Cradles for our floats

 Now that both floats are assembled, the next steps involve finishing a few interior details like