1182 ......'Twice Shy'

With a broken mast and a front and rear beam that needs replacing on Karp along with a couple of resulting sail repairs, I don't have the coin to splash out on a nice set of beach wheels so the mother of invention ( = cheap) has to step up n bail me out
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A walk around the shed and a pair of Yamaha 225 4wheeler front wheels are gathered up .....they aint flash but they hold air and they are not bad diameter wise to the rollers diameter ~2inches bigger maybe
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mmmm

need hubs for the wheels <img src="<>/frown.gif" alt="frown" title="frown" height="15" width="15" />

more laps of the shed....... <img src="<>/cry.gif" alt="cry" title="cry" height="15" width="15" />

some 12mm alloy plate and a couple of chunks of 3" alloy shaft should do the job just nice, cold welding and peening is used to join the two together then its off to the lathe....

facing off and roughing out the 'shape'

need a hole for the axle so out comes the boring bar

cut a rebate in the hubs to act as a

stop

so the hubs stay on the nylon bearings....

pilot the holes for the studs....

add some 3/8 bolts and hey presto.... we have wheel studs or for those on the other side of the ocean.... lugs for the lug-nuts

I used the new nylon bushes I recently made for the rollers and simply re-machined them to suit the new alloy hubs....
(the drilled hole through the side of the bush is where they will be pop-riveted back onto the axle)

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I haven't taken any pictures of the finished setup just incase it was a miserable failure..... as it turned out its works a treat
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I had to re-machine the bushes down to get more clearance, as it turns out the more water that gets in the easier they roll, the water acts as a lubricant so now we have 1.5mm of clearance all round on the bushes....

20psi in the tyres makes it child's play to move the boat around on hard surfaces such as the carpark.
I found 5psi was really good in the sand but just a tad heavy in the carpark so I've settled on ~10psi for now....

advantages:
a breeze over a distance
doesn't bounce about over rough ground
easy on gentle uphill rises

disadvantages:
the rims are pressed 3mm thick steel plate so obviously rust in the future will be an issue, galvanised dipped may be the answer here
&
they are heavy when it comes to the placing or removing from the trailer

other than that....
all up I spent around 12 hours on the mig welder and lathe to make the hubs from scratch & modify the bushes to suit, otherwise it was just stuff that I had laying around....

cheap fix ...... not pretty but..... it works.....

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This was from last w/end, not a big swell but a late afternoon wind storm swept through, most capsized and few escaped without some sort of karma payback....

one little slip as I came in off the trap and that cracking sound was all it took to know disaster had bitten, oh well I'll just finish off the race and then look at the damage....

the inside view....

how lucky was it to of happened where the hatch allowed direct access

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repairs

the section trimmed and pushed back into place....
resined in....
thin coat of micro balloons over that and left to harden

the following night I laid some glass mat to the inside of the hull and blocked back the external damage, and out came the primer...

fixed

and now the damage from the Stawell weekend.....

The old foredecks are really starting to give me a bit of a headache, they are so soft it was always going to be a question of when I had an issue not if.....

one momentarily misplaced elbow created ...

in this shot the other stress fracture can be seen easily running along the edge, the other hull has this same fracture in the same spot....
we also have the black silicon bead that's filling the separated deck., this is now in several spots as the racing weekends have gone by

the problem I now face is what to do about it....
sacrifice a weekend of racing and rip off the old fore decks and replace them properly
or
keep patching her up and just get her through the season....

With the end of the season just around the corner it seems pointless to do a major remove and replace now, on the other hand, just how much longer can I push my luck, I don't think I'd enjoy the easter regatta on the beach with badly damaged foredecks......

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The way you fix things a new deck will be done in one night!
and no you won't like sitting on the beach at Bolac.

No Turbulence

1774

Your probably right in the time frame question, its not a huge job in reality and its not like I haven't done one before
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what worries me tho is what I might find under the rotten old foredecks !! I know there's a couple of uglies hidden under the mains and for now they aren't an issue.
The mains are 6ply and I've ripped away one complete layer in an attempt to 'smooth' it out somewhat, supprisingly enough they are still solid enough to cope with the riggers of racing (weight and ugliness aside)

I had intended to rip the decks during the off season, and whilst they were off have a good cleanup in the hull area and lay a thin coat of glass mat (~40gsm) for added strength without a big weight increase.
I also plan a change to the front bridal attaching point to bring it into a more modern setup just so I can add a spi if it ever goes down that path.

sadly all that wont be done in a night.....

its a week or 2 worth of nights and that means one w/end off the water....

duct tape time ????
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Duct tape will work,It fixes everything! I think I may have seen a sail mostly made up of duct tape doing ok on the weekend!

