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Buildlog 2017
23 dec 2017 Now that the beams are ready it was time to pick up other small projects as a diversion from fairing and sanding. First I had a good look at the planbook, to see if I had any unfinished items. It turned out that I still had one open item on the forward CMMs. Also I still had to make the removable strut. This fits in the cockpit between the aft beams and is used when pushing the boat hard. Parts for this are now ready. For a long time I was uncertain how to make the pulpit, but finally I found a suitable solution. It will be a partial copy of the setup of the production F-22. As a fuselage mount I wrapped a PVC tube in glass fiber. Also I made a carbon tube for the mast rotation limiter. A year ago I also tried this, but this time I used the candle wax method. The tube came off easily. There is a bit of play, but I will solve that with a thin teflon strip. Upfront in the cockpit I will have two small hatches. I had already made the carbon hinges and the hatch. Now I glued a ply ridge inside the cutout. Laminating and filling is only done on relatively warm days. Smaller parts can be taken home to fully cure. Other work needs several days to cure. In between I do a lot of sanding, primarily on the floats. I'm now half way on these. I now had space to work on the boom again. First I used the boom as a mold to make internal reinforcement strips that will be glued on the beam ends. The mainsail outhaul will be bolted on the aft part. As I had cut off the mast groove I needed to reinforce the boom. I wanted to laminate without any overlaps and couldn't find any double bias tape, so I used a carbon sleeve. First I wet out the boom and placed the sleeve on top. Then I cut it open. Works great. With peelply on top I then applied a plastic cover which I used to smooth everything out. I think I only have to fill and fair the laminate edge. The narrow cabin side is hard to fair in one go. That's why I used the ridge method again. When fully cured I can sand them down and fill them again. In between I also cut out the windows. The cabin feels more spacious now.
 11 Dec 2017 Today I received a message that Ian Farrier, designer of my boat, unexpectedly died yesterday. As a designer he was very important in the development of trailerable multihulls. His folding system was revolutionary. The building book that accompanied the drawings makes building easy and even though he was very busy he was very approachable and very quick to answer any questions. His efforts made it possible for many people to build a high performance multihull by just following the book. He will be missed. My thoughts go out to his family and friends. 30 nov 2017 As the temperature started going down, I decided to focus on filling and keep the sanding work to a minimum. The floats had been roughly faired a few years ago. There were still some imperfections and many scratches from the rough sandpaper that I had used. That is why I applied another thin layer with my fairing knifes. In between I also had to fit my Nacra back into the shed, so it was a bit tight space wise. The filler now has the time to cure fully. On the main hull I started fairing the cockpit and the cabin. Also here I first apply a layer that fills the low areas. Inside I continued filling the glass fibre weave. Before I can fill the cabin sides I first needed to make square edges in the window cutout, using the mold. I needed a cutout in the anchor locker hatch. For this I made a small tunnel. Of course I first cut the wrong side of the hatch. I had warned myself before I started cutting; meassure twice, cut once, but to no avail ... On the locker edge I made a ridge that will guide the anchor rope inside. The beams sides were mostly fair, so I only needed to fill the edge. The inner ends are highy loaded as they are clamped onto the CMM's, so I carefully faired these with a high density filler. When everyting had cured I used my router to make a nice edge on the underside. After sanding with 120 grit, the beams are now ready for primer as well.
 31 oct 2017 Before applying the last layer on the starboard side of the hull, I had to fair the transition between the bottom and side layers. This allowed me to apply the last layer and start sanding. In the end I was not happy with the bow shape and fairness. When I turned the boat upside down I applied another layer there. I now run the risk of an edge that is hard to fair. I hope it turns out well. The underside of the trampoline tubes are a difficult spot to fair. First I used some templates to apply the filler. I have to hand sand it all. Using an electric sander is less tiring  .In between I also worked on other parts and I started fairing the foil guides. Almost all smaller parts are now ready for epoxy primer. As a last item I made a guide for the anchor line. The undersides of the beams are fair now ( except for maybe a few spots ). The recess for the upper folding strut is hard to get fair. I think I will paint them in a dark colour  .The beam sides are next. I had already faired these, so now I only have to fair the edges into the existing shape.
