Fruits Of My Labor (A-113)

[mbd]

Aw Tony, you're too kind. I was merely thinking of how it was done on our O'Days, and mulling over how I may do something along those lines someday as well. I have no doubt however, that you will come up with a creative and elegant solution that I can copy, or try anyway...

[Tony G]

Mike, no I'm not.. Just put the winter wrap on the O'Day last weekend and parked her in the newly designated winter spot.

Ebb, the mahogany is cut into the same dimensions as the pink styro mock-ups that have the bronze chocks set in them in the earlier posts a few pages back. The pieces are just over one inch thick by something in the range of 2 to 2 1/2 inches tall (I forget the exact size) and a little over 14 feet long. So that is the wrinkle. I'd have to flop them on their side and THEN bend them to fit the curve of the sheer if I wanted to use them as a cap. I do have an uncut plank of the same stock left that is around 9 to 10 inches wide by 14 plus feet that may work for the extreme curves up front, but, I don't think there is enough to do both the starboard and port sides. Looks like I may have jumped the gun again...

[ebb]

BENDING FAT RAILS
7/30/2015 Hey Tony, Just erased the olde post here -- couldn't understand it !
You know, Ebb bent the wood toerails on littlegull by screwing plywood L-shape angles to the deck, using them to bend, hold, suspend the new mahogany to the molded rail. Took pictures, but don't know if they ended up here in the Forum. Milled the wood rail so that the base is 1 1/2", tapering up to around 1". The long run is also tapered: about 3 1/2" up front to maybe 2 1/4" at the transom. This made the bending a bear from the chainplates forward, but easy, almost neutral, going aft. Trouble bending the ends, the tips don't bend, want to run straight off the molded toe rail...even if you start the bend at the front.
That part, mostly aft of the chainplateis, made easier by having the wood itself act as a lever. The more the bent piece is out of square, the harder it is to bend. It can't bend flat like a rectangular shape, it'll follow it's least resistance, it wants to bend toward its thinner dimension. In this case upward !!!!!!

Really screwed up the toerail angle as it sits on the boat rail* , because I spent an inordinate amount of stress drilling the fricken bolts, which I got wrong about a third of the time. The hull radically angles-in up front where I had the longest bolts to drill. Can't remember the spacing: 16"-18", and had to redrill a number of times to get enough real estate around the shaft to screw on the nut... a number of times without the washer.
*May actually have switched port rail with starboard at some point.... giving the rails an unplanned and pronounced outward flare. The
truncated section was milled on one side of the rail: one side square, one side angled. I unconsciously switched the rails and mounted the
'short side'. the right angle side outward. I only admit this to you, Tony. Made the rails look like they leaned, because they did.

Two things: coved the wood rail at the interface to hold butyltape (helped register new rail to the old, and it's by far the friendliest compound to clean up after, whatever other good reason to use it.)
AND chamfered the thru holes on the molded rail, where all of the waterproofing is really accomplished.

So if you have this semi-permanent clamping jig along the decks by using ply 'L' brackets screwed to the deck... when setting up, each bracket can be customed to the clamping it's doing... many brackets need no clamps, just shims, because the force is all inward. Depending on the thickness and shape of the new rail, the jigs forward, where bending is more fierce, will need reinforcement. You know, what the hell, the deck can be easily repaired, just screw-in the props where they're needed, no problem. No problem removing work off the jig to make adjustments, or as I had to, aim the drill with a shorter bit without the toerail in the way. Used 5/16" bronze bolts. Cheated a few times with 1/4". No way I do anything like this again!
How can holes be chamfered in the molded rail with the wood rail in the way....? Actually the jig uprights were long enough so that the
wood rail could be suspended on the boat with a few clamps, except forward of the chainplates, which was a growler. And chamfering done with the right-angle drill.
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ ___________


later EDIT (after Tony's three-years-gone following post, #544)...so as not to interrupt...... YOU'RE BACK !

To quote Thoreau: "Our houses are such unwieldy property that we are often imprisoned rather than housed by them." ... Or another:
"There are certain pursuits which, if not wholly poetic and true, do at least suggest a nobler and finer relation to nature than we know.
The keeping of bees, for instance."
Or, for instance, if Henry David were a sailor:... 'Sunny day, tiller in hand, and a freshening breeze.'

[Tony G]

We've been stocking up on boat stuff lately. One of those things was a new outboard-finally!
Of course we have to modify the lazarette a little bit to make it fit. Fortunately enough people have already done this mod so all I have to do is copy what someone else has done.
I was ready to give up the traveler but it looks like we will be able to juuust sneak the OB in behind it. Whew..
So it's time to clean the slate and get started again. Thanks to Ebb, James Baldwin, and everyone else for doing all the hard work up front.

[mbd]

Good to see you back at it, Mister!

[Tony G]

There has been a lot of work going on here but they're all small jobs that have to be done before anything noticeable can happen. So for three weeks of working on her in the evenings and weekends, it is kind of disappointing we can't see more progress. But I hope that all changes soon!

