I'm building a boat to a design by Paul Fisher of Selway Fisher Design in the UK. The design is called "Able" and her vital statistics are: overall length 4.88m (16ft), beam 2m (6ft 6in) and design weight is 360kg (790lbs). You can read more about this design at http://www.selway-fisher.com/OtherDB.htm#KANE.

I intend to procede more slowly with this boat than I did with either of my other boat building projects (see links below on the right). This is, after all, a hobby and there are other things to do. So, updates to this blog might happen once every week or two. Come back and see.

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Saturday 22 February 2014

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.

 
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