After this morning’s rain cleared the sun has come out and brightened the outlook somewhat.
As it happens we had a large tree removed from our backyard because it was too close to the neighbours residence. That inspired the adjoining neighbour to have his similarly large tree removed which has opened up our back yard to a lot more sunshine. Our tree was over thirty years old and growing vigerously while the neighbours tree was much older and a bit worse for wear. After the tree was felled the tree rings told and interesting tale. For the first two thirds of the rings there was no fire damage but after that there was repeated fire damage over many cycles until 35 years ago when the area was urbanised. I speculate that the tree predated agriculture in the area by as much as 50 years and then possibly 100 years of agriculture. It is a shame I could not save a section of the trunk and have it polished to date it properly.
That was Thurdsay’s distraction while the evening before was the second twilight race at GFS. Courtesy of a generous handicap we were second in that race. We had our moments with a good first windward work until Long Nose where we were caught on the wrong shore for the breeze direction but on the subsequent run down the south of Cockatoo Island we got a private gust with some staying power that caught us up the the fleet. Nevertheless our two second places will cause us some pain in the handicap department. Well done to Irikandji who sailed a steady race and won by a large margin.
Back at the boat yard I call home I have been a bit quiet on reporting activity as it has been repetitive planking of the radius chine and all weather affected. It is finished although a week behind my self imposed schedule and I really did not compensate for the lost time with a lot of interior work. I did some cleaning up inside which will be useful but it was hard to get motivated when it was cold and damp.
For the record here are a few photos from planking the radius chine to a bit of interior fiddling.
Wednesday was a dreadful day with heavy rain for most of the daylight hours. We went to the club rather hoping that racing would be abandoned and the majority of the skippers voted with their feet and did not show.
On the wet pontoon we were endeavouring to negotiate a no show for all of our black fleet but our attempts were thwarted by the arrival of Joli. No wanting to give Joli a six point head start to the season Utopia and Passion X made a mad scramble to the moored yachts and made it to the start.
Joli because she was better prepared no doubt, took the lead and held it to the finish for a first and fastest. Well done Joli.
At the back of the three boat fleet we had abandoned hope but a good shift on the second windward work gained us some ground and rekindled our spirits.
Now it was cold and damp. The heavy rain had moderated and sailing was only mildly uncomfortable as we headed into Humbug for the work home.
As much as we tried we could not get in phase with the shifts in Humug as they were severe and often but midway through our luck changed and we worked the last half in one beat.
At the finish we were certain that all hope had been lost but that last shift got us over the line for second place on handicap just one second in front of Utopia. While a more generous result would have been a dead heat for second we will take the extra point.
My last significat progress on the hull of Passion XI was on Tuesday when I made full use of the available daylight hours and a couple of hours under lights. In that session I planked 2.7 metres of the second layer and in the process completed all the 6 mm planks. The remaining section needs two layers of 3 mm to bend around the tighter radius.
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday provides some limited opportunity for external work during which time the temporary fasteners were removed and some limited cleaning and torture boarding started.
The torture boarding is more of a luxury at this stage but I am a little like small child unwrapping the presents as I cannot wait to get the glue off the joins and run the fairing battern over the surface.
Before the deluge on Friday I sent a morning fairing the first two layers of 3mm on the radius chine ready to take the next two layers. There is possibly a mornings work removing the remaining glue off the first two layers to expose clean timber ready for the next application of thickened epoxy..
When it rained I retreated under the tarpaulins and started tidying up the completed radius chine ready for filling holes and filleting the bulkheads to the new skin.
Tomorrow, Monday, a new work week starts and with the forecast promising sunshine I hope to be back on planking the hull.
As anticlimaxes go it was as good as they get. We finished mid fleet on time and handicap and mid fleet on progress scores amongst those yachts that sailed regularly. As far as handicap racing goes that is as much as one can expect. Strategically our 1,1, 3 result in the middle of the season resulted in a significant handicap penalty from which we never recovered. Over the course of the season the handicap results were so close that a series of fourth places might have resulted in a better season outcome.
You cannot plan for these results. Once in a good place no respectable crew is going to go slow for a lower placing so it is what it is.
Not having a season victory to celebrate we will quietly slip away to some boat building and hope no one notices.