No Turblence
1774

At Deep-Lake on Sunday I had a bad run, a capsize on the gybe-mark and strong winds that refused to let me get the nose into the wind for righting and that reasonably paced wind forced drifting across the lake saw me physically stuffed after a long unsucessfull fight
Crash-boat assisted recovery was needed and he eventually got there after a long period of assistance with another cat. With the boat up n going again it felt sluggish and non responsive for the next couple of legs which I put down to a wet main....

What I did notice whilst hanging out on the trap was the foredecks paint work..... it seemed to be

wrinkling

and then flattening out as the various wind gusts struck !!!
The worst area was almost in the middle between the forestays and the front beam.

After the end of the race I stayed on the water for a play session and made several tuning changes for my own interest and for the learning curve, some of which helped
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Back on the beach and a quick prod at the decks showed an increase of

flex

over what it had been, soft was a word I'd have used before but now they were really soft. The deck / hull joint had let go in several spots and I'd managed to push some green paint into the splits during the respray, I'd also sealed up some others with the

tredgrip

paint and a couple that had re-opened several times had received the additional nails treatment combined with a squirt of silicon to keep them sealed.

I was praying that the boat would see the season out and that I could replace the foredecks and main decks over the off season......

Plan B time....... <img src="<>/frown.gif" alt="frown" title="frown" height="15" width="15" />

this took all of ten minutes

The deck literally peeled off like peeling a banana peel <img src="<>/shocked.gif" alt="shocked" title="shocked" height="15" width="15" />
The glue had let go along most of the length and it was really only the nails that were holding it together and keeping the water out !

the actual hulls are in good condition thankfully so its a straight forward deck replacement....

yeah right, the plot is about to thicken

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Closer view of the

elbow through deck

repair I did a couple of weeks back.... nails still attached !!!
this was the strongest part of the entire deck
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what I 'think' has been happening is the slow rot of the decks over time caused by a couple of things apart from old age.....

1/
the decks were sanded back and left exposed to the weather for about 18months, at the same time the hatch covers weren't fitted allowing some winter rain to enter the actual hulls
She wasn't pretty by any means was she !!!!

While the hulls themselves have had a coat of varnish applied during the original build the decks have had no protective cover applied to the under side, as the rain water was heated by the sun it obviously condensated on the upper most part of the structure ......

this has been an ongoing thing since I've put her back on the water, she always gets about a cup of water in each hull after each days sailing, I sponge out as much as posiable but you never get every drop....

2/
The ply isn't a good grade ply, the glue between the veneers shows signs of failing, specifically along the hull/deck joint.
the glue that was used to hold the deck to the hull has also failed for most of that connection, hence the ease of which I was able to peel the decks off leaving a lot of tarnished nails, the only part the nails came away with the deck was the

elbow hole

area
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fortunately the timber work below the deck ply is all in great condition and hasn't suffered from the moisture issue that the decks have had
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The other problem I had was the front shroud mounts, they always came loose after a few days of sailing and the plates moved away from the hull about a millimetre each time. The screws never seemed to tighten up full and I was hesitant on over doing them incase I stripped them thus causing more headaches !!!!
I did get some relief when I put resin into the screw holes and then add the screws, it did firm up considerably but there was always that gap that kept coming back.....

me thinks this may be the cause......
obviously there's been a past issue too !!!

Both the very front foams have let go and are just laying in the hulls, almost as if they were just tossed in and forgotten, I cant find any glue on the hulls that would suggest they were stuck

here

!!!

all the others are in excellent condition and showing no signs of failure / cracks / or salt water damage
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Nice <img src="<>/grin.gif" alt="grin" title="grin" height="15" width="15" />

Really happy with the overall condition of the hulls under the foredeck area. the job is so much easier and will require only a small amount of work...

maintaining

is probably a better word !!!

