Any 'shoestring' sailors?
Discussion
D1bram said:
Interesting post thanks! I think with my old boat then a patch and live with it route will be the way - though I will do the best job I can.
If you could arrange the lotto win I would be very happy to do the new Swan thing next, contrast, compare and report back
In a way, I envy you. I would love to be back at the early stages of boating, doing up an old hull on a shoestring. I remember all the fun it was. Unfortunately old age means that my boats have to be low maintenance / nearly new and therefore expensive.If you could arrange the lotto win I would be very happy to do the new Swan thing next, contrast, compare and report back
Very brief update...
Spent the weekend working on the boat again, mainly solo due to childcare, and made some good progress.
Second layer of glass where the rudder tube is going and I also soaked the wooden seacock backer in resin and got that positioned on a bed of thickened resin.
Big news is though I managed to finish sanding the hull and sikaflexing under the rubbing strake so now have her in primer....
It was a challenge with changeable weather and a neighbour who was sanding... but there it is. Unfortunately I started with the second coat and it started to rain, hopefully heading up tonight weather dependant to get that on.
I quite like the white, but she is going back to red.
Also got quite a bit of the deck sanded
Spent the weekend working on the boat again, mainly solo due to childcare, and made some good progress.
Second layer of glass where the rudder tube is going and I also soaked the wooden seacock backer in resin and got that positioned on a bed of thickened resin.
Big news is though I managed to finish sanding the hull and sikaflexing under the rubbing strake so now have her in primer....
It was a challenge with changeable weather and a neighbour who was sanding... but there it is. Unfortunately I started with the second coat and it started to rain, hopefully heading up tonight weather dependant to get that on.
I quite like the white, but she is going back to red.
Also got quite a bit of the deck sanded
Yeah. So to bond a wooden pad onto the hull, lots of the pros use Crestomer, which if you were a production facility you would do.
My cockpit floor is bonded to the stringers with crestomer, for example,
But for a seacock type thing that's all under compressive loads anyway, I find polyester resin with glass strands (as someone noted earlier on the thread) is good for pads. I find P40 works brilliantly with it's finer fibres. And is super convenient, you don't have to go buying filler compounds and so forth, your local automotive parts store carrries it.
Or, sometimes you can just do a couple of layers CSM pads cut to shape, with the wood bedded down on that. Works very well too, although I find to get the best adhesion with that you need to make sure the surfaces are nice and flat and be able to clamp it a bit too - so I find the P40 route both convenient and a bit more forgiving to the surface shape.
Don't forget sikaflex rather than silicone to seal it if below the waterline, too. That said, my transom assembly is silicone rather that sikaflex - it has a seal and I know if I sikaflexed it on, I would damage the transom when it (eventually) needs removing for service & repair. To remove a pair of trim tabs once that were sikaflexed on I had one end of the boat hooked to my car on the trailer and then chained the tabs to the yard crane - had to pull that hard to get them off!! Took a bit of GRP off as well as you can see in the before transom pic I posted earlier.
My cockpit floor is bonded to the stringers with crestomer, for example,
But for a seacock type thing that's all under compressive loads anyway, I find polyester resin with glass strands (as someone noted earlier on the thread) is good for pads. I find P40 works brilliantly with it's finer fibres. And is super convenient, you don't have to go buying filler compounds and so forth, your local automotive parts store carrries it.
Or, sometimes you can just do a couple of layers CSM pads cut to shape, with the wood bedded down on that. Works very well too, although I find to get the best adhesion with that you need to make sure the surfaces are nice and flat and be able to clamp it a bit too - so I find the P40 route both convenient and a bit more forgiving to the surface shape.
Don't forget sikaflex rather than silicone to seal it if below the waterline, too. That said, my transom assembly is silicone rather that sikaflex - it has a seal and I know if I sikaflexed it on, I would damage the transom when it (eventually) needs removing for service & repair. To remove a pair of trim tabs once that were sikaflexed on I had one end of the boat hooked to my car on the trailer and then chained the tabs to the yard crane - had to pull that hard to get them off!! Took a bit of GRP off as well as you can see in the before transom pic I posted earlier.
