radius and I think it looks good. The foam strip is glued on to sand a nice radius to the nose. I don't want a very sharp bow, as that might be easy to damage. Radius will be about 6mm, just like on the floats. The rest of the hull hardly needed any sanding, so it was time to lift it up again and place it on some form frames, ready for laminating. Even with the work platform, it still is very high up.
 18 aug 2015 Because of the school holidays I still had to grab a few hours here and there to make any progress. After laminating the cabin bulkhead I was ready to place the cockpit floor. However, I first wanted to laminate the reinforcement of the cabin floor. It is easier to do that when the hull is upright, but I want that portion of the hull to be as stiff as possible, so I decided to do it now. The glass cloth was wetted out on the table and easily stuck to the vertical hollow shape of the floor. I could not get the peelply to stick though. It kept falling off. With the lamp in the now enclosed hull, the temperature was rising as well ( and I was drenched in sweat ) so I did not have much time left as the epoxy cures faster. in the end I taped the bleeder cloth, perforated foil and peelply to the vacuum foil, so the vacuum would keep everything in place. This worked reasonably well but on one spot only the bleeder cloth was present, so it stuck to the laminate. Working carefully with a belt sander ( a vibrating sander does not work well here ) I was able to get most bleeder cloth off. A bit is still there. I guess I will have to saturate it with epoxy and then sand again. It won't be visible in the end product. Placing the cockpit floor was easy as I had made ridges on the hull. I checked alignment with the laser and only a few spots had to be trimmed. After taping the top edge I also placed the starboard cockpit seat. Again with only a bit of trimming.
 1 aug 2015 In between the holiday outings and my work I was able to squeeze a few hours on the boat. All reinforcing foam ribs have been glued in place. I decided to postpone laminating the ribs on the roof to when the hull lies inverted. Much easier then. Before placing the starboard I first checked the fit of the starboard cupboard. No problems there. I couldn't resist also placing the settee and front bunk to get a feel for the interior. No surprises here either. By not running the settee all the way aft I created some free space with standing headroom under the pop top. With the main bulk head now in place, access to the cabin is restricted.K Before fitting the cockpit floor, I first wanted to laminate the reinforcing rib that will sit under the rudder mount, while there still is some room. I still needed some help for checking the leakages though 
 13 july 2015 After the cold spring I now returned home into a heat wave. In the shed it was too humid to work with epoxy initially. As the school holiday had started as well, it was ideal for some sailing and wind surfing. In the end I only worked on the boat for three hours. A few doublers need to be made under the deck. Because of the curvature of the deck I have to do the reinforcement in two steps, as the foam likes to drift away while laminating. Because of the school holidays the next update will have to wait a few weeks.  26 jun 2015 During one of the few warm days that we had I was able to laminate the inside of the deck. After trimming the centerline edge I was ready to glue the hull halves together. At this point I'm deviating from the plan book. Normally the daggerboard case needs to be placed first. From other builders I know that it is a major obstacle when you need to laminate inside the hull. I also delay placing the starboard main bulkhead, so I have easy access into the hull now. The cockpit floor is so big that I had to place it between the hull halves before joining. I placed a few wedges between the hull halves so I could carefully place the hull in the correct position. Internal scaffolding of the port hull last year really paid off as the hull shapes conformed easily. A bit of glue and a few extra hands to remove the wedges resulted in one big hull. Alignment is good and I only needed a few straps to pull the halves together. Although it still is cold for the time of the year, I'm now less dependent on the weather. The inside of the hull is easily heated and the foam is a good insulator. After gluing the hull halves together I placed the beam bulkhead and started taping the seam. I also try to laminate all reinforcements now, preferably under vacuum. Finding leakages is difficult though. The sizzling noise echoes all through the hull. At one point I thought I still had quite a few leaks, but couldn't locate any. One look at the vacuum meter showed me I had 0.9 bar/ 27". More than enough. I had the chance to buy a ready made Dragonfly 25 carbon mast. It's a bit different from the F-85SR specs, but not much. The sail plan will be slightly different as the jib will end up a bit higher. I have to make my own fittings for the stays so I made a mold that allows me to make a propper fitting fitting. The mast is now up high and dry in the shed. I also stumbled onto a second hand Corsair 28 boom. It was my intention to initially use the aluminium boom and later go carbon, re-using all blocks and hardware. According to the specs on the Yahoo f-boat forum the boom should be the same as for the F-85SR. When I got home and rolled the boom out of the carpet I started measuring and found the boom section to be a lot bigger ( 146 x 96mm ). The complete boom weighs almost 18 kgs. Way too much. Luckily I could source a broken carbon Nacra 20 mast. It is a lot lighter, but still needs some work before I can transfer the hardware.
