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Of course! you’re totally right the legs aren’t for the muddy Bristol channel (a few beaches are an exception) they are mainly for when we head south towards the drying harbours of north Devon and Cornwall with the added bonus of having a built in yacht cradle for winter. The legs will have dedicated stowage in the rear locker and be removable and mountable underway buy using the spinnaker halyard to make sure they don’t get dropped.
I figure if its muddy enough for the legs to sink the keel will also sink and we’ll just end up with a muddy bottom.
I’ve spent the evening doodling a rough idea for the internal structure around the legs and chainplates before popping it into the computer for a stress test. They wouldn’t really be used if there was a ridiculous swell as that would probably damage the keel so the loads on them are just to stop the boat falling over. That said I like a bit of over engineering around the chainplates. Originally the chain plates were just bolted through the hull, it’s 9mm thick in that area so most of what I’m trying to do is limit flex inwards and twist rather than take the entire weight of the boat. Looking forward to making the lathe earn it’s keep on the delrin bits, it’s so satisfying to machine. The only real downside to delrin as an engineering plastic is nothing sticks to it including epoxy so a mechanical fixing and sealant is needed. On the plus side, I can carry a spare and swap it out if one gets damaged
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Went down this afternoon to start the gardening, quite the jungle! In other news it appears the electrics in the carashed didn’t survive the flooding, I’m really hoping it’s just the link cable but that’s another thing to add to the list before work can start again properly.
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Pypilot stage 1… Hacking this 30A brushless motor speed controller to run a brushed motor in forward and reverse. How hard can it be?
Evening folks! Progress has been made… Woop! The main deck beam is in. First the glass under the mast step was tidied up and the gap filled with 10mm G10 then a few sheets of normal fabric with epoxy, the beam was then slathered in finest thickened epoxy and stuck to the hull, all day I’ve been using a extending prop thingy designed for drywall and it chose the moment I was hoisting the beam for final bonding to break, managed to catch the beam without getting covered in resin which was a result and ended up using the old kick it till it wedges in approach with the prop. The beam will be clad in iroko so you won’t see the scruffy plywood so I didn’t really pay much attention to keeping it tidy.
Next up… Deciding where the posts are going, this is a compromise between a small doorway and how far up the hull they sit, the load needs to be carried down to the keel so there will be a bit of trial and error to get something functional and looks good. The posts probably won’t be fitted until I’ve finished with the major parts of the bow as it seems daft to restrict access at this stage.Evening all, had a marvelous afternoon/evening getting the main deck beam laminated. Not much to report on that front really, heated the epoxy to make it nice and fluid pre coated the wood and laid up a piece of 400gsm bi-axial in between the sections, applied clamps and left it to cure.
Public service announcement: if you need to cut glass mat, get electric scissors. Just do it they’re amazing!
I also spent a bit of time servicing my older and more heavily used power tools, as you can see in the pic the brushes on the router were completely shot, the long one is a new one.
Next on the list is flush cutting the beam and shaping it to fit in the boat, then cladding in the beautiful iroko that’s due early next week.
That’s all for now
Evening all ๐ had a productive day re shaping the main deck beam a touch, I decided it would look nicer and give an extra 30mm of headroom with more of a curve on the bottom.
The iroko for cladding the ply beam and making the dual compression posts has been ordered and I think the darker wood will look fantastic against the white painted bulkhead and fittings.
There’s still quite a lot to do before the main bulkhead goes in, I need to:
Decide how wide to set the posts apart
Cut the old hatch out and put a reinforcement in and laminate it (need the weather to relax a bit for this).
Put the strengthening plates to spread the load from the chain plates and boatlegs across the two new bulkheads.
Build the section that transfers the load from the posts to the keel (this will dictate floor height).
So lots to do in the next few weeks!Evening folks, got a decent day in today and thanks to Christopher we got the 5 main sections of the compression spreader beam finished, it took a few attempts to get the template exactly how I wanted it but after that making five copies was relatively painless by roughing out with the jigsaw and trimming to size with the router and a flush cut bit. The woods moisture content is a little high at the moment so they need to dry out for a while before laminating them together.
The final shape to fit will be done when they’re all bonded together.
Boring! I’ve started making the new stern tube adaptor, a 120mm boring bar is pretty much at the limits of the rigidity of the lathe, very light cuts but it did the job and the new adapter for a benatau Cutlass bearing just needs braising on to the existing stern tube.
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Evening folks, the first actual boat parts are starting to come off the lathe, took me a while to get used to it and still not perfect but this Cutlass bearing should do the job very nicely. I still need to cut groves in to the internal diameter to allow water to lubricate and cool it and haven’t quite figured out how I’m going to do it yet it may just be a case of hand filing them.
The design stages are well underway for the other lathe projects including a hall effect throttle lever for the motor and a phospher bronze stuffing box. I’m really looking forward to making these parts as they’ve been a nightmare to source off the shelf and more major items that can be ticked off the list!
It’s nice to have some inside projects on the table as the area around merganser is currently flooded resulting in the cradle has shifting slightly so all my levels and datum points need resetting before trying to build anything resembling a flat surface! On the plus side all the rain we’ve had only resulted in a few inches of water in the bilge over 5 weeks, given the state of the companion way and that I haven’t sealed the forward hatch yet I’m calling that a win!I’ve been getting on with the 316 stainless bow fitting this week, the mig weiding isn’t the tidiest but it’s solid, the process of laser cut wooden templates and plasma cutting the steel worked an absolute treat so I’ll definitely be using that process again for the aluminum motor mount, 316 hinged mast foot and a few other bits and bobs.
Evening folks, just realised I haven’t updated the bow roller project! Here’s where we’re at, this is V1, the design has changed now to be a bit lighter but as a CAD to laser-cut template to plasma cut it worked better than I could have expected, V2 is currently being refined in Fusion 360 and I’ll post a little video of the laser cutter doing it’s part shortly. The steel mockup is in cheap 2mm mild steel and the finished one will be in 5.5mm 316 stainless, I’m enjoying this one!
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The aluminium windows frames after a session on the soda blaster are now being bedded into my template.
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Afternoon all, it took a ridiculous amount of faffing but we got the bulkhead for the anchor locker made last night, the slightly rustic (wonky) cubby made it a bit of a challenge to get it to sit in straight* but we (mostly John) struggled on and in the end we got it close enough!
*the term straight, when used in the context of Merganser is a variable that is very difficult to apply mainly due to the inside of the hull being a bit rustic and the deck being 10mm to port at the bow and 14mm to starboard at the stern in relation to a laser line. We decided on using the beam I installed a few weeks ago as a datum for all future measurements as it “looks about right”.
I’m putting in a new template tonight.
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