Almost-A-SCAMP Progress Report #3-2A . . . .

[Charles Brennan]

Sometimes, all the piddly little details, chores, and fixes, start piling up on you because it's so easy to ignore them.
Until they prevent you from accomplishing the next phase of progress, forcing you to finally deal with them. 
Decided to make good on my threat to change out the ¼-20 nylock nuts, for ¼-20 barrel bolts on my veranda hook.
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Like so:
Should keep whatever is hung on the hook from . . . . umm     . . . . also hanging up on the nuts.
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Another chore I somehow kept missing, was trimming and filing smooth, the excess threads on the ladder clip nuts.
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I ground off the excess paint and epoxy, that was causing the filler-boards locker to be sprung and not close properly.
While congratulating myself and patting myself on the back, at a good job, well done,    I walked towards the back of the boat and hit the locker edge with the toe of my shoe.
It promptly flipped up. 
Swell. 
I imagined that thing bouncing around in a seaway. 
Hmmmm . . . . . .  can't have that.
I didn't want a nylon strap and buckle to secure the lid, nor a velcro strap, or some kind of a cabinet latch; I wanted things simple, so I decided to use magnets and steel washers.
Made an inset for the magnets with a Forstner bit; and screwed down the washers on the underside of the lid . . . . .
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. . . . . . . And epoxied down the magnets and also epoxied over the galvanized washers, so they wouldn't rust. (As much.)
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I like to have the back end of the mast stored on a mast stand that is hung on the transom; I feel that it makes for easier storing, towing, and rigging. 
Like this:
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Since I wanted  a similar style of transom-mounted mast stand carrier, I fabricated one for the SCAMP, from some Unistrut. 
(Hey! You gotta go with what has always worked well for you, for 45+ years!!) 
Now I was finally able to put pintles on it, since the permanent gudgeons were now installed on the transom.
Previously, I had no way to precisely determine where to locate the pintles, on the mast stand. 
Also, I didn't want the walls of the mast stand to compress and allow the pintles to move, or rotate out of alignment, so I cut a  small piece of galvanized pipe to act as a compression collar, for the bolts.
That stand is coming off the gudgeons every time the boat is launched, it has to be smooth and reliable.
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Then I bent the tabs over, to further help keep the pintles in alignment and wonder of wonders!! 
The pintle holes lined up!!    PERFECTLY!!    Color me: Astonished!! 
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Sitting on the gudgeons.
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An on-going problem with transom mast stands, is that they always manage to twist to the side, RIGHT when you're about to lower the mast onto them! 
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I wanted to avoid that.
Some Starboard that was left over from making the bow stops, was pressed into service, fabricated, and attached with some 10-24 screws and nylock nuts.
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After this pic was taken, I discovered that the Starboard could rotate up or down slightly, so I drilled a hole through the Unistrut and pinned it in place, with a sheet metal screw.

You can just see the screw head in this pic.
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No mast stand twist, here!! 
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When I was working on the trailer last July, I had used the metal fenders that came with the trailer, but during a slight dimensions misjudgement,    while dropping the hull onto the trailer for bunk alignment purposes, I had dinged the sides of the hull.
I decided to glom onto the plastic fenders off the kayak trailer, since because of the way the kayaks sit on the kayak trailer, metal fenders would never be a problem.   
So I removed these:
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And installed these in their place:
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None of the frame/fender geometry worked out and it required fabricating new brackets, from some 6" corner braces.
This fender has a much gentler radiused curve and sits lower on the frame, even though the distance between the wheel and the inside of the fender, is the same.

Down the road, I will need to know the weight of the boat, to register it and I had added a lot of stuff (bunks, rollers, roller bunks, mast stand etc.) to the trailer, since I originally registered it.
So I needed to get a more recent trailer weight and this morning got ready to get the new weight.
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Going down CR235, I hit a major (new!) pot hole and my starboard goal post broke at a coupling.
I cooly and analytically, examined the failure mode in my usual calm and stoic, manner. 
I'm kidding, of course. 
I had a major HISSY FIT!!    All while I bemoaned my fate and my luck,    cursed the gods, and unleashed a stream of invective, sure to garner me an extra 5 minutes in the confessional, this Saturday! 
After I was rational again, I jury-rigged a temporary solution and continued on to the weigh station, participating in a One-Man Pity Party, all the way there. 
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(And one more reason why you leave wire slack in the pipes, when you're wiring up things!!) 

Truck and trailer at the weigh station:
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Truck only:
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400 pounds it is; nearly 140 pounds greater, than when I first registered it.
I'll repeat this process with the boat on it and subtract the trailer weight from that new number.

