Team Seacats

I’ve made several key parts this weekend for the one meter and plan to start making a mold for the rear deck this evening (maybe). As I was uploading pictures, I was sitting here wondering why I’ve been having so much trouble getting the molds to release for some of these recent parts…wax….geeesh….I forgot the wax.

I’ve been putting in a lot of thought about how the controls for the rudder and sails might work. I like the looks of a big sugar scoop cockpit but it has some disadvantages;

• It adds more material and weight to the hull than a solid flat deck
• room underneath for electronics is reduced
• Additional hull penetrations leave room for water intrusion

It also has some advantages:

• Controls are more accessible since most of the lines run inside the cockpit outside the boat
• It looks good
• Rudder controls are easily accessible (rudder easily removable)

The solid flat top deck, while potentially drier, has a few disadvantages as well:

• access and installation of the controls more difficult (rudder not easy to remove)
• Subdecks are required to mount controls – this is an additional and tricky construction step
• The top of the rudder post would be inside the boat and could be a leak hazard.
  

So I recalled an idea that Neville had a while back and decided to create a short sugar scoop at the transom that should provide a simple and robust method for accessing most of the controls. It will also firm up the structure in the transom for the backstay loads.

As I was making a trip across our plant yesterday, I saw them making several cuts of a solid round 3.5″ PVC so I snagged drop piece from the trash and proceeded to use it as a plug. I first attached a block of a 2×4 to the rear using screws – this would allow me to run the round stock squarely through my table saw by giving me two square sides. I setup the table saw to lop off a flat section and ran that through. Then I put about a 10 degree tilt to the bandsaw blade and made a cut on the end of the pvc. Then I sanded and rounded the edges, primered, wet sanded smooth, (forgot the wax), applied the PVA release agent, and vacuumed a fiberglass and epoxy layup around it. This morning, after it soaked in water all night, I finally was able to separate the two – but the plug would need to be completely refinished if I planned to use it again (no wax…so it pulled the primer off with the part). However, I’m not planning on using that plug again anyway.
 

     

After marking it level and trimming up the part, I fitted a cut-out in the hull to the new scoop and tacked the scoop in place with some CA glue. I then mixed up a thick slurry of microballoons and epoxy, and carefully filleted in the inside of the hull to scoop joint. It’s curing out in the sun now, but I should be able to come back and sand everything nice and pretty-like this afternoon. I will then finish the rear of the hull here with primer and make a mold of the rear scoop and part of the stern of the boat. I will use this mold to make the future scoops so they will simply have a lip that fits right down over the transom making installation on future boats a snap.

So what does this do for me? Well, I’ve got some ideas about how the sail control lines will come out of this – but I’ll cover that in detail when I get to it soon. The biggest thing this does for me is keeps me from having to build another hatch to access the rudder hardware. Since the floor of the scoop will function as the upper deck for the rudder post, I no longer need to install a rear subdeck to support the rudder post.  I also don’t have to create a second water-tight hatch and the rudder post will be sealed on the top and bottom so the chances of it leaking inside the hull are very small.  It also makes the rudder easily removable for transportation and storage without the need to open and reseal anything. I believe the rigging is going to be pretty neat too…stay tuned.