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  1. #46
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    Here's the rudder stuff so far:

    1) All the bits:

    Hardwood gudgeons, roughly shaped, drilled, epoxy filled then drilled to exactly the diameter of the pintle.

    Stainless steel pintle, 3 out of $4.00 worth of SS rod, as mentioned above.

    Aluminium angles, roughed out ready for final drilling and shaping.

    2) Rudder assembly ready for final shaping, sanding, and fibreglass reinforcing over the gudgeons.

    That's it till tomorrow I'm afraid!

    cheers,

    P
    (note from MIK - Peter has glued the framing on the rudderbox upside down. The angle is supposed to be at the top. I didn't notice it either - but the boats sail fine, though we had to make some spacers to prevent the tiller wearing a hole in the top of the transom)
    Last edited by Boatmik; 26th May 2008 at 02:20 PM.

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  3. #47
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    Quote Originally Posted by bitingmidge
    Mrs Midge thought he should help Mik, 'cos it wasn't fair having TWO of us standing round watching........
    I wasn't watching, I was supervising

    Many thanks for a great afternoon with two thorough gentlemen and a lovely lady.
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  4. #48
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    Jul 2005
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    'Delaide, Australia
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    At least all the work on the little boat is ... little.

    Small bits, no heavy lugging, instead of bending down to work under the decks just roll it onto it's side.

    No climbing in and out of the boat over high topsides.

    Even with my bung neck and back it's as easy as pie

    Boatmik

    (PS don't tell Midge - every time he sees me working he looks guilty )

  5. #49
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    So today dawned dark and stormy, and we really didn't feel too energetic.

    Pic 1 shows Storer at the moment it dawned on him that we weren't going sailing tomorrow! It's not as if there's much to do on the hull, four sticks to support the mast, glue on the foredecks, and finish the ruddercases, but we still haven't glassed the foils or built the sails, so rather than actually work too hard, we decided to change our self-imposed deadline.

    Again, it was my insistance on using the daggiest scraps of timber, combined with our joint design evolution which took the time. Armed with a set of plans and a clean timber inventory, and two weekends with a bit of evening thrown in will easily complete a singe boat. (We also keep forgetting that we've doubled our workload).

    Today, I tapered the mast bits. Michael reminded me to post a reminder that if joining mast bits, it is critical to get the scarf joints correctly built, 1:6 scarf, and full glue joints or they will certainly fail.

    These masts are a bit of an experiment, we've built them from absolutely the worst imaginable timber for the purpose, but they are light and look the part at least! We have chickened out in a few areas and will glass the outside to be a little more sure! Most people will save a day of dicking round and use solid timber for the masts though!

    Pic 2) Mast bits tapered and ready to assemble (one mast "dry" stacked)

    Pic 3) Look carefully at the half assembled mast, and you'll see a couple of little gusset thingies across the section, and a couple of solid blocking pieces to reinforce it at critical points.

    The mast is very light, and sort of built along our philosophy of "If it breaks, it wasn't strong enough, if it doesn't break it was too heavy" (The rest of the boat while light is well engineered and unlikely to cause problems though!)

    Pic 4) The masts assembled, temporarily tacked to hold the sides in place, and packaging tape used to clamp them. Packaging tape is a bit of a wonder material in these sorts of applications, those following my Eureka Canoe thread will have noted that is how I held the decks on also. It's doubly good because the epoxy doesn't stick to it!

    Tomorrow night: Sailmaking!

    Cheers,

    P

  6. #50
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    Nov 2003
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    Sunday:

    The cost of keeping Storer at the Home of the Biting Midge for two weeks: $15.00 (+ the occasional chocolate cake)

    Building a Puddleduck: $200. (ish)

    The look on Son-in-law's face when he cuts and planes a piece of timber for the first time in his life: PRICELESS.

    AND THAT IS WHAT BUILDING THESE THINGS IS ALL ABOUT!!

    Thanks to Michael's incredible patience as a teacher (and I mean that sincerely), Julian is just about a fully qualified boatbuilder in one day! The great thing about what we are doing is that it's very basic stuff; cut, stick, plane, glue, sand....... so it's an ideal learning/teaching environment.