Got home and started reinforcement, in the Grand Tradition of German Churches, that used to have the roofs cave in, on the parishioners. 
(Very bad for business; collections drop off to nothing!) 
So they kept building them stronger and stronger, until the roofs quit caving in. 
While there was still glue on both the pipe and the coupler, it seems the shock loads had cracked part of the coupler, and that apparently ripped the glue apart. 
I re-glued it, then put in screws on both ends of the coupler, every 90º.
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But I wasn't done there; sanded down the couplers and taped off above and below the couplings.
Also did the lower couplings too, because I once I get snake-bit on something,    I go after EVERYTHING. 

Wrapped about 4 layers of 6 oz. fiberglass cloth around the joints and kept milking the wraps, until there were no more air bubbles, and the glass was thoroughly saturated.
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Then I wrapped packing tape around the fiberglass so the cloth couldn't sag, nor could the epoxy drip, as it cured.
Despite the 3 steps forward, 2 steps back progress lately, I can finally see the finish line, looming. 
(Even with all my nightmares of doing the rigging, while the tiller pilot steers the trolling motor, on my way to Atseno Otie Key, for the Cedar Key Small Boat Meet!) 

Charles Brennan

[Chris Muthig]

Looks like I need to get a couple of couplers to add to my trailer parts bucket just in case.  I actually just installed new goal posts on mine and rewired the trailer.  Do you have a rough idea on when you'll be launching for the first time?

[Charles Brennan]

Chris, Based on my track record so far, figuring: Spring. 

Charles Brennan

[Riley Smith]

I'm not thrilled with the strength of the PVC post either. Wishing I had some heavier walled pipe, I kept digging around and found some thin wall STAINLESS!!! Yeah, big project and lots of precision cutting and welding. And I need that TIG machine I've been mooning over. SO, on the back burner for now but I DO have material!

[Charles Brennan]

Riley, I feel that the strength of the PVC goal posts, is not really in question.
I can point to the 30-year old PVC goal posts on Short Ribs and the 45-year old PVC goal posts on Urchin, as proof of decades of reliability.

Where the failure occurred, was at the couplers.  The couplers were only necessary, because my first attempt at installing PVC goal posts, was incompatible with the license plate clearing the coamings, and required extending the length of the PVC goal posts.
If I had it to do again, I would completely replace both PVC goal posts with longer one-piece posts, like my other two boat trailers (RIB and kayak trailers) have.

One guy's opinion,
Charles Brennan

[Riley Smith]

Yeah, the fittings form a stress line with their shape and it'll crack. One of them did that already. Easy fix but I sure like stuff that lasts forever. And I might mention that all I had on hand was 1-1/4" when I built them. Live and learn. The stainless will not break or bend so I'm going with that sooner or later. I found a scratch and dent sale on a welding machine too!!! Not exactly what I want but the price is hard to argue with. To get the high frequency start, pulse, AC, and foot pedal costs REAL MONEY. And then to do stainless you have to have an inert purge. Thin wall is a whole 'nother exercise in skill too. Like I said, on the back burner until all the pieces are in place.

[Timm R Oday25]

Begs a question .
Unless I am not seeing something in the photos , is all the weight of the mast resting on the grugeons ?
When I built a mast resting post using the grugeons ,I thought the weight of the mast bouncing on them would bend ,distort or otherwise create carnage and drama .
I locate the mast step using them.
However I have "stop" on the step itself that transfers the weight to the rear stern railing .
In your pictures ,there doesn't appear to be anything to carry the weight .
Granted the mast on our Oday 25 is similar to that of a 125' Sequoia .

[Charles Brennan]

Timm, Your query:

is all the weight of the mast resting on the grugeons ?

Short answer is: Yes.
All 20 pounds of it! 
(Technically, 10 lbs on the front mast carrier and 10 pounds on the aft mast carrier.) 
Or if you will, ⅓ the weight of Urchin's 60 lb mast.

The aft mast stand I had on Urchin for over a dozen years, weighs roughly twice as much as the mast stand on the SCAMP.  The old mast stand was made of 8 feet of 12 gauge tubular steel and the new mast stand is made of 6 feet of Unistrut.
Lighter materials and less of them. 

In your pictures ,there doesn't appear to be anything to carry the weight .

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There are eight ¼-20 bolts (with fender washers) going through heavy-duty gudgeons and ¾-inch marine plywood.
(Double the thickness of the transom on the SCAMP plans; I doubled up on the transom, for precisely this reason.)
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That thing is SO sturdy in fact, that I use it as a kind of a handrail, to steady myself when boarding the boat from the stern ladder. 

Scale: It's a wonderful thing!! 
½ your boat's length, ¼ your boat's displacement, ¼ your mast weight!

Hope this clarifies,
Charles Brennan