Second float together ... finally!

 I know its been awhile since our last update.  Between vacations in the caribbean and the arrival of winter temperatures, progress has been slow.  Nonetheless, we found a warm weather window to finish mating the two halves of the second float together.  If you recall, we had finished laminating the interior surface of the last (fifth) float half just before we went on vacation.  After a day of additional prep (actually a couple hours, which is all I can take when it is 40 degrees in the boat house), we were ready to put the halves together to form the starboard float.  Here is a picture of the two halves in place and opened like a clam shell.

Here is the same view after we glued the seam of the halves together.  Note the plethora of clamps, straps, and plates to hold the keel seam together while the epoxy sets.

And here is the view from the deck side.  If you look closely, you will note that I put the access port cut outs back in the holes, and closed off the ends with a couple old tyvek suits.  There is a power cord running inside the float for a thermostat controlled heater.  Hopefully the heater will keep the float warm enough the allow the epoxy to cure in a normal time although the boat house temperature is in the 40's and falling.  I also built a heated box to cover the resin and hardener drums so they are more usable as temperatures drop.

In spite of our efforts to keep things warm for continued progress, we will likely move on to the beam construction for most of the winter.  That way we can move our work space to a smaller heated space.

In case you think I forgot, here's a Big Tip #3 that I figured out while laminating the last float half:

   The stiffening stringer has a trapezoidal profile, and on the previous four halves we kept the sharp corners and then fought with the glass to make the bend around the corners.  This time, while sanding the foam in prep for glassing, I decided to round the corners on the stiffener.  It took about two minutes to make a nice curved corner.  And the payoff was the glass just conformed to the curves and I didn't have to babysit it for two hours while it cured.  So the big tip is to soften outside corners when possible to allow easier laminating.  Even light weight glass fabric needs a radius greater than zero to make a bend comfortably.

A blanket for a float

It's getting chilly at night now, which is not entirely compatible with slow cure epoxy.  So we cranked up a couple small electric heaters under the float half in the frame, wrapped the entire form frame in a sheet of plastic, tucked under the corners, and let it simmer over night (with an occasional glance outside to make sure the boat house wasn't burning down!)  It worked well and the epoxy putty filler cured nicely in spite of the exterior temperatures in the 30's.  Of course, once the sun starts shining, the temperature quickly rises and the inside temps get into the 80's and 90's.

We actually completed the glass laminating this past weekend.  No pictures yet since we are rushing to get ready for a trip to a toasty warm island in the Caribbean.  I'll post some shots of the final product when we get back, including Big Tip #3!