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

It looks as though we may skip the originally-forecast 43 degC maximum temperature today. Whew!

I now have three almost-complete items for installation into the boat, see the following snaps:

1. Partially-masked hull side panel. Note the patch and associated bits and pieces lying on the side behind the gaping maw in the bow





2. Patch plus two butt straps, all ready for installation :). Top one for the forward bouyancy tank, aft one for the area just behind and butting onto the cockpit bulkhead. Note the greasy fingerprints on the patch :(. A bit of bleed-through on the masked portions, but nothing to worry about (and in any case epoxy sticks very well to itself wet-on-set, in my experience)





Here are a few boat-related holiday snaps from our recent and rather hurried trip to Adelaide (we stayed in a nice old pet-friendly apartment in Semaphore, a few streets north of where I used to live :) -

3. Former steam tug Fearless, laid up in dry-dock pending restoration - or breaking up(?). I remember when diesel-powered tugs like Tusker and others used to be very busy guiding trading ships up and down the Port River (not one of them in sight now). There is a clear sign warning of asbestos on the cyclone fence and another warning sign on the gunwale of the tug (or on the roof of the hut or tram or whatever that structure is between the fence and the tug. A rather sad placard on the ship's side below the funnel, and the "price" on the funnel (it really was purchased for one dallar, see the Wikipedia link below). I tried to get the whole boat in the frame, but had to guess as the sun-glare and my now dreadful close-range eyesight prevented me from seeing what I was doing; at least I got most of it





4. Port Adelaide is no longer a proper working port: it hasn't been for many a year. And there are very few ships/boats about. Here are a couple - at least they look in good nick. The one up against the wharf actually looks like a tug and is in fact the steam tug Yelta. Having missed the bow when taking the snap I didn't twig until I was reviewing the post and comparing the boat with the one in the photo above it. The nearer of the two is the Archie Badenoch, an old police launch; the white on blue placard on the tug says "South Australian Maritime Museum". (In fact, the location of the launch on the far side of the tug wrt to the wharf is probably to avoid further attempts by vandals to sink it.) The One and All sail-training ship (see my avatar snap) has been moved to the Royal South Australian Yacht Squadron at Outer Harobour (it used to live a bit to the right of these two craft). This page in the Wikipedia shows a couple of photos of both of these craft, amongst others including the ketch Falie and the Fearless (see above)





5. A couple of old rust-buckets, showing how busy Port Adelaide is these days. Nearby wharves are covered in weeds. Very sad :(. These two ships seem to be associated with dredging activities, possibly those that keep the Port River clear for (what?) shipping (tourist craft).


Follow this link To my Flickr account. Mr Snappy is still AWOL. Naughty Mr S ;)



I'll sand off the cockpit butt-strap before glueing in place - the other two don't need that, and certainly not the external surface. The outside of the main patch can wait. I'll glue-and-screw the buoyancy tank butt strap onto the hull before I install the patch, maybe even before the foredeck hoile is dealt with. Two things are remaining in Adelaide after our trip - the oboe, for a complete overhaul (it's leaking badly amongst many other things and largely unplayable), and rather unfortunately the pair of glasses that I use most - my music- and computer-reading mid-range pair. I have no idea where I left them and have to consider them lost. Happily, I went to the Optometrist yesterday after being nearly driven around the twist over the last week and have got a new and improved pair on order :).

The next thing, apart from final fiddling with the patches and frames, is to glue-and-screw the long and major crack in the hull chine aft of the Big Hole(TM). Very fluid glue (epoxy with a dusting of high-strength filler powder mixed into it) will be introduced with the help of wedges (per MIK's advice above) and likely a thin but sturdy paintbrush for the very aft end of the crack, where it will be hard to get the glue in otherwise - unless I stand the boat on her stern (which I don't have the ceiling height to do). Once the joint is thoroughly wet I'll nail it down with some Gyprock ("dry wall") screws and clean up :). I'll probably end up sanding back and re-taping that bit of the chine once the big patch is in place.

At the rate I'm going I'm only going to need MIK's help for the hole in the foredeck ;). That may be going to be a really non-trivial exercise, however: see my previous post.

