Thread: Another OZ MK2 PDRacer build in Sydney "Wood Duck"

Originally Posted by woodeneye

<el snippo...>

PS. The Moth Worlds start here tomorrow...

I've just been looking at some of MIK's fine snaps of the hardware for the Moth Worlds. In the end - actually pretty quickly - I found it all rather sickening, vide my comment about all the money sailing out of Sydney Harbour at the start of the Sydney-Hobart. There is less excuse with the Moths (and other small classes though) - and it used to be such a pretty-looking class <sob>. Hmm...

I whacked a really quick'n'rough coat of Weatherfast Poly Clear over the rough-sanded Goldspar yesterday evening, on the decks only. The Goldspar still wasn't really in a state to sand, but I did the decks anyway and put up with the clogging sandpaper, just to make the whole area more even for the quicky top-coat. It will need a serious sand later, but I'm used to that... These latest conniptions are in case I don't take Brian's advice and we do end up taking the boat to Smith's Lake this coming week (I got my wires totally crossed, it's not next week - been doing a lot of that lately).

I took some snaps which I'll post after subduing the bile rising from seeing too much pointless money (hey, they could give me some if they're just going to throw it away like that ;).

Bah humbug. (I'm really just envious/jealous/take yer pick, don't take any notice <rolls eyes>.)

Have to disagree with you Alex the Oz Moths have been in the main a development class and I think what those hydro guys are doing is really cool.

OK costly but man what fun, wish I was younger and fitter love to have a go on one.

Hi Mike,

I'm just ranting coz I couldn't afford even the tiller arm for a new Moth - it's the jealousy and envy talking ;). And frustration that the launch date for me ever-so-'umble 'Duck moves even further into the future with every passing day :(.

An interesting observation regarding the varnishes - the new coat (Weatherfast Poly Clear) feels "dry", a mere 19 hours after application was finished; the sanded Goldspar still feels sticky in places. Hmm...

Cheers,
Alex.

OK, well, another half-hour, another tack... I've provisionally sacked Goldspar, got out the 240-grit wet-and-dry (replacing the sandpaper), a bucket of water and a tin of elbow grease. And set to gently rubbing back the foredeck, which is the worst of all the surfaces from the points of view of sanding scratches and brush marks. It's coming along quite nicely so far - I've done about a third of it, most of that 100 % matte. I shall plod along slowly and see where that gets me. The Weatherfast is in a state that can be dry- or wet-sanded already, although wet is better :). I also had a go at the stern transom with some 180-grit sandpaper this morning - it's looking a bit flatter, but still quite a mess, and with four bare holes in the timber so not waterproof. Alternatives are to whack a coat of Brightside on it now and glue in the gudgeons, which means that the transom will end up being a mess for quite a while; or bung up the holes with cork, properly face the panel and paint it. As it is there are still varnish runs all over it. If I haven't got this sorted by Tuesday, the boat won't be going with us.

Note - the Goldspar would probably wet-sand OK, but I'm going to leave it alone for the time being.

Here's some snaps post Norglass Weatherfast Poly Clear, pre-wet-sanding. The number of photos has been somewhat gratuitously padded out with different exposure-mode comparisons:

1. Three-quarter (sort-of) view of decks painted with Norglass Weatherfast Poly Clear, on top of roughly-sanded (120-grit) International "Goldspar Original" varnish. Note the rough texture on the port side, towards the bow. And the varnish-runs on the stern transom...





2. Quarter view of Weatherfasted decks





3. Weird monster...nah, just the cockpit and side decks taken in aperture-priority mode. The boat doesn't look nearly as good as this in real life: the camera is too flattering





4. Full auto-mode snap of the cockpit: compare with previous aperture-priority snap... I'm gunna eatcher! Grrrrr!





5. Goldpspar-ed cockpit, aperture-priority mode. Actually, the air-tank side has had a coat of Weatherfast over the top of scratched-up Goldspar, and has since been wet-sanded with 240-grit wet'n'dry





6. Auto-mode snap of the aft cockpit. The exposure is much brighter than aperture-priority: higher ISO, faster shutter, coarser "grain"





7. Weatherfasted foredeck, cockpit coaming and mast hole, over the top of the Goldspar, of course





8. Aperture-priority ("A") mode snap of the other air-tank side. Note the dark patch where something odd has happened in the production of the ply sheet; the other side is like that, too. Note also the bodged job of varnishing on the aft cockpit floor (the rest of it is similarly bad)





9. Forward part of cockpit. Inside is still Goldspar except for the ari-tank sides and carlins; decks are Weatherfast-over-Goldspar. Auto camera mode. Again, don't be fooled by the apparently nice appearance - it's not





10. Aperture-priority mode snap of same area as preceeding photo: darker, of course





11. Aperture-priority mode snap of forward cockpit and foredeck





12. Auto-mode snap of forward cokpit and foredeck. Note the rough texture of the foredeck on port and starboard sides - it's like that the whole way across, forward to aft. Or was, until I got to it with the wet'n'dry and water. The side decks have a much better finish (apart from dust) because I wasn't losing the wet-edge so much there: the larger area of the fordeck has, so far, presented a challenge that I haven't been able to master... Those filled screw holes on the CB under the coaming stick out like a sore thumb


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I had finished off the foredeck, coaming, starboard side deck, stbd carlin, and stbd air-tank side by this evening, with the wet-sanding. They now look nice and flat and smooth - much better than they did before the sanding :).The port deck and air-tank face, etc., will get dealt with tomorrow: once it's all dry, I'll whack another coat of Weatherfast on. I'll try to keep the dust out but I don't like my chances.