I'll add 2 stringers to each hull and only up to the front shroud plate I don't belive it needs to go any further as the foams are more than capable of doing the job from there to the front.
2 stringers per hull is also sufficient as the foams are ~50mm thick and placed closer together than Karps, that should make for a very strong foredeck that will last the boats remaining life.
I'll also coat the foams in a thin coat of resin just to keep them healthy ....
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I intend to alter the front shroud mounts too, new custom made ones are in order
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So far its going great guns......
The above pics were from work I did on Sunday night after the days sailing....
Had I have known what was about to happen and that shyte was about to strike as it usually does and always when you don't need it to rear its ugly head .... I may have left the decks alone.....
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Yesterday at work I managed to nick my elbow on a sharp edge, what was only a few droplets of blood soon turned into a heavy loss and a trip to hospital saw some stiches and bandages being applied....

good things :
a few days off work

bad things:
restricted arm, so working on the boat is mostly OUT <img src="<>/mad.gif" alt="mad" title="mad" height="15" width="15" />
Stitches to stay for 10 days, sailing is out for next weekend <img src="<>/mad.gif" alt="mad" title="mad" height="15" width="15" />

so now I'm behind the 8-ball, no foredecks and physically not able to diddly squat for the next few days.....

where's the crew when ya need em ???? Oh yeah ..... at the girlfriends <img src="<>/crazy.gif" alt="crazy" title="crazy" height="15" width="15" />

mutter mutter mutter

135/10033

Stitches are still in but the old arm is freeing up a bit so I've managed to get a few things done all be it slow going at the moment....

Added my usual foam stiffeners for the stringer support, only this time I made them narrower and set them in lower down the foam.
Reason being, the foam is still at full height and will contact the new deck so it will provide support, the stringers will give support between the foams which the old decks didn't have.

stringers laid in place, although not seated down fully in this pic....

Interesting exercise was to measure the deflection between the hulls pre deck removal and post deck removal....

I had 36mm of flex with the old decks on, 18mm per hull. Since I've pulled the decks that figure went up to 39mm of flex
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so basically the old decks were only holding the hulls apart by 3mm
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I was never happy with the bridal mounts.....

I am with these tho <img src="<>/smile.gif" alt="smile" title="smile" height="15" width="15" />

the final hole will be drilled after I'm happy with the location in the hull....
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test fit <img src="<>/grin.gif" alt="grin" title="grin" height="15" width="15" />

the old bridal mount is just plain fugly and never really worked that well.

View from the inside the hull

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I was thinking that bolting the bridal mounts was a smart thing, then Karp reminded me on how they can come loose so I decided to screw them in and add resin to the equasion aswell...

Used the 4" angle grinder with a thin blade to make the exit-hole for the plate..... it worked !!!!

dummy fitting the new ply decks....
trying my best to get an interesting and eye appealing grain to show off once the decks are clear-coated

Yesterday (Saturday) became resin-day, set in the new bridal plates, re glue the 2 forward most foams that were floating around in the hulls, brush a thin coat of resin over the other foams & add a 40mm wide strip of 50gsm cloth over the ply stringer supports, set the new stringers in place, cut more 40gsm cloth that is then glued to the underside of the decks....
&
fit decks....

Flicked the jug on at midnight, make a coffee, & promptly fall asleep in the chair..... long day <img src="<>/tired.gif" alt="tired" title="tired" height="15" width="15" />

5 days to Lake Bolac Easter Regatta..... pressure is on !!!

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Monday night and the staples and strapping comes off .... then it was shaped down to the hull edges

nice wood grain <img src="<>/smile.gif" alt="smile" title="smile" height="15" width="15" />

try as I might I couldn't get them perfectly centred, that's just the way the veneers were .... I did push them across as far as I could to get the best fit...

primer on

more green goes on....

This was taken at 2:00am on Wednesday morning, long night in the shed !!!
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yesterday morning..... outside

drying

....
Clear went on 'late last night'... <img src="<>/sleep.gif" alt="sleep" title="sleep" height="15" width="15" />

I couldn't mask the green off and spray the clear on, the green hasn't dried enough to take the masking tape so I had to brush the clear on.
It's not pretty but its sealed and will do for Lake Bolac's easter regatta

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@ lake Bolac......

I think these were taken just prior to race 5's start ....

Race 1 at Lake Bolac was ugly, Strong winds saw most not even bothering to make the starting line even after the start most of those that did start soon retired..... only 5 of us finished race 1
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A few hundred meters from the finish line I had an opps....a broken ruddercase resulted in an unexpected capsize,I wasn't that far behind Harry at the time but the high winds and busted rudder case saw me limp home with only one rudder in the water whilst the other dangled at an odd horizontal angle out the back.

Back on land some quick repairs were done, this was taken after those repairs but you can still see some of the resulting damage.....
Flaring of the alloy at the hinge bolt
The additional plate that's pop-riveted at the rear of the centre arm and obviously the damage to the top of the timber rudder blade itself
The hinge bolt was belted back straight enough to actually work again <img src="<>/wink.gif" alt="wink" title="wink" height="15" width="15" />