 6 june 2015 My previous update was more than a month ago. After a nice family holiday I was struck with the flu, so I lost almost a full month of boat building time. Last week I slowly picked up the building again. I taped some bulkheads, laminated the cabin side and reinforced the bow. I also placed the cabin top foam in position ( forgot to take a picture ). The fore deck was layed down in one piece again. It takes a lot of heat and a bit of patience, but it looks good afterwards.
 1 may 2015 For a few days it looked like the weather would be nice and I was able to make a few ridges in the hull, where the bunk, the settee and the cockpit floor will be placed. The temperature dropped again soon and I was back working on other projects. I made two nets for under the cockpit floor. Along the edge I used elastic cord for flexibility. In the one shown, the washboards and companionway ladder can be stored. I did some more filling and fairing as well. Also I routered foam blanks for a daggerboard for an F-82R that is partly being upgraded to F-85 standard. Lastly I place the foam for the cabin side. When the temperature finally rises I can continue work on that.
 14 april 2015 Starting today the weather has improved a lot in the Netherlands, but that doesn't help me, as my play time is over until sometime next week. It was still too cold to start work on the main hull. I had completed all smaller jobs that I had planned for this winter, although I could still think up a few. Aside from that, the router of my CNC machine decided to go on strike, which didn't really help either. I started filling and fairing the beams. As they are quite narrow, it is difficult to get the surface nicely squared, so I am working on the beams in pairs. This makes it a lot easier. With the low temperatures it takes two days before I can start sanding, even while heating the beams in between. I don't want the elctrical heaters running when I'm not there, but is a pain .... So I did two more small projects on the side. I made a bracket for mounting the autopilot on the tiller and also made a flag staff that will also carry the stern light. If I mount the light on the hull, it might be obscured by the outboard in some cases, so I want it mounted a bit higher.
 30 march 2015 I laminated the pop top inside and the instrument cover at the same time. That saves a lot of preparation time for the vacuum. To get the cover from the mold I had demolish the mold, but the result was very nice. I cut the pop top roughly to size. I will probably have to cut it back a bit more, but that is after fitting it on the hull. On the inside I glued wood strips onto which the Ronstan tracks will be screwed. The drawing that Ian provided for the cockpit floor is for the top surface and it fits well. The shape tapers to the bottom, so I still had to cut the floor to size. I used my laser level to measure the difference before cutting the floor. As I decided to go for water ballast in the rear I still had to glue on two brackets for controlling the suction bailers. I did that under vacuum. Also I decided to use two inspection hatches in stead of one. The foam needs to be decored and filled. To get a smooth surface I sealed the bog with strips of mylar brought under pressure with a party balloon. Works very well! The aluminum bolts need to fit into rebated holes, so I can align them. I'd already cut the holes before I laminated the top sides of the beams last year. It was now an easy task to find these and cut away a bit of carbon. The beams are now ready for filling and fairing.
 12 march 2015 The settees have been bogged and trimmed. Probably I can trim them back further later on, but I first want to build a mock up and trial sit in the hull before I do that. Before I can sand back the bog it first has to cure fully and that takes time in a 7 ºC shed, so I'm leaving that for now. I had the rudder case meassured out and was ready to glue the remote control horn in place. Even though I have confidence that everything will fit, I have decided to wait until I can visually line the horn out with the cockpit floor. The pop top has been bogged and roughly faired on the outside. As the foam has only been laminated on one side, the construction is not very stiff yet, so I glued some reinforcement on the sides ( on the part that will be trimmed back later anyway ). I pulled of the mold without problems and have started fairing the inside. Also I've started a mold for the interior instrument cover. On the picture the front of the pop top looks a bit distorted, but that is purely photographic. The sheave blocks for water ballast control are ready. Also the production of the aluminium eye bolts is finished. I made the M10 thread on a lathe. This is much easier, faster and more accurate than cutting the threads by hand. And this way you don't get sore muscles after cutting 50 bolts.
