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#71
TSBB General Talk / Re: outdoor winter storage
Last post by Spot - Nov 17, 2024, 09:12 AM
Similar sized boat, same MN state, would not skip the ridge pole support.
I need to cover mine soon, lulled by the warm fall so far...
Do you have access to someone smaller in stature to climb up under the tarp to set the support?
#72
TSBB General Talk / Almost-A-SCAMP Progress Report...
Last post by Charles Brennan - Nov 16, 2024, 11:53 PM
Having previously glassed the sides of the center board and rudder, it was now time to glass the edges with two layers of fiberglass.
Clamped the parts to where I could apply the edging at the top.
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And while I had the table space, I also prepared the insides of the rudder stock for fiberglass, where the blade rubs and the tiller rubs.
This was also in case I had any left over epoxy resin, I could use it on the rudder stock.
I mix epoxy batches 4oz. and/or 8oz. at a time, so by always having an extra small project in reserve, I waste very little material.
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Came up with the brilliant idea to combine the two layers of fiberglass into a single lamination.
One of my glassing problems is that the edges won't curve around sharper corners.
So I figured if the edges/corners were under tension (via the staples) I could get a nice, tight, lamination.
In Theory, anyway.   ::)
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What could go wrong?  ???
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Uhhhh . . . . . Lots.  :'(
It seems that wetted-out fiberglass expands, so my tight edges ballooned out, like an old pair of bell bottom pants.
Exactly the OPPOSITE of what I intended.   :o
To salvage this disaster as best I could, I quickly pulled all the staples and cut the edges, to allow them to lay flat on the edge.
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ANOTHER Great Idea, buried under the Crushing Weight of Reality!  :'(
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So for my NEXT trick, I figured I'd TAPE the glass down and when the glass wet out and expanded, I'd simply pull the tape loose and stretch it down a little and then re-tape it.
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Yeah, that didn't work, either.  :P
In fact, I'm pretty sure that some day, my epitaph is going to read:
"Well, Hell,THAT didn't work!!"  :o

The more Boring part of boat-building, that never makes it into the brochures.  :-X
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I might be hopeless on the corners and edges and whatnot, but I'm GREAT at doing flat glassing!!  :D
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The inside pieces of the rudder stock required priming with a coat of epoxy, before gluing up.
Those quarter round pieces above the rudder stock are the upper part of the rudder head.
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That bottom piece with the oval, is one I made out of spare parts, since the partial kit I acquired was missing one of the inside rudder stock pieces.
It was formerly an unused bulkhead, hence the oval that needed to be added.

To keep from messing up, I numbered the pieces of the inside rudder stock.
#2 and #3 have an extra diagonal cut, because I am installing copper pipe to route lines for the rudder up haul and down haul.
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Here are all the inside pieces glued up, including the two copper pipes.
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The current thinking is to use graphite infused epoxy, to toughen the rubbing parts against chafe and wear and tear.
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I cut off the excess copper tubing and sanded the inside rudder stock pieces, before adding the outside rudder stock cheeks and gluing it up.
I was grateful that the rudder stock includes several alignment holes to insert dowels, to help keep things square.
That would have been a nightmare to try and clamp, otherwise.
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One of the things I had been sweating, was enlarging the center board and rudder pivot holes using a battery drill, without getting some horrendous off-set from the original hole position.
A few weeks ago I tripped over a $40 drill press at a flea market and my problems suddenly became absurdly simple:
Use a Forstner bit the same size as the hole, for alignment, clamp the board down on the drill press stand and then simply switch bits to the larger size.
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Centered perfectly.  8)
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I employed the same idea to install the bronze shoulder bushings flush and getting the shoulders perfectly centered on the existing holes.
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In the pic below, the hole at top is over-drilled to install bushings for the rudder blade pivot.
Hole at the bottom of the pic is where Brennan is going his own way, again.
In the build manual, they have you drill a small hole in the top of the rudder for the down haul line
Then you drill a larger hole in the side, run the line through the top and tie it in a knot and fill the large hole with epoxy, thus embedding the knot.
I know what happens in stranded wire conductors that move, when the outer conductors eventually break and the wire finally fails.
I could see the same thing happening to rope fibers and was appalled that there was no way for that to be field serviceable.
So I am going to fill all that up with epoxy and drill it out again, (slightly smaller) and tie my knot and leave it open, so I can repair/replace it on the water, if it ever becomes necessary.
My large hole is a little deeper than the build manual, so the knot won't chafe against the rudder cheeks, in use.
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The hole at the left is for the rudder up haul line.