Edited by Arnold Cunningham on Monday 4th April 09:06
This weeks boat plans were somewhat scuppered (ahaha) by friends visiting - which was great but obviously impacted my programme...
So I booked Thursday and Friday off work (should really tally up holiday used as well as costs incurred!) and get on then. Thursday was looking so-so weather wise but all good for Friday.
Thursday arrives, looking a bit dull here, so off we set. Arrived at the boat to find the wind blowing hard right into the cockpit and within 5 minutes the heavens opened and it was clear that beyond a bit of interior paint (which the other half was cracking on with) nothing would get done... too cold. too wet and too windy. I was grumpy. We headed home and with a beer in hand I started instead crafting a base plate for my short term mast support.
I think I mentioned early on that the boat is suffering (as most H22's do) from mast compression - where the coachroof or cabin top sags under the weight of the mast and tension in the rig is lost. Originally I planned to ignore this altogether this season and sort next winter, but it's been niggling at me how the sailing performance is likely to be affected so I started looking at an easy to implement solution.
A kingpost (ie a post from below the mast down to the top of the keel) is the simplest method and indeed most larger boats rely on this method, but in the H22 it would make the already small forecabin very cramped indeed. There are some great example of laminated beams being added to the cabin roof, and while this is a far more elegant solution I haven't the time or inclination just now.
I have therefore decided on a demountable king post - which will be most of the time but can be removed for sleeping. I bought a small acrow support which I will simple wind up to a pre-marked height each time I refit it. So on Thursday the one useful thing I did was mark the roof and keel top profiles.
This is the bottom plate - I made a box of plywood and have filled it with fibre glass, then added some more ply to build it up. I will infill with thickened resin then put another sheet of fibreglass underneath before sanding and coating it all in resin. There's a million ways I could have done this, many probably more efficient but just now I'm enjoying messing with fibreglass
My partner also busied herself with making liners for the forecabin hull walls, she has ordered new 4" cushions for the forecabin, sewn new curtains and painted much of the cabin. I'll get some photographs soon.
Friday, luckily was a better day weather wise, so with a cut of off 2pm (back for a much needed haircut before friends arrived!) I raced up to the boat and managed to;
- Finish the second coat of primer
- Fit the rudder tube, with a small bit of sanding here and there it is now a perfect fit
- Fit the new skin fitting under the sink
Sunday, our friends went home and so I thought I'd get up there for the afternoon. But aside from a bit of sanding to the primer I decided to sack work off in favour of getting the tender and outboard on the river with my Stepson. Totally worth it, he loved it!
Launch day is fast approaching (22/04) and with family visiting this weekend we're now up against it! I'm heading up tonight to finish sanding back the primer and possibly get a first top coat on, Wednesday evening for the second coat and then I have been excused family activities to spend the day there Friday leaving Monday when we both can get up.
I have accepted the deck isn't getting painted before launch, so now my to do jobs before the 22nd are
- rudder back in
- top coats on topsides x2
- replace halyards
- refit sails
- good tidy and make sure all safety kit is in its place
So I booked Thursday and Friday off work (should really tally up holiday used as well as costs incurred!) and get on then. Thursday was looking so-so weather wise but all good for Friday.
Thursday arrives, looking a bit dull here, so off we set. Arrived at the boat to find the wind blowing hard right into the cockpit and within 5 minutes the heavens opened and it was clear that beyond a bit of interior paint (which the other half was cracking on with) nothing would get done... too cold. too wet and too windy. I was grumpy. We headed home and with a beer in hand I started instead crafting a base plate for my short term mast support.
I think I mentioned early on that the boat is suffering (as most H22's do) from mast compression - where the coachroof or cabin top sags under the weight of the mast and tension in the rig is lost. Originally I planned to ignore this altogether this season and sort next winter, but it's been niggling at me how the sailing performance is likely to be affected so I started looking at an easy to implement solution.
