Thread: Another QLD PDRacer to add to the fleet

The mast is pretty much finished except for the slot for the bolt and glassing etc. It came out straight, more from good luck than good management, and it fitted first time into the mast partner. I deliberately left out the fore and aft partner blocks until I made the mast, so I will glue them in today. I weighed the bare mast and it came in at 5kg, I don't know whether that is light or not, maybe Alex can weigh his and we can compare.

I still have a stack of things to do on the boat and I don't know which bit I will do next, I am not looking forward to all the sanding of the hull and hole filling so I might leave it until last.

Photos are poor sorry, off to mow the lawn now

Col

Hey

I have been finding it hard to get motivated to do anything on the boat. I have been filling holes and fibreglassing the mast over the last couple of days.

I bought the incorrect cloth to cover the mast as the weave is taking a million coats to fill - I got a Weft Triaxial cloth from boatcraft. Weft Triaxial 189 gsm. 1.27m wide. E Glass. Per lineal metre. [MZ1890] - $8.73 : Boatcraft Pacific. , Share our passion!.

I dont think I will have any trouble with the strength, but I don't think I will be able to use it on the foils, because all the coats of pox would make them twice the thickness

I think the 125gsm plain weave is what I've been using. As they say it seems OK for general glassing the next size up 200 or 6oz would be an overkill IMHO.

Cheers
Mike

Howdy, that cloth will make it pretty hard to fill the weave.

There is a thread here where some of the builders have been using oven paper to hold the resin in place so you can do one coat and wrap.

It is the wrong cloth for the centreboard and rudder - it will make them almost impossible to build and very heavy. If they talked you into it they will replace it if you asked for something else. It is unsuited to the purpose.

Will be fine on the mast - but the foils would be a disaster. I do recommend the 6oz (200gsm) plain weave for the centreboard and rudder. You can get away with a little bit less but someone less experienced might lean on the centreboard the wrong way sometime and the lighter cloth might not be enough.

Planning for operator error. Mike won't do this because he is a Super Sailor - except for when he nods off with his head leaning against the transom when he thinks he is a long way ahead.

MIK

It is the wrong cloth for the centreboard and rudder - it will make them almost impossible to build and very heavy. If they talked you into it they will replace it if you asked for something else. It is unsuited to the purpose.

Will be fine on the mast - but the foils would be a disaster. I do recommend the 6oz (200gsm) plain weave for the centreboard and rudder. You can get away with a little bit less but someone less experienced might lean on the centreboard the wrong way sometime and the lighter cloth might not be enough.

Planning for operator error. Mike won't do this because he is a Super Sailor - except for when he nods off with his head leaning against the transom when he thinks he is a long way ahead.

MIK

Hey

Nobody talked me into getting the cloth, it was my choice by mistake. I wouldn't attempt to use it on the foils, I will just order some more, I might be able to use the weft cloth on something else down the track. I don't care that the weave isn't filled completley as long as it is strong enough.

Col

Ok ... that is fine.

One of the tricks with the heavier cloths like biaxial and triax is that they both are hard to wet out. They are normally termed "stitched cloths" because they are made of a number of layers of unidirectional cloth stitched together. No weaving at all.

So unlike the simple woven cloths it can make sense to wet out the surface you are going to apply a stitched cloth.

With anything larger than a glass tape prewetting is a disaster for woven cloths, but as for the stitched ones it helps in the wetting out considerably.

Of course you have to be sensible if large areas are being laid up about how much prewetting you are prepared to do ... but for a goat mast there won't be a problem. You might have to adjust the partner and step holes to get things to fit though.

Best wishes
Michael

Originally Posted by Boatmik

You might have to adjust the partner and step holes to get things to fit though.

Best wishes
Michael

Hi

I did predict that I would have trouble with the mast fitting in the partners so I deliberately left the deck off. I had to take a couple of mm off the partners to get it too fit but it is all good now and the deck has been glued on. I have finished the hull and mast completely now, filled the holes and thrown the last coat of epoxy on the bottom.