    Cheers,

    P.

  7. #51
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    And so to progress:

    Of course the usual happened, after a slack attack yesterday, we actually got stuck in, but most of my efforts were concentrated on the Eureka (not conducive to completing Puddleducks I'm afraid!)

    Pics:
    1) Julian, now almost a shipwright, having learnt to use the thicknesser, has begun tapering the sprits. Note the planing marks visible, and the opposite tapers already complete, which explains the rectangular cross section. The timbers to the left of picture are the almost completed masts.

    2) Two boats, four spars and a glorious day in paradise! The radiata masts really look the business and are wonderfully flexible..... we have no idea if they are going to be wonderfully brittle as well, but they look good for now! :eek:

    One of the sprits hasn't been edge-rounded due to a moment of inattention on my part, resulting in a whirling 3/8 router bit losing an argument with a cast iron clamp. :eek: (Take note Julian: this is an example of what happens when you..... )

    3) Michael runs a deflection test on the mast.

    It passes.

    Now we know how much luff round to cut into the sail!

    4) Jullian, having completed his spar making apprenticeship, begins filling all the screw holes in the hulls. Michael supervises.

    The screw holes again, are the result of temporarily fixing the deck beams in place while the epoxy cures. Once the glue is set, the mechanical fixings become redundant, and we can save a few kilos in weight not to mention dollars, by re-using them.

    5) Michael holds all that is left of six sheets of ply, and wonders what we have left out of the boat, then simultaneously realises that half of it is still going to be used reinforcing the mast partners!

    OK so we've still got a day or two to get these things in the water!...stay tuned to find out how we go after work tomorrow!

    Cheers,

    P

  8. #52
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    Jul 2005
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    Quote Originally Posted by bitingmidge
    And so to progress:

    Of course the usual happened, after a slack attack yesterday, we actually got stuck in, but most of my efforts

    2) Two boats, four spars and a glorious day in paradise! The radiata masts really look the business and are wonderfully flexible..... we have no idea if they are going to be wonderfully brittle as well, but they look good for now! :eek:

    3) Michael runs a deflection test on the mast. It passes. Now we know how much luff round to cut into the sail!


    Cheers,

    P
    Compared to the Americans, but quite in line with Australian tradition we have whacked a huge amount of sail on the PD Racers.

    The flexibility of the mast is the secret. When a gust hits it will flex and automatically flatten the sail reducing the power to a very large extent.

    But the question is whether the big sail and mast with its higher potential speed and some handling problems will have any real advantage. It may be more efficient to have a more modest sail and have none of the handling problems.

    We are going to do two sets of smaller sails and shorter masts as well - all four sails will come out of the one $40 polytarp.

    The smaller sail is a must for when people want to borrow the boat or we want just to have a relaxing sail.

    It is possible that the bigger sail will not have any handling problems at all, in which case we will have made a bit of a breakthrough compared to the Americans.

    To compare the two directions it will be an easy matter to have one boat rigged with the big sail, the other rigged with the small and see how they go on the water.

    Exactly the same as they all do with the Americas Cup... but our experimenting comes just a tad cheaper.

    Boatmik
    suffering from delusions of grandeur.

    BTW we will make all details on how to make the masts and sails available on the web.

  9. #53
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    Nov 2003
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    Beachport, South Oz, the best little town on the planet.
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    Any chance of a Schooner rig???

  10. #54
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    May 2003
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    Quote Originally Posted by Christopha
    Any chance of a Schooner rig???
    Dunno Christopha, but he was looking at some of the old grain clippers not that long ago :eek:

    Richard

  11. #55
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    Quote Originally Posted by Christopha
    Any chance of a Schooner rig???
    There are a couple of galleons under construction! http://www.pdracer.com/hullcnfg/page4.htm

    I think we'll out run them, and probably manouvre ourselves out of cannon-shot as well!

    I'm happy just having heaps of the blue stuff to try to cope with. Once we work out how to handle the first rig, then there's the BIG one to come!!

    Cheers,

    P

  12. #56
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    Today's progress shots are a bit of a summary really:

    1) Board tips were rounded over yesterday, by Julian under the watchful eye of instructor Storer.