Another side-note: while all this has been going on, I've been pondering the next project: b.o.a.t.'s kayak, especially since I've had the plans and plywood sheet out for making the patch. Once the 'Duck is back outside and on her trailer (upside down and tied in place) I'll be able to get back to my long-deferred/-delayed tidy-up and organisation. Once that's done I will have the luxury of a better work-space, although I suspect that it will never be optimal, on account of the large pillar (roof-support/fireplace-support) in the middle of the area.

Busy, busy, busy - especially mostly typing posts for this thread. For my sins.

1. Holes drilled for the bouyancy tank butt-strap. Registration marks (visible here) were made on the hull, patch and strap before drilling the holes 'twixt patch and strap. Note what appear to be snail or slug (probably slug) tracks on the underside of the foredeck - and the broken piece of foredeck in the bottom RH corner of the snap...





2. Patch and tank butt-strap lined up against registration marks: marks not visible here. Depth gauge on right used to get the holes in a straight-ish line ;). I slipped up on one of them, for some peculiar reason





3. Screw holes for patch/butt-strap drilled





4. Outer side of patch/strap, showing drilled holes. Tape is in place as a guide and also for keeping the glue off the patch side of the joint when I glue the strap to the patch (I'm going to do it that way round after all). Hull/strap holes also visible





5. Patch/strap test fitted again. Strap and patch held together with a couple of the buffered screws used in the original building of the boat. You can just see the registration marks on the yellow paint of the hull - black felt-tipped pen





6. I'M BACK! The Return of Mr Snappy (yet again). Mr S gets a slightly bigger photo ;)


Follow this link to my Flickr account. Watch out for Mr Snappy!



I've marked up where the cockpit butt-strap is to fit, and will gouge off the painstakingly - and painfully - applied and sanded varnish in that spot so that the butt-strap will be an wood-to-epoxy-to-epoxy joint, rather than an wood-to-epoxy-to-varnish one. Which reminds me that I will have to slap some varnish over that strap at some point. Grrr.

That's (probably) all for today. I will probably do some glueing tomorrow.

Almost looks like a boat once again. Don't see a problem with the deck. If it is shredded a bit, just drill a hole and put a strap top and bottom to squeeze it back into submission. Should be right as rain. You do remember rain, don't you?

Originally Posted by dkirtley

Almost looks like a boat once again. Don't see a problem with the deck. If it is shredded a bit, just drill a hole and put a strap top and bottom to squeeze it back into submission. Should be right as rain. You do remember rain, don't you?

Rain? What's that? Never heard of it ;). Actually, we had a band of rain yesterday arvo that had passed over Adelaide earlier that day. A lot heavier than expected! It didn't stop the Anglo-Australian Telescope site at Sidings Spring near Coonabarabran in northern NSW from being cooked, though - although amazingly the telescopes all appear to be unharmed by the fire/heat. Coonabarabran is a lot further north, though - much closer to the Queensland border than it is to Sydney.

Back to boat repairs: the idea of a pair of compression plates sounds good, although my fussiness may make me baulk at drilling a hole in the deck! It may be the easiest solution in the long run, however...

I've got a bit further with the repairs over the last two days: glueing things up:

1. Wedges pushed in to give access for the glue: the glue visible in this snap





2. Glue in place. This is a lot thinner than normal, and was smeared onto both sides of the breaks where possible





3. Lots of buffered screws





4. The screws again. The large number was necessary to get the hull side back into pision and to squash bown some of the splintered bits of plywood. Well, that's my excuse. Mr Snappy is keeping an eye on things...





5. Forward butt-strap and patch glued together, finally





6. Yet another fillet ;)








7. Close-up of ye fillet

Being internal, I don't have to fuss so much over it being super-neat ;)





8. Glue differences: the one on the right is the lightly-powdered version used to glue the straboard hull panel back onto its chinelog; the one on the left a more normal mix. I need to chop out and sand my mixing stick clean...





9. Close-up of the outer side of the patch: glue cleaned up and ready to de-tape





10. Hull with screws removed. I'll fill the screw holes with a thickish glue mixture. In this snap and the one below, you can see the undercoat(s) showing around the various screw holes





11. Closer-up view of hull: a bit lumpy and bumpy: I'm going to sand out 25 mm (1 ") in each direction along the chine and embed a piece of 2 oz tape to beef things up a bit. The original only had 0.75 oz "tape" applied...