The boat building is progressing steadily if not spectacularly. A few more fine days has helped so that as of today the stern quarter of the hull is fully planked. With every plank the length gets shorter so in terms of area there is more progress.
On the wet days I have progressed some of the interior structure including the king plank hardwood doublers and the galley cupboard tracks. One key project was preparing templates of the keel base plate and keel bolts to confirm the bolt alignment before the hardwood shoe is glued to the hull. At the right moment these semi finished components will come out of the garage and get installed in what seems quick time where in fact it has been careful use of rainy days.
As for the present I have 21 more planks cut ready to install and a schedule of a minimum of 6 per day to achieve my target date for completing the second layer.
Even before the second layer is finished I am planning for the next phase which is fitting the rudder bearings and the engine shaft and P bracket. All the required parts are on order and with a bit of luck will arrive before the torture boarding and priming is finished.
After a lot of deliberation I have chosen a colour scheme for the new yacht and I hope to have the red water line painted on the hull in time for Christmas. It is the right colour for the Christmas season. Perhaps some teak and holly flooring would be in keeping with the Christmas theme.
Today I finished attaching the two layers of 3 mm ply to the bow area to form the first 6 mm layer of the radius chine. From the bow the shape of the yacht has finally taken shape and I am very pleased with the appearance. On Passion X the first two layers of 3 mm ply were placed back to back as a single double layer but for Passion X1 the two layers have been staggered. This appears to have produced a fairer first layer which i will be able to fair with the torture board before fitting the subsequent two layers.
I could not resist getting to work with the torture board to see how fairness of the bow area. The excuse I made to myself was that I needed to check the alignment before planking the port side. It seemed a reasonable rationalisation and I indulged myself with some very fine tuning of the stringers on the port side before completing the last four double planks.
It was not a busy day but rather one of careful sanding and very fine planing to ensure that the two sides would come out the same. In the process I got some exercise with the torture board and also tested the 150 mm random orbital sander.
The spotted gum timber I had ordered was ready for pick up which was a pleasant drive in the country to timber yard and also a justifation for an easy day on the tools.
With the spotted gum home and the first layer of the radius chine completed I am accumulating a long list of tasks that can be done in accord with the weather conditions. The spotted gum will go on the edges of the king plank as a very strong doubler to take the bearing pressure of the keel bolts. It will also go under the keel so I can at any time plane the “V” of the bottom of the hull and form the keel shoe.
But my priority will be to get the second layer on the radius chine so that the hull is water tight and final fairing can begin. I will need plenty of less vigerous tasks to do in parallel so it could be a good thing that the list is long.
In the RANSA winter Wednesday series there is just two races left this season. I cannot say that I am not frustrated at the windward performance compared to the Sydney 38 Agrovation and the Sydney 36Cr’s Amante and Crosshaven. To be fair they are respectivly rated 4% and 3% faster to windward and apart from sailing smarter I have to acknowledge they have the natural speed edge on the windward work.
Our new yacht, the Didi 120 prototye is designed to be faster to windward and with a longer waterline still have good downwind speed but it will be winter 2024 before we can put it to the test.
When we finish in front of Allegro and Joli and alongside Foreigh Affairs we expect better than ninth place so I was disappointed when the results came out. We had our best sails for the conditions but from the start Amante and Crosshaven took off and were never headed. Agrovation with a smaller than expected headsail managed third over the line due to their good upwind speed but their handicap put them one behind Passion X.
I mention we finished near Foreign Affairs so their last place on handicap was no suprise but what was suprising is that they did not get away.
Perhaps the Sydney 36CRs have a special trick up their sleeves in such conditions and full marks to Crosshaven for a good win. Also full marks to Monkey Magic for second place but almost three minutes behind Crosshaven. If Crosshaven was an athlete she would be asked to pee into a bottle.
That’s enough about the race now what has been going on at the boatyard?
To be fair a lot of other activities have been going on. We have over the last few week demolished 15 metres of fence and sent that to the tip in a skip bin. Next we demolished a large garden shed and sent that to the tip is a similarly large skip bin. Then there was repairs to a trellis that had been demolished by the tree fellers when they removed the large gum from the back yard. All has not yet returned to normal as the contents of the garden shed that we wish to keep are spread around the property awaiting a new one.
