Slow Progress

Wow It has been a really busy couple of weeks! I finally got a chance to do a little work on the Paper Jet this weekend.

I basically got the top mast

and the rudder box / tiller finished sanded and ready for epoxy.

The Plan is to put 3 coats of epoxy on this week after work!

Rudder Box / Tiller

Now that I finally the gudgeons, I now have the final piece of the puzzle to finish off the rudder box: The width of the gudgeon support strips! I had some mahogany laying around the place that was close to the right size and not too far off the correct thickness. So after some quality time with the table saw and the thickness planer I was able to create these pieces.

I also took the time to build up the tiller. I decided to laminate a combination of cedar and poplar strips to keep in character with the rest of the boat. Somehow a laminated tiller is a lot prettier than just a solid cedar one.

I went though my spare stack of cutoff wood pieces and found a couple of appropriate cedar and poplar pieces. These too I ran through the table saw / thickness planer to get them to the right size. I left a little extra width on the pieces to allow me to clean things up on the thickness planer once everything was set up.

I epoxied both pieces together and let everything set up overnight. I then proceeded to finalize the tiller handles. After cleaning the edges up on the joiner to get rid of the extra epoxy I shaped the ends to match the rudder box and then ran it through an 1/8 round router bit on the router table to soften the edges.

Once complete I epoxied the whole mess together and voila! A finished piece! Amazingly enough this is really that last piece of construction that was left on the boat!

Once everything has set up it will be time to sand, epoxy and varnish!

My next project is to finish the top mast!

Sailboat Hardware

Received the sailboat hardware from Mauri Pro Sailing. It's amazing that all these pieces cost well over $800!

As far as I can tell building the hull/spars accounts for slightly over 1/3 of the total cost of the finished boat. The other 2/3rds are split 50/50 between paint, hardware, rigging and the sails.

In so far as build progress I have added 3 coats of laminating epoxy to the lower mast. The plan for this weekend is to finish sanding the top mast and also to finish the construction of the rudder box / tiller assembly now that I have the gudgeons.

Finishing the Lower Mast

Spent some quality time this afternoon working on the finish sanding of the lower mast and getting it ready for epoxy. I went ahead and ordered a few Tyvex suits for the upcoming painting of the hull and decided to wear one while sanding to prevent being covered in a mixture of wood and epoxy dust. The picture kind of reminds me of the old Intel commercial! All that was missing was a little "Play that funky music white boy!"

While I was sanding the mast I paid special attention to sanding the sail track to prevent any small burrs caused by the saw from catching on the sail. I also wanted a smooth surface where I could add epoxy over.

Ready for epoxy!

What is not shown is that I let it sit for a couple of hours to let all the dust settle in the garage and managed to put a coat of epoxy on it. My goal is to put two more coats between today and Wednesday.

Holy Mast Batman!

It occurred to me that I should do a quick test fit of the mast on the boat before I got too carried away doing the final sanding and finishing on the mast. So, today my wife and I took the hull down from the ceiling and parked it in our driveway. After some sanding on both the mast and the mast holder everything went in and looked good! The picture does not do justice the fact that the mast is towering over the hull and it does not even include the additional five feet of top mast!

As part of the fitting process I checked that the mast was square both fore and aft and port/starboard. Amazingly enough everything was perfect!

I now have the mast set up on the saw horses to start the final sanding process

Sails have arrived!

My sails arrived today at work from iSails. Wow what a big package!

They look really nice!

I also managed to put 3 coats of epoxy on the bowsprit

Next steps finish up the mast!

Sail Track & Bow Sprit

Saturday morning started with a copious amount of sanding on the sail track area on both the top and bottom mast. I also spent some time making sure that the joining tube was flush with both sets of masts. This was followed by cutting the sail track to length and epoxying it onto the mast using zip ties to hold them in place. I took François advice and used a 45 degree scarf joint to join them together on the bottom mast. 

It actually turned out pretty good and I am pretty glad that I decided to go this route!

Sail Track Installed!

Joint between the top and bottom masts

I also took time to add the fiberglass wraps to both ends of the bowsprit. In order to get a nice straight line at the interface I added blue painters tape per the instructions. Once the fiberglass initially sets up I'll come back with a sharp knife and trim it up.

Blue tape assures a nice straight line at the fiberglass interface

While that was setting up I also decided to mix some extra laminating epoxy and drizzled it along the interface between the sail track and the mast to fill in some small voids. This is going to be a somewhat critical  connection and I want to make sure that there is a good solid interface between the two.

I drizzled in some laminating epoxy at the track/mast interface

After waiting a couple of hours I went back with an x-acto knife and cut the extra fiberglass off the bowsprit and peeled off the painters tape.

