excitement......


the sheet-metal supplier has finally delivered my folded-up white colorbond "sailbox"

All have to do now is make the ends and put it together !!!



typical that it rocks up AFTER the sailing season has finished


Oh well....
atleast it will be right for next year....

The main body of the sailbox has been folded up by a plumbing supplier company ( because I can only cut & fold a max of 2440mm or 8foot in old measurements) and the box is 3100 long or ~10foot....

The ends for the box and lid are up to me and my little folder and gillo...


one end fitted and the other about to be...

With the box done I took on the ends of the lid.... these were far more complicated as I wanted an overhang for some weather protection and a means of stiffening up the shallow lid somewhat.

test fitting the box & lid onto the trailer

4 over-centre catches will hold the lid down tight and its come up that well I'd say it would be very simple to completely seal it up with a thin weather strip






The lid can be easily removed when the boat is on the trailer either from the back or from the front.
The box size is 400mm wide, 170mm high and 3100 long, the lid is 450mm wide and has a 50mm lip that hangs down past the top of the box, the height of the lid is only 75mm and its length is 3180mm
All up cost was around the $200 mark, that includes rivets, silicone, catches etc etc ..... and an enjoyable Saturday afternoon folding up the ends and fitting it all together.

The reason I went this way over a fibreglass coffin is simple.... the "head room" between the trailer chassis and the dolphin striker is only ~200mm, there was simply no way I could squeeze in an off the shelf glass coffin in the room I had.....

The other reason for its size was also simple.....
the boom, centre-boards, rudders and cases, along with the mainsail and jib all fit easily, there's enough room left for 4 life-jackets, a couple of trap-jackets and 4 wetsuits, (obviously once all dried), so it also acts as a storage cabinet for the times the boat is not in use.

yesterday was our clubs Presentations Day..... a nice relaxing day with the family and club members sharing a few drinks and stories over pizza's from a wood fired oven.

just couldn't get much better than that


and then it took it to a whole new level.....




now remembering I only sailed for the 2nd half of the season, and that's about ~4months worth & that includes 3 regatta's and non sailing days + the day away on car club stuff.....

So I didn't think I'd do any good as such, maybe a first or 2nd a couple of times at the best....

You could have knocked me over with a feather after the supprising little haul the old girl made.....
Four 1st's
Two 2nds's
one 3rd

&

a 2nd in points for the post xmas series







One 'cheap' eBay boat, one old-fart, and a few weekends and nights in the shed can do all right.... but more importantly...

having a ball throughout the entire time "she" came into my possession

worth it ?????

HELL YEAH





this isn't the end......

main decks are getting ripped soon, & then we drag Karp back down

added some stiffeners to the sail-box lid.....

these bits are folded and have a "safety fold" on the edge so cold hands don't get cut & they wont cut into the stored gear whilst traveling, they are glued and riveted into place and are a nice solid addition.




there was just a bit too much flex in the lid and I was concerned it may get kinked so I added 4 pressed up colorbond bits to cope with the additional stresses the lid may come under... & with 2 young kids the likelihood that one of them will climb between the boat and box is .... well .... going to happen.
The lid will support their weight now without suffering too much

the box is now fitted to the trailer and the over-centre catches are fitted up too..... works a treat. With the boat on and secured I can unclip all the catches easily and the lid easily slips out the back or front, its a tad more difficult to slip it off sideways but nothing major to do....

all the gear fits neatly inside the box.....
2 centreboards
2 rudders and cases
tiller cross-arm and tiller extension
boom with all its blocks and sheets
2 mainsails
2 jibs
and
1 spinnaker.....

ok, so one of the mains, jibs and spinnaker are from Karp but it gives you an idea of the capacity of the box even tho its only 170mm high



full

the simple over-centre catch...
$7 each from the local disposal store



the 25x50 tube that the catch is fixed to also doubles as a stiffener for the boxes wall, the only tricky bit was the 'hook' that I put on the lid.... I riveted them from the inside and then belted the rivets down flat so they were a flush finish inside and outside the lid, that's why the 'hook' rivets look a tad odd, the bit we normally see is on the inside of the lid



EDIT:
Oh yeah ..........

