Wa'apa Build - Part 38 (leeboard and rudder part 2)

Continuing leeboard and rudder construction...

The foil template used for shaping the boards

I cut the blank into pieces for rudder and leeboard so I could work on each individually...easier.

Lots of planing and sanding carefully to get to shape...

All shaped it gets a layer of glass for strength...then repeat for the rudder

In between glassing and fill coats of epoxy work on the aluminum plate which attaches to outside of leeboard.

Leeboard attaches to hull with a 1/2 inch / 12mm bolt. I used a 1 inch bit to drill the hole oversized first.

Sealed one side with packing tape..

And poured in some lightly thickened epoxy. When cured I scrape/sand it flush, then drill the 1/2 inch / 12mm hole through that. This keeps the wood safe from wear and water ingress..

Boards after fill coats of epoxy..awaiting sanding and several coats of spar urethane..or paint.

Also received my rudder pintles/gudgeons...

Along with lots of line and other hardware I've been collecting to get the boat rigged....

That's about it for now...to be continued....

Wa'apa Build - Part 28 (wae, mast partner, seat, etc)

Been slacking on the updates a bit...so here's a dump of various things accomplished lately...

Leeboard support and seat were constructed and installed...

Three layers of ply are laminated and fit in position. This stiffens and provides support for the leeboard which will go here.

Leeboard support doubles as saddle for one side of seat support timber.

Seat top being coated in preparation for gluing down. Can just see the plywood saddle which supports other side of seat timber.

Comblete, ready for filling, coating, etc...

The drainage/scupper holes for cockpit were cut out. Three in total, one in each corner of cockpit except corner where leeboard support is...

Very thin (like card stock) piece of craft ply used as a buffer when cutting to avoid causing damage to floor...

The wae got a bit of edge rounding and shaping, then glued in...

To facilitate making and fitting the mast partner I made a quick dummy mast section of proper size...

Mast partner construction and installation...

Four layers of 6mm ply laminated together...good use for cockpit floor hatch cutouts...

Nip, tuck, plane, sand, etc...and we have ourselves a mast partner...

Since bolts are going through, and partner will be under a lot of force..I decided to wrap the wae in a layer of glass to reinforce and protect against splitting or cracking..just in case.

After glass cured and I determined position of partner, I marked and drilled holes for the bolts.

Then partner was clamped into position, the bolts inserted and tightened slightly to mark the partner for drilling. These are 1/4 inch / 6mm stainless lag bolts and washers.

Marks from the bolts let me know exactly where to drill pilot holes in partner to receive the bolts.

Using my drill guide jig, the holes were carefully drilled nice and true.

Extra bracing was constructed and bonded into place to help strengthen and take the side loads from the partner.

Then the partner got buttered up with goo and bolted into place. I used a liberal amount of unthickened epoxy in the holes and on the threads to protect/prevent against moisture ingress. Bolts were tightened just enough to be good and snug and get good squeeze out...but not super tight.

Once cured everything got a few coats of epoxy to seal it all up.

That's it, except for a couple tiny things, this half of the hull is pretty much completed as far as construction goes. Of course I have to get the other half caught up (would be nice to have room to do both at once...)..but that one should go quicker. 

Wa'apa Build - Part 23 (finishing the glass, graphite coating)

Been a long while since last update. I've been a combination of busy and lazy, neither of which is conducive to large amounts of progress...

With the glass layed and cured it was time to finish it off..filling the weave and such.

The corners were rounded to allow the cloth to lie down, and needed to be built back up. I used a mix of wood flour and graphite to make a thick batch of epoxy to build the edges up. 

When that cured I then sanded it to a nice fair and sharp edge again..but seem to have misplaced that picture...

With that done I then used a thin graphite / epoxy mix to finish filling the weave and coating the bottom.

Looks really good I think. One more coat and some wet sanding will really finish it off...but I'll wait until I'm further along and done banging it around so much...

On to some more interesting bits...and quicker progress I hope!

Wa'apa Build - Part 22 (Glassing the hull)

With a couple hours here and there I've managed to get the glass on the hull, and thankfully without messing it up!

I used 50 inch wide 6 oz cloth, which I cut lengthwise down the middle to get two pieces, one for each half hull. The roughly 25 inch wide lengths are wide enough to allow covering the bottom with 4 inch overlap up the sides.

I marked 4 inches up the sides at regular intervals, and then ran some masking tape along those marks.

Then I draped and smoothed the cloth, and cut the excess from the front.

The cut offs to be used for glassing the middle bulkhead seams.

Area masked off and piece of cloth fitted.

Then wet out

Once it got a little rubbery I cut along the edge of the tape and pulled off the excess.

Then did the same thing along the sides.

Once those cured I carefully sanded along the edges to make a smooth transition for overlapping the cloth for the bottom..so as not to have a big bump. Then came the big job of doing the bottom.

All wet out...

And excess cut off once it cured a little bit rubbery.

Still have to fill the weave and do the other half hull as well, but so far so good!