Rub Rails

 Rub Rails:

I decided to use blue gum hardwood with the lighter colored hoop pine laminated in-between for the rub rails. But, 18mm thick blue gum will not bend easily around the forward section of the hull without breaking and it would require too many hours in my homemade steamer to soften up enough to make the bend. Also I only had enough stock to complete the rub rails and couldn't afford any breakages.......Sooooo, I decided to halve each section to 9mm thick and laminate them in place. This required a lot more labor (A total of 6 laminations per side), but the thinner timbers bent easily and smoothly around the hull, and I think the laminations will look nice.

Time to make some dust and mill up some blue gum hardwood floorboards and hoop pine into 9mm strips.

Time to turn floorboard planks from this........

Into this..........

The rub rails needed to be 5m long, the floorboards were not long enough and required scarfing.

 A 90mm cut gave a one in ten scarf.

The scarfed sections are glued and held in place with clamps alongside a large aluminum straight edge. 

A port view of the first 9mm blue gum laminate temporarily screwed and glued in place.

After the second blue gum laminate it was time for the contrasting hoop pine laminates. Again, I milled the hoop pine into 9mm thickness to smoothly bend without any risk of breaking.

After the second hoop pine laminate it was time for the last of the blue gum laminates.

This bow view shows the 5th blue gum laminate, one more to go.

I'm not sure if I will leave the very front nose section as shown in the pic with the laminates overlapping to a point or cut it off square along the front as per the plan.

(after all its covered up by the bowsprit)

I'll have to sleep on this one.

This pic shows the six, 9mm laminates finally glued in place.

And here is the port side all cleaned up.

 Firstly, I used a belt sander with 80 grit sandpaper to clean up the epoxy squeeze and level down the laminates.

Then I rounded the aft end to a smooth curve into the aft hull side.

A curve was routed along the top edge of the entire length prior to sanding smooth with an orbital sander using 240 grit.

I have to admit this was a very labor-intensive way of installing the rub rails, however the finish product speaks for itself. Using 9mm thick laminates prevented any breakage or splintering of the hardwood when bending around the bow section.

 

Rudder / Glassing and peel ply

 

Fillets sanded, cloth tape smoothed in and the section cleaned up.

Fiberglass cloth smoothed over the lower sections.

Peel ply smoothed over the glass, this will leave a clean smooth surface and not require too much sanding.

For extra abrasion protection I laid two layers of glass cloth to the underside of the foot and finished with peel ply.

I just love peel ply, once removed it leaves an amine blush free super smooth finish...........did I say I love peel ply?

After filling and sanding a few imperfections, it was time to apply some epoxy coats.

I used a foam roller and applied two coats wet on wet.

Glassing the Upper Bow area

 

The sheer clamps are rounded over on the inner and outer edges. The upper bow area is sanded, cleaned and masked up. The overlapping glass from the cabin top is feathered in.

Here is the glass cloth section ready for wetting out.

Port section in place.

Starboard section in place.

Transom Skirt

 

To quote John "The fussy bit of trim" for the transom skirt is shaped with a block plane and........

......glued and clamped in place.

The second triangular section is cut from blue gum as I intend to make this section a feature and lacquer it bright.

Unfortunately, the blue gum is hardwood and to bend it in the two directions of the transom skirt I had to make some temporary props. The props will not only allow the hardwood strip to smoothly bend along the transom skirt but notches in the props also hold it down. 

The three props are screwed and clamped in place. 

Plastic is located to prevent the triangular section adhering to the props.

Epoxy is applied and the section is clamped in place.

Due to extreme force of bending the hardwood strip I left it for a couple of days to ensure it is fully cured.

Clamps off a light sanding and a coat of resin.

Filleting Sanding and Glassing the Cockpit.

 

Fillets for the cockpit seats and cockpit floor are laid. Be prepared for quite a few hours work here. 

After sanding the first layer of fillets I found a second layer was required for any low sections and imperfections. (The usual fillet process).

