Hurry up and Wait!

Spring is here, along with Auckland’s famous four seasons in one day weather. Beautiful and sunny one minute pouring down hail the next.

During the week I measured up the remaining sheets, so that come Saturday I was ready to take them outside and cut them to size.  Then I laid them out on the strong-back, mixed up a batch of epoxy glue and glued them together.  Since its best to let the epoxy cure over night, that was my work done for the day.

Sunday I took the first sheet out and cut it to shape. As you can see it’s a fair size already (4500mm x 100mm) and this is only the first half!

Granted I’ll be taking a fair amount off giving it a more streamlined shape but I think my concerns about buoyancy were unfounded.

With that done I laid out the second side and glued them together.

So at the end of week twenty nine, after a flurry of activity and blue dust I’m back to waiting for the epoxy to cure. Speaking of which, I’m getting low on it and glue powder again. Well I’m almost out of glue powder. Next week I will get more supplies and glue all the sides together with the plywood core. If I’m careful I’ll be able to do it all in one day so that Sunday I can start shaping the ama.

Also during the week I spoke to Gary about paint options and he suggested two brands; one which is a marine paint, that are both available at Bunnings, which hopefully will be cheaper than buying through a marine supplier.

Useful link of the week: Building a better Leeboard.

Back on Track - Kind of

The Styrofoam arrived on Thursday, so now I can get started on the ama. Except it’s my birthday this weekend and we’re having a

dinner party. I try and keep these simple by distributing the load a little (people bring salad, starters etc) but I still spent Saturday running around getting supplies and re-arranging the lounge to make space for the table.

Because of the kids, we kicked dinner off early and it was 9:00pm when people started to going home even though it felt like 11:00! A sure sign I’m getting older :D

Sunday we went to the pool followed by a trip to Mums’ to drop off the table and chairs we borrowed. After that Nico and I went to Bunnings to try and get some glue for the styrofoam. The sales rep recommended something called Styrobond, which he thought Bunnings might stock. He was correct, they have it in five litre jars! Forget about that I’ll try something else. So after a good ten minutes reading the labels on various pots of glue I settled on CRC Ados F22.

I also looked at sourcing timber for the boom, leeboard and rudder. However; while they have the right lengths for the boom, they only stock pine and rimu. The rimu I’ve decided is too heavy for the boom but the pine will make a reasonable back-up option if I can’t find something lighter.

Speaking of the rudder, during the week I went to Boat Bits to rummage through their second hand parts to see if there was a spare rudder or daggerboard I could modify for use as a leeboard or rudder. They had a lot of Laser rudders which are too short and too expensive. But there was one long enough that I ended up buying that I will try to modify.

Shopping done, Nico got his treat which was an extra long play session in the stores’ playground.

Back at home I marked out the outline for the ama on the plywood I joined up last week then cut out the shape. Gary sent me plans for an enlarged ama but it turns out that the sheets of styrofoam are only 600mm wide and I will need to cut them in half the get the full amount I need, fine for the ama that’s in the plans but not enough for the larger ama. I’d need to double the amount of styrofoam to build it. An expense I don’t want to pay right now. So I took the original plan and stretched the widest point by 900mm.

Next step is to glue the styrofoam together, I wasn’t prepared to risk a whole sheet, so I cut up some blocks from an off-cut and glued them together… Good thing I did!

The glue melted the foam, so its back to the drawing board.

End of week twenty eight and work on the ama has begun in earnest.. Kind of!

Nothing to see Here

Bit of a late update, but truth be told not much has changed. I ordered the styrofoam from Forman Building Systems and was told that there would be a five to ten day delay because the sheets were cut to order. So I tried to get hold of Martin of Shale Woodworking to get more wood for the leeboard, rudder and boom.

However it looks like Martin is on holiday as the phone isn’t being answered and goes to fax instead, no luck there.

So with not much I can do, I finished sanding the second iako, cut the butt joined the second sheet of plywood into a 5000 x 450mm sheet that I will be using as the template and centre for the ama.

Thinking on the ama, the original plans call for one that’s 3600mm long, Gary sent me plans for an ama stretched to 4800mm to get extra buoyancy so that I can use the space between the hull and ama for a trampoline.

So no photo at the end of week twenty seven, and no materials to work on. Hopefully next week the styrofoam will arrive so that I can get working on the ama.

Who Needs a Gym…

When you’re building a boat?

Bad weather for most of the weekend kept progress to a minimum. The first iako was covered in glue from the laminating and I anticipated that there would be a lot of sanding to get back to bare wood. And unfortunately sanding needs to be done outside, in the rain. Not a recommended activity with power tools!

But I did manage to laminate my second iako, which was a good thing because by Sunday afternoon it was dry enough to work on it.

Sunday morning we went to French bay out past Blockhouse bay, the weather had cleared up and it was promising to be a good day. That was until we loaded everyone into the car. With a few warning drops, we got a sudden down pour! Luckily I was able to shout a warning to Cecile and she got inside the car in time. There went my day.

French bay is one of these lovely forgotten bays that dot the Manukau Harbour, the tide was in and there were ducks and seagulls on the water. Nicolas was in heaven! Every month the French Bay Yacht Club hosts a French market which we had to check out. Alas the market was small with not much of a selection. That said, Cecile still managed to buy some sausage and mustard along with the obligatory pastries.

Back at home the weather was still hit and miss, so I thought I might as well see if I can use a plane to get this glue off. As you can see it worked well and it was a nice physical job to warm me up.

After I’d finished with the plane I risked the rain and took them outside with the orbital sander. I managed to get one finished before the rain started to threaten once more.

So at the end of week twenty six I have two nearly finished iakos. This week I’ll get the wood to make the boom, rudder % lee board. I’ll also order the styrofoam to make the ama. I’ll also need to make some time in the evenings to clear up my work space to cut the ama template.

Over all I’m happy with the way the iakos have turned out.

Wrapped up in a Blanket

Sanding and more sanding. Took her out on the drive again on Saturday and sanded the gunwales and decks to remove some of the rough edges. I was planing to glue the seats in that day but in a moment of clarity I realised that it will be much easier to paint the inside without them in the way.

So with that decision made I decided that my work on the main hull was done for now and it was time to move her out of the garage. Cecile was so excited at the prospect of the hull going outside that she even helped lift it off the strong back and carry her to her new location.

Nico helped me unfold and spread out the tarpaulin so that she remains protected from the rain and sun.

Once I have finished the iakos and the ama I will finish them and the hull off with a coat of paint and installing all the fittings.

Unfortunately for Cecile, the strong back will stay in the garage a little bit longer, I need it to laminate the iakos and hold the ama.

Sunday I got the first iako done, I had hoped to be able to do two in one day but low and behold I didn’t have enough clamps!

I’m glad I didn’t even try as doing one was a bigger job than I expected. Because the iakos take a lot of strain I wanted to be especially sure that the laminates were strong, so before applying a coat of glue, I first wet each side with epoxy before then laying on the glue mix.

Next week I’ll have the second one done and then I’ll order the styrofoam needed to build the ama. Then extra wood to make the boom, leeboard and rudder. A lick of paint and we’re done, the end is so close that we’re starting to enter a personal danger zone. In the past I start to get impatient to get the job done and get sloppy. We’ll see how we get on here.

 

 

End of week twenty five and here she is all wrapped up: