Thread: New OZ PDR in Florida

Today it rained enough to keep me inside to work on the boat instead of doing yard work. Oh, the sacrifices I make...

Yesterday I glued the framing around the centercase and went to work. Pretty uneventful day. Today I made up for it.

I doubled checked frame 2 was fit properly in between the chines and then centered the centercase. At first it seemed that something was off and that I would have a huge mistake looking at me and laughing every time I stepped in the boat. It looked like I had, once again, measured something incorrectly, and the center of the frame didn't line up with the center of the centercase. After I stopped for lunch I came back and put everything the way it was before and it all lined up perfectly! Don't ask me how I did it. I promptly screwed everything into place so if I left it again it didn't go back to off center.

Next I made a full size cutout of the side tank out of poster board and after cutting the real ones out, set them in place. I would have screwed them to the frames but I haven't bought the carlins yet so that is priority #1 in the morning.

The evening's activities involved beveling the foredeck frames so I could attach the foredeck. Did I mention that most of the frames in this boat are made of Red Oak? They laugh at you when you try to plane them down. Power sanding isn't much faster. But I press on...

Forgive me if this is a dumb question but which of the 2 lengths of the centerboard and rudder is which? Is the 1100mm one the centerboard?

Went to buy the carlins today. 3/4 by 3/4 Oak. I had to break out the old glue board that I used to glue the chines in a bend so I could screw the carlins on the side pieces. One was perfect. The second went on and as soon as I released the clamps the side piece crinkled up and twisted. I thought about correcting it wink, wink, by screwing it to the tops of the frames and just dealing with it.

No, I said, I can fix it.

So after about 10 screw holes later in a length of about 1 foot I decided to scrap that piece of Oak and try again. Luckily I had another lying around. When I took the abused piece of Oak off the side I saw why I couldn't get it right. It was warped AND twisted. Finally!!! Something that wasn't my fault! (Unless, of course, you blame me for picking out bad lumber.)

I have a TON of gluing ahead of me and after that, a good day of hole filling. There are a ridiculous amount of holes in this boat because I got carried away with my drill.

However, I have the side pieces screwed to the frames so I can get the side tanks perfect and it really is starting to look good. I'm starting to think about paint...

Looks good, not far to go now for you.

Col

Originally Posted by paulwjax

Forgive me if this is a dumb question but which of the 2 lengths of the centerboard and rudder is which? Is the 1100mm one the centerboard?

Yes.

I set about making the foils today. I don't have a thicknesser so at first I was reducing a 26mm thick piece of wood to 22mm with a belt sander. 4mm isn't that big you say? It's 3/8 of an inch and quite a bit of wood on something that's 44 inches by 11 inches. Almost 500 square inches to reduce and make sure it's still even and level. At lunch I decided I had enough. Everything in the room with me was covered in a thick layer of dust and my power sander started shooting dust from the bottom of the collection bag with great force on anything in its path.

So I bought a power planer. This thing is amazing!

It did in 20 seconds what took me the better part of an hour to do earlier in the day. It also shoots out little shavings which are considerably more fun to pick up than sanding dust.
While I watched the America's Cup press conference I made up the foil template and transferred it to my blank and started planing. I've only got one being worked on right now but it's about 80% finished and is looking good.

Looking good but I'm not looking forward to that bit, it looks time consuming.

Col
.

Building the foils is, perhaps, the most fascinating and satisfying part of the entire build. I was intimidated by the prospects of laminating the blanks and shaping the foils. Laminating the blanks turned out to be a lot of fun. Shaping the foil was a learning experience (I had never used a hand plane before making the foils) and a pleasure to watch as the shape emerged from the wood.

Keep an open mind about the foils - and enjoy it!

Originally Posted by colburge

Looking good but I'm not looking forward to that bit, it looks time consuming.

Col
.

Originally Posted by BobWes

Building the foils is, perhaps, the most fascinating and satisfying part of the entire build. I was intimidated by the prospects of laminating the blanks and shaping the foils. Laminating the blanks turned out to be a lot of fun. Shaping the foil was a learning experience (I had never used a hand plane before making the foils) and a pleasure to watch as the shape emerged from the wood.