AND ITS LOCKABLE
that will keep them sticky beaked ankle biters out

view from the rear..... can just see the back catches

and from the front....



no more gear in the car......
that means the kids can now come along

hang on....... NOoooooooooooooo !!!

Time to rip the main decks


Foams are in excellent condition although the 2 front ones have broken away from the hull sides to a certain extent, the old decks themselves came off largely in a single piece, it was only around the case slot and hatch area that they put up any sort of a fight.
The old decks are not in good nick underneath, obviously condensation has done some damage and the plys have separated slightly in a few spots..... probably explains where the water got in.

I never had a large amount of water in either hull after a day on the water, usually a 1/3rd of a coffee cup was the norm.

weight loss.....

the massive 10mm (3/8inch) deck ply.

I'm replacing this with 4mm ply

case slots are in excellent nick too and are solidly fixed to the bottom of the hull, even with the decks removed they aren't easy to move sideways.
The chopped matt extends up the case ~200mm (~8inches)

lots of this stuff......




its resin dribbles from the original deck fitting and there's mountains of it !!!
Luckily the inside of the hulls has had a coat of varnish to seal it and the resin runs are easy to knock off. I removed a good double-handful of these turd-like deposits.
the one in the pic is ~8mm in diameter and ~45mm long and its about the average in size.

these were disappointing, it almost looks like an after thought

but they have worked all these years so I'll leave them as they are, a layer of mat over them tho will help.

The top hole has damaged the inwhale slightly and the stainless washer has had the vice n hammer treatment to bend it to fit in the tight corner.
With a far thinner deck I can move the plates down a good 10mm so a new set of holes will be in order anyway and I'll likely fit a doubler plate to the inside aswell..... maybe even glass it in !!


174/14952

I removed 2 of the foam's so I could gain access to those patches I did way back when.....
Idea back then was to do a proper repair when the main decks came off, well we're there now so into it !!!





with foams out it was a quick and simple (although dusty) task to smooth out the repairs back to the hull line again.
Yeah probably a waste of time in the view of most but atleast I know it's back to 100% strength now that it has been done properly.


Since this photo was taken I've added a fine layer of 40gsm mat over the area, I extended it well past the damaged area just be on the safe side

The boat has never had foams around the centreboard case and the foam closest to the front beam had been cut in half, I gather this was so you had easy access to the beam bolts from the hatch hole.
The problem was there's zip in the way of deck support although with a 10mm deck it probably wasn't an issue..... but I'm fitting a 4mm deck so its going to need the extra support, the other thing is the foam that had been halved had copped a fair flogging from arms being slid past it, the top face was battered n bruised and had lost much of its structural integrity ....... not that foam has much !!
I wasn't a fan of those two ideas so I added foams to the front and rear of the case and I also made a full height foam to replace the one closest to the front beam.






The two front foams in that pic also had a different hole cut into them for a bit more "elbow room", they now allow easy access to the beam bolts and the chain plates.
You had to have a multi-directional bendable arm to get to either prior to this mod....
pic to come on that one => damn phone was flat at the time !!

As of this post, both hulls are now up to the same stage....
New foams fitted where required
Old foams re-glued where required
Plywood stringer supports cut and glued into place
Stringers cut and ready for fitting
&
phone on the charger....

As promised....

the hole I cut in the foams, well its actually a hole and a half to allow me to reach the beam bolts and put the nuts onto the chain-plate bolts.
dry runs have said I should now be able to reach without having to break my arm is a dozen spots !!!

stringers all fitted up and ready for glue




Port hull from behind...




Starboard hull from the front



the centre stringer between the 2 front foams has been cut to allow for the fitting of the hatch once the decks are on.