It Has Been A WEIRD WINTER

South west Oklahoma is normally a 3 -6 week winter then you can pretty much count on warm days, usually around the first week or so of February,  gradually getting warmer. What I would really like to know is WHAT HAPPENED this year! WOW We have had a REAL WINTER this year. Several occasions of snow that actually lasted longer then the normal 12 to 24 hours and COLD like the North country! Do not have TV or internet at the house so I have not really been able to keep up . From what little TV I see it looks like it was this way all over Wow!
In between that and getting hit with what ever monster bug has been going around I'm running at least 2 weeks behind of plans. Seriously I woke up on morning a couple of weeks ago feeling like I'd been hit by a truck. Headache from the deepest darkest part of you know where, could not think, could not talk intelligently in words of more then 2 syllables, could not walk straight the ten feet to the john or the door to let the dogs out. Seriously thought I had had a stroke at first but was to sick to go to the hospital.  Dialing 911 was just to much effort.  The good news is, I can actually think and chew gum at the same time and  it is getting warm. 60's and 70's this week end and the keel is in the bail room ready to start putting resin on it. Got notarized copies of bill of sale and title and got those down to tag office so I will be legal once I get numbers and tag sticker on hull ( AFTER Fiberglass work is done.) .
Finally got around to unpacking the fiberglass order I put in a while back. Amazing thing, almost  400.00 worth of mostly tools and one 30 yard roll of cloth don't take up much room.  Except for the cloth it is all on a couple of small shelves in the back room waiting for me to get busy. Did get the first layers of cloth for one side of the keel cut and ready to go. I am thinking tomorrow night I will get in there  and start. Need to cut at least one more layer of cloth to fit then its resin, cloth, resin, chopped strand, resin and more cloth finished off with  white pigmented resin for a finish. It  may not look as professional as a shop but it will do the job which is all I really care about.  Then once that side is done its is flip it and repeat on other side and I'm good on the keel. Next I really need to get the bottom rudder rebuilt. Plan on just starting from scratch on some sort of frame and glass it in.  Have the tiller almost completely re-glued  and ready to sand down to refinish. Need to go get some laminating resin or wood glue. I hate the idea of buying a quart of resin for such a small job so I may cheap out on that one.

Decided to spurge and go to outback, This was a major disappointment. Last time we went several years ago a rack of lamb was just that. Now it is 3 little lamb chops, some mashed potatoes and green beans covered in butter.  can you say HIGH Cholesterol! It jut not worth the price or the trip any more.
Took some pics of keep  and progress. Cant quite figure out where they are on this new cell phone. Will post once I do.
That's about all for now. Sail safe but get out there!

Saw Dust Factory : Rudder page 4 The Fiberglass Jig Continued

Last pic was  one side of the rudder boards being in place in the jig for the first dry fit.   I need to mention that I used two pieces of paper on this to intentionally have a lot of over lap between the jig and the adhesive, as well as over lap on top.  Also note, I put the shiny side up.

  If you are using most types of polyester you HAVE TO BLOCK AIR  OR IT WILL NOT CURE!!!!!       

MAKE  ABSOLUTELY SURE YOU RESEARCH , READ AND UNDERSTAND THE INSTRUCTIONS WITH ANY PRODUCT YOU PURCHASE  BEFORE YOU START YOUR PROJECT.  Online tutorials, youtube how to videos,  any other how to video I could find online and calling the manufacturer of the product are how I learned what I needed to know.  Look at as many sources as you can find. You will get differing opinions and methods. That is  good thing. It will help you figure out  what will work best for you and what your comfortable with.  What one video don't cover many times is covered in a different one. 

When you can visualize  the steps involved of what your going to do and how you are going to do it, and don't have any worries of doing it the way you have in mind because you have done your  home work,  you are probably ready to make your materials list and start collecting what you need.

 
I have been doing my own honey do's for over 20 years. Even those of us who have experience can make mistakes that, if not corrected in time, can  waste materials.   Now I did not intentionally mess this up,  but its probably a good thing I did. It gives me a real good way to show how incredibly important dry fitting EVERY THING is. 

Ladies, I don't care what it is your working on. If  you are trying to put two or more pieces of ANY THING together permanently whether or not you think you may want the option to reuse those materials for something else later voluntarily DRY FIT IT before you add the adhesive!!!

