Untitled Document

Progress Report 5

Date	Whats been happening
Thursday 6 July 2000	HULL MOULD - Another coat of wax applied.
Wednesday 5 July 2000	FORE-DECK - Popped the foredeck of the mould, definitely a releif when it popped off with almost no effort. Just pulled up on the peel ply strips under the mould and it came off in about 2 minutes. HULL MOULD - Another coat of wax applied.
Tuesday 4 July 2000	HULL MOULD - Finished the cut and polish on the hull mould and applied the first layer of release wax. Took a trip to swap the vacuum pump for a slightly smaller model as the big one was needed for a large job.
Monday 3 July 2000	HULL MOULD - Attacked the hull mould with the Orbital Sander and some 120 grit paper so start the polishing process. Filled a few small pin holes, but otherwise is looking good. Started cutting and polishing the hull, with our modified Orbital Sander with "cut up piece of towel" attachment.
Sunday 2 July 2000	FORE-DECK - Pulled the vacuum bag of in the morning, by rolling it to one side (leaving one edge attached), and reusing the sealer tape by attaching it to plastic strips. The steps shown in the photos below are: 1. Longboarded (or watched Grant Burke) longboard the foam to remove the bog that had come through. 2. Stuck on the top laminate (2 layers of 200gm glass). 3. Vacuumed the top skin down with peel ply. HULL MOULD - Started sanding the Duratec on the hull mould. Have managed to get the bottom and most of one side pretty well ok. Hope to finish the sanding off tomorrow night
Saturday 1 July 2000	FORE-DECK - Started the laminating of the foredeck. Cut foam sheets (8mm 80 gram Herex foam) into shape, cut 200gm glass and coated the foredeck in a liquid mould release film. Glassed up the fore-deck and heated it up for a few hours until it tacked off. After the glass has semi set applied a layer of runny glue/bog mix to stick down the foam. Stuck on the foam, and vacuumed it down. Will write a detailed description of the whole vacuum process after after the next deck.
Friday 30 June 2000	FOAM, GLASS & MATERIALS - Picked up a vacuum pump on the way home from work. Thanks to Adhesive Technologies and Grant Beck for the loan of the pump. Got some release agent as a backup for the deck mould. Got home just as 200m of 200g e-glass cloth was being delivered , thanks Ian for the excellent service. Working on around 60m of cloth per boat + wastage so 200m should give us three hulls. Hooked up the trailer and headed down to High Modulus to pick up the foam, a combination of 8mm and 10mm 100g Herex, and bagging materials. Pretty lucky, as they are only 1km away. Became a bit of a reunion of sorts as a number of people I have met through sailing are now working there which was a surprise. Had a tour of the manufacturing plant and warehouse with Paul Hakes, who has been helping us out with hull construction methods and laminates.
Thurday 29 June 2000	HULL MOULD - Final sanded the epoxy from Tuesday night. Gave the whole mould a final coating of Duratec with an extra coating in a few slightly "cratered areas".
Wednesday 28 June 2000	HULL MOULD - Bog from last night still a little wet to work with, more action tomorrow. Planning to build the first foredeck this weekend, and all going well, start popping out hulls next weekend.
Tuesday 27 June 2000	HULL MOULD - After longboarding the Duratek we noticed a few areas that were still slightly low (and one very low area). Have epoxy bogged these with a very light mixture to get a bit of "fill" before giving the mould another paint.
Monday 26 June 2000	HULL MOULD - Gave the hull a quick sand with 120 grit paper, then into an Auckland Javelin Squadron Committee meeting.
Sunday 25 June 2000	HULL MOULD - More long-boarding. Gave the hull mould a decent sand and then filled the last small low areas with a quick setting polyester car bog. While waiting for the polyester to set went for a drive to pick up some Duratek sanding primer and had a look at Pete Preceys 1/2 Javelin. For those who have not heard, Pete chopped his boat in 1/2 and is adding a new flatter stern section. Got back home to fair in polyester bog, and were ready for the Duratek. Put on 2 thin layer of Duratek, this time using a roller instead of a brush. The difference in finish is quite impressive, should be a lot easier to polish the surface up than the foredeck mould.
Saturday 24 June 2000	HULL MOULD - Started long-boarding back the Epoxy Bog, it was still a tad rubbery as we probably mixed in a little too much powder for the amount of resin used. Long-boarding with 40 grit paper, which is also helping to knock of any remaining high spots in the fibre glass layer. Applied a couple of quick brews of Epoxy to the low areas, mixed in with some food colouring to make it easier to see what was happening. Were taking no chances with the resin not setting, so heated the garage and heated the resin/hardener in a hot box. Definitely wern't going to have a problem with this mix going off as we had two lots harden before we could get it on the mould. Might have been a bit hot!.

Old Progress Updates
To see more progress reports from the start of the project look at the old progress reports