After accurately drilling the holes I used a router bit for rounding
off the edges. It is actually a router bit for woodworking, but it
works well on aluminium as well. I now have to finish polishing with
400 grit sandpaper and when that is ready they can be anodized. I think
I'll have them black anodized, just like the folding struts.
 21 feb 2015 Two jobs need completion before I can start fairing and finishing on the rudder case. With the cutouts for the gudgeons finished, they had to be covered with a thin laminate. Ian specified carbon, but I decided to use two thin layers of glass. Firstly it adheres better to the sharp bends and secondly it allows me to look through the layers to spot the foam inserts that I had used to protect the pivot tube from any epoxy running inside. Next up is the control horn. The temperature in the shed continues to drop. Although I can still get the tent warm enough,the temperature quickly drops when work is completed and it takes longer for the epoxy to really cure. So, in between laminating I did some other jobs. I made supports for the main hull. They are cut in such a way that the gunwale will be horizontal. This is needed for aligning the folding system. Also I started producing 50 aluminium eye bolts. These will be mounted on the beams to hold the trampolines. I need 44, but want a few spare. Work for these on the lathe is now finished. The design is loosely based on the eye bolts that Ian uses for his production F-22. The pop top has been laminated on the outside. As it is nicely secured on the mold, I will first do initial fairing while fitted on the mold. On the front of the pop top, there is a small channel to provide clearance with the mast during lowering and raising. Normally it is not needed, but my pop top is slightly higher than standard and I don't want to run the risk of having to remove the pop top every time I want to lower the mast. Both settees have now been laminated outside and inside.
 04 feb 2015 The traveler bridge was ready, so the next project is the sheave box for the water ballast control. I have all parts that I need now, including one self made laminated piece. The first settee is out of the mold. The outside needs some trimming before lamination. The second settee is going into the mold now. The settee might look a bit wide as it is in the picture. I still need to trim off 5cm from the edges and it can be trimmed back further when fitting into the hull. All major laminations on the rudder case are ready. The last sequence consisted of several layers uni carbon sandwiched between a few layers double bias carbon. I did not want to use vacuum on the uni, so I decided to break the work up into 3 parts, even though it would be better to laminate everything in one go. To apply vacuum without compressing the case, I made a double bag, like a donut. This worked very well. The foam for the pop top is on the mold now. I had hoped to shape the sides in one piece. The foam oven did not heat up enough though as the temperature in the shed had gone down to 7 ºC. In the end I split the sides in three pieces. This takes a bit more sanding and shaping than I had hoped. The edge has a radius of about 10 cm. If you bend the corecell over a tube of about half the radius, the foam springs back just enough to remain in the correct shape.
 14 jan 2015 A few parts still needed foam to be removed from the edges. I use a small circular saw on the dremel to router the foam away from the laminate edge. Then I remove the rest with my multitool. This doesn't take much time and leaves a nice even cut that can be filled with epoxy bog for a hard and smooth finish. The G10 tube for the rudder pin of the rudder case is now glued into place under the correct angle and secured by fibre reinforced putty. All in small steps. Working on different small projects at the same time initially takes a lot of preparation time without real visible progress. Once you reach the laminating stage it is a great advantage to combine the small projects. Whether you have a large lamination or a small one, the curing time is about equal and makes you have to wait for the next step. I don't know the hole pattern for the main traveler yet. That is why I glued the foam parts for the traveler bridge stacked vertically with HD foam in the middle. The bridge has to be wrapped in carbon, but I elected to laminate top and bottom separately with overlapping pieces. The underside will be under compression from the sheet forces so I want the uni carbon to be as straight as possible. This means I don't use vacuum as you always get small dimples with thick layers. After the peelply I overlayed some vacuum foil and worked away all air bubbles. This way you can also spread away any excess epoxy. This was followed by light clamping. The clamping piece always wants to drift away, so it has to be secured well. The result was very smooth. The topside only needs one layer of double bias carbon. I laminated this under vacuum. The rest of the carbon will be laminate once the bridge is glued into place in the hull. The mold for the poptop is ready as are all smaller parts. I was able to source some 300 gram carbon during Christmas sale, so the poptop will mostly be carbon. Light and stiff. I'm very happy with the shape. I draw in 2 D and it is always difficult to predict the resulting 3D shape. The foam parts and mold for the settees are ready as well.
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