Even though we've finally found a local source for marine grade plywood, we have been double coating all the pieces with straight epoxy, and additionally, many of the pieces have been getting either 7 ounce or 3.2 ounce cloth added for more wear and tear protection. I figure it is cheap insurance being most of the added weight is in the epoxy itself.

The outboard well modification has consisted of: finding where the outboard actually had to sit, fore and aft, in order to still be able to swing the lower unit up out of the water, cutting out the factory "collar" after we gathered some landmarks, then grinding (yeah!) back the buttocks so we could add a couple (3) layers of 1208 biaxial to form the new outer "skin" that used to be the outboard well, grind back a much larger area inside the lazarette to add four more layers of 1208, then just copy what others have done to make the same modification.

[Tony G]

We really lucked out, in my opinion, that the wrap-around coaming I added a few years back can remain in place, along with the traveler, after adding this mod. We did have to cut a "chunk" out of the back side of coaming but there was enough structure left to beef up and keep some strength there.

The lazarette hatch is a different story though. One of the previous owners added a couple of clam shell vents to the hatch on their watch, but never isolated the coring after cutting the 2" vent holes and poking a couple of screws through the top skin. Needless to say there was some delaminating going on in that area, but in reality, I never felt that was an area I'd be walking around on anyway. Maybe I'm wrong there. I am very happy to say there as no delamination anywhere else on the boat though!

We added the obligatory "hatch hutch", or, "bump" or whatever you want to call it. I started by cutting out the top skin to roughly the internal size of the bump and removing the core along the sides that would remain.

Then we made a male mold out of Styrofoam and covered it in plastic tape to act as the release agent. I tried to follow the lines of the cockpit foot well for the taper, the arch of the coaming for the top, and the angle of the reverse sheer of the transom. The form received two layers of the 1208 and a single layer of 3.2 ounce. Yes, it is a bit "rough" yet and will get several layers of micro balloons to fair it out. If you notice, you can see the print on the tape showing through.


Once the new top skin cured, we flipped the hatch over and cut out the bottom skin and the forward piece of the remaining original structure. I was a little nervous hoping that I didn't severely weaken the hatch turning it into a bigger project, but it seemed pretty rigid for what remained. Although no where near strong enough to be used in its current state. We added a core of 1/4" marine plywood in a simple slab. I toyed with the idea of cutting the core into a XX shape in order to added more of a multiple stringer-like, or, webbing-like structure, but in the end kept it simple. If I find that the coring doesn't add enough strength as is, we can always add transverse stringers.

The cut-out in the coring is to allow a little more room for a couple of protrusions on the back of the outboard when it is tilted forward in the "sailing" position. This side received a layer of 7 ounce cloth to tie it together. Tomorrow evening I'll get to see how stiff the piece actually is after curing for a couple of days.

[Tony G]

Here is another one that shows how crude the interim finish is, along with the lines of the foot well.

[SkipperJer]

Do you expect that your approach will mitigate the exhaust problem of accumulation in the engine cabinet particularly downwind?

[Tony G]

Do you expect that your approach will mitigate the exhaust problem of accumulation in the engine cabinet particularly downwind?

Nope. Nothing I've done here would help a two-stroke breath in a closed up lazarette. Fortunately, the outboard we purchased exhausts through the propeller. If we ever have to replace the motor with one that exhausts out higher up on the lower unit we'd either end up propping the hatch open or modifying the exhaust similar to what Mike (C 227) did on his Honda generator.

[Commander227]

Boy, nothing from 11/2012 until 7/2015 then he just drops right back in like it's been a day.
What's going on man? You doin alright?
Someday I hope to sit down with a growler of say Junkyards Coachgun and hear the Tony G story.

[ebb]

Tony's married....that might be the answer.
Course if he's not married, that might be the answer too!

[Tony G]

Yup, doin' alright. We've had to do a lot of work on the house and property due to the neglect suffered over the last umpteen years. We decided to give all our attention and budget to that first so we would have options as we moved into the next phase of our plan. Plan B is underway now. That is to get the boat to a safe, usable state so we can find out what we really need and if cruising around is even what we want to do. It's a big bet, but after burying a couple more friends and a co-worker, we've embraced the bigger gamble is not trying.

[Tony G]

It has been a long time coming but I finally have a place to take a nap on board!

All of the locker lids have been cut. None of these will be water tight lockers even though it would be an easy enough conversion if we find that necessary in the future. Only the new chain locker lid and the lid over the water tank will have barrel bolts to secure them. The other lockers will probably just have finger holes for lifting them.

There will be a filler piece that will go over the head that will set in the v-berth just forward of the main bulkhead. Also, you can notice the strips glassed in for the ash ceiling strips we intend to apply. We are going to skip the insulation to see if we really notice a need for it. If so, it's an easy change to make next year.

[Tony G]

Not a lot of action on this end lately. We are waiting for me to remove the old-new backstay backing block that I put in, oh, about a decade ago. Once that is done we will add a new-new backing block. Being the outboard slot takes up a majority of the center of the transom, we'll move the backstay chain plate off to port a little bit.

Here is a shot of the gas tank shelf with the necessary cleats. The starboard shelf hasn't been dedicated to anything specific as of yet. The bilge pump outputs will pass through the area, but so far, that's it.