Some sailing, some fairing

I've been away for a short holiday and got a few days in the Oslo fjord. "Frimann" is still sailing, but I am really looking forward to it's retirement and replacement with the F-22.

Here is a few pictures of Frimann crewed by Thomas and me and 5 children "overtaking" a mono (Avance 24, finished 3rd in Færder last two years) with some friend and a camera:


When shaping the bows I found that my floats were slightly concave in this area. I discussed the intended shape with Ian Farrier who says they are intended to be sraight in this area. I will make the leading edge as slim as I dare (5-6 mm) and fill with fairing compound, some now and the rest outside the laminate. I concentrate on removing any high spots at this stage to minimize the need for filling up later.


Turning the floats from side to side is easy when suspended from the ceiling:

Leading edge "under construction":

I am still fairing but the two floats are soon ready to recieve the outer laminate. I also have to make some repairs to the "Snipe". More updates when there is something to tell.

Float shaping continued

I placed the float in form frames 5 and 9 and started to fair the inner side with the long board. As I was doing this I realized that my oblique abdominal muscles will be in a much better condition when these floats are finished. The object with the fairing is to remove any high spots and fill the most obvious low spots prior to lamination in order to save a lot of work with the final filling and fairing. Here the low spots are circled with a marker:


Then it was time to test the SP system S'fill 600. I found it excellent, not much to compare with but I don't know what I would like different. Here are the resin (white) and hardener (black) buckets:


And the float after filling low spots and joins in order to prevent resin "race tracking":

Another view:


While curing I attacked the port float with the planer (found the name of it!) and the curved sanding board. As you can see in the left part of this pictures it produces quite a bit of a mess.

Float shaping

Today I glued on the bow caps, fixing them with straps to the chain plate while curing.


Then I started forming the deck to side radius, first making the major cut away with this machine, which English name is unknown to me. I call it an "elektrisk høvel".


Proceeding with several of the tools shown below, the PVC-tube sanding board now equipped with 60 grit paper glued to it using "Kontaktlim":



Inner radius formed. I had to be careful not to remove parts of the seating for the hatch, and it was a bit tricky to make a smooth shape due to the chain plate but I was satisfied with this side in less than an hour.


Then the same procedure on the outer side, not being complicated by a chain plate and it was quite pleasant work as the result became obvious with quite modest efforts.


Overview of starboard float deck:


I expect further progress tomorrow.

Float and deck joining

It is now one week since I joined the port deck and float, I have not had time to visit the workshop since then, but here is an update on last weeks progress.

Workshop overview with the Sb float with deck, the port deck waiting for the float on the table and the port deck ready for final preparations:


The Sb deck came out very even and fair, will not be much filling and fairing:


I started to make the deck to side radius using Jay's idea with a part of a 10cm PVC tube with a piece of MDF attached to it. I have not yet come up with a good solution on how to attach the paper to the "board":


Now joining port float. A hole in the deck and the table to receive the chain plate:


Deck and bulkhead flanges are filled roughly and sanded down with the longboard. Hole in the beam bulkhead to receive the dowels mounted in the table...:


...and trough the deck at specified position:


After vacuuming and de-greasing I started to apply the epoxy thickened with a mixture of microballoons and microfibers. One of the rare pictures of the boat builder due to a visitors appearance in the workshop:


Almost ready for joining....


Applying "bog" to the last part of the flanges:


And with help from the visitor the float was turned up side down, slipped right in to the dowel holes and then strapped to the floor while curing. You can also see the proud owner of two joined floats: