Interior refit 1970's kit sailboat questions

[Spot]

Originally Posted by wingless

Looks nice and solid. Thanks for the update.

My go to epoxy is West System. Even when old the stuff works fine.

For my usage I can mix tiny batches or regular size batches, using my digital scale.

Thanks WL.
+1 on the digital scale. This resin is 100R:44H by weight or 2R:1H by volume.

The old plywood really drank in the epoxy so my 45g mixed just made it. I coated everything (slot and plug) once, let it sit a couple minutes, and repeated that 2 times before putting the plug in the slot. I took the last little bit in the cup and thickened it with glass micro-spheres and fumed silica to fill in some of the bigger gaps on the surface.

The piece is glued in, trimmed down, and planed flush.

The unit seems to have multiple finishes, a combination of paint and gel coat. I have been told just to use alkyd enamel. Does that sound right or should I be considering an epoxy barrier coat or some sort of high build primer? Part of me want to cross over into whimsy (flames? metalflake?) the other part wants it back on the lake sooner than later.

[wingless]

As always, looks great. Very, very nice job.

IMO, a primer, like multiple layers of an epoxy primer would permit sanding to a smooth glossy finish, prior to application of the selected top coat.

There are parts on my boat that I have finished w/ that process that still have a glossy plastic finish over a decade later.

IMO, white would be perfect.

[Spot]

Thanks WL.

The old finishes came off the cheek and are stuck to the blade so I will leave it as such. My fiberglass vendor also recommended epoxy as a first layer and the alkyd enamel that is available at one of the local 'farm and fleet' stores as a top coat. He has a wooden boat that is going on 10 years with this simple combination with good results.

While working on the rudder cheek I noticed the pockets for the the pintels were not perpendicular to the cheek. They were also laid out at the wrong centers based on the gudgeons. I decided to make a CNC cut template to make a larger, more uniform reveal around the pintels and to set them at 17" like the gudgeons.

[Spot]

White-tinted epoxy applied and for the most part sanded off the blade, but did affix itself nicely to the bare rudder cheek. I got some Rustoleum 'Canvas White' spray paint on sale, it seemed to match a hatch cover OK in the artificial light in the back of the big-box store, but seems much too 'yellow' in the light of day. Decided to try 'Gardenia' and it is a good fit in sun and shade. I had thought of spraying but decided to roll and tip. I am hoping a couple coats will do the trick and I can get a couple sails in before I have to scrape frost off the port lights.

[LittleWing77]

Veddy nice, Jim!

Now com'on! Get at least ONE sail in, before those Lakes freeze up in Minnesota!

LittleWing77

[Spot]

Originally Posted by LittleWing77

Veddy nice, Jim!

Now com'on! Get at least ONE sail in, before those Lakes freeze up in Minnesota!

LittleWing77

I just got done with painting session #4, which means wide faces have 2 coats each with 24 hours between and edges have 4 coats. I am temped to leave as-is for now and sand it in the spring and give it one more victory coat. So now I will need to give the boat a bath so it does not look so dirty next to the fresh rudder...

[Spot]

Decided on some whimsy for the rudder blade. The paint cup for the airbrush leaked all over, bad solder joint between cup and tube, so I probably only shot about half of the paint that I mixed, which along with the shelf paper masking resulted in a rougher than planned edge. Not really prudent for a quick return to the water, now that the flames need to be pinstriped and clear coated , but still satisfying The base color seems to be a good fit without having to do a mix and match exercise. I hope the local fish are not too offended...

[wingless]

Very cool. Nice job.

Note that will likely need to be covered if competing, as it should be increasing the speed by several knots.

(Who would have thought at the project beginning that it would ever reach the rudder flames stage...)

[LittleWing77]

Originally Posted by wingless

...the rudder flames stage.

Yowza!

What fun ~
LittleWing77

[GILow]

I am so embarrassed by my boring white windvane rudder now.[emoji853]

[Spot]

Originally Posted by wingless

Very cool. Nice job.

Note that will likely need to be covered if competing, as it should be increasing the speed by several knots.

