Glueing in the false bottom and GRP tubes.
Some inspection holes plus several carbon reinforcements for future mounting of hardware.
I also made a mock-up for a gooseneck fitting from scrap plywood. Not sure if this will be the final design. See bottom two pictures.
Originally my plan was to use two 8 mm bolts + nuts (near the bottom) to hold the two halves of the dinghy together. I already drilled the holes.
Bolts and nuts, however, can only be connected/tightened if the two halves are perfectly in line. In the water that could be very difficult.
So I decided to use rope instead. The first tests are sucessfull:
I will also run an extra line under the dinghy from bow to stern to pull the two halves together. This line will put quite a lot of stress on the bow so I put some carbon on it (the black stuff on the bow and at the waterline).
Made some progress on the boom. The outside has been faired. More or less. I will probably stop at this point because I hate putting even more filler (=weight) on the boom. But maybe I will change my mind again later …
The false bottom has been cut and I decided where and how to install the reefing points. The edges of all holes were reinforced by removing some foam and replacing it with carbon/epoxy.
It had to be done so I finally sawed my dinghy in half:
I was a bit worried about the alignment of the two halves when folded for storage but it worked out OK:
The boom has been laminated (100% carbon).
During the laminating process I decided to reduce weight (and cost!) by gradually reducing the laminate thickness towards the front and back. The heavily loaded vang area still has the original laminate thickness.
The boom still needs a lot of work. I have to install a full length “false bottom” to connect the sides and stiffen the structure. I have to think about hardware options and the reefing system. Last but not least, I have to fair and paint the entire thing.
After finishing the dinghy I will probably focus on the boom again.
I glued some (hollow) ribs to the bottom of the dinghy. The picture also shows the two supports for the oar locks.
The DIY glassfibre hinges are almost ready to be installed. They are oversized and look a bit cartoonish just like the dinghy itself.
The kick-off for the new project was gluing and shaping a wooden core for a carbon rudder stock. It is quite a beast at almost 3 metres.
I also made a mold (rough) for a carbon boom.
The boom will (hopefully) look something like the one I saw in Guernsey recently.
My dream has always been to have a good storage space for a reasonably sized dinghy. The current solution is this foldable design that should fit in the cockpit of the mothership. After it is finished I will saw it in half and put hinges in the middle, on the deck.
The owners of a big self-built catamaran asked me if I could help them bring their boat from The Netherlands to Portugal. A great chance to escape from the epoxy and dust! There wasn’t much wind but it was nice to visit new harbours (took a lot of pictures of interesting boats) and see some dolphins:
Refitting the Jeanneau was a good practice run for a bigger project. I am now going to try to build a boat from scratch. That will be more satisfying but it will also be more risky and take longer.
The design is around 42 feet (almost 13 meters) and is still being developed. The drawings for certain components (e.g. rudder, boom) are already available. That’s where I will start.
A great 21st century philosopher once said: ‘Let’s see what happens’
Step 1: build a very big toolbox.
A couple of weeks ago I used some leftover pieces of foam to make two small tables. I put a thin glass laminate on both sides of the foam and the resulting panels were stiff enough to be used as tables.
I am not sure yet what I will do with these tables (garden, boat?). I just wanted to use the leftover foam.
Ofcourse, this isn’t a very efficient way to make a table. I could have used a piece of 18 mm plywood instead. That would have saved me a lot of time. But, so the sandwich theory goes, at least I saved a lot of weight. But did I really?
The tables weighed 3,3 and 3,8 kg respectively. The edge of the heavier table was filled with glass/epoxy. The edge of the lighter table was left untreated (at least for now).
How does this compare to a solid plywood table of similar thickness (18 mm)? The tables were 82 x 57 cm. Assuming a density of 500 kg/m3 (average Google result for okoume plywood) a plywood table would weigh around: 0,82 x 0,57 x 0,018 x 500 = 4,2 kg, The plywood table would still need to be faired and painted. Let’s say the finished product would weigh around 4,5 kg. So the difference is 1,2 and 0,7 kg.
Personally I think that’s quite a big difference (in relative terms). For weight critical applications (e.g. boat interior) I would certainly consider swapping plywood for foam sandwich. I would, however, reconsider the edge treatment. Filling the edge with glass/epoxy added an enormous amount of weight. That was a bit stupid.