Follow this link to my Wood Duck Repairs set



That's something of a step forward - it's rather a pity that I forgot to fill in the screw holes in the hull with the excess glue from the patch assembly :(. I knew there was something, but couldn't remember what it was, until I looked at the photos in review. Judging by the amount left over/wasted, I should have plenty for the holes after attaching the patch. I'd better not forget to whip the screws in the patch out this evening, before they become fixtures!

Next up is Mr Storer on Thursday, which will hopefully mean the foredeck fixed and the patch and aft butt-strap attached. What this really means is some vigorous sanding with coarse paper to clean off the varnish in the aft butt-strap area, tomorrow or Wedensday.

More progress:

1. Cockpit butt-strap area sanded with 80-grit Sahara paper. I think I've got down through the varnish to the resin, but will probably give it another going-over before adding the patch





2. Masking the panel for screw holes: this makes marking/locating them easier than trying to do that on the shiny, slippery raw epoxy surface





3. Chine close-up - I've sanded off most of the underlying paint/undercoats as a preliminary to sanding back for the new 2 oz fibreglass tape





4. Bow/chine corner. Note the crack :(. I'll probably flood this with neat epoxy, run the tape around this and up to the gunwale, and hope for the best... The bow plywood looks a bit like Masonite - but it is really the roughly cut and roughly sanded edges of the gaboon marine ply patch





5. Two rows of hole-drilling guides. This is so that I avoid the glue-join running aling the centre of the chine-log (remember that this item was laminated in two parts, see towards beginning of thread (!)). Note also the guidelines for the cockpit bulkhead frame and the bow vertical frame part. The latter is very close to the plywood as about 40 % of that element was cracked off when the boat hit the deck...


Follow this link to my Flickr account; Mr Snappy will give you a guided tour. But watch out for his mercurial temper ;)...



There won't be the need for so many screws when I attach the patch, as the glueing surfaces are flat and smooth - i.e., no protruding splinters 'n' stuff. I am SO looking forward to getting this out of the way so that I can get my workshop back again - and also go sailing again, of course (he said hurriedly ;). The workshop is dangerously untidy, to say the least. And I can't find nufffin', it's a complete nightmare.

G'day Alex
regarding the cracking...
flooding the area with neat epoxy -might- be ok.
Better to open the crack with saw or Dremel for its full length, plus a little bit.
Then fill the open slot with 100% certainty of coverage and fillage.
cheers
Alan J

Originally Posted by b.o.a.t.

G'day Alex
regarding the cracking...
flooding the area with neat epoxy -might- be ok.
Better to open the crack with saw or Dremel for its full length, plus a little bit.
Then fill the open slot with 100% certainty of coverage and fillage.
cheers
Alan J

Hi Alan,

Thanks for the tip - it sounds better than my intended approach :). It might pay to do the same with the other cracks that I've already glued up, although that will require a bit of mining.

This morning I found that the crack is in the plywood itself, not the constructional glue-joint (like all the other cracks/splits). Epoxy glue rules!

Mr Storer very kindly popped around to help the Fumble-Fingered Fool today, which help was gratefully received. Happily I'd already done most of the preparation so things went relatively smoothly and quickly. Some snaps:

1. He's not really as puzzled as he looks ;) - Mr Storer contemplating the buffered screws on the patch, and working out where to put the rest of them





2. Oversized screw buffers: Mr Storer's idea to help get the two separate planes level (not just coplanar ;)





3. Working away at the foredeck ding. This did in fact take more time than the bow patch on account of the ding's (or rather the plywood's) recalcitrant nature as the plywood refused to pop back into place. It took (reasonably gentle) pressure from one side and taps with the dead-blow hammer on the other to get it to behave a (bit). Blob of glue is to help fill the hole made be removing the outer outer ply at that spot; the tape is for temporarily locating the patch that will cover the blob. The lighter scratched area is where Mr storer sanded the area with 80-grit sahara paper (before applying the glue) to act as a key for the glue; note the screwdriver handle - see next photo