Against this backdrop I have been plodding along on the radius chine planking.
There was a brief interruption to get the four coats of epoxy paint into the water tanks before the planking obstructed the access and the fairing of the radius chine doublers has had to be kept going in advance.
The radius chine is fixed to a 100 mm wide 12 mm ply strip which is attached to a 32 by 22 stringer. The flat panels attach to 50 mm of the strip and the radius section attaches to the other 50 mm. Before attaching the radius section the 50 mm strip has to be planed to the curve and in the planing process the longitudinal shape has to be maintained. At the rear the curve is so large that the fairing is quite simple but as the work approches the bow the curve is much sharper and the amount of ply to be planed off is more.
At the bow for the first 5 metres I had not routered the step in the 12 mm ply as it was going to be out in the weather for a while and I wanted to leave the 6 mm step until I was ready to do the curve. That time arrive today.
I had been a bit anxious about the routering on the upturned hull but by carefully fastening a long timber batten to the hull as a guide the process went rather well.
The rest of the day was spent fairing the 50 mm of ply to the radius shape and apart from a final fiddle just before gluing it is finished.
Now I have few excuses left for plodding progress. There is nothing stopping me completing the front half of the first 6 mm ply layer and moving on to the second layer. So it is 40 done and 120 to go.
For the Winter Wednesday at RANSA we had no expectations as circumstances conspired to leave us with just two men and two ladies on board. In deference to the crew size we had no option but to set the No3 jib and do the course as best we could.
From the gun it was apparent we were under canvassed for the run to the heads. Looking across the fleet we appeared to be last in very quick time. Some of that was due to the fleet being well to windward and getting first use of the breeze and some was just lack of sail area.
We did get a few gusts from behind to keep us in touch and as we approached the top mark we had a better angle which made up a little ground. The fleet was suprisingly closely bunched at the mark so we rounded wide and headed for the shore until we could call room to tack against the rocks.
This was our lucky break as the breeze lifted on port tack giving us an instant gain over the early tackers.. We were almost at Steele Point before the breeze knocked and Fidelis who looked hopelessly far below tacked and crossed. At this stage we carried on for clear air and when we did tack we were lifted on starboard.
Imagine our surprise to see Cuckoos Nest cross not far ahead and to find Joli and Meridian in close company. Somewhere in that leg we passed Allegro and Brittania. We did not have it all our way as Joli and Meridian got a good port tack lift into the mark at Rose Bay but we were happy to be close given our rig.
The wind was a bit fickle around Point Piper with an easy reach giving way to a very tight work to the mark. When we did round the mark a lot of the fleet was in the wind shadow and going nowhere. We went as straight out as we could considering the fleet with Cuckoos Nest deepest and when the wind returned Kevin held out our tiny jib to good effect. Years of sailing NS14s with tiny jibs seemed to pay off as we rounded the island ahead of Crosshaven.
This is the time when we needed a good rounding but our top battern caught on the backstay. Earlier in the day I had replaced the top battern because it was fractured and the replacement was a heavier one. It is ideal for 12 knot but at that stage of the race and in the shadow of the island it would not pop through. On the new boat we will have a very large backstay flicker but for now it is one of the problems we must manage.
Depite the battern issue we held our position in the fleet but lost ground to those who had rounded just ahead. The lightening breeze was not favourable to catching the fleet and we looked behind at Fidelis making good progress.
Congratulations to Joli for the handicap win and for winning the wrath of the handicapper. For our part our successive 12 places followed by a 6th has returned some handicap to us in time for the tail end of the season. Only Allegro who did not have a good day, fared better at the handicappers hands and so they will be hard to catch on the pointscore.
Meanwhile back on the boat building site I have been getting ahead of myself just a little. I was so keen to start the radius chine planking that I took off before finishing the painting in the water tanks. So now it is a race to see if the water tanks will be painted before the hull is planked from the stern to the tanks.
It seems that the planking is winning as of tonight the starboard first layer is completed up to the water tanks and there is still two coats of epoxy paint to go. For my penance for being impatient I spent the last hour today sanding inside the starboard tank. There is still a lot I can do before gluing in the planks. There is plywood to be cut to width and then hand fitted to the final positions. I have been preparing eight a side so that would get me past the tanks once the painting is finished. I am reluctant to do more as the radius is tightening up quickly and soon it will be too tight to plank with 6 mm and I will change to four layers of 3 mm ply.
