the old 10mm deck against an offcut of the new 4mm deck material.





As you can clearly see the 2 added foams, the ply plates I glued to the foams, the 3 runs of stringers I added and the new ply deck .... weighs far less than that lump of 10mm ply that was there !

be interesting to get her back on the scales once this is finished

200/16196

It will be a couple of days before I even look at her again, the resin is a slow cure resin and the weather here is pharkencold to say the least so it will probably be a bit longer to fully cure even tho the heaters are on.
Once its cured fully we have the wonderfull job of ripping the staples out ..... mutter mutter mutter ... and then we can cut the hatch hole and the case slot.
I took exact measurements for the case slot and the centre of the hatch so it in theory be fairly simple to make the holes in the right spots...... yeah !!!

Resin has cured fully

staples are ripped and then pulled out

edges are cut off and then planed back

sanding block finishes off the edges

hatch hole and case slots cut and sanded into shape

not bad for a Saturday arvo job

in the next few shots you can see the old deck line on the beams against the new fitted deck.....







yup, we have thinned down the old girl
the scales are coming out soon

work sucks some times.....
especially when it cuts into my time in the shed or being away


but..... back into it ASAP

The mains have had all the staple holes filled, sanded back all the 'putty' and the actual decks too and now they are ready for primer

the new main decks , like the way it lines up

masking done, and primer on

the mains will have the green border like the rear and fore decks have and the centre will be varnished.
should look neat and tidy when its finished.

NB:
see the sanding block on the fore deck ......
After the rush job to replace the fore-decks and have her ready for the Easter Regatta at Lake Bolac, I never did a great job on the varnishing, it was just enough to seal it up and I knew I had to "fix" it later....
now is as good a time as any

I'm cutting it down with 180grit paper until I get it reasonable, then I'll drop down to 320grit paper, at this stage I wont have to re-do the green border but more than likely I'll get a rub through so its one the cards to get a new green border while I'm doing the mains....







off to the shed.... SFA on the idiot box yet again.....

crew snapped a pic as I was laying down the green....

Green all done

Masking tape and paper removed from the decks
the paper and tape stays on the hull sides untill the clear is applied, then we are done



nice clean edge, sadly the fore-decks as clean an edge but they wont take long to get right.....
clear coat in a couple of days when the green settles enough to give it a lite sand...

clear on

the mains are a strange color in comparision to the front and rear decks, yet as you move around the boat the light has an amazing effect on the finish, it jumps from a dark brown to a very lite-honey color and then back dark again as you pass by...



in this photo you can see just how dark the timber appears compared to the other decks

that weird color change from another angle & using the light
(notice how dark the other hull's deck is in the background)



really hard to describe how the shift in your position and the light reflecting changes the decks appearance so much....

At first I was really pi$$ed at the darkness of the wood and was almost at the point where I had the primer out and was ready to color the mains green as they were..... but having walked past it 20 odd times a day I've found I actually love the effect, it constantly catches your eye. Others that have seen it have all asked how I got it to do that.....

Tramp is back....

I had the stitching re-done, a small tear repaired, and the old under-tramp lacing eyelets replaced...... I also had the number of those eyelets doubled, this should let me get the tramp really tight now

At the Easter regatta @ Lake Bolac the rear traveller track came slightly loose in the +25knot "breeze", I never bothered to worry about it too much at the time figuring I'd deal with it later when I had the time.

So having a bit up my sleeve I removed the track and found one stress fracture right at the point where the moving track met the immovable track.....
took it to my straight table and just as I started clamping it down I noticed I now had 2 traveller tracks

out with the tig and bingo its a go-er again
(beautiful alloy in this bar, some of the nicest alloy to tig-weld ever )
( NB: note the color change in the main deck again..... )


The big surprise was the level of corrosion between the track and the rear beam, both have been anodised and there's remnants of a an unknown compound that looks like it was added as a sealer
The corrosion has eaten its way under the anodising on the beam but hasn't touched the track at all, the other odd thing is the fixing screws (stainless) haven't been effected and neither has the area around the screw-hole, it seems largely between the fixing screw points where the corrosion has occurred.
pics to come on that

Some silicans have acid in them and eat away the alloy, so that's why its a must to use marine sealants, not the normal all clear or bathroom stuff, not good for marine

Duralac! All metal bits that join on my boat have Duralac between them. IMO you can never have too much... wonderful stuff.

this is the corrosion, its mainly in the center area of the track (~400mm either side), cant find any residue from silicone or other products although there is a rubber type 'plug' where the screws were fitted, its not silicone and feels much more like sikaflex/urthane compound.
just seems odd its only around the center area of the track and not a sign of it anywhere else

weird huh !!!



Tramp is back on now and is very tight all ready and I haven't even tensioned it up as yet.
I had to soak the tramp in a 60lit drum of hot water to get it to soften up enough to fit it to the boat, even then it took me just under 2hours to get it all into place, I'll leave the cord tensioning until mid summer, it will be one of those 40degree hot days to string it in any tighter

the learning curve continued......

I had the "TreadGrip" on the boat before the main deck replacement and re-painting of the fore decks, but I actually had it on the deck and the hull as well.....40mm on each so to speak.
The stuff was good on the hull but not such a brilliant idea on the decks, I also didn't take it past the rear beam and only a couple of foot past the front beam.

This time I have only applied it to the hulls side and I've gone from the transom to around the mid point of the fore deck.

I didn't run the "TreadGrip" right to the top edge either but instead dropped it down ~5mm, this way the exposed edge will hopefully be less likely to be scuffed off by the trap harness's harsh fabric..... well that's the plan anyway

I also narrowed down the strip of "TreadGrip"from 40mm down to 35mm.... huge weight savings right there




I'll be replacing the beam bolts next (when the order arrives or if I have to steal them from Karp) & hopefully there will be some 1 1/4" monel rivets in the bag too for the traveller bar to rear beam fixing.

Not in the above pic.... the front hatches are now in and the "TreadGrip" is dry and masking tape removed.....

Re-paint the front beam is coming up soon enough