4. Mr Storer worked out a neat way around having no support for the prop. He used a screw driver through the lightening holes in the "tow-rope support brackets" (they don't support the tow-rope eye because there isn't one at that point: it's on the foredeck at the very front of the boat). The laminated aircraft ply brackets and their holes turned out to be useful additions after all - so worth the initial effort ;). A patch of epoxied ply has been installed under the ding for structural support. Note the length of string (the LH end is tied around the top bar of F1, the other end loops around a useful tensioning stick on the foredeck, before reappearing again)





5. The other side of the foredeck repairs. Under the wedge and piece o' ply is a glued-up tongue of foredeck that had splintered up in the branch's impact. Note the piece of string again


Follow this link to my Flickr account, where you can find the set of snaps relating to the 'Duck repairs. Amongst other things...



There will be a few more snaps in a while: I'll add the rest of the photos from this session later today, when it has cooled off a bit.

1. Mr Storer applying the goop





2. All gooped up and ready to patch. Look! There's Mr Snappy! Keep away from the goop, Mr Snappy, or you'll get stuck





3. Patch in place: "Well done", says Mr Snappy





4. The cockpit butt-strap covered in a thick layer of epoxy glue. My apologies to Mr Storer for his weird appearance - being at the corner of the frame and with a reasonably wide lens angle his visage distorted somewhat...





5. Glue-ooze. All screws were tightened by hand using a screwdriver, to prevent stripping out





6. More glue-ooze





7. Cockpit butt-strap prior to cleaning up the ooze. Note the square in the top RH corner (wrt to the photo) - this is a screw-head buffer used as a nut on the protruding screw, Mr Storer's idea :). Very useful and clever!





8. Bouyancy tank butt-strap. The snap had to be taken blind through the inspection port in the cockpit bulkhead, and took about five attempts to get even slightly right





9. Cockpit butt-strap after a bit of a clean-up - and some filletting. Mr Storer advised against the latter, but I did it as I wanted to get a definite seal right around the edge. I also added anotehr screw/nut to the strap - at the forward edge - when I found that that corner was waving about in the breeze. It doesn't now - and I got a bit more protective ooze out from under the strap, too :)





10. A close-up of the internal ding patch: an excellent view of the set-up. All the visible edges are sealed - fingers crossed that the hidden ones are too!





11. Internal butt-strap after some "cleaning up" done blind


Follow this link to my Flickr account...



Many thanks once again to MIK for his help, without whom and which the procedures would have been a lot more difficult - especially the foredeck ding. At one point we nearly went with dkirtley's suggestion above.

Next: removal of screws, tape and patch-supporting apparatus, followed by sanding out the track for the new chine tape. That will be followed by installation of the tape, fixing up the crack in the hull bottom sheet at the bow, then hole-filling, sanding clean and a coat of water-soluble BoteCote epoxy primer. The foredeck ding will need some coats of resin and a few layers of 2 oz fibreglass cloth to fill the hole in: we couldn't get the ding pushed out flat enough.

Yesterday was just too hot for anything much at all (46+ degC depending on where you were in this neck o' the woods) - including the internet and phone connections, which were down for a good six hours. It was way too hot for Mr Snappy, too, who was heard whimpering quietly to himself in a corner, poor Mr Snappy. The poor birdies were in much worse shap, hanging about the water bowl with their beaks open and tongues going in and out, panting. We made sure that the bowl was kept full.

Today is a totally different bucket o' snakes - 25 degC forecast - so:

1. De-taped and de-screwed patch, ready for sanding. The whole area is as sound as a drum when rapped with the knuckles - no buzzes or clicks anywhere :)





2. Cockpit butt-strap de-screwed. Filling the screw holes, some final sanding and a bit of varnish will finish this part off. Note that the strap has a slit lean/curve at its rearward edge from being part of the offcut from the main patch. It looks quite nice so I left it as it was rather than squaring it off. Note the poor finishing with the varnish on the cockpit bulkhead near the butt-strap and elsewhere - Fumble-Fingered Fool painting/sanding error(s). Can't blame the varnish for that...





3. Foredeck ding after removing the tongue hold-down. The original impact region appears to run diagonally from top left to bottom right of the area enclosed by the tape. The bottom (RH) corner also happened to be right next to the outer face of the upper mast partner member. Interesting to ponder what would have happened if the branch end had hit further outboard: would it have bounced off as though it were on a little trampoline, or plunged straight through the deck - and out through the soft hull bottom?