 30 sept 2017 After gluing the foil slides in place, I laminated them to the hull with a few layers of glass. A last check of the fit of the foils (  ) allows me to
start
fairing there as well.As I started fairing the hull in three stages, first the sides and then the bottom, it was now time to apply the last layer. I first did some careful extra sanding to get the shape correct and to smooth the transition between the layers on the port side. I then ran into the main disadvantage of kevlar: If you sand into kevlar, it will start to fluff. With a knife I was able to get it smooth again. I filled the area and sanded it smooth again. Then the hull was ready for the last fairing layer. I filled the side with the flexible putty knifes, as thin as possible. After it started to cure I filled a few areas that were in need of a bit extra filler. After complete curing ( I'm using a slow hardener and temperatures are slowly falling, so that takes a few days ) I was ready for sanding. The flexible knives have one disadvantage. They leave a small ridge. I carefully sanded these away before final sanding. The port side is now ready for the first primer layer.
 8 sept 2017 It's been a while since my previous update and I haven't been able to do much in the mean time. The floats were stacked on one side of the shed for four years and had become a bit greasy. On a nice day I took them out, cleaned them with dishwasher soap and rinsed with a high pressure washer. In the sun they dried quickly and were ready for further work. I laminated the foil cases under vacuum. Foil fit is good now, although still with a small margin. As the slides are positioned on the deck to hull radius, it is difficult to fix them in place. They have to be positioned exactly right as I don't want the foils to run foul of the case. So, I cut a few planks at an angle. This allowed me to fix the slides with shims and make sure the foils move freely. Filling and fairing of the main hull is slowly progressing. With the hull on its side I try to work on all accessible parts. Step by step the hull is getting fairer.
 14 july 2017 Arno needed his filling knives again for his own boat. I ordered them as well, but delivery is a bit slow. In the mean time I started on the other side of the hull. I didn't need the knives for this stage. For better sanding I bought a Rupes 42. Great sander. By alternating the rupes with my random orbit sander I need less hand sanding with the torture board. I use it for the pop top and the beams as well. At the deck side I filled the edges of all reinforcements. In between filling and fairing I started on the curved foils. It was time to check the fit in the floats and the foils slides. The slides are quite close to the hull and I will place them a bit higher. Trying to move the foils fore and aft, I ran into a problem. I had laminated the case onto the hull according to the plans with a few layers of glass. The foil did not have enough room to move freely. I carefully started sanding, but needed to sand away quite a lot. Arno laminated the cases with carbon ( thinner laminate ) under vacuum ( even thinner ) and did not have any problems. So, I'm going to do that as well. While sanding away the laminate my router cut two slides for Arno.
 1 july 2017 While sanding the hull I noticed that I'd made a mistake. In two steps I should first have filled the lows before redoing the whole hull. Now I again had a few lows. Not as many as first and only very shallow, but still. I filled them to be finished later. After that I turned the hull on its side. Together with my daughter I made some pics of the top side HD reinforcements. I made it all to drawing, but it is nice to be able to check dimensions when fitting deck hardware. The underside of the boat is not as fair as the rest because of all reinforcement layers. I first filled the laminate lengthwise. The curve of the hull is quite sharp, so I went back to the striping method for this part. Next up is filling in between. In the mean time we had some warm weather, and maybe the hottest day of the year. An opportunity that I did not want to miss. The epoxy that I use needs to be postcured. Some people think that epoxy hardens out slowly after time anyway and that it is not necessary any more after a few years of building. During the METS I talked to a Sicomin representative and he advised me to do it anyway, if only to get all epoxy at the same curing level. Glass fibre is quite flexible with more than 4% elongation at break. By postcuring the epoxy you get about the same elongation. Not fully hardened epoxy is more brittle and will be the weak link in the laminate. For curing I needed to get a temperature between 40 and 60 ºC. While the temperature outside was nearing 30 ºC, I managed to get the shed to about 45 ºC and maintain that for about 15 hours. Mission accomplished.  In between I continued fairing the pop top and also worked on the underside of the beams.