I could not resist starting on the radius chine moulding before all my other fiddly bits have been finished. To be fair my list of jobs has been whittled down and the main outstanding item is painting inside the water tanks while the top and side are accessible. I want to leave the least painting possible for after the hull is turned as painting epoxy upside down inside a tank is not a pleasant task.
By starting at the transom with the moulded ply planking I should have enough time to complete the painting.
What I have finished includes fixing the water tank tops, filletting all the corners in the tank and glassing over the fillets. That includes glassing the fillets where the tank top, which is also the settee seat, joins the hull. All but the last glass has been sanded ready for the epoxy paint. While in the tank I filleted the stringers as it is easier while there is good access.
Before the laminating of the radius chine can begin the tangent stringers have to be faired to the radius. The layers of ply give a good indication that the bevel on the ply is even and a long fibreglass battern wrapped around the chine provides a good planing guide. For good measure the 12 mm ply on the tangent stringer can be eyeballed along the hull and a much longer fibreglass battern is useful for checking the fore and aft alignment.
It helps to have a very sharp plane and to that end I sharpened the blades many times a day.
I have been reserving the morning for planing the tangent stringers as it is a quiet task and gives the body a good workout before starting the noisy machines cutting temporary clamps and cutting ply strips.
At a rough guess with each plank 300 mm wide and 12000 millimeters of boat there are 40 planks a side for one layer so 160 planks to finish the hull. That is conservative for the from third will be planked with four layers of 3 mm ply to get around the very tight and powerfull forward chines. That adds 50 planks to the task so 210 planks in total.
I did look back at the photos of the build on Passion X and noted that this phase took three months. I think that I can do better than that but we will see.
Meanwhile back on the race track we are missing crew weight. Yes for the three crew we had on the rail we are down 0.2 knots in boat speed. Add to that the more challenging handicap we were dealt after a couple of wins and we are back at the rear of the handicap results.
Clearly I got ahead of myself giving praise to the handicapper a couple of weeks back.
The results on Wednesday were instructive as the two yachts with the smallest jibs for the day came first and second. Before the race I did say that Fidelis must know something and that something was that the wind would be stronger than forecast. On the hard reaching leg we lacked crew weight on the rail so I am looking forward to having the new yacht on the water in a couple of seasons where the extra 450 kg on the keel will compensate for the lack of crew on the rail.
Today I glued in place the last two 12 mm ply panels that form the bottom of the new vessel. It is a significant milestone as the sheets of 12 mm ply in the garage has dwindled down and the last five sheets will soon be stood up against the wall freeing up valuable working space. It is significant as the structure is now well protected from the weather and I have a dry place to continue the work.
Looking ahead there are lots of jobs to be completed before the two layers of 6 mm ply can be moulded around the radius chine. Foremost is completing the sealing of the water tanks around the keel floors and sealing the plywood inside the tanks. The interior of the water tanks are much cleaner than on Passion X as every floor has blocking back to the skin so there is less surface area and it is easier to coat. After the water tanks the tangent stringers all have to be trimmed to the radius and then the moulding can begin.
Having started by boat building career moulding Moths in my Dad’s garage I am quite at home tapering panels so that they lay flat on the stringers. I still have my trusty block plane from about 55 years ago and have been giving it a good workout on the 12 mm panels so the 6 mm ones should be OK.
This week Dudley sent through a Deck layout and that gave me a few evenings contemplating the changes and investigating the supply situation with fittings.
But it has been a big week. On Tuesday I worked a 12 hour shift to get two panels installed and cleaned up.
On Wednesday I took Passion X to JBC Engineering for a test run and confirmation of the drive train we will put in the new build. Everything stacked up well but we possibly need a bit more pitch on the propellor to stop the engine revving too high. That is a minor adjustment at the next lift out.
After the test run we had the Winter Wednesday at RANSA where we were fortunate to dodge the rain but that was about all. It was a pleasant afternoon with Elaine spotting dolphins in the harbour but the pleasure diminished when Allegro, Joli, Meridian, Love Byte and Brittania passed us as the breeze died. We did not do ourselves any favours by getting on the wrong side of a couple of shifts but we were in the mix and did not prevail.