This applies to any thing from wood, metal,  pipe, stone  etc.  Had I not dry fitted this gig to the rudder, the entire project would have become land fill material.

 I had to put a piece of the freezer paper, shiny side up,  under it to show the gap we had at the first fit.

As you can see, it was a significant gap that had the potential to  throw the alignment of the entire project off .

That one  gap spread several inches down the rudder.

  
Moral of this? NEVER , EVER,  NEGLECT THE DRY FIT STEP OF ANY PROJECT!!!!!!!





Now back to progress.



This is a dry run but the instructions are for what I will do after I apply the  polyester to the boards.  The reason for the paper is so it will NOT stick to the jig.  When I do it for real with the polyester in place I will use some cheap tape to tape the seams close.


 

Put a piece of your per SHINY SIDE DOWN on the area not already covered. Over lap is a GOOD THING!

 

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Take the  freezer paper or what ever you are using  from under neath and fold it  around the ends and  over  the top side of the boards.  Remember to use something that will NOT stick to the adhesive. Plain old fashioned wax paper is good.   Ladies this is one of those things where skills you know you have come in real handy.  Just do not waste time trying to get it picture perfect. You cannot reasonably expect it to look as nice as a regular box that you wrap. Your paper will have wrinkles from the jig you normally would not have to deal with.  Sloppy is not going to hurt it one bit, as long as you have the air blocked when using polyester. 

Make sure it covers the ends if you have any joints so air does not get in and prevent cure.

Finish it up like a present

I added another layer of paper on top  for extra security.  I don't want the paper under neath to slip.

Add the end piece to the jig and repeat on other end.

All boards ready to be screwed into place to let it cure. Remember if you use Polyester, it  needs to not have air on it to cure properly. 

The Rudder

To be short the rudder is a mess. NOT as bad as it could be but it needs work. Page might load slow., There are about 60 photos here. As before mostly this is for me to be able to keep track of where every thing goes later.  The good news is the rudder swings freely  with no problem. Have not had chance to soak it yet to see if she swells. The sails have had dibs on the bath tub.

Tiller cover needs washed

Over all not to bad from a distance

Tiller connection hardware.

The wood itself seems solid enough. Needs sanding, varnish and epoxy. Someone mentioned the Bristol finish . Think I might want to rethink my viewpoint on using that  after all.    Give the ol' gal a marine version of bling.

Tiller is completely delaminated all the way up.

 I am SOOO glad I have electric sanders.

Entire edge is serrated like a steak knife.

This one bothers me. The crack goes all the way through and it is like the wood got moved over in this one spot. .

Lots of round black spots. Wiping it down with Clorox.

Spot where wood shifts.

Work in progress Washing Sails and Researching Rub Rails

 The main sail is soaking in the tub.I started out with four scoops of  generic Oxyclean from dollar tree.  the plug popped out from me moving the sail around and lost the water which was OK since it was really grungy any way.   Ran a new tub and the water was clear until I put more oxyclean in. Boy did it get dirty fast. The sail is starting to look really good though. It has that Oklahoma red mud on it so how clean it gets is any ones guess.
The black part looks really nice. It s wet and all shiny so it should look OK once it is clean. Since it is below freezing tonight I'm going to let sail soak over night and hang it up no clothes line  in the morning.

While the sail is soaking I'm researching different parts of this on you tube.
Have to remove the rub rail to see what the situation is under it,. It does not look good as far as deck plate hull attachment. Saw that when I went to look at it.  Basic plan is take off rub rail, see what the condition of the joint is in that area.  Saw a few screws that the holes literally had tops of holes missing so it was like screws had been inserted into slots instead of holes. which I'm pretty sure is not factory.
How to replace a rub rail


There is a wood piece that runs both sides of cabin. Planning on taking those off since I figure the screws are screwed into that. Needs to see if that is factory. Thinking the thing to do is epoxy that wood or at least  drill out the holes where the screws go and fill them with epoxy then reinsert screws. .

Priorities

This is for the record,. Yeah the V 22 is not my dream boat, BUT it is mine and it will get me to the next one. so tomorrow I take delivery, weather permitting and i start knuckle busting to get the cosmetics done. And check out to see what all I have not thought of that needs work, By spring I'll be sailing full time or at least so close to it, I wont care about the time I'm not sailing. 
The choice was simple.