Keep an open mind about the foils - and enjoy it!

It is time consuming and intimidating at first, but is really not that difficult. Slow and steady produces the best results and gives you the opportunity to see and fix mistakes.
I really have enjoyed it and feel like an artist crafting a sculpture.

I attached the side tanks to the frames and the hull today. After I dragged my feet for a few days I got motivated to get the job done.

It could have been done much quicker if I had used epoxy but I didn't want to go that route at the start of the project because of the cost. After buying polyester resin to coat everything and 3 tubes of 3M 5200 to use for glue, I'm only 20 or 30 bucks short of the cost of epoxy and filler. Oh well. On my next boat project I'll start with epoxy and leave the headache of how to do things without it behind.

While I was looking at some other OZ PDR builds around the world I noticed something peculiar about one of the centercase frames. Everyone else had vertical framing on the forward one and I did not. Luckily, I had extra 3/4 x 3/4 framing leftover from the time I messed up the transom and the center bulkhead. I had another 8 feet riddled with holes from the twisted carlin fiasco from last week. My frames are now glued and sturdy.

Speaking of carlins...Today was also the day I glued them down to the side decks.

Now for a quick back story. I read a post

Preoccupations - For Lawrence Cheek, Lessons From Boat-Building - NYTimes.com

by Lawrence Cheek about boat building and patience a few weeks back and since then have worked on my boat with the calm of Buddha. Until today.

When I screwed one carlin back on to the side deck it wasn't the completely flat, total glue bonding setup I had before. I couldn't get them to sit down and I was running out of time since the glue was drying. I was livid! So, I did what any logical builder would do at this point, having already dealt with and solved this problem once before. I picked up a hand tool that had a lifetime replacement warranty on it and started wailing on my glue board ply. Either the tool or the ply was gonna give out first but not me!

After I was through with my childlike temper-tantrum, I decided to screw the screws in from the other side of the deck and everything was flush. I also used a couple clamps to hold everything in place while I backed every screw out and put them in the other way. Thank God that ordeal is over with!

This is a quick update since nothing has dramatically changed in the last few days. I've spent quite a bit of time sanding away glue and removing pencil marks in the hull. I'm getting all the wood that will be visible through resin nice and clean so no blemishes show up once the hull is coated. I've also decided to paint the outside hull a dark blue (no surprise there if you know me well), the top a pure white and the inside will be bare wood coated in resin.

My rudder box and tiller handles have been glued together and as soon as I put the spacers in the handle it will be ready to go on the boat as soon as the rudder attachments show up in the mail.

Today was also the day I test fit the mast to make sure everything was in the proper place. The mast fit perfectly but the mast foot was too tight between the frames since I haven't cleaned up the glue in them yet. I won't glue the top deck on until I'm 100% positive the mast isn't too far forward or backward. I'm still curious how the sail will make the mast flex once it is on so I might not even glue the deck on until I have the sail cut and sewn.

You'll want some varnish over that resin inside. Epoxy has no UV resistance and will crumble and shatter like the glaze on a doughnut if you leave it to the sun.

Originally Posted by paulwjax

I'm still curious how the sail will make the mast flex once it is on so I might not even glue the deck on until I have the sail cut and sewn.

Hi Paul,

Nice progress. Fitting the mast before the deck goes on is a great idea for those who builld the mast first.

If you have the measurements pretty right measuring from the bow it will work in every case. So you can close up once you are sure the mast fits.

Be aware that the partner is particularly weak until the deck goes on - it won't handle much load (in the sailing scale of things).

Most misunderstand the purpose of the partner and step. they are not to support the mast directly - they are there to distribute the loads into the plywood hull bottom and deck.

Best wishes
Michael

I started filling the holes in the hull today. The first batch of filler I made up was waaaaaay too much and alot of it got thrown away when it went off. The next batch was about right and I got all of the bottom holes filled. I wanted to start on the sides and transoms but I need some lunch first!