Today I set myself the task of finishing the bottom ply comprising two panels from one sheet of ply. The full list of jobs comprised cleaning the weathering off the unpainted edges of the bulkheads where they will be bogged to the skin, adding doublers to the short stringers, cutting the short stringers to length and cutting the limber holes in the last bulkhead.
The final, final, fairing of the strongback to the bottom Vee took longer than expected but once done the panels could be cut and checked, edges routered, glue lines marked, screw holes predrilled at set spacing, screw holes counter sunk and then we could start the gluing.
It takes some discipline to keep the jobs progressing at a pace that will have the tasks finished before nightfall. After dinner and a break I finished the clean up under the tarpaulins and under the work lamp. There is so much white epoxy paint on the bulkheads and side panels that the light from the work light fills the interior and softend the shadows. Anyway I will clock it up as a ten hour day but a very satisfying one.
Just a couple more photos from the week.
Wednesday’s race at RANSA was a win for the handicapper with the majority of the fleet finishing within a minute. We were in the back end of the minute and so scored a seventh to keep out third place on the season pointscore.
We started the day full of optimism as the sun was shining and the northely breeze was bringing warm air over the course. A fresh breeze was forecast but on the water it was not so strong so we set our No 1 heavy genoa. The forecast wind direction had been very favourable for Passion X but the wind on the course was tighter than expected for the first beat and headed as the race progressed.
We started low on the line alongside Cuckoos Nest who were going faster and pointing higher so we pulled below for clear air anticipating the wind to trend back to forecast for an easy beat. An easy beat it was not for Passion X and at the top or the course we were the only boat to have to tack to get to the mark.
At this stage Agrovation was well gone followed by Crosshaven and then a close group including Allegro, Joli and Brittania. We rounded on the tail of Love Byte and did well on the broad reach to Steele Point. The leg into Rose Bay was very square and while we would have liked to go wider we were hemmed in by a port gybe yacht who refused to gybe away. This is annoying as Rule 14 requires us to avoid a collision and we don’t need the hassle of an afternoon in the protest room. As a result we gybed away onto port early while the yachts further out sailed around us. From Rose Bay to Point Piper we carried breeze and sensed we were closing on the fleet now that we were reaching.
Around Shark Island we made up a little ground but had Love Byte and Allegro just in front forming an obstacle. Avoiding a starboard tacker from the back fleet cost us a few seconds but despite this we drew alongside Allegro at the Naval buoys.
Now if you ask me we had an inside overlap but by pulling away at the mark Allegro just cleared our bowsprit and got the inside running to the favoured end of the line.
It was all so close at the finish which kept everyone on their toes and well done to the handicapper.
Back on the new build the keel floors were tidied up and the next two panels fixed to the hull. I was pleased to get the limber holes tidied up and thoroughly saturated with epoxy resin before the sheets of ply were fixed to the hull. Tuesday was a long day with work not finished till nine at night due to the need to clean up all the epoxy resin that squeezes ouf the joins and the large number of joins with the panels going over the keel floors. The very last job was to clear coat the floors to keep them clean for the rest of the build.
Today, Thursday, I finished planing the strongback all the way to the transom. Planing is never quite finished as I will check it again with the long hand plane before the final fix. The sheets of plywood behind the keel are the largest panels to go on the bottom so I will be pleased to get these next two done.
After weeks of inclement weather we have had a couple of delightful races in very pleasant conditions. Last Wednesday at the RANSA race our clubmate Joli did a bolter and shot off from the start like a TP52. Within a few minutes she was two minutes ahead and stayed there all day. Well done to Adrian and the crew on Joli.
The breeze for the day was on the margin for our No 3 jib and being a little undermanned we made the conscious desison to play safe. That choice showed on the downwind leg to the heads where we arrived behind mid fleet. Rounding behind Allegro, Brittania and Fidelis we carried on as far as possible to the rocks before tacking for Steele Point. With some good fortune of our own we tacked onto a lift which gained some ground immediately. After the long board to Steele Point we tacked back on another lift and managed to catch both Allegro and Fidelis. After that there were not many passing lanes and try as we might we could make no impression on Love Byte and Brittania. Our sixth place on handicap was consistent and we clawed back a few points from the massive lead of Allegro but let Brittania off the hook by another three points.
