white out

After applying four to six layers of Altex undercoat - more on the edges - we're back to the sanding gig. The garage and surrounding countryside has been covered in a fine white dust; you can probably find us on Google Earth ;o) .

After the first coats we found a pile of marks and holes that we hadn’t seen before. We filled them with one part filler and then ended up sanding a lot of paint off around them and re-coating. One sheet of plywood didn’t seem up to the claimed BS1080 marine standard, and we’ve really regretted using it. But looking at the finished product, hopefully you’ll never know.

toxic substance

No, it’s not anthrax powder, it’s weaponised epoxy dust!

After another eternity of sanding the paint finally went on (more pics soon).

timber yard

It’s nigh impossible to get good timber in Tauranga, so while we were staying with friends in Whangarei last weekend we called into BBS timbers. Got a nice lot of Fijian Kauri for the top rubbing strakes, tiller and bowsprit, and some sapele for laminating into the tiller too. Had to wrap the lot in plastic with all wet and wild northern weather.

it's cold

We’ve been battling the cold the last few weeks, the epoxy has been taking ages to go off. The temperature was averaging 12 C last week.

Dad figured he’d rig up some lamps inside in a desperate attempt to warm the boat… a little.

We switched to fast hardener for our International Epiglass HT9000. Sanding and filling was finally completed and we coated the hull. The fast hardener made a big difference to the pot life, down to about 15 mins compared to about 45 mins with standard hardener at this temperature. We'll see how much difference it makes to the drying.

coving

Been busy filling, sanding and coving - not much to see, just lots of work.

We've also added the bottom two rubbing strakes from Fijian Kauri.

keel hauled

The last week was spent working on the keel. We needed a semi-hard wood, which is difficult to come by in Tauranga despite all the boat building. Eventually I found a little saw mill down a windy gravel road near here. Once you manage to find the rickety old building - behind all the stacks of timber - you’re not sure if it’s been abandoned for 30 years until you see some sawdust billow out from behind a machine. This place reeks character.

Eventually they found some old kauri floor beams and machined one up for me. A beautiful piece of timber barring a few nail holes.
Considerable time was spent draughting the keel and then shaping it with the assistance of the router. Then I spent some rather uncomfortable time inside the boat waiting for the command to fasten the screws.

The last two pieces either side of the centre-board slot went on in rather a rush before dinner on Saturday. I went out yesterday and grabbed one of the Makitas, but some wayward epoxy seemed to have fastened it to the hull. Don’t tell Dad…

ramming speed

I’ve added extra layers of fibreglass tape to the bow (because some members of this family forget to give way).

And there's been lots of sanding.

Fiberglassing

With the fibreglass in place, we can start applying the resin. The job is to get the resin evenly applied without runs and to get the glass cloth lying nicely on the boat.

Our trusty epoxy mixing machine.

We trim the cloth as we go, once it's all been wetted.

The first coat is on, but it needs several coats of epoxy resin to fill the weave of the fiberglass cloth. If you wait for the epoxy to dry (roughly a day) you'll have to scrub the amine blush off, and then sand it before you can apply the next coat. However you can apply another coat while the epoxy is in the ‘green’ state – started to cure, but not hardened, slightly tacky – or roughly six hours.

And so six hours later the second coat is carefully applied. We've added a little fairing powder to the resin to make it lighter and help full the weave quicker.

As the evening wears on we realise we need to heat the garage. Dad couldn't resist using his new toy.

Eventually common sense prevailed (before everything went up in flames). The fourth coat went on at midnight and the final at six AM.