Team Seacats

Several folks came by this evening to help put the Team Seacats I20 together. Travis and Courtney, Chris and Ann, Chris Zander, David and Robin, Tim and Kristen, and of course Bonnie pitched in to grill out some grub, put in some work on the boat, and shoot some pool. As far as the boat goes, we got the hulls assembled, the trampoline installed (thanks to Chris for putting in the ooomf in the lacing), the mast got stepped with the trapeze rigging. Naturally, we forgot to rig the spinnaker halyard at the top of the mast but we can deal with that later. We only wish that Frank (who is about 800 miles away at the moment) could have joined us.

Pictured here are Chris Owens, Chris Zander, and Tim Owens (no relation).

Tim Owens, David Strickland, Chris Zander, and me (trying to get into position before the flash goes off).

Now this is a more natural pose. Me on the left, Tim Owens (the man with the smile…and common sense), Chris Zander, and David Strickland. Strangly, Travis Phillips avoid all photos and Chris Owens missed most of them too. I’ll get them soon enough….(note: no animals were injured during the taking of this photo)

I made a comment last week about the finish being “acceptable”. I was wrong about the finish – it turned out to be a LOT better than simply “acceptable”. There is still a little more to buff out (looks like the quart of compound will just be enough) but the hull on the left is complete except for the topsides. Will ya look at that shine!? Travis Phillips, who used to sail with me until he severed his acheles tendon in a tennis accident late last year, helped out big-time this weekend. 5 hours and two sunburns later (yes, we were both wearing sun block…but not enough apparently) we sanded the port hull from start to finish. We started with 220 grit, then 320 grit, then 400 grit, and finally 600 grit. I put a tee in the water hose so we could both have a water supply for the sanding. Travis came back this evening to help me finish the one remaining side of a hull and we both went at it with two mechanical buffers.

Bonnie and I are having an informal cookout tomorrow evening with the folks that have graciously pitched in thus far, and I’m going to squeeze another evening out of them as we start to put this boat together (insert evil laughter). With their help, I hope to get the trampoline on and the mast up in the air. I’ll take some more pictures and try to introduce the guys and gals (that put up with all this nonsense).

I wonder how long my driveway will be blue like this?

Originally uploaded by Team Seacats.

I went out to the course at Spring Fever with Neville Cork on his power boat this afternoon and took some shots. I’ve had some things come up that prevented me from attending the regatta this year. The weather has been spectacular for racing with the temperature in the upper 80′s and the breeze between 10-15 with some higher gusts. There’s a large 18 boat F18 fleet and approximately 35 to 40 other types of catamarans in attendence. The racing was great today and the perspective from a chase boat on the water was interesting. I took over 160 pictures today and they’re available at the Flickr site…click the image below to go there.

Originally uploaded by Team Seacats.

 

OK…it’s taking longer than expected but the results are coming out OK. The new gel coat is buffing up very easily because it’s not as hard as the old gel coat. I was getting concerned that I couldn’t get the old gel coat to a good sheen but discovered that I was only being stingy with the rubbing compound. With copious amounts applied to the buffer/polisher the old gel coat does shine up quickly. I’m not sure that I have enough compound but it will be close (I’m ordering another quart this weekend to be sure). I’ll focus on the bottoms first because I can do the sides later with the boat assembled if I happen to run out.

In some spots, there is a difference in the color between the old and new gel coat. The old gel coat seems to have turned a little dark-greenish in spots. It’s not something you would notice outside of 5′ away … and I almost think it has an interesting look when you do notice it. However, once graphics are applied, it probably won’t be visible at all. Click to enlarge the photo. I have some well needed help coming in on Sunday to help me sand the remaining areas on this hull and get started on the other one.

Originally uploaded by Team Seacats.

 

I received the pictures back that I took during my short visit to Performance Catamarans earlier this week. Unfortunately the disposable camera really needed the flash when indoors (my digital camera would have been borderline in here). Fortunately I did use the flash on several pictures! I’ve uploaded the photos and added descriptions on the Flickr site…click the photo below to go there.

As far as the boat work goes, I’m still wet-sanding the hulls. I have about 2/3 of one hull done and did some test buffing along the very bottom of the hull. The finish is good but it’s not perfect…it’s taking a lot more time than I had anticipated and the ‘acceptable’ finish might have to do for a little while…it’s certainly not bad enough to detract anything from the performance of the boat (I’m probably being too picky about it – as usual). The the fairness of the hull bottom looks great!

Originally uploaded by Team Seacats.