Happily we are in third place and yet to have a really favourable wind.
Today was the West Harbour Winter Series for which event we were down to just three crew, Elaine, Frank and myself. The breeze when we were preparing for the race was a few knots so we went for our old 1.5 genoa which is higher clewed and easier to skirt. For the start we opted to play safe with a late start on the committee boat but that did not stop Matagi barging in late. Not wanting to force the issue we called them through and started last in gusty conditions . Fortunatly for Passion X only the last work from Birkenhead to Long Nose was tight and for the rest we could crack the sheets off a few inches and concentrate on dropping the main in gusts.
Despite the fresh breeze mid river the condition around Manns mark were chaotic with big swings in direction and plenty of holes. This is where we passed Maxishambles who had to tack back to round the mark and do so in no breeze.
I could not see what happened on the second rounding of this mark but it appeared both Maxishambles and Ophir had similar bad luck. On the second rounding of Manns we made up ground on Another Planet and Bear Necessities but not enough. As we had to give these two yachts time we could manage only a third. I mean we were deligheted to score third place given the small crew.
On the boat building front we lost three days with sailing and other social activities so if it seems to you my progress has been slow it seems that way to me.
A day was spent fairing the strongback back to beyond the keel and a day was spent cutting the first four panels for the bottom. It was another long day fastening and gluing the first two panels at the bow and this was a day that went long after dark.
Cleaning up the keel floor while I can attack them from above and below has been a priority. Also I needed to complete the keel bolt holes through the kingplank and these activities have taken up at a good part of two days of work time.
Next on the schedule is completing the keel floor cleaning and applying a couple of sealing coats of clear epoxy. At the same time I want to epoxy the limber holes through the floors while the channel is still accessible from above. I would like to seal the timber and have a slippery surface through the limber holes before the ply goes on and limits access. The keel floors are 125 mm wide and 150 wide along the strongback and the spaces between the floor are less so no post ply access will be possible
I have a good record of the progress I made building Passion X and that is a handy guide to my progress on the new build. Last night while checking photos to see what internals I had installed before plating the hull I noted that I seem to be six weeks behind.
Comparisons can be difficult because on the new build I have already painted a lot of the interior which I did not do until much later in the build on Passion X.
Even allowing for the extra work already competed on the new build I feel that I am behind. The weather is in no small part to blame as this has to be one of the most consistently wet seasons in a long time. I am fortunate that the middle of the yacht is under the awning which was not installed at this stage of the build on Passion X but despite the cover the weather has been too wet and windy to do any meaningful work in many days.
Ther is also more work on the new build including more laminates in the keel floors and more packers between the keel floors and the 12 mm ply skin.
I have some optimism that I will make up the time later in the build. Summer is coming and with it longer days more can be done. Also with the experience of the first yacht behind me I may have less thinking to do on how to fit the internal furniture. Then there is the interior finishing that has already been completed including sanding priming and painting as well as filleting of the hull to the bulkheads.
Only time will tell if I catch up and in the meantime I cherish every moment of fine weather.
With the Winter Wednesday series at RANSA we have been lucky to escape the worst of the weather although a lot of the fleet seem to have given up.
With a smaller fleet and some good performances we have crept up the series score sheet to be third behind Allegro and Brittania. Of course this has not gone unnoticed by the handicapper and good results will be harder to get from here on. The handicapper is doing a good job however and placings are separated by seconds so any mistake is well punished.
We had a double win on Wednesday with a first and fastest at RANSA where a depleted fleet of just six yachts and crews braved the wet conditions. Full marks to all the hardy souls who turned up especially my loyal crew. Top comment of the day was from Don when I offered to pick him up at his door step for the ride to the club. “So it is too wet for me to walk but not too wet to sail!” Yes Don that’s right.
For a second week the wind angle suited Passion X. We don’t do so well when there is long tacks directly into the wind but when the course is just a few degrees free we hit our straps and so it was that we took off from the start and while Allegro and Britannia gave us good competition we had a big enough lead going into Rose Bay that we were able to defend that lead. We did get nervous whenever the breeze dipped into single digits as our No 3 jib needs at least 12 knots for us to hang in with the fleet.