    2 & 3) The centrecase structure may look complex, and indeed it took us probably two days fiddling to get a nice structural outcome, and an efficient sailing setup, however, now that it's nutted out, in typical Storer detailing, the builder of the next boat (from plans) will make both the bulkheads fore and aft of the centrecase first, and they will form part of the initial hull structure.

    No measuring, no nuffink... it will just slot together like a bought one: one of the beauties of having a square bottom and parallel sides of course is that it's easy to build dead accurately (as long as you have a big square thing).

    These are going to be nice little boats I reckon, and they are now ready for a final poxy job inside (mostly done and sanded already although hard to see in the photos), then we can varnish them and put them on show somewhere!

    Till tomorrow!!

    Cheers,

    P

  13. #57
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    Last shots before the lid goes on for good!

    1) Just a pic of one from the front, the shiny bits are where the previously uncoated timber is now beuuuutifully coated. (It give's Michael something to do during the day when I'm at work )

    2) These boats are a doddle to set up. Because everything's square, there's a very simple method for plumbing the mast!

    3) Here's the mast step being set up. Michael has devised a more complicated bit here than is necessary so that we can adjust the mast rake to muck around with a few things, but his standard plan will have a very simple single timber arrangement.

    Note the number permanently squirted in the hull. This is our "hull number" and I was trying my hand at stencilling signs: more on that later.

    4) Mast step and partner in place, both will be boxes of plywood and hopefully plenty strong enough........ If a big hatch appears in the top of the deck, you'll know that repairs were needed!

    So now tonight we'll splash some more epoxy round this bit of structure, and finally glue the lid down. . . . .

  14. #58
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    And so the last bits of detail start to happen:

    Pic 1) Here I am setting up the tillers over a rudder case. They are a simple lamination of four 4mm wide bits of crapiata, with a solid end bit in oregon sort of jammed/morticed on.

    Pic 2) Tillers glued up, waiting for the glue to go off! Tonight they'll probably get to see what the rudder cases look like permanently!

    Pic 3) Tillers ready for final shaping. Verrrry light and quite elegant really (just like the rest of the boat! )

    Pic 4) Michael takes off his gloves to pose for the camera, while glassing round the end of the sprit. The oregon in the sprits looks a treat, and even though I wasn't fussy enough to discard the bits with nail holes every six inches (because it was once the top rafter in a pergola), they look OK.

    Pic 5) A quick snap of the spars lying in a corner, glassed and waiting for a sand and another coat of Poxy. The radiata masts are the two larger members, and they also really look the part... hope they act it as well!

    Cheers for tonight,

    P

  15. #59
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    Aug 2002
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    Pardon my ignorance, why do you put the tape around the end of the bowsprit (and also the mast by the looks) ?

  16. #60
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    Quote Originally Posted by craigb
    Pardon my ignorance,
    Hardly ignorance old fella! Thanks for asking! The answer is to be found in that old riddle, why do Irishmen wear three condoms?

    To be sure. To be sure. To be sure.

    Why do you put the tape around the end of the bowsprit (and also the mast by the looks) ?
    You may recall when it comes to lashing out on fine boatbuilding timbers, I am really way down below the bottom of the pack.

    The sprits (which will be like booms for the sail rather than bowsprits in this instance) are ex-pergola oregon, and will have to carry fittings at their ends, perhaps drilled through. When I took to them with my 3/8 router bit, lets just say the timber could best be described as "crisp", so the glass will prevent them splitting under load.

    The masts on the other hand, are wrapped in 4 oz glass for their lower 1200 or so, and there are patches of glass over the worst of the knots, and other identifiably suspect bits. Mast timber is usually fine grained, clear, and straight, and Radiata does not quite make it into this category.

    To be blunt, this is the worst mast timber I've ever seen, but it was free, so I'm taking a punt, but we are hedging our bets by glassing judiciously. Michael thought I was absolutely stupid wasting my time with it at first, but I think is almost backing it to stay in one piece now.....

    It would be a shame to have to pay for a mast! :eek: There again, there are a few more oregon pergola joists.......

    So when are you coming up for a sail Craig??

    P

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