Processes of the design and construction will be covered here

Alterations and Hard Points What We Have Learnt

Well after taking the boat to Queensland and back, and only finishing 4 of 10 races it sort of makes you think that you should have put some re-enforcing in a few spots. So here’s a bit of a run down of all the things that broke and what is being repaired. Everything that Broke, in order of breakage; Cracking in Transom T-Foil Snapped Boom Snapped Spreader Base twisted off, twice Mast post chock fell out twice causing the following Front wing bar rotated, forced base through deck, and bent mast post., while being towed in the mast came down and punched through deck, Boom kicked up and damaged bottom of mast. Sail blew out Rudder snapped Ok so that’s everything, I think. The cracking in the transom re-appeared at Colac and was yet to be repaired. We’re not exactly sure what the force causing the crack is but is isn’t going to crack again. It now has 3 six inch stripes of uni carbon across the corner. The force was quite large as it snapped the stripe of uni S-Glass that was on there, the bond had not failed. The T-foil snapped because it hadn't been built stiff enough, over all the use it had had, each side was flexing and damaged the foam it was made of, damaged foam has no strength, and the foil snapped either side of the join to the rudder. This was fixed with covering the bottom with uni S-Glass and a layer of mat after removing all the dead foam. Som uni carbon was added to the attachment as well. The Boom was just unfortunate, and was replaced with a corsair boom (I think) from one of the guys in the rescue boat. Thanks heaps. Spreader base was just loading it the wrong way, don’t twist them, and the second time was added to by the fact that the resin hadn’t gone off completely. Ok this one is crucial, the point at which the mast post rests on the foredeck must be solid. When the chock we had there moved it caused much other problems. Problems like bending the mastpost about 15 degrees, and putting holes in decks. The mastpost got a peice of steal tube jamed down it with the use of a 20 ton press after getting the buckle out. Thanks for your help Pete. We fixed the problem with the chock by glassing it back on, as opposed to screws. To save you the trouble build this into your boat, as now we have to cut our dodgy repair out and do a proper one. The rotation of the wing bar caused the knee under the deck to buckle, this was fixed by gluing a piece of ply full depth down each side of the knee, capable due to the hole in the deck. These were held in place by 2 baked beans cans and two milk containers. The hole was then covered with a piece of ply sika-flexed to the deck. Another thing that may have contributed to the problem would be the angle of the mast post. We had racked it back further to try and stop the vang from tightening up, and this in turn destroyed the mounts by only loading one side. The bottom of the mast just got re-enforced with some uni carbon. The sail got covered in sale repair tape. And the rudder was only fixed very badly when I found good wind on the way home going through Gippsland. It was overlapped and bolted and made of interesting handling as it was on a funny angle. Hope that's helpful, to any buding boat builters. The second boat to be built is being self funded by Al, and he's about to start building with all this in mind. . Al 18/1/04

Centreboard Case The Installation of the centreboard case

Yes, the centreboard case has been half installed, We firstly cut out the inside layer of glass on the hull, this hole was made about 20mm oversized and all the foam was scraped out leaving only the outside layer of glass and a radius was formed at the edge. Then this was sanded and had filler aplied to smooth the edges and 3 layers of glass put over the top getting consecutively larger like this. This makes for a much more solid fixing for the centreboard. After the resin had cured the case was positioned and fixed lightly with 5 minute epoxy in the corners. A radius of filler was then applied to the join and again 3 layers of glass were applied as seen here. Al 20/7/02

Forestay Mount We have a forestay fitting

After getting a forestay chainplate it needed to be fitted before the foredeck goes on. The bolts that hold it on need to have captive nuts glued into place and a shaped washer so they don't pull into the foam. This was done by shaping a small piece of tas oak(yes it's a bit heavy but it was scabbed from a bin as an off cut) into the inside shape of the bow. This was then clamped in position with the chainplate holes marked, the holes were drilled and it was then tested with the bolts. The block was then glued in using epoxy and filler, with glue between every surface, and then extra around the outside to make sure it and the nuts do not move, and by all acounts it shouldn't. Al 20/7/02

Bulkheads The Installation and modification of bulkheads

The Bulkheads were first cut out slightly oversized using the plots we got out of workshop as a guide Like this, they were then sanded to fit. They were glued in using epoxy and filler, a radius was then applied to the joined to make sure they did not move. In the case of the transom and forward bulkheads a strip of 50mm fibreglass tape was also applied to stiffen the join. There was also a slight design change made at this point, we have decided to do away with the forward longitudinal bulkhead and only use a small brace forward of the front bulkhead as seen here. This is due to seeing how stiff the hull already is in the bow. Al 20/7/02

Laminting the Bulkheads Pritty self explanitory

Once the appropriately sized piece of foam was found for each bulkhead they were sanded and bits of 107g glass were cut for both sides. We gladwraped a section of floor to give us a better surface to work on, and the foam was then resined and the glass wetted out on top. As much resin as possible was then removed before they were covered in gladwrap and held down with weights. After this they were turned over and the other side was done. Here is a photo of the longitudinal knees being prepared. Al 13/7/02

June 15, 2002 Our past and current designs are reviewed here (most likely our current one)

If you want a copy of our current or past designs just email us. They are available in many formats (please tell us what type you would like and we will do our best), but we will not send print outs in the post, only email. Nick 16/5/02