A kingpost (ie a post from below the mast down to the top of the keel) is the simplest method and indeed most larger boats rely on this method, but in the H22 it would make the already small forecabin very cramped indeed. There are some great example of laminated beams being added to the cabin roof, and while this is a far more elegant solution I haven't the time or inclination just now.
I have therefore decided on a demountable king post - which will be most of the time but can be removed for sleeping. I bought a small acrow support which I will simple wind up to a pre-marked height each time I refit it. So on Thursday the one useful thing I did was mark the roof and keel top profiles.
This is the bottom plate - I made a box of plywood and have filled it with fibre glass, then added some more ply to build it up. I will infill with thickened resin then put another sheet of fibreglass underneath before sanding and coating it all in resin. There's a million ways I could have done this, many probably more efficient but just now I'm enjoying messing with fibreglass
My partner also busied herself with making liners for the forecabin hull walls, she has ordered new 4" cushions for the forecabin, sewn new curtains and painted much of the cabin. I'll get some photographs soon.
Friday, luckily was a better day weather wise, so with a cut of off 2pm (back for a much needed haircut before friends arrived!) I raced up to the boat and managed to;
- Finish the second coat of primer
- Fit the rudder tube, with a small bit of sanding here and there it is now a perfect fit
- Fit the new skin fitting under the sink
Sunday, our friends went home and so I thought I'd get up there for the afternoon. But aside from a bit of sanding to the primer I decided to sack work off in favour of getting the tender and outboard on the river with my Stepson. Totally worth it, he loved it!
Launch day is fast approaching (22/04) and with family visiting this weekend we're now up against it! I'm heading up tonight to finish sanding back the primer and possibly get a first top coat on, Wednesday evening for the second coat and then I have been excused family activities to spend the day there Friday leaving Monday when we both can get up.
I have accepted the deck isn't getting painted before launch, so now my to do jobs before the 22nd are
- rudder back in
- top coats on topsides x2
- replace halyards
- refit sails
- good tidy and make sure all safety kit is in its place
sanguinary said:
Great thread, thanks for keeping it up to date.... it almost makes me want to get into cheap sailing. (I know I can't commit the time you are, so I'd simply not see the water!)
Having said that, I'm going to be rather envious when you post your first pictures under sail...
I genuinely can't believe how much time I have managed to put into it... not without sacrifice elsewhere I hasten to add! But I think once I had committed it was a great motivator.Having said that, I'm going to be rather envious when you post your first pictures under sail...
Will be honest and admit that it has taken a lot more than I originally though and I'm quite glad I didn't go for a much bigger boat (it seems that bigger boats are more often available for next to nothing; I can see why!).
I would say to anyone; go for it.
One lesson I have learnt though... If I were to start again tomorrow I'd make some basic safety checks/repairs then dropped her in the water and motor down the coast to Sunderland and lift out at this end. She would have made it no problem at all and having her closer to home would have been a huge bonus.
D1bram said:
One lesson I have learnt though... If I were to start again tomorrow I'd make some basic safety checks/repairs then dropped her in the water and motor down the coast to Sunderland and lift out at this end. She would have made it no problem at all and having her closer to home would have been a huge bonus.
If she's nearer to home though, you may have taken your foot off the gas a little and not made the progress you have.sanguinary said:
D1bram said:
One lesson I have learnt though... If I were to start again tomorrow I'd make some basic safety checks/repairs then dropped her in the water and motor down the coast to Sunderland and lift out at this end. She would have made it no problem at all and having her closer to home would have been a huge bonus.
If she's nearer to home though, you may have taken your foot off the gas a little and not made the progress you have.Anyway, I managed to get up tonight and sanded flat the primer…
Feels a bit disheartening in a way as she looks patchy again now, but she’s smooth as the babies proverbial… and I’ll hopefully get the first coat of red on Wednesday night
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