Aluminum Runners

Finally good weather and time to work on the hull! The materials arrived from Pt. Roberts. I opted for aluminum keel runners .188 thick (3/16) to top off the maple & oak.. for the "sacrificial strip". Like everyone else before me, I was worried about galvanic action between dissimilar metals.. and debated using stainless steel strips instead of aluminum. The big cost factor convinced me otherwise. In the end, I decided on trying American made aluminum screws. To say the least, I wasn't sure about the strength, but my experiment has paid off.. I can torque them down as tight as I need to and haven't had any snapping problems or stripped heads. I think this in part to made in usa versus China. I used Sikaflex as a bedding/bonding agent liberally applied and spaced the screws 1 foot apart. I countersunk the heads slightly.. I thought I had ordered oval heads that taper but they were the round ones... I did drill pilot holes, which I would have done anyhow as oak and maple can be prone to splitting.

The "Wet Coast"

Out here on the "Wet Coast" we have suffered the coldest beginning of October in 123 years, and that so far has been followed by non-stop rain... We had triple the amount of rainfall this September than normal so I didn't get much done.. I took a break from my work (staycation) after Canadian Thanksgiving hoping to get a few final things done before winter set in.. but all this rain has hampered things...

The only good thing is I left my build deliberately exposed all last month and this month to the elements to see how it did with freezing temps and lots of water, and the paint is really holding up well...I'm impressed! So once I get a dry day I will throw on the tarps.

Bottom Painting Time!

 I've done the best I can with the 1708. The bottom and sides are ready for an initial primer of paint...

Getting the bottom painted... could be faired up a little more... but overall I'm ok with results so far... a couple low spots..and more sanding and filling would work.. but I just don't have it in me... 1708 is hard to work with... a couple coats on...

1708 Glassing the bottom

Now that the weather has warmed it's time to complete covering the bottom of the hull... this time with 1708...over the top of the seams.  probably not the best choice since the hull is so flat and has such a wide surface area. It has taken alot of resin,  sanding and effort to get things glassed. 

Its tough stuff and I do like how it is coming along on the build but is a real pain to fair and sand. Very labour and material intensive. I don't recommend for those reasons. Fortunately I only did the bottom and up to the water line.. the rest is lighter fabric. Anyways, got the runners on and I see the light coming at the end of the tunnel.. should be ready for paint and a flip very soon..

Oh my! What have I gotten myself into... I don't think the 1708 was such a great choice of cloth, although I was sold by the merits of its toughness! Hopefully, I will never need to test the strength!

The oak runners are bedded down and screwed into place with Sikkaflex waterproof construction sealant.

Beams & Posts

 There are a ton of roof beams, and supports that need to be made. In our case we decided over the winter months to make a mould to laminate strips of oak together, rather than cut each beam. The mould was cut based on the beam shapes in the plans, and was then pressed together with each strip being glued in place.

The result was a "glue" up of laminations to make up a beam. We used reclaimed oak strips for the beams. These are all the middle beams - we also need to make beams for the sides of the roofing using a different template.

This is the process that we used to make the beam form.

Here is how the middle roof beam turned out:

Cabin Posts

 While the weather was still cool out, complete the cabin framing for the port & starboard cabin sides.

Taping the seams!

Time to tape up all the seams. For this task we purchased 12oz biaxial tape from Gulf Stream Composites. This will later be feather and covered with another layer of glass.

Biaxial fiberglass is a type of non-woven fiberglass fabric. Instead of a conventional weave pattern, biaxial cloths two layers lie at a 45-degree fiber angle to each other. The two layers are stitched together with sturdy polyester yarn.

More progress. I have the joints taped and now will need to do the edge seams...I have not used bi-axial tape before but I really like it.

Biaxial Cloth