4. Internal support patch for the foredeck ding with prop, etc., removed. I'll probably run a bit of neat resin around all the edges just in case ;). By the way, I've since removed that piece of tape!


Follow this link to my Flickr Farm, where things are beautiful all day long, ho ho, hee hee, ha ha...



I must say that I did do a quick whizz around the "workshop" before Mr Storer's appearance, not (just) as a sop to my vanity but for his safety - I at least knew where some of the booby traps were, but he wouldn't have. Now I've just got to deal with the stuff that moved about into other corners to do that - one day when the boat is no longer resident in the workshop ;).

Having said that the weather was too hot for doing anythings, I did in fact - rather stupidly - remove the excess glue on the hull using a succession of Perma-Grit block and cork-block-and-sandpapers, being lured into it by the relative coolness of the workshop. The (outer surface of the ;) patch got a going-over with the sandpapers to get the the lumps and bumps knocked off and the surface ready for priming. It all came up pretty well although I paid the price later by feeling rather heat-struck...there's that impatience again.

Next on the agenda is the filling of the multiplicity of holes - but before the filling I'll put some patches of blue tape loosely over the through-holes first to catch any drips and keep things a bit cleaner, and make less work for my self later. Then, the sanding of the cockpit buttstrap <groan> (I'll turn the boat over onto her starboard side to do that - won't have to sand overhead and can let gravity assist :) and the glue residue on the foredeck ding. Gently does it on the latter!

1. Sanded patch. Note the mirrors





2. Close-up of sanded patch. The screws were used to make small mounds in the tape patches to enable the glue filler to flow outwards around the hole edges a bit and seal off any bare timber - and also to prevent the bouyancy tank from filling up with glue ;)





3. Internal butt-strap with tape patches. I used the larger mirror to get a better look at the temporary screws used to make the little mounds in the tape patches





4. Mounded tape patches on the cockpit butt-strap. I'm going to run a bit of wood-stain along that filletted edge (as well as in the hole-filler for this panel) before varnishing





5. Starting work on the roof, using the offcut from between the hull side panels from the original ply used to make the 'Duck. Mr Snappy is supervising


Follow this link to my Flickr account. The 'Duck repairs now even have their own set



I'm now working on the little roof for the the 'Duck in parallel with the boat repairs, with the idea that the roof will be ready when the boat is. Said roof - with shallow V - should sit snugly on the side decks with the roofing (plywood) over the top surface of the boat. This structure will be made as quickly as possible, and be coated with outdoor paint. There will be enough of an air gap between the roof's sides and the roof overhang to allow the inside of the boat to breathe and to reduce condensation. The plywood will hopefully be sufficiently thick to discourage branches from punching through it, but not so thick as to be too heavy to handle easily. The roof will be held in place with straps of some sort, possibly from the sides and passing under the boat or trailer. That's the theory, anyway.

I spent a busy session today filling - or attempting to fill - the screw holes in the hull side:

1. Lots of glue blobs. I had lots of glue, hence the sizes of the blobs. Note the blob trailing down from the bow corner: I attacked the crack in the bottom ply with a diamond blade in the Dremel (I dislike using Dremels on account of their high-pitched whine and vibration, but needs must), then filled it with glue, per b.o.a.t.'s suggestion. I'm slightly wishing that we'd followed dkirtley's suggestion regarding the foredeck ding, but it's too late now...





2. Blob close-up - along the starboard chine





3. Blob close-up - top of patch. When I adjusted the cockpit butt-strap before the glue set, I failed to notice that I'd twisted the patch slightly with respect to the vertical edge of the boat's existing ply: hence the areas where I've sanded heavily into the patch and the hull to gets things flattish again. Oh well - the ply+glue thickness in those areas is around 7-8 mm, so it's not too much of a worry...