(Who would have thought at the project beginning that it would ever reach the rudder flames stage...)

LOL! Now it's on to the pin striping

Originally Posted by LittleWing77

Yowza! What fun ~
LittleWing77

Yes, and I ignored other chores to do this!

Originally Posted by GILow

I am so embarrassed by my boring white windvane rudder now.[emoji853]

I know a guy who'd probably take care of that for a boat ride and some beer...


We are having great weather but no wind this week. Early leaves are starting to fall and plug the cockpit drain.
Two items to attend to before next sail: the trailer part and mast gates. Okay three if one includes washing the boat

I started the gates today, 5 layers of cloth over vinyl shelf paper stuck to the mast and around a paint stick to make the corners going into the track. 40g cloth soaked/wetted out with 72g mixed (the extra 'pull-off' resin goes to patch divots in the garage floor). 3 inner layers 8oz at 45 degrees and 2 outer layers 6oz at 0 degrees hoping not to have splits on the sharp corners. Once cured it will be de-molded and cut into two pieces and shaped into the gates. Epoxy is Greenroom Old No. 7, a 2:1 'surfboard' type that I find very easy to use. Last pic is a tent to keep the bugs out.

[Spot]

More progress today.

There were a couple critical errors in my judgement when I used the mast as a plug:

1. If you mold the part in between the spreaders and upper tangs, there will be no natural way to clear the molded part off the mast. Solution was to drop a hacksaw blade into the track and cut through the part with an oscillating multi-tool, bottoming out against the hacksaw blade so as not to scar the track. The wire used to unplug the cockpit drain proved useful for retrieving the hacksaw blade.

2. If you are using a stick to create the 'gap' for the mast slugs, one should size that stick slightly larger than the critical width of the tang on the slugs. I did not do this, it totally slipped my mind. I grabbed a paint stick and proceeded with wild abandon. The amount that I needed to sand away until facsimile slugs would slide though the gate was about .010" (.25mm) on each side or about the thickness of the outermost layer of cloth. There are still 4 layers left and 3 are wrapping the edge at 45 degrees so hopefully they will not crack prematurely.

All that is left is to figure out the attachment method and decide on a finish. A couple machine screws with knob heads on each going into a 10-24 UNC tapped hole on the mast seems pretty basic. Some sort of shock cord / bungee 'lace-up' might work too. Since I day sail the rigging and un-rigging process happen each time so I want something quick and easy. Not having knobs to loose overboard or forget at home seems nice too. The multi-tool did most of the cutting today, same carbide blade that I used to remove the tabbing of the berths to the hull. Files and sandpaper did the rest.

[wingless]

Good recovery from the error.

FWIW I needed to augment my knowledge to now also include "what the heck is a mast gate?" Thanks.

The progress on that part fabrication looks nice, but not yet ready for a flames paint job.

[Spot]

Originally Posted by wingless

Good recovery from the error.

FWIW I needed to augment my knowledge to now also include "what the heck is a mast gate?" Thanks.

The progress on that part fabrication looks nice, but not yet ready for a flames paint job.

LOL Wingless. For sure not ready for flames

Shifted gears back to the rudder after a consultation with the crew on the TrailerSailor forum.

I fitted the pintels so I could pre-drill and fill with epoxy. Other than mixing too much (hazard of pouring from big containers) and cutting the fiberglass fibers too long - 3/8" [9.5mm] should have been 1/8" [3.2mm] - things are looking OK in the end plus I got a new poured patch on my garage floor from the overage of plain mixed epoxy. I coated the holes with plain mixed resin before adding a small amount of fiber, silica, and spheres. The spheres were probably not needed, sort of an 'auto-pilot' add for me when filling in stuff.

[Spot]

My first attempt at drilling and mounting the pintels off of the boat (not recommended) resulted in the upper pintel being about 1/32" (.8mm) off of the top of the upper gudgeon. I plugged the holes in the epoxy for another go. Tonight I tightened on the lower pintel and rigged bungi-cords to help hold everything in place while I marked the new holes for the upper while the cheek was hanging on the boat. Once drilled and fastened the fit was much better.