This afternoon I have been making the tiller and the rudder box but I don't know if I have done it right as the plans are different to the photos. In the photos their is a square handle at the end of the tiller, the plans don't say to do this so I didn't - the tiller handle looks a bit short at 880mm but I guess that is what the extension is for.

I am a bit confused with fixing the tiller to the rudder as well. The plans say not to glue, but too clamp the tiller arm to the rudder box. The diagram is too small to tell but if says to use 5mm bolts with washers under through tiller? It looks to me that is the tiller arm is just glued on to the rudder box, I will work it out I guess.

Col

It does glue on to the rudder head.

Best wishes
Michael

Hi

It's been slow going on the little boat, to tell the truth I just can't be bothered for some reason. I ordered the sail material a while back and didn't get an email back to confirm the order so I thought it didn't go through. I was kind of glad because all the trouble Alex had been having in the other post I wasn't looking forward to making it, and I was just going to buy a sail off the shelf. Anyway the polytarp arrived out of the blue yesterday and I had it all cut out ready to go within a couple of hours. I went to the shops yesterday and couldn't find any thread of course so I just ordered what I thought would do the job.I got T40 which I think is close to V69 I think Wild Rose Information Services Pty. Ltd.. However, Spotlight had double sided tape on special - $10 for 50m - things were looking up.

Too my surprise it was delivered this morning, so I went over to mum's and got the sewing machine. I have never sewn before and nothing I did would stop the thread from bunching in a big knot around the bobbin. I pulled it to bits to see how it worked and realised the bobbins that I was using were slightly wrong (don't know how mum was using it).

Anyway, got the right size bobbin and sewed it all up, I didn't have to muck around with tensions etc, just select the zigzag setting and it was a piece of cake. Not perfect by any stretch of the imagination but I don't care.

Also went to buy the cedar for the foils - $120, so I didn't bother. Instead went to Bunnies and got 15 bits of radiata - 42*19*2400 for $15 and ran them through my $40 ebay table saw and got them down to 25mm, I'll glue them up tomorrow.

Also dropped into a chandlery on the way home to buy some rudder fittings, saddles and some blocks. The guy was great and really helpful but his prices were crazy so I will be making my own rudder bits for sure and ordering everything else online, except for rope.

Photos of everything so far tomorrow.

Col

Hi

Photos so far.

Still need to put eyelets on the sail, glue the tiller to the rudder box and make gudgeons and pintles. Also have to finish gluing the foils and shaping them, sand the hull, varnish the inside and mast and paint the thing - lots of work to do before it is finished.

You have very heathy lawn. (picture 1442) The PD is looking good too.

Great progress here Col,

One of the great by products of PDRacers and polytarp sails is to demystify sailmaking. Sure a more complex sail would be better, but it is just so satisfying to make something yourself and find it works OK.

Good sails have their place too, but no reason we should not grab a little corner of the sailmaking world to call our own.

Best wishes
MIK

Haven't got anything done on the duck lately due to work commitments until yesterday.

I planed down the rudder yesterday and I didn't get it exactly right I might have to make another - is the shape just important on the rudder as the centerboard? I Just finished planing the centerboard and is looks pretty good, so it's a keeper.

Just need to get a boom and sort out this rudder box assembly. Can someone let me know what pintle and gudgeon they used. The only width that I can find that is close to what I need is 38mm, the box is 33mm wide. I am guessing that's what people used because the 25 mm ones are obviously too narrow and there isn't anything available that is wide enough to fit over the framing. I'll keep looking.

Col

Originally Posted by colburge

Just need to get a boom and sort out this rudder box assembly. Can someone let me know what pintle and gudgeon they used. The only width that I can find that is close to what I need is 38mm, the box is 33mm wide. I am guessing that's what people used because the 25 mm ones are obviously too narrow and there isn't anything available that is wide enough to fit over the framing. I'll keep looking.

Col

Got mine from Duck Flat think they may have got them made to order if my memory is correct.

Here is a pic of them

Attachment 133612