Looking at the forecast from here there may not be a race this week and if there is it will be a hard slog home and not our favorite conditions.
On the boat building front it has been a very trying time. The week was wet up to the Wednesday race and Thursday was overcast and cool. By Friday the neighbour suggested that I spread the covers out on the lawn and dry them and the hull out. I took his advice and did the same today, Saturday.
These last two days were ideal boat building weather with lots of progress making the 192 spacers that go between the keel floors and the 12 mm ply skin. So good had progress been that I have almost caught up with my self imposed target of two weeks to finish the task. The forecast is however for rain again tomorrow so I will make excuses already.
In the wet I confined myself to the comfort of the garage and made four frames for the water tank lids. The aim is to have the lids identical including the screw holes as I found it frustrating that the four lids on Passion X were bespoke. To achieve my aim I made up a gluing guide and ensured that the four frames were as near as identical as possible and am pleased with the result.
With the wind and rain forecast for the coming week I am reluctant to set myself any hard goals but I hope to finish the packers even if I have to wait for fine, warm and dry weather to glue them in place.
Other jobs I can do are to finalize a plumbing diagram as the route for the plumbing is quite different to Passion X and I need a route that does not go through the keel floors. And then there is the route for the fuel and throttle controls and for the wiring from the battery bank to the switch panel. A lot of these holes are best drilled before the ply skin is attached and at a time when the holes can be well sealed with epoxy.
I have 192 individual packer to make to go between the keel floors and the 12 mm ply bottom. The grain of the packers runs across the hull and each floor has six segments that need packers each made up of four individual blocks. Each set of four packers needs to have a neat limber hole against the stringer. Fortunately each of the four blocks in each location are of similar size so the blocks can be mass produced and trimmed on site for the final fit.
Yesterday I made packers for two locations and hand fitted a few sets of four for proof of concept.
Today the rain and cold returned but I was able to continue working on the packers as they are in the middle of the awning. Along the way I got distracted from the mass production and started fitting the packers on the large floor that runs from the keel to the chainplate frames. These are approximately 560 mm radius so I marked up shapes with an appropriate radius and proceeded to cut the curves with the jigsaw. By afternoon tea I had cut only eight packers or the equivalent of two of the 12 spaces on this long frame. I got even more distracted and started cleaning up stringer connections to the bulkheads ready for epoxy fillets and plywood doublers where needed.
Realizing that time was getting away I set up the bench saw and went into full mass production mode.
With a disciplined approach to producing the packers I finished cutting two thirds of the required packers by knock off time.
I will have to be disciplined to keep up this production rate as i do have a lot of stringers to fillet to bulkheads and I am tempted to progress the water tanks by fitting the flanges for the tops and glassing the interior. It will have to be completed before the radius chine section is moulded in place so there is several weeks time on the critical path but it is a job that is staring at me and almost begging me to finish it first.
Today, Saturday 2nd July, the weather tuned rather wet and cold so the above photo shows the tarpaulins pulled back just enough for me to work on the spacers.
Did I mention that we won the race at RANSA on Wednesday? It was a fresh breeze with a fair bit of north in it so a single beat to the top mark and a broad reach home. We did particularly well to windward until Allegro worked out from under or rather a large header put us in their dirty air. We still made the mark in a single board and on the way home poled out the genoa to leeward with a short whisker pole. As we pulled away into Rose Bay we ran with the short pole and kept ahead of Cuckoo’s Nest and Allegro into Rose Bay.
On the work around the island we came unstuck when we tacked early and had to take three sterns. We got one back on the starboard board into the mark but Cuckoo’s Nest was away and Meridian and Agrovation pulled even further ahead. We tried to run down Allegro but she was too good off the stick. Nevertheless with our more favorable handicap we scored a first by a few seconds and a much needed confidence booster.
Three weeks ago I fitted the 12 mm ply sides to the hull and then took a week break to drive to Buderim for some minor civil engineering work at or No 3 son’s home. The break was a healthy one with plenty of exercise and fresh air and it was time for a break from sawdust and epoxy. On return to Sydney I was slowed down by a virus which was neither Covid nor Influenza A or B. Despite a negative diagnosis it was not a bug I wished on anyone so I had a quiet week confined to the boat building site.