Bowsprit ready for sanding and finishing!

Next steps will be to sand everything and start applying epoxy!

Midweek Madness!

I decided to spend some quality time after work this week and put four coats of epoxy on the boom and also the rudder box and foil handles. I also coated the spigot of the bottom mast with epoxy in order to get it ready for the permanent attachment of the fiberglass sleeve.

Boom reading for final sanding and spar varnish!

Rudder Box sides and foil handles with 4 coats of epoxy!

Today after getting of work I went ahead and epoxied the rudder box together.

And after some sanding on both the sleeve and the spigot I epoxied the spigot onto the lower mast. My goal is to start attaching the sail track to the upper/lower mast this weekend and I wanted to get this out of the way.

I see a bunch of sanding in my near future as I get the bottom/top mast ready for the sail track and and epoxy.

Miscellaneous Day!

So today I worked on a bunch of non related stuff!

Earlier this week I took the mast sleeve off the lower/top mast. Amazingly enough the whole thing came apart without any real theatrics (That is of course unless you consider playing tug-of-war with your wife using a mast as a rope as theatrics....). The only lesson learned out of the whole thing was not to use the blue painter's tape underneath a fiberglass layup and expect it to release afterwards! I had used it to keep the wax paper in place on the spigots and I ended up having to use my handy Cosco special generic dremel tool to sand it off the inside of the tube. It had become one with the fiberglass!

This morning I started out by sanding the mast sleeve to remove the high spots that built up at the ends and also to get rid of all the drips that ended up on the bottom. The first pass at rough sanding it with 100 grit paper looks pretty good. My next step with it will be to epoxy it in place on the lower mast and do some additional sanding once it has set up. I'm pretty confident that after an additional 3 coats of epoxy that I will put on the mast and sleeve that it will turn out pretty good. My goal at this point is not to paint it but leave it the crazy green color that it turned out. My wife thought it reminded her of the old greenish Coke bottles!

After I finished with that project my next step was to install the thumb cleats on the boom. Before I did that I went ahead and and gave the boom a thorough sanding using 150 grit followed by 220 grit sand paper. I figured it would be easier to do this without the thumb cleats in the way. I followed the sanding on the boom with sanding on the thumb cleats themselves. I hadn't really done anything with them after I cut them out and they needed to have all the corners rounded and also the bottom contoured to the shape of the boom. After I was finished with the sanding I epoxied them onto the boom. I also took the opportunity to use some of the epoxy I had mixed up to fill in a couple of gaps that I had on both the boom and the bowsprit where the birds mouth joint did not quite 100% join.

After that particular program was done I decided to finally drill the holes for the handles on both the rudder and the dagger board. A quick setup on the drill press and it was done in a jiffy! I also took the opportunity to cut the two 50mm long handles from the 32mm dowel I had purchased a while ago. I went ahead and sanded them/rounded off the corners so that they would be ready for a coat of epoxy. I'm going to go ahead and put a couple of coats of epoxy on the handle prior to gluing them in place. I am also still hesitant to give both of the foils the final sanding / varnishing since they are still being moved around a lot in the garage. I may still follow my original plan which is to do that at the end.

The hole cutter set up on the drill press.

Next thing I decided to work on was the rudder box. Interestingly enough the two panels that make the box were not included as part of the pre-cut pieces and therefore I had to make it myself. No worries since it was fairly easy. The good news was that I have kept all the scraps from the plywood and I was able to find two pieces that were big enough to work. After a little magic with a protractor and a table saw I got the two pieces along with the joiner piece cut out and ready for a coat of epoxy. I did not cut out the four outside spacer pieces since I am waiting on receiving the Pintle/Gudgeon combination from Mauri Pro Sailing and I want to make sure that the thickness is correct..

Next steps will be to sand the boom down one more time and apply 3 coats of epoxy to both it, the inside of the rudder box, and the spigot of the lower mast. I'm also going to work on installing the fiberglass reinforcing on the bowsprit

Its worth noting that other than the finish on the boat/spars that the majority of the construction effort on the boat is now over and I am down to the nitty gritty. Exciting stuff!!

Mast Sleeve

After another couple of weeks of break I finally had a free Saturday to dedicate myself to this project! So a few things have happened over the past week. Firstly I ordered laminate sails and a spinnaker from iSails http://www.enUS.i-sails.com/oursailspaperjet.htm After a very important consult with my better half we decided to with the both the red trimmed sails and also the red spinnaker. I also ordered the majority of the boat hardware from Mauri Pro Sailing. Amazingly enough only one part was discontinued and I was able to find a replacement part from Ronstan. I was going to order the sheets/lines etc but decided to hang tight for a little bit until I think through some form of a color scheme.

