Wa'apa Build - Part 25 (A sail is born)

With weather and other factors conspiring to keep me from working outside much, I decided to get to work building the sail.

The sail I'll be using is a balanced lug based on that outlined in Michael Storers pdracer/ozracer plans. The plans call for using poly tarp to construct the sail, with simple edge round only to build shape into it. I spent some time debating whether to use poly tarp, foot the cost for sail material, order a kit, etc..I finally settled on just using poly tarp for now. It saves me money and I'll have less invested in it in case I decide to go with a different rig later or make a major mistake.

I still wanted to try and build a nice sail though, and learn something about 'proper' sail making. So I decided to build the sail out of shaped panels like one would if using proper material. To facilitate this I plugged the sail dimensions from the plans in to an open source sail designing application called sailcut cad. With the base dimensions plugged in and other things tweaked as necessary and based off information found on the web, I was able to print out plans with all the dimensions needed to recreate the panels in the real. What you end up with is really just a bunch of X and Y coordinates for each panel, that need to be plotted out somehow onto the sail material.

Since I'm limited on space and using a large sheet of poly tarp what I did was this:

1. Buy some cheap 24 inch wide brown packing paper on 50 foot rolls. I'll plot the coordinates out onto this paper to make patterns to transfer onto the poly tarp.
2. Set panel width in sailcut cad to width of paper and output the panel coordinates.
3. Roll out enough paper for panel being worked on, and carefully mark a line at a right angle to the edge of the paper. Measure from this line to mark you X coordinates. Measure from bottom edge of paper to mark Y coordinates. Sailcut outputs some coords as from a fixed point, others are relative to a line between two of those points. I exported the development from sailcut as DXF and brought them into a 3D/CAD package to get fixed coords for all...since plotting those is easier for me.
4. Once all points are marked out and double checked, connect them with a stiff batten or straight edge as appropriate. This is tedious and takes a fair amount of time to get them all done. Carefully cut along the lines to get your pattern for the panel.
5. Lay out the poly tarp and tape down the patterns, minding the weave runs along the panel appropriately. Trace out the pattern onto the tarp, I found a very fine point (like a pen) permanent marker worked perfectly.
6. The patterns represent the finished size, so measure and mark from the lines for seam and hem allowance.
7. Carefully cut the panels out and assemble the sail.

Ready to plot coordinates.

Finished pattern.

Several patterns together..so far so good.

Trace pattern onto tarp.

Marking seam and hem  allowances.

Panel cut, added reinforcement patches.

Panels going together.

Panels sewn together, fitting reef point and other reinforcements.

On the foot, head, and luff I cut edge to size. I then cut ~3 inch wide strips of material along the weave, folded them in half over the edge, then sewn down.

The leech had a 40mm hem allowance, which was double folded over and sewn d

Reef point reinforcments.

Sewing the round patches was awkward and difficult.

Adding grommets. I carefully cut each grommet hole (after positioning and tracing one) with a sharp utility knife. A dedicated hole cutter would be much quicker and less likely to hurt you or the sail..but

the knife works fine if your careful.

The finished product, sans the reef nettles which I haven't yet decided on.

Lot of labor, at least 40 hours or so I imagin...but very pleased with how it came out. Hopefully it performs well and holds together for a good long while. ;)

Wa'apa build - Part 24 (Mast step)

In between holiday obligations and the days too cold for working with epoxy, I've gotten the mast step constructed and in place. It's same basic design as to what Mr Dierking showed on his Va'a Motu build..

Support the hull so that the bulkhead is level..I use it as reference for measuring and level.

Measure out and mark position of mast step on gunwales. Mast step is further ahead than this picture indicates..

Then using level transfer marks down to bottom of hull.

Measuring device use to get width measurements for creating bulkhead templates.

Bulkhead template...

Mast step is made of a box, which goes between two semi bulkheads.

Glue two halves..

Epoxy coat inside and then glue box together..

I glued on a bit of hard wood to bottom of step for durability.

Step is sandwiched between bulkheads and sits on the bulkhead timbers, should be quite

strong and spread loads well.

Holes cut...

And gluing into place..

Then gluing in some timber next to step so that saddles, cleats, etc can be installed in this area. Also timbers on outside of bulkhead proving extra support for floor..

Box cut flush..

It's all quite solid and feels plenty strong, will be stronger yet once the floor is laid down...

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!

Wa'apa Build - Part 21 (Sunshine & rounding edges)

Been a while since last update. I recently started a new job and time for the boat has been pretty limited...but still slowly making some progress...

I managed to catch a nice day and got the hulls outside, bolted together, and sanded fair. Really great to see it out in the sun as a whole after so much time fiddling with one half at a time...

Then it was back inside to continue getting them ready for glassing the bottom. I got to work rounding the chines and such in order to take the glass cloth..

Using marking gauge and pencil I marked the chines about 2mm on either side.

With the marks as a guide I chamfered the edge with a block plane.

Then I used a sanding block to round everything over nicely.

Soon now will be time to commence glassing...which should be interesting as I've never glassed anything before. Let's hope it all goes well! :)