The first of the jobs tackled was glassing in the chainplate frames with five layers of double bias of which two are over the whole frame. The frames are angled in line with the spreader angle so one side is easy to work on and the acute angle side is a big awkward. While in the epoxy glass mode I completed all the internal glass joins to get the itchy jobs out of the way. As careful as I was I failed in my endeavours to keep my clothing glass free so for comfort sake I put the glassing clothes aside and started afresh with new clothes and a resolution to be even more careful.
So far my care has worked as the glass had been trimmed and sanded successfully.
The next task was to bog in all the shelves on at least one side so that after turning the other side can be completed easily. Once the shelves were horizontal and stable it was time to prime all the bare plywood internals.
Priming the internal plywood had not been on my construction plan but the bout of continual wet weather we had earlier in the year convinced me that the bare plywood had to be primed to protect the timber from the dreaded mould that was growing in every home in NSW. Now the weather had improved greatly but once set out on the journey to prime the timber it was a journey that needed to be completed.
As well as bogging in the shelves all the bulkheads and stringers had to be filleted in with structural epoxy bog before the priming could be started.
Having decided on a fillet size I prepared a test piece to satisfy myself that the structural strength was satisfactory. Being confident I had completed all the filleting before the test piece was cured enough for the test. It passed with the plywood test piece breaking instead of the fillet.
Doing structural fillets is an acquired skill. As simple as it looks it takes time to master the techniques and do the work at an efficient pace so some of my fillets are excellent and some needed a lot of post cure surgery before they were tidy enough for painting. As time progressed my speed and quality improved so that the finished job looks fairly professional.
A lot of the fillets will be hidden inside cupboards but the perfectionist in me refused to do these to any lesser standard than the ones in full display.
It takes a day to sand from the mast step to the transom on one side and then apply one coat of primer so there has been four very big days sanding and painting to get the two coats applied.
After the first coat the sanding back reveals any defects that need more preparation and the first coat brings up the wood fibres which need to be removed before the second coat is applied.
Planning ahead I prepared some of the internal ply that up to this time only a single coat of primer so that any left over primer could be used efficiently on a second coat and that has worked well with nothing wasted.
At the bow I have three bays which have the first coat of primer and are sanded back ready for their second coat. I think that is the next step and that will use up what primer I have.
Next job is to do all the packing pieces between the keel floors and the hull so that when I affix the bottom ply the internal work is complete. To be prudent there is probably two weeks work in that exercise .
We were surprised that the race was abandoned when we were all the way back to Steele Point and had only to get to a short course finish in Rose Bay which is the usual order of events in light winds. There was a good chance that the calm in Rose Bay could have persisted but we were coming down with wind.
Up to that point we had been having a wonderful afternoon with three knots of westerly wind carrying the fleet out towards the Sow and Pigs. Everyone seemed to have a turn doing well. Amanti jumped out early only to have to wait as she sailed into the doldrums first. Agrovation went South and missed the whisp of westerly that carried the fleet forward. We started near the boat and stayed south of the fleet waiting for the wind shadow from Fidelis to pass to windward. Once in clear air we accelerated to keep pace with the fleet and headed down the rhumb line. We were doing well to leeward of the fleet but in clear air so it was unsurprising that Cuckoos Nest and Crosshaven came across on starboard. We wriggled behind the starboard gybe Crosshaven and Monkey Magic and held our course for the distant mark.
Everyone seemed to have a turn at catching up but by good luck we managed to keep gapping few boat lengths on the fleet except for Amanti and Agrovation.
As the breeze swung from zero knots to a 6 knot south east we hunkered down into beating mode but keeping it fast. Being inside Amanti and Agrovation we made up a little ground and rounded just behind Amanti. Britannia came charging in from deep down south and rounded on our stern. They very promptly had their large genoa poled out to leeward and maintained a position to windward of Passion X while we were chasing down Amanti.
Then the news of the abandonment came across the radio and that was it.
As the fleet order stood Britannia would have been clear leader with Passion X a good prospect for a second on handicap but it was not to be.