As you can see, I've been busy!  Right now I'm glassing the deck, the cockpit's in, and the cabin top is glassed on.  I've realized I have some more filleting and taping to do, but it's on the inside now, taping the bulkheads to the cabin top.  It never end it seems!  That white spot on the lower right is the famous hollow spot some of us have, I've been filling it with my left over filleting material.  

Thought this might be interesting, since I basically am doing this by following the other blogs, and the instructions/plans don't tell you how to.  The slot for the keel is made by wrapping some plastic around your keel, then glassing over that to form a keel-shaped tube that will become the keel slot in the bottom of your boat.

Here you see the sleeve made of 6 layers of bi-axial fiberglass cloth, with 1 x 3 wood blocks being epoxied around the keel.  The wood blocks will give me something more solid than just the glass.  I used some high-tech clamps made of rope and sticks to hold it all together while it cured.

In the end, it doesn't matter what kind of clamp you use, so long as you can get it off the keel and it slides nicely.

In my case I might have made a mistake by forming this before doing the final painting of the keel.  I think it was Kevin who had problems because he skipped ahead like that also.

In any case, I'm happy with the fit at this point, and if anything has to be sanded, it'll be the keel.  Now to get this thing properly aligned and epoxied in........

A lot has gone on since my last post, but my camera problems keep me from adding pictures to the blog, and I'd rather say a thousand words at once, than type them in like this.  As you can see, space is tight, but I'm getting things done.

All the stringers are in, along with the bunks.  The piece of ply you see there has been glassed, and will be flipped over  and taped in place, so the seat area will be extra strong to support my weight. 

You can't see it up there, but my keel is in front of the boat, with the keel box hardening up around it.  I'll take a few pictures of it when I get the chance, so you can see how I did it.

  My five-year plan has me finishing this thing in time for the spring races.

Catching up

Ok, I'm sorry I've been taking so long, but I finally broke down and borrowed my bosses' work camera so I can show you guys a little of where I'm at.

Of course, it would help if I knew how to turn on the flash!

Those were taken april 8th.  This is where I'm at now.

  I found out I had marked the center of frame 18 wrong, almost tweaked the nose of the boat the wrong way by 1/2"!! 

  You can see some really sloppy fillets in between those pieces of pipe.  I would have been a little more careful, but I have a secret sander that should take them down smooth real quick and easy.

  Next couple of days should be more bog, as I get ready to tape all my seams.  I'm also re-finishing my keel, I had some delamination ( don't use black paint in the summer!) after which It'll get its final paint job.

Well that's all for now,  g'night folks!

Aaargh! Scarfed again!!

  So this afternoon I set up the sawhorses, laid out the ply, and grabbed the camera, so I could do a "by the numbers" post on how to scarf plywood, not the easiest way to join plywood, but probably the best.  Of course, what I didn't realize was that the batteries in the camera were dead!  So no pictures, but here's how I did it:
1)  Stack your plywood flat on top of a flat surface (I used 3/4" plywood).
2)  Your scarf should be 8 times longer than your thickness, so I staggered the ends of the plywood at 2 inch intervals (1/4"x8=2").
3)  Screwed it all together so it wouldn't move on me.
4)  I started with the planer, running it along the edges of the ply until it was almost feathered into each other.
5)  Finished up with the belt sander, so I ended up with one smooth angle.
6)  Turned it over and did the other end.

And voila!  You can't see it, but now I have scarfs to make the joints in my hull nice and smooth!  I was so happy with the results, I glued my first joint tonight.  Remember to put down plastic wrap under the joint you're glueing, so you don't glue your ply to your flat surface!
  It's good to be working again.  I really have to thank my i550 friends for keeping me motivated, and the http://i550class.org/ site for all sorts of information!

i550class .org !

Okay folks, it's time to sign up on the http://i550class.org/ website!  Even if you plan on building a foam cored, no cabin rocket ship, the http://i550class.org/ site has lots of new info that'll save you tons of work, and sometime even a little money!  So remember, it's http://i550class.org/.  See you there!

Still working

No pictures, but this weekend I still got a few things done.  First, I tackled the job of re-packing the wheel bearings on the trailer with grease.  During the process I found that I was missing the inner seals, and the bearings on the right side are bad.  And I need tires!  My $60 trailer is costing more every time I turn around!
  One the boat side, I got some fairing done on the keel foil.  Cold temps and rain are slowing me down, though.  But there's always tomorrow!