Current Progress Report
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 Date

Whats Been Happening
 6 June 2000 HULL MOULD STRINGERS - Removed all the screws holding the bow stringers, and centrepunched all the nails under the stringer surface to save the hand plane. Gave all the stringers a quick longboarding to remove and hardspots when attaching the plywood skin. Tidied up the stem area where a couple of stringers ended up breaking under the tensions, and added a bit more wood to give us something to work the stem area into shape with.
5 June 2000 HULL MOULD STRINGERS - Attached all of the hull bottom and topside stringers. Between the chine and centreline the stringers were spaced 50 - 80 mm apart. Along the topsides only three stringers were used, 1 along the chine line, 1 in the centre and 1 along the inside edge of the gunnale. The stringers were attached using epoxy glue, and were nailed in place using long panel pins and a smallish hammer. We were being a bit careful on the hull mould after having had problems with the stringers being pulled in too much when using screws on the foredeck mould. Up the front sections of the hull mould, screws were required to attach the stringers because of the large twist and bend. A number of short stringers were added in this section to help in fairing in the stem area. The stringers on the hull mould have lined up very well, the benefits of the CNC cut frames and accurate waterlines should hopefully make fairing the mould a lot easier.
4 June 2000 HULL FRAMES - This is the day everything started looking like a boat. After a couple of hours setting up the dumpy level under a cover sheet to keep of the rain we were ready to stand up, and level in place all of the hull frames. Basic procedure is, starting at the front of the boat (far end from the level) line up the centre of the frame with the centre string line on the building frame. Then insert wedges under each side of a frame and raise/lower the frame until the waterline marks on the frames match the cross hairs on the level. Clamp, then screw the frame in place against the uprights. And then keep moving onto the other frames.
3 June 2000 HULL FRAMES -  Started standing the hull mould frames up. The hull frames are attached to 16mm chipboard uprights.The uprights are beveled at the same angle as the building frames taper to let the frame set flat. The uprights are initially clamped, leveled with a spirit level, and then screwed in place.
1 June 2000

HULL FRAMES - Finished sealing all of our hull frames, and have marked up the building base with the frame offsets. Have had a slight problem where we have two identical frames, and one missing, hopefully will have a replacement frame cut today.

DECK MOULDS - Applied another two coats of release wax, starting to get a good shine building up. Will leave the rest of the polishing to Graham who is arriving this weekend...
31 May 2000 HULL FRAMES - Cleaned up the router edge on the hull frames, and coated 1 side of the frames with timber sealer.
30 May 2000 AGM - Auckland Javelin Squadron AGM - No work on the boats tonight.
29 May 2000

HULL FRAMES - Dave and Peter Goody from Unitec worked hard till 9pm and managed to cut out all the hull frames on the CNC machine. Was a surprise to see Dave turn up at 9.30pm with his car full of frames, but no surprise that the car was only inches off the ground from the weight.

AGM BOOKS - Didn't get much else done, as we were putting together the Auckland Javelin Squadron financial report for Tuesday nights AGM. Managed to balance the books, and find $600 lost in accounting trickery last year.
28 May 2000 

BUILDING FRAME - Leveled up the building frame. Lifted the frame off the ground onto blocks and then packed each corner with plywood strips until the frame became level. Frame was leveled using long straightedges and spirit levels. Bolted on six legs, double checked the level and then epoxy bogged the legs to the concrete floor. The frame will remain bogged in place until the hull mould is completed.

DECK MOULDS - Applied another 4 layers of mould release wax.

HULL - Made up a test sample of the hull sides using 2 layers of 200gm eGlass, 10mm Herex Foam Core and 1 layer of 200g eGlass. Completed side thickness is 11mm.
27 May 2000  BUILDING FRAME - Starting to put the building centreline and hull frame spacings onto the garage floor. Started by sweeping out the garage and then throwing a few buckets of water down and washing the concrete floor. Found the final resting place for the building frame. Moved a few benches around to give us more working room around the frame. Painted a white stripe up the floor so we can transfer a decent centreline onto the floor.

DECK MOULDS - Unscrewed the foredeck and sidedeck moulds, and coated all of the exposed surfaces with a timber sealer. This should help resist mould movement over time. Cut and polished the foredeck mould surface, and managed to get two coats of release wax on it. Went out to watch the mighty Crusaders beat some Australian team for the Super 12 finals.
26 May 2000

HULL FRAMES - Dropped of a trailer load of chipboard to Unitec for cutting the hull frames. All of the CAD frames have been transferred onto the Unitec CNC cutter and are awaiting a time when they can be cut, we hope they will be ready for next weekend.

CUTTING PROCESS: The CAD image is translated into a X,Y and movement format for the CNC machine. This is displayed on the machines console for checking. Following that the chipboard is placed on the cutting bed. The board is held down using suction pads, these pads are manually located to ensure they are not in the cutting path. The machine is then turned on, it selects its cutting tool and then goes to work. We cut out the transom frame as a quick test, this takes about 2 minutes once the machine has been programmed and is a pretty impressive feat. The CNC machine also scribes in a centreline, and reference waterline onto each frame as well as scribing in the frame number.

Another Friday night, strange desire to drink a bit of water on Saturday morning.
25 May 2000 BUILDING FRAME - Coach bolted and epoxy glued the Building frame together.
Old Progress Updates
To see more progress reports from the start of the project look at the old progress reports, or the latest progress