Now back to the construction! First step was to figure out a good way to get both pieces perfectly straight and level while proving a means to still allow me to wrap the fiberglass around the spigots to make the sleeve. My solution was to use my work bench as the level surface and then to cut up some MDF slats to elevate both the mast and the top mast from the workbench surface. This assured that at least in the plane of the sail track everything was perfectly straight. This was followed by copious amounts of checking the alignments of both masts. I did this both using my 6' level, a laser level and also the old trusty naked eye approach by sighting down the mast!

Top Mast / Bottom Mast lined up

Once I was satisfied that everything was where it should be I started the process by making sure that both spigots aligned perfectly with each other and where the same shape/dimensions.

Spigots cleaned up and ready for taping

After some sanding to make sure the everything lined up perfectly and also one last double check with the level I wrapped a couple of layers of wax paper around the spigots along with some blue masking tape at the corners to make sure that things did not stick.

Ready for fiberglassing

Next step was to cut the fiberglass and wet it out. I had been trying to figure out the best way to do this without having the edges of the fiberglass unravel as I wetted things out. My solution was to wet it out on Seran Wrap which did the trick!

The bad news is that even though the wetting out process worked perfectly I still had issues with the edges of the fiberglass sheets unravelling once I started wrapping the fiberglass around the spigots. To be frank I have no idea of what I could have done differently to prevent this from happening. The interesting thing was that it took a total of 8 wraps of fiberglass to make up the 2mm thickness of the spigots! I was reading someone else's building blog and they mentioned that they used only two wraps. Not sure if that was a typo or not!

Once it set up I followed up with 3 coats of epoxy to fill in the weave.

Tomorrow I will see how this whole thing comes apart and see what challenges I will be presented with trying to do this! After I get it off the next step will be to do some sanding on the sleeve to take out the high points at both ends along with the numerous drips I encountered at the bottom of the sleeve!

Next steps will be to permanently attach the sleeve to the lower mast and to start the sail track installation. Once that is complete it will be time to start the final finish of the spars!

Wow That Was a Long Break!

Well after not working on the boat for almost 7 weeks I am finally back at it. I have never had so many back to back weekends where I was not in town!

So back to the spars. I finally decided to cut in the spigots at both ends of the mast/top mast. I had been mulling over the best way to do this for some time. I had noticed that another builder decided to do it on a table saw, but after much deliberating I decided to use a backsaw with guides just as Dudley had suggested.

First step was to line up both portions of the mast to make sure that they where both the same size/shape. After I verified that this was the case I went ahead and marked the cut line on both pieces using a hose clamp.

I started the rabbeting process by using my small backsaw to add a small shallow kerf mark around the "cut" line. The backsaw I was using was tough to use for this since I already had the guides mounted to it. After that it was a simple matter of cutting the 2mm deep kerfs at regular intervals.

Once the kerfs where in place out came my wood chisel to remove the excess material and I finished it up with some sand paper

I had a couple of spots where the chisel dug a little deep (The cedar is SUPER soft!) so I decided to add some filleting material to level it out. I want to make sure nothing causes the sleeve to bind.

As you can see it turned out pretty good.

My plan for next steps is to go ahead and sand smooth the areas I added the filleting material and to once again align both portions of the mast to check that the spigots line up correctly. Once that is done it will be time to figure out the whole sleeve building process! That is the one part that I am a little apprehensive about mainly from keeping both pieces perfectly aligned while maintaining enough room to wrap the wetted out fiberglass material. Also the fiberglass tends to fray when cut so I'm also trying to figure that part out. Should be fun!

Top Mast Sheave Slot

Today I worked on the sheave slot for the top mast.

It was pretty straight forward although I must admit the instructions really do not address how to locate the optimum fore/aft location for the sheave.

I off-centered the axle location so that the sheave would be slightly forward in the slot to provide a good alignment with the sail track location. I did notice that I have the sheave slightly higher than what the instruction show, but I don't think it's a huge deal since the aluminum strap will keep the halyard in place.

Next step will be to the mast sleeve.

Progress is going to be non existent over the next few weekends due to booked up weekends :(

Sail Track Part II

Finished up the sail track this weekend!

First step was to epoxy the halves, that I had previously built, together. Prior to doing that I cut two lengths of string for each hole so that I could run through a swab with acetone on it once the halves were clamped together. This was to clean up any excess epoxy that would squeeze out inside the sail track area. The reason for two strings is so that as I pulled one through it would automatically pull another string in so that I could swab it at least a couple of times (I ended up doing it 3 times!).

All Clamps On-board! Notice the strings hanging out of the ends

Once it set up I un-clampled it and ripped the sail track blanks to size and ran it through the table saw in order to add the 3 mm sail track.