This is me, two years ago, having fun paddling about in a rather unmanageable plastic kayak at Smith's Lake, NSW mid-north coast - just after I'd joined the Storer forum and before I started to to ask questions about the Goat. So this is something of an "anniversary" post, although it's a little (three days) late: the GIS post being started on 6 Jan 2009 - almost as soon as I'd got home from Smith's.



If it looks familiar, it's because it's my "avatar" image in my Flickr account (gee, I get fed up putting that Flickr link in all the time).

I had hopes of replacing the said image with one of me, our daughter, or both of us sailing the 'Duck up at Smith's by now, but sadly, no :(. Hope springs eternal, as they say, but not for this trip (I still don't have a sail or oars, and the 'Duck doesn't have any rowlocks - and I can't scull, either).

If I get one more coat of Weatherfast on the decks tomorrow (Monday), there is a very slim chance of it making it up to Smith's without the rigging, but I still haven't test-fitted it on top of the car yet. I also don't like the idea of the thing vibrating around on the racks and totalling itself when my strapping loosens in the breeze. And that's the least-awful thing that could happen <shudder>...

Set it up the day before and go for a short drive - retighten.

If using the ratchetty tie downs remember to put a half twist in them so they don't hum you to death on the trip!

MIK

Hi MIK,

Good ideas, both of them. I didn't know about the half-twist anti-hum trick, thanks! And I will - or would have been (see below) - be using the ratchet straps...

We've decided that, what with one thing and another, we should postpone the Smith's Lake jaunt for a bit. Things are rather unsettled here with the "new" car needing some work done on it, and medication issues unsettling me (hence some of the snarly posts above).

Hopefully we'll see you when you get back to Sydney - by then the hull may be in a travelling state that I'm happy with, and I've got the loading issue sussed .

Cheers,
Alex.

My god man, you've built that boat UPSIDE DOWN!

Oh dear, oh dear - so I have. There's nothing for it but to pull it all to bits at once and start again. Right away .

I decided to be really, really slack in the end and leave the structure as it is - I'll just have to sail her upside down, too ;). What I did do, however, was - more sanding, of course... After finishing off the port side, I started on the forward cockpit floor, which was a horrible collection of runs and scratches (the latter showing through from the epoxy "finishing" - and which prompted a cascade of non-slip suggestions ;). I'll still be at it for a good while tomorrow: it's the Goldspar without a topcoat of Norglass Weatherfast. I've found that if I don't wipe up the sanding slime immediately, but allow the water to evaporate, the sanded (and not-fully-crosslinked) varnish particles re-congeal into lumps which are rather hard to remove. They also stick to skin like anything, too. The Goldspar is worse than the Weatherfast.

I can definitely smell linseed oil in both varnishes - it's possible that if linseed is present in both, then it could in Goldspar as a greater percentage of the total and that would explain its greater and longer-lived stickiness.

Most of the worst lumps and high(er) spots have been banished from the forward floor surface, but I still need to get the level down in some areas to remove the gloss from low-lying regions. And reach in under the decks, which, being of a craven nature, I've been leaving till last.

More tomorrow. Which may include getting started on the varnishing of the steering gear: I'm way behind in the finishing-of-the-removable-bits department at the moment, having been distracted somewhat by the matter of the hull topsides.

A bit of dishwashing liquid in the sanding water can reduce the stickyness of the sanding gurry.

It doesn't resolve the problem completely, but helps it mix with water or be wiped off with a damp rag or scrubbed with a scotchbrite.

But I think you are doing that already.

Best wishes
MIK

Hi MIK,

I did indeed forget about the detergent until last night - I put quite a lot in this morning's water, and the sludge was made quite a bit more manageable. Thanks for the heads-up :).

Cheers,
Alex.

Mr Storer popped up this afternoon to have a look at the boat in its rather untidy state, and seem reasonably pleased with it, much to my pleased surprise :).

A somewhat different view of the cockpit: that's water in there - with a sanding-sludge scum floating on the top. The limber holes can be seen doing their job and letting stuff out of the aft cockpit area (the latter has been partially cleaned at this point)





2. Another view of the sanding scum. Detergent added to this batch of sanding water helped to prevent the coagulation of the sanded varnish to a good degree. The limber holes have had their first test and they work extremely well :). The sanding sludge has formed some interesting fractal patterns





3. Sanding water with bubbles, sitting in the midst of a pool of sanding sludge on the other side of the centrecase





4. The aft cockpit is high and dry here: tt has recently been fairly thoroughly wet-sanded but not yet fully cleaned up. the cockpit floor is now not as shiny as it was, but it is a good deal flatter and more even :)





5. Another view of the sanded but still-scummy aft cockpit floor: a bit of mopping-up still to be done, yet


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I had a good chat with MIK about what to do next - part of that is going to included another coat of Brightside over the entire uhull. While bounding around on the building frame, the hull has had the paint wear through in a number of spots. MIK agreed with me that the finish is not very good, but we couldn't define what it was exactly. Low temperatures were though to be part of it, though. I've remembered while tapping away here that the chap I spoke to at Whitworth's said that the paint may have been past its use-by date.

I'll also use a brush next time.

Thoughts are with the people of South-east Queensland for the next few days (and after) as a huge amount of water moves through the river systems and through the large populations centres of Ipswich and Brisbane. They are looking down the barrel of a catastrophic flood. Good luck, SE Qld. And I should add, not to forget those other water-stricken areas in the rest of Qld and Nthn NSW. Thinking of you people, too.