BoatBlog: December 2005

Saturday, December 31, 2005

Visualisation exercise.

Painting the insides of the watertight compartments.

Stopping the screw head holes.

The skeg in place with screws and glassfibre.

Friday, December 30, 2005

Showing the location of the skeg.

Attaching the runners: with the straight portions fixed, the curved parts can be pulled down.

Attaching the runners: the straight portions stuck on first.

Capsize! Clamping the dinghy in this position allows work to be done from both sides.

Thursday, December 29, 2005

Motivational visualisation ...

The seat tops with the screw head holes filled with a first layer of body putty.

Step 20. Sand the entire boat, inside and out .... This dreaded step is now a day or two away, and I've started preparations for it. I'm filling all the screw head holes with body putty, and ironing out dents. Yes, ironing. A damp cloth and a hot iron will remove dents in the plywood, or at least reduce the severity significantly.

Motivational picture of the day ...

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Left: The daggerboard slot cut in the bottom of the boat. It could have been worse. Right: The daggerboard in position.

The daggerboard casing now permanently fixed in position.

The daggerboard being laminated in a dual pneumatic press setup. The daggerboard is not visible in the picture. It is covered with newspaper to prevent it from being stuck to the platens. For this I used Genkem's Cascamite adhesive, to compare it with the NUI urethane adhesive.

A daggerboard casing guide in action. These guides will be removed when the daggerboard slot is cut.

Temporary daggerboard casing guides fitted to the bottom.

The bow seat top with cleats and stiffener fitted.

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Motivational visualisation ...

The Argie 10 dinghy. Three seats dry-fitted.

The mast collars laminated and cleanded up.

Testing the daggerboard box for fit. Not too bad, considering ...

The bow seat top fitted. The deliberate mistake fixed with a few deft strokes of a radial arm saw.

The mast collars in press. The picture on the left shows the layout, on the right some detail of the collars themselves.

Glueing up the mast collars. Notice the purple adhesive. Pages from old telephone directories are useful wherever there are sticky stuff.

The bow seat top with cleats. Can you spot the deliberate mistake?

The stern seat top cleated and stiffened.

Monday, December 26, 2005

The midships seat top being fitted with cleats and stiffeners.

The daggerboard pieces fit!

The daggerboard casing, still messey with the glue's foam-out.

The daggerboard casing had me worried. The plywood it was cut from was twisted, and I feared that the daggerboard may not slide smoothly. I decided to make use of a pneumatic press to flatten it. Here the daggerboard casing lies on the bed of the press.

Glueing the shear strakes on the model.

Saturday, December 24, 2005

Finished fiberglassing the outside seams. Just in time, with just enough resin. She'll float now! Merry Christmas, little boat!

Next lady for a shave!

Friday, December 23, 2005

In at fitting conclusion to the week, the final bulkhead on the Argie 10 is installed. One is tempted to feel it will be downhill from here, but there's still a lot to be done, not the least of which is the finishing.

The bow seat bulkhead fitted. It lies about 4 mm too far aft in relation to the midships seat bulkhead.

Fitting the bow seat bulkhead. It was a very tight squeeze to get it into the acute angle of the bow.

Thursday, December 22, 2005

Two bulkheads fixed in place. The clamps will stay in place until the glue has set. By happy coincidence the stern seat top is just as wide as the bulkheads are apart.