I finished up with tilting the saw blade 33 degrees and running the blanks through it to get to the final shape.

Tilting the saw blade tends to leave saw / burn marks on the wood when you pause during the feeding process so I went ahead and sanded the now complete sail tracks with 80, 100 and 220 grit sand paper. I figured it would be a lot easier to do it now versus waiting until I epoxied them onto the mast.

Voila! Sail Tracks!

Next step will most likely be the mast sleeve.

Also - a non related issue. I had previously reported that I had ordered a nickel sheave to replace the sheave that had been discontinued for the top mast. Well guess what - the nickel one I ordered has also been discontinued! Looks like Ronstan did some house cleaning! Turns out I was in San Diego last weekend and visited the Shelter Island West Marine (Huge store!). As luck would have it they had a sheave made by Schaefer that might just work! (part# 62-018, 51mm dia., max rope dia. 1/2") I also was able to buy it in person without spending the same for the shipping as the sheave itself!

Thumbcleats / Sail Track Part I

I have a few loose ends that I need to take care of prior to finishing the spars: Cut out the thumbcleats and build a sail track. Both of these need to be installed on their respective spars prior to applying the epoxy and varnish.

I am also waiting on the sheave for my top mast which I ordered a couple of weeks ago. Interesting to note the sheave specified on the plans has been discontinued! The closest sheave that I was able to find that came close to matching the dimensions is the Ronstan RF580 which is made out of nickel.

As stated in an earlier post I am using plans provided to me by François Marti (http://www.pidgikit.fr). He used a 8 mm dia. router bit for his sail track which I was unable to source here in Arizona. The closest I could come to it was 3/8" (9.5mm) therefore, I modified his width dimensions  by a couple of mm to maintain the same wall thickness.

As with most of these projects the first step was to go to Home Depot and get an 8' long piece of 3/4" Poplar that was 5.5" wide. I ran it through the thickness planer to get it down to 14 mm per the sketch of the sail track. I then proceeded to rip three 36 mm pieces and had just enough left over to rip a 10mm wide piece for the thumbcleats.

First order of business was to get the thumbcleats out of the way. This I accomplished using my sled that I had built to do the scarf joints on the mast.

I ended up making an extra set just in case I mess something up!

Next step was to get the router table set up and to run the three boards through it. On one of the boards I cut a small section off it so that I could use it as a test piece for the router.

Can you say trim moulding anyone?

After I ran it through the router I followed up with a coat of epoxy.

What you cant see in the picture is the smoke coming out of my epoxy cup. As warm as things are right now I have about 5 or 6 minutes before the whole batch goes south!

My goal is to apply 2 more coats of epoxy with a light sanding between each coat. Once I am done with that I will rip the short piece in half so that I can epoxy it together, and I will epoxy the two long pieces together!

Bowsprit / Secret Weapon

Well the bowsprit is not the secret weapon of the title the portable swamp cooler shown below is!

This weekend the temperature got up to 108 degrees F which in short is: HOT!!! So Friday night my wife and I hit the Home Depot / Lowes circuit and purchased the portable swamp cooler. I tried it out this weekend and it made a huge difference - As long as it is blowing directly on you it makes working in the garage bearable!

Well enough about that! This weekend my goal was to shape the bowsprit. So first step was to figure out how I was going to plane in the additional faces. As with the boom I took the bowsprit in the house and my wife and I sat down and marked up the centers of all eight faces followed by the other eight faces for the initial non tapering part of the bowsprit (the aft end). Once I got to the tapered part things where not quite cut and dried since even though the tapered end had eight faces it is closer to square than an octagon.  So I before finalizing my "planing" lines I decided to get the end closer to an octagon so out came the hand plane!

Bowsprit Ready for Shaping

Tapered End Planed to an Octagonal Shape

Once that was done it was pretty easy to figure out my "planing" lines and cut in the additional 8 faces using my trusty No. 5 plane.

Well it turns out that it took a little bit more effort to do the shaping on this spar than what I initially anticipated. The main reason behind this is that you build the spar using the same dimensional pieces as the mast with the exception that it is actually a couple of millimeters narrower in diameter. So after I used the box sander to get it to the initial round shape I used my electronic micrometer to check the diameter. As expected it was 63 mm vs 61 mm. So out came the hand plane to take off the extra material! I alternated between the hand plane and micrometer to make sure I did not take off to much material and also to make sure it was round. This particular spar has to fit through a hole in the bow transom so it's a little bit more critical that it is perfectly  round!

Finished Product!

Next step for this particular spar is to wrap both ends with fiberglass followed by a good sanding/epoxying/varnishing!

Next Steps will be either the fiberglassing this spar, the connector tube between the top/bottom mast or the sail track - We will see!