I started glassing the forward face of the transom. For additional strength I previously glassed over the transom skirt filet with 100mm wide fiberglass tape.

I made a paper template prior to cutting out the glass cloth.

The area is taped up and the glass cloth epoxied in place.

Port side glass cloth next......

One 2.4m x 1m length of glass cloth covered from below the gunnel seam up over and down to the cockpit floor. Overlapping the filet.

Starboard side smoothed in place.

 

The Rudder and Transom drains

 As it says in the manual ...... time for a bench project.

The two sides (6mm ply) and cheeks (9mm ply) are transferred from the plans and cut out with the old trusty jigsaw.

I'm having a bit of a think about the rudder, and I like the look of the edge laminates in the ply cheeks (when lacquered up bright) .......so I'm thinking of making the blocking at the top end of the rudder from ply to match the cheeks ...... it's still a thought at the moment.

The Next Day

Well after a night lying in bed thinking (something I find myself doing a lot during the PocketShip build) I decided to laminate two 9mm pieces of plywood together to make the 18mm thick blocking and framing timbers for the rudder.

Here are all the pieces for the rudder (excluding the tiller) As I mentioned earlier, I wanted the upper section of the rudder bright showing the end grains of the cheeks and the end grain of the blocking timber to match.

Time to create some dust and reduce the blocking pieces to create the airfoil shape.

The bottom and aft edge blocking pieces.

The forward block is glued in place then the complete unit is saturated with undiluted epoxy.

Glue is applied to all parts and assembled on a flat plastic covered bench.

To ensure the rudders airfoil shape and to prevent epoxy slip I clamped an aluminum angle to the bench with a timber spacer beneath it. The thickness of the aluminum and the spacer combined held the trailing edge of the rudder the right height to ensure it is symmetrical. You can see the gap under the aft edge where it sits on the angle. 

The trailing edge is clamped down into the aluminum angle, I use a level between the clamps and the timber to ensure it is evenly flat along its edge.

Small blocks are screwed around the circumference of the rudder to hold it in place. 

Using ply strips the base and forward part of the rudder are screwed down flat on the bench.

Here the rudder and end plate ready for cleanup.

I sat the rudder and end plate against the transom ensuring the bottom of the end plate is level with the bottom of the keel. Using a pencil through the tiller slot I marked the hole for the tiller.

This pic shows the location of the tiller slot which I used to measure and cut the 3" (76mm) tall and 3-1/4" (82.5mm) wide slot.

I drilled holes in each corner and removed the piece with a jigsaw before rounding the edges with a router. 

Using a 25mm diam forstner bit I drilled the two cockpit drainage holes. The holes were treated with undiluted epoxy and then a 25mm electrical conduit was glued into the drainage holes. I use this method to completely seal the transom timber plus it gives the drainage hole a neat finish.

This pic shows the conduit which is yet to be cleaned up flush with the transom.

And here the conduit is cleaned flush with the transom.

Back to the Rudder.

Before fixing the cheeks to the rudder I did the following:

1) I glued the two 9mm cheeks together to form a solid 18mm thick section.

2) I then temporarily screwed the two 18mm thick cheek sections together for shaping.

3) Using a 45 deg. chamfering bit on a router table I knocked the edges off the cheeks.

4) I routed channels for blue gum inserts.

This pic shows clamps holding the inserts in place until the epoxy sets.

The inserts are cleaned up with a spoke shave and sanded down level with the cheeks.

Note: The two cheeks are still screwed together during this whole process. I simply flipped the section over to do the other side.

And here are the completed cheeks with one coat of diluted epoxy, two more to be applied before lacquering bright. 

The port side cheek is glued onto the rudder.

The rudder base is squared up and 90 deg. squares are clamped in place.

The rudder foot is glued, screwed and clamped in place on top of the 90 deg. squares.

This pic shows the countersunk screws securely holding the rudder foot in place.

Large fillets laid, cloth tape and peel ply is applied.

The fillets and cloth are sanded, an additional layer of filler applied and sanded smooth ensuring the fillets and cloth are feathered in.