 15 june 2017 The last lamination job on the hull was the mast support under the deck. Several layers of carbon on a piece of HD foam were glued together under vacuum. This allowed me to start filling and fairing. Inside the hull I only fill the glassfibre weave. The woven cloth that I used has quite a course structure and I don't want to paint over it directly. On the outside I'm using a different method than used on the floats and the beams. A few other dutch builders used flexicat filling boards with good results. Arno allowed me to borrow them. The idea is to first sand away any epoxy runners and fill suspect 'low' areas. After that large areas are filled with the filling boards. At first I thought the large filling board would be awkward to work with. It turned out to be easier to work with than the smaller one. As my hull was already quite fair, the boards left only a minimal amount of fairing mix. I'm using 50% slow hardener ( which is thinner and allows a much longer working time ). As a filler I use a 2+1 mix of white and brown microballoons. To get the right consistency I mix the volume of filler with the epoxy in a ratio of 4 + 1. This gives a filler that is easy to apply and sand. After some sanding I found out I still had some 'low' spots. It's not a good idea to just fill these, as the edges of the new fill will stand out and are very difficult to get fair. So, I applied a second layer with the flexicats.This took less filler than the first one. Now I have to wait until I have time to start sanding again. After that I can turn the hull on it's side for the top en bottom parts. In between I also tackled some other tasks. For the Airtop 2000 I made a bracket which will allow the heater to hang below the cockpit floor. I also made a new exhaust hole, much further aft, just in front of the outboard. I also started filling and fairing other parts, so I can use any left over filler. In the pop top I had made some holes for instruments. I just found out that the new Triton 2 has square cut outs..... Time to fill these up until I know what I'll use.
 26 may 2017 After my previous update I again got flu like complaints. It took quite a while before a doctor was able to find out what was causing my illness. I finally got some medication and this allowed me to get back to work on the boat. I laminated the settee backs and the anchor locker bulkhead inside the cabin. After that I turned the hull on its side and laminated the bottom of the daggerboard case. It's a perfect fit. I also made holes for the bailers that serve the water ballast tank. Finally I turned the boat upside down. I still had a few laminating jobs to do. I now laminated the daggerboard case to the cabin roof. A lot easier to do this way. In between I finished some small jobs and started fairing the engine mount. One last laminating job to go in the main hull.
 19 mar 2017 It has been quite a while since my previous update. Returning home mid February it was freezing cold again. Time to pick up some more jobs that do no require epoxy work. The parts for foil control of the float foils had been waiting for further work for a long time already. First I had my router cut a few test pieces to check the fit. I found out that the thickness of the foils is not constant, so I made them fit to the thickest part. For the boom I started cutting the goose neck bracket. I need to have new brackets welded on to be able to bolt the boom onto the goose neck. The bracket at the end of the boom will be replaced with a carbon part. I made a mold for this. The tube for the mast raising installation needed a line catcher. It still needs finishing. At Ceilidh they made carbon tubes for my trampoline. They have internal reinforcement where needed. For the ends I still need to make aluminium brackets. These are needed to bolt the tube onto the beams. When the temperature started rising again after a few days, I got caught by the flu, which put me down for quite a while. I'll be slowly picking up some work again.
 2 feb 2017 As it was still freezing when I returned home I first started with metal drilling, turning, cutting and routering. The SS pins for the folding system still needed some work. I also made several aluminium parts for the anchor roller, the mast raising system and the bow sprit. Finally I made some prototypes of the conical nuts that I want to use under the cabin deck for mounting deck equipment. In the shed I started work on the boom. It is a recycled part of a Nacra 20 carbon mast and I had to cut off the mast groove. The resulting edge needs some reinforcement. I'll reuse part of the hardware of the much too heavy C-28 boom that I had picked up. I need to do some work on those parts though. Earlier I had problems when laminating a tube around a mold. Through Arno I got a tip from Rob to use molten candle wax to create a thin layer around the mold that will melt when heated and help to release the part. I needed to make a fitting tube for the mast raising yoke to fit into the windsurf mast. The method worked well. The part has a bit of play though. I had carefully sanded the wax smooth but I think it can be a bit thinner next time. In the cabin I glued the mini table in place and I laminated an eye for a lifeline under the cabin entry. Work on the seat backs is progressing and lastly I laminated the step to the cockpit. I had calculated the one layer of UD would be enough, but tripled that. Now the plank feels indestructible but still is very light weight
 19 jan 2017 At the front of the boat I glued the bow wing in place. For strength it still needs to be taped. I also cut the anchor roller bracket to size. For the anchor locker I drilled and filled the holes for the hinges. In the cabin I started taping the settees. I only tape the outside edges. The cupboards are in place now. I will not tape these as they are not subject to any loads. Under the starboard cabinet I laminated two hooks. For the cabin entrance I laminate U-shaped profiles and glued them into the cabin sides. The washboards fit nicely, but are still a bit oversize. For the doorstep I made a profiled piece of oak. The motor mount had been glued together, but still needed strengthening of the corners. I did this under vacuum. Then I glued it in position. After curing I carefully lifted the engine in place; All glue joints still need strengthening with glass tape. I got a good fit and the engine is able to turn to its stops
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