First, the good news,
The frames and ports came back from the powder coaters so beautiful it's hard to believe. They were baked with a standard bronze polyester that looks really fine to me. It's a luxurious softness that identifies a pc The LabMetal repairs aren't noticable. and all the pieces of the opening ports fit back together, except in one case. Fixable, a little sanding... Considerable hole in wallet.
The bad news,
My clam shell rudder can not be used. Got to the point with it filled with pvc foam and extended to its final dimensions, but not glassed, where the planes of the blade could be eyeballed real good in relation to the shaft. Walked away. Came back. Number of times..... Twisted too far out and not fixable by grinding it to square. Too late for tweeking the bronze. It had been damaged and bent in a storm, where the tent was torn apart, and one of the pipes supporting the tent had swung around under the hull and bashed it. (Was there a message there?) Thought we had it straightened!
Yesterday, had a brief unsuccessful conference with the luxury welder about a simplified version of a take-apart, for which I had a rudimentary model. I may now go with a regular single piece all-american constellation style - just to have a rudder. I'll make up two models. In respect to 'engineering:' the constellation probably has more forces on the blade/shaft connections than the more common rounded ear-shaped rudder. Just think, you are turning the whole boat against all that resistance with that bitty blade that has equal forces aqainst it. Still looking at welding pieces to an Everdur (655) shaft, foam filling and skinning with glass. Pretty bummed out, but I ended up not really liking the damned thing anyway. Much because it didn't pass the KISS test.
Back to the drawing board, and doorskin models, like me and 338 have all the time in the world..........
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