Finding Mistakes

Over the past few days I have found a few mistakes of the "that won't work very well like that". It's a bit like painting yourself into a corner. I mounted the rudder and was reminded of a mistake I fixed a while ago. Here's a photo of the rudder on the boat. My hinges work well although it was a struggle to get them properly in line so the long hinge pin could easily be put in and taken out.

 

Next photo shows the problem I found when trial mounting the rudder. The trim strips across the transom stuck out far enough to seriously reduce the rudder movement. I cut them back to provide enough clearance.

 

I fitted the "pot lid" hatches to the fore and aft bulkheads. Here is a photo of the aft one. It will work well and the neoprene sealing strip will keep it watertight. My planned turn button clips to hold the hatch closed will work but not as well as I had hoped. I am rethinking how to keep the hatches shut and pressed against their sealing strips.

 

The photo also shows another mistake. It might be hard to see but the hatch sticks out about 10 or 11 mm in front of the bulkhead, just far enough to prevent the floor panels from lifting! I will have to cut a notch in the edge of the floor panel. Easy enough to do but then all the primer, undercoat a topcoat has to be redone. Alternately, I can just accept that the hatch cover has to be removed before the floor can be lifted.

 

Here are the two forward hatches. The blue tape labels are so I don't mix them up - they arent't interchangeable! Another mistake, the pins stick down and stop the hatches opening easily! I will shorten the pins a little but they will still be in the way.

 

Next photo shows the inside of one of the hatches with the two lugs that hold one edge in and the neoprene strip in place. Even putting the neoprene strip in provided an opportunity for a mistake! I put the strip hard in the corner between the two layers of ply. When I tried the hatch it would not close and eventually I realised the strip, in the corner had nowhere to go on one side so didn't compress as easily. Moving the strip out a couple of mm from the corner fixed this.

 

Now I just have to work out how to hold the other edge.

 

Bits and Pieces

Its been a while since my last post and some of you might be thinking that I have been doing other things. Far from it, I have been working on the boat most days but most things now fall into the "bits and pieces" category. I have a long list of small jobs and am slowly working my way through them. As I do this and remove items from the list I seem to add new ones! I guess this is inevitable as the end of a big project gets close.

As well as the following items I have been painting various small items. This takes time, even in our current hot weather I can only manage one coat a day! No photos of this because it is too boring!

I went out with the camera today and took some photos of various bits and pieces.

Here is one of the chain plates with the shroud attached with two shackles that add up to the right length. This looks untidy to me and I will organise something better. Even a simple cord lacing would look better than two shackles! Making the slot down through the gunwale was a challenge (the slot is 25 x 2.5 mm through about 60 mm of hardwood. I managed to cut two of them without damaging the paintwork.

 

 

The pinrail and pins took a while. The rail is curved and bolted through the bulkhead and frame work behind. Turning the pins was an interesting exercise - I sold my wood turning lathe and tools so made these pins on a metal turning lathe using an old screwdriver as a tool! Not the best arrangement but it seemed to come out OK.

 

 

The centreboard lifting tackle was straightforward except that the bullseye where the case top slopes down needed to be packed up a bit to compensate for the packing under the turning block where the wire changes direction. The 6:1 tackles will raise the board fairly easily I think - I can't move it very far with the boat on the trailer but it is easy to move a short distance. The padeye on the bulkhead will also serve as the fixed end point for the boom vang and the mainsail clew downhaul.

 

 

The "pot lid" hatches in the fore and aft bulkheads need to be secured with some sort of turn button catch on the outside and lugs on the inside. There are 3 of these hatches so 6 turn buttons and 6 lugs had to be made. They are simple enough but making multiple small wooden pieces is a pain in the ......

 

Here is a photo of a turn button catch on a test setup. The turn button is held in place here by a hex head bolt, I will use a nicer looking bolt in the finished job. There is a big washer between the turn button and the paintwork on the ply bulkhead.

 

Here is the turn button in its turned position. next to it are some more of the flock that I made.

Lastly, a profile of the turn button. The sloping relief under the sticky-out bit is needed because there is a 12 x 3 mm neoprene rubber strip to seal the hatch and this needs to be compressed slightly.

 

The lugs on the inside of the hatch are easier to make. Here are a couple of photos showing a lug in position. The black strip is the neoprene sealing strip; again the lugs need to be relieved with a slight slope to accommodate this strip and to compress it slightly.

 

 

Finally, a shot showing the lugs holding against the inside face of the bulkhead (but in a test situation).

 

 

All those little wooden pieces, lugs and turn buttons, need to be finished - multiple coats of oil after lots of sanding. No wonder it takes as long as it does!