More about ripping strips.

It have been too cold for epoxy work here the last week and a half. With temperatures down to -10 degC outside the garage is seldom above 10degC. So to use the time we have ripped some more strips. We still think the handheld circular/skil saw is the perfect tool for an operation like ours. Virtually no setup time, no need for a large room to rip the strips, good quality on the strips dimensions and no broken strips. We rip strips of two sizes, 19mm and 38mm and only full length. We can sort through the stock of two lumberyards so we pick the best planks available, which usually are pretty clear grained and with reasonable amounts of knots. To save some time we stack the 19mm planks on top of each other and secure them with some screws. That way we rip two strips for each run with the saw.

Besides ripping, routing more bulkheads and some housekeeping we also weighted the first hull half with the inside glass in place. We weighted it three times and it was between 8.4 and 8.8 every time. We are pretty pleased with that.

At least the skiing is good..

We have a spell of cold weather now during easter. The temperature in the garage is down to 10degC and it is snowing big time, so using epoxy is a no-no. If it dont heat up soon all we can do is work on ripping more strips and routing the inserts which makes the bulkhead parts fit togheter.
At least the skiing is good. Frode, friends and I visited the mountain "Kirketaket" on saturday. Walking up on our splitboards and snowboarding down again. Perfect off-piste "powder" conditions! Not very common during easter, but very nice. Too bad we did not get to pull off hull #3 as planned these days instead.

Here is a link to information about the mountain we skied on: http://www.kirketaket.com/index2.htm

Glassing, filling and sanding..

Just some quick shots this time. Inside of hull half #1 is now glassed and have become super-stiff. Compared to the wobbly panel we dropped into the female mould it is now very rigid and stiff. Will see if we can weight the finished panel when the infernal snow stops dropping down on us.

First the building crew. From the left: Frode, Omar and Rolf.






Frode filling some low spots on hull half #2 with epoxy and sanding dust.
Frode will get the job of doing our foils when he is done with the bulkheads. He have done some quick calculations and the sum of all joins he is to make with the router is arund 200. He is very grateful that he was about halfway before he began thinking in that direction. Never think about how much a project is, just split it up into smaller jobs and do it. Dont think.. Do it.. (Phill Branders advice as well)







Omar also filling some low spots. He really enjoys our building nights, learning lots of new stuff but also having a good time. It is his first building project except remodelling work at home. Respect! He have earlier sailed on a monohull, but have only sailed a cat once, so he really is in for a steep learning curve when we launch. I am certain he well do as well on the water as he does in the garage.












We had an unannounced guest in the garage this night. Trond Nordam, kayaker and kayakbuilder dropped by to have a look at the progress and methods used. I think he was suitably impressed with what we were doing. Trond have buildt a CLC Chesapeake 17 plywood/glass/epoxy kayak so he was very interested in the techniques we used for these boats.

Repeat until done.

We have now come to the phase where we dont have much new stuff to show every night. Now it is more about repeating things we have done earlier. Last night we sanded the second hull panel and did some more bulkheads.

Sanding with the belt sander is fast, but need a careful hand to not cut too deep. Especially tricky in the areas with a lot of curvature. Sanding a hull panel takes just about 2 hours with the belt sander and 40grit paper.

Unfortunately I have some low spots to fill on this panel. Good thing that we dont lack sanding dust.