Team Seacats

I’ve reached the turn around point on this hull. We’re filling and smoothing now. The warm streak continues here in Greenville, SC with temps again brushing 60 degrees. I had planned to do a lot of hull work this weekend but apparently the weather people are having difficulty figuring out what each day will bring. The forecast for this weekend was warm and partly cloudy. Now they’re saying cold and wet and I’m sure they’ll find something to blame it on. At any rate, I again took advantage of another warmish evening to sand the low spots and apply filler to the bottom of the hull. Previously I had mentioned how I was concerned about finding the low spots after I sanded them for the filler…making them match the rest of the hull and all. I decided to sand the low spots in a straight pattern whereas the rest of the hull is in a circular pattern. It worked well and I was able to come back and locate the low spots easily. I filled most of the low spots and will sand them smooth this weekend. Hopefully later this weekend I’ll apply a thin coat of filler to the entire bottom and sand smooth again. Then it will be time to move on to the other hull.

I also got the plug removed from the rudder I vacuum bagged. Thankfully, the epoxy did not adhere to the nylon plug at all. A little trimming and it popped right out. I’m taking the rudders to work tomorrow where I can clamp them in a milling machine and ream the holes to precisely .75 in and square.

Also of note is that I’m building a 10′ aluminum storage box for the trailer and one other for a friend. The aluminum came in to work the other day and I spent lunch shearing the aluminum to size and had a friend help me bend it on a large brake this afternoon. I’m pulling another string with a welder friend who will TIG weld the boxes together. I’ll show some pictures of that equipment if you guys are interested.

Originally uploaded by Team Seacats.

The trampoline came back from E/P tonight and they did a terrific job. The stitching is impeccable. For this modification, they fold back (or cut away) several inches of the side of the trampoline and sandwich in several loops of heavy duty nylon webbing ever 4 inches or so. Then they supply this bolt rope to slide into the slot in the hull with several more nylon webbing loops that will slide up and down the bolt rope to align themselves with the webbing sewn in the trampoline. In addition to the regular front to back tensioning we could do with this trampoline, we can also tension it side to side. Since the rear of the trampoline usually sits closer to the water, there is speculation that this lacing will ventilate the airflow under the trampoline resulting in less drag (hand down technology from the Olympic Tornado class). All I know is that it serves as a terrific hand hold when things get windy and bumpy and a good spot to plant your heel when pushing out on the trapeze. My F18 has a trampoline similar to this and I’ve really grown to like it. That’s our dog, Gunther, in the photo trying to garner a little attention.

I also had a few minutes before it started raining to shape up the repair to the hull this evening (some photos over at flikr – click photo below). I used an angle grinder with a sanding disk to take down the edges of the repair area…it’s a dangerous tool to get close to a hull like that but if you’re careful it can yield quick results. I still have some shaping to do with a straight edge, palm sander, and my long board but it shouldn’t take long. The weather forecast is also significantly different now and they’re calling for 62 degrees tomorrow and upper 50′s throughout the weekend without any rain. I’m planning on going in early tomorrow so I can get home to take some advantage of the warmer conditions and hope to get some of the imperfections on this starboard hull filled in. We’re getting a LOT of photos over there at flikr…I’m going to have to see if I can setup sub-categories to keep them organized.

I was supposed to be away on a business trip starting this afternoon but the customer couldn’t get all the details together so I cancelled at the last minute. When I got home from work, it was almost 60 degrees. A quick check of the weather revealed that it was going to stay warm and the temperature would only start to drop off sharply after 9pm. It will be raining for days after today. I quickly changed clothes and darted outside to get some composite work put in on the underbelly of the boat at the daggerboard wells. Shown here is the repair after I’ve laid up several layers of 7oz woven cloth. I used woven cloth because without a large time investment (which I didn’t have because of the time left in the day) I couldn’t seal off and setup a full on vacuum bagging operation. The woven cloth does not require pressure like the Knytex cloth because it doesn’t ‘balloon’ up absorbing resin almost endlessly. I started with small squares in the center of the repair area alternating between 90 degree and 45 degree weave patterns on each layer and growing each layer outward in the repair. I built it up a bit past the original height so I can sand it back to shape later. It wastes a bit of cloth when you’re trimming out the 45 degree batches but it really helps the strength of the repair. At any rate, the light is keeping the layup warm and it’s nearly reached a full cure – it looks great. As usual there’s more detail and a series of photos on this repair – click on the photo below to go there.

Originally uploaded by Team Seacats.

I made a minor blunder with the site last night while trying to move the blogging files up to the main www.teamseacats.com directory. The main page is loading fine but clicking on the categories or details come back with a server error. Looks like I’ll have to reinstall everything to make the directory change – please bear with me. I’ll get it working correctly soon.

2/21 – got it…it’s all workin’ now!

I reinforced the other rudder today and choose to vacuum bag this rudder instead of using the electrical tape trick hoping for a cleaner finish. Previously, I had only used vacuum bagging to construct completely new parts but hadn’t yet used it to reinforce or repair existing parts. It was most certainly cleaner and not only yielded another strong repair but required less work after the repair was completed. In the picture below you can see the rudder head while it’s under vacuum pressure. I use a Vaccon vacuum generator that uses air from my air compressor to pull a vacuum (venturi). It’s really economical and effective…but probably requires a little more energy than a mechanical vacuum pump. There’s more detail about the layup process at Flikr (where the images are hosted).

I also ground out the crack on the back of the daggerboard well on the hull and found that the crack penetrated about 2/3 the way through the hull. I was surprised that it didn’t go all the way through – but it still needed to be repaired because it would only get worse. I’ve ordered ports to install into the decks so I can reinforce the well from the inside too…I’ll post pictures of that when I really get into that repair later. I’m either going to have to wait for another warm spell to do the composite work or build some sort of hull-fitting heat box with my infrared heat light to keep the repair warm while it cools. Unlike these rudder repairs, the hull repair will have to be done with polyester resin because I intend to gelcoat the hull after all the fairing and repairing are complete and Gelcoat will not adhere as well to epoxy.

Originally uploaded by Team Seacats.