4. Cockpit butt-strap. Guess who forgot to put the wood stain in the glue? I actually added extra glue from this side when I found that even though I'd primed the holes with neat resin and the glue was reasonable fluid (but not too much) , the glue didn't go through too well. If I find myself in this situation again (e.g., building the kayak or the Eureka) I'll dispense with the tape or possbily put it on later





5. Patch butt-strap: same comments per the cockpit butt-strap. I'll whack a bit of resin over the butt-strap at some point, just to seal everything off - and I'll do the edges of the (internal) foredeck ding patch at the same time - and possibly some glue along that bow cleat, if the fit takes me. Note the plethora of holes at the top of the hull panel as a result of my rather over-enthusiastic use of screws when adding the gunwale


Follow this link to my over-burdened Flickr account



There looks like a lot of glue to sand off - and there is ;) - but it won't take long with the Perma-Grit block: not long at all. And that tool doesn't clog :). Once I've dealt with the glue blobs along the chine I'll keep going and gouge out a track for the 2 oz chine tape.

If it weren't for the oversanding on the patch I could probably pop the boat in the water right now - but I would in any case tidy things up, apply the chine tape and get a coat of epoxy primer on the new bits. Nothing done on the roof today, I'll get on to that tomorrow. I had a look at Norglass's colour chart last night to see if they had a colour that I might like to paint the roof. I'm not sure yet.

You would think that I'd learnt from last time: filling screw-holes should use the minimum amount of glue necessary. The sanding is now done, although I could have chosen a less hot, humid day to do so: some tropical monsoon moisture is now starting to feed into the more southern weather systems. Boy, is it sticky. Better for getting some of the bushfires around the place under control (although probably stickier for the fire fighters).

1. Sanded corner of bow - needs a little bit of patching for the air bubbles





2. Bow patch holes sanded





3. Chine sanded. Note the strange crescent shapes towards the bottom of the photo: these are part of test runs for the router (after first testing the depth of cut on a piece of scrap wood). I've set the little Bosch palm router to do a very shallow 25 mm-wide cut to create the chine-tape channel: much more accurate, neater and quicker than using a sanding method (but just as dusty!). The channel will be just down into bare wood on both hull side and bottom. Note also that there were air bubbles in some of the "filled" holes...





4. An unfortunate gouge in the paintwork. I'm not sure what sharp object did this (maybe the trailer on the way down to the ground, maybe a tool - or maybe it was Mr Snappy ;) but it was right down to the BoteCote. Patched using the glue mixture





5. A truck-load of elbow grease later... The white layer of paint is International "Yacht Primer", the off-white is BoteCote epoxy primer, the dark brown is epoxied plywood - and the light brown is bare plywood


Follow this link to my flickering Flickr account...



I've left running the router along the chine until tomorrow as I want to fill the holes that had air bubbles this evening. I'll do the whole chine from stem to stern, starting at the top of the bow a bit above the patch. Once that's done I can epoxy in the 2 oz x 50-wide chine tape: which means that I'll be more-or-less into the home straight. I hope.

Hopefully there won't be many more of these posts/snaps! I've got the taping channel routered into the chine quite easily, so it will be on with said taping soon.

In a previous post, I mentioned routering from stem to stern. This is working wrong direction, partially: it should be stern to stem for the side panel, stem to stern for the hull bottom, since the router should be moving in an anti-clockwise direction... I did check this before cutting the channel ;).

1. Bosch "palm" router with 25 mm flat-bottom bit





2. Router test cut in some scrap - approx 9 thou (0.2 mm) - about the thickness of the glass tape plus a bit





3. Hull side of chine routered down to the wood over most of the channel; some spots still have a bit of BoteCote, others still have primer and even paint (where the repair screws were)





4. Bow with both flat surfaces of the chine routered. Note that the paint, etc., was particularly thick at this point and required hand-sanding to finish it off





5. Hull chine face showing dips (paint, primers, etc)





6. Setting up to do the hull face of the chine: the boat is propped up on the bed of its original building frame





7. One slow, careful pass and the job is done :). I used the planks that will become the long parts of the roof support frame as a "walkway" while routering the hull bottom - made things a bit easier and safer ;)





8. Close-up of the bow corner. Note the small fragment of 0.5 oz glass cloth - the original and rather flimsy chine tape - remaining. The larger holes in crack patch have been filled





9. Lots of fluff from shaving the tape channel on the hull bottom: paint, primer and poplar ply...


Follow this link to my Flickr account, if you want to



More in the next post...