Over-drilled centerboard pivot hole.
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The pic below is another example of current SCAMP thinking. 
In the event that the hull gets turtled and the centerboard swings back into the trunk, there is a short tail of line drilled into the bottom of the centerboard and epoxied in place, similar to the rudder up haul line.
This allows you to grab the line, pull the board out of the trunk and then right the hull, conventionally.
Uhhh . . . .  not me.
I am going to tie the rudder up haul anyway, so why not also tie the centerboard down haul?
(Actually, if you have to use it, at that point it would be more of an up haul!)  :o

Field replaceable, it's a Wonderful Thing.
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Scored the sides of all the bushings (rudder bushing, shown here) every 120ยบ, for a better grip from the epoxy glue.
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Taped the bottom of the center board and the rudder holes, to hold in the epoxy.
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The centerboard has perfect boat-builder bushing dimensions: too short and too long.
A single bushing is too short, so you have to use two bushings stacked one on top of the other, which then sticks out and has to be cut down later.
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After the center board and the rudder were leveled, we were ready to install the bushings.
The dowel is taped so the epoxy doesn't stick to it.
It is used to check for alignment and plumb with both a level and a square.

Same thing for the rudder blade pivot bushing.
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Sighting down the rudder blade dowel, you can't see the center board dowel behind it.
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Remember that coastal navigation range-bearing trick, lining up two objects, to get a relative bearing?

Well, it also works for checking plumb.  8)
Notice how the two dowels are parallel along their length?  ???
BTW, the wall and the car port post LOOKS like it leans, because it is not in the center of the phone camera lens, which distorts it in the pic.
Visually, all four vertical elements were parallel.
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I tried to get the other carport post closer to camera lens center, when viewing from the other direction.
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That's how you know they're aligned, or at the very least, they're out by the same amount!!  ;D

After the epoxy cured the next day, I put duct tape on the rudder and the center board, to protect the fiberglass from the side of the Sawzall blade.
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This is what it looks like after cutting. The cutoff piece is at the lower corner of the tape.
Then I ground off all the excess epoxy on the center board and the rudder holes.
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Test rudder assembly.
I was surprised how well everything fit together, for something I made from scratch.  (Rudder blade.)
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And I was greatly heartened to see how well the bolt fit through both shoulder bushings in the rudder stock and both bushings in the rudder blade. 
My usual efforts involve a lot of re-drilling and filing with a rat-tail file.  :-\
The extra time and effort spent getting everything as plumb and square and centered as I could, really paid off.
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I MUST be making progress: There's fewer and fewer pieces of boat, laying around!!  ;D
Charles Brennan
#73
Precision / Re: Santa Came Early this year...
Last post by tjspiel - Nov 16, 2024, 09:51 PM
They look great !

Imagine how boring the offseason would be if boats were maintenance free. :)
#74
Tales and Trip Reports / Re: Sea Pearl 21 Slides into L...
Last post by Doug SC - Nov 16, 2024, 06:46 PM
I recognized the launch site where you put in. That is the same one where I took out. The St Johns River enters the lake a bit east of there. The west shore of the lake is mostly undeveloped land. It has the feel of old Florida.
#75
TSBB General Talk / Re: outdoor winter storage
Last post by GlenG - Nov 16, 2024, 06:14 PM
Thanks for the quick replies.   You confirmed my suspicion.   I guess I was hoping for a miracle response like..."No worries. I do it with no mid-support all the time!! "
#76
TSBB General Talk / Re: outdoor winter storage
Last post by Krusen - Nov 16, 2024, 05:50 PM
I will add my vote to go back and add the support.

The cost of unfastening is much less than the cost of FINDING, then buying and shipping a replacement mast.

I do understand the meaning to "laced down to the trailer, all around".  This means that Noemi's suggestion of just loosen a small place will not work.  You will not be able to put the support under the mast, as the lacing pulled it down too low.

It took months to find a replacement mast for my Mac 22, and the only one was a Catalina 22, with completely different stays.

#77
TSBB General Talk / Re: outdoor winter storage
Last post by Noemi - Ensenada 20 - Nov 16, 2024, 05:31 PM
I also wouldn't leave that. 
#78
Precision / Santa Came Early this year!
Last post by Tom G P 21 - Nov 16, 2024, 05:26 PM
Sent the old wood to Plasteak and they turned is around in a couple of days. Unfortunately the boat is already wrapped for the season so I won't install it until the spring. 

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#79
TSBB General Talk / Re: OT: Yards and yard work
Last post by noelH - Nov 16, 2024, 04:38 PM
Yard work never ends on the 40.  Today a bit of deforestation to enhance global warming though a few grams less of carbon dioxide utilized by the trees knocked down.  Also, added exhaust from the ancient ICE chainsaw.
Ended the session by flooding the motor. Two ways of "easily" starting a flooded 2 cycle chainsaw. 1. Close the choke fool (how I flooded the motor) and hold down the throttle to max while pulling and pulling the cord. 2. Just quit and eventually open up the case to access and pull the spark plug and pull, pull... Someone noted you can also just remove the air filter and open up the butterfly valve and I have forgotten the next step...

I just quit and went into the house for a hot cup of tea.  Now here and ignoring the problem. That is even easier or lazy?

#80
TSBB General Talk / Re: outdoor winter storage
Last post by Brian N. - Nov 16, 2024, 04:33 PM
I hate to say it, but a foot of snow, wet or dry, is a lot of weight on your winter cover. Can you free up enough of the tarp to crawl in?