Mast

I have been looking at the mast slung high above me in the factory & was a bit worried that prior to purchasing it had been stored outside & was suffering from a bit of corrosion.
So i decided to check it out. To my surprise it cleaned up very well with some water & a good working over with a green scouring pad.
I cut off a portion to use as a mould for the composite spreaders that i am going to make. So I am happy in that I do not have to buy another mast.
I have not started on the spreaders yet, but , will document progress as I go.



There are still some small imperfections that will need to be cleaned up. At least I know that it will clean up well enough for anodising. I have found an anodiser in Melbourne that can handle 11mtrs.

Chainplates

I decided to make the chainplates with some self made carbon fibre tube. To do this I found a piece of aluminium tube that was about 12.5mm OD.
I wrapped this with peel ply then added about 4 layers of wet glass followed by 3 layers of carbon uni. Then i tightened the whole unit by twisting it tight onto the aluminium mandrel. Once i was happy with this i bagged it & put the vacuum pump on.


A 12mm pin fits well inside this. From there I proceeded as normal with the chainplates.

Anchor Well drain flanges

While fiddling the other day I decided to make some flanges to cover the exit holes on either side of the hull.
I cut 2 pieces of poly pipe on an angle & taped them down to the table. Then placed some peel ply, followed by 4 layers of glass & another layer of peel ply. Smoothed it all down flat to get excess resin out. Here is the result before i cleaned them up.

Beams

When i purchased the boat the beams were made apart from fitting the tops. That is good because at least i can see what is inside them. I have decided that i am going to fit the beams to the boat before i put the tops on. There are 2 reasons for this. Firstly i am not confident that the brackets that are fitted to the beams are actually level. Secondly, i can get a good level from the inside base & am planning on using a laser level to true it all up. This way i can glue all the brackets in place & if there any adjustments to be made they can be done before the lids go on.
I have drilled all the bolt holes for the beam brackets & have noticed that the base they are on is not level, so i have levelled them off with bog.

Parts

I was quite amazed at how much extra gear was included. Some of it I will not be using, but a lot will be of use.

Complete mast base

Background

I just thought that I would add a bit of background to this build.
The boat was commenced approx 6 Years ago as part of a group scheme in Australia. It took 2 years to get to this stage & was then left outside under a cover for another 4 years. That is where i come on the scene.
In March 08, I purchased the complete boat, built a trailer & drove 1000km to pick it up. The picture above was taken on trip back home. Included with the boat was the mast, part constructed beams, all of the fabricated parts including the mast base & folding assembly, as well as numerous fittings.
Once back home & unpacked it was time for a good look & try to determine exactly what needed doing. This took a few more weeks whilst I consulted various people to determine how to treat the boat.
I built the trolley for it so that it could be moved with ease & then started to cut the epoxy back with #40 grit to expose fresh epoxy. Thank goodness for a random orbital sander because it cut the old epoxy back really well.
The next step was to work out what needed to fair the hull. I decided on SP Systems SP600 fairing compound. This is a 2 part epoxy with a mix of 1:1. One part is white & the other black so when mixed you get a nice even grey. This is really thick & can be used to fill up to 35mm. It applies well with a wide flat board & sands off really well.
That is where i am at the moment....sanding & fairing. When i get bored i turn to other jobs that need to be done & work from there. More about those later.

This is the current state of play. Plenty of sanding..don't you love it.
I am currently working out my fitting list & am just about to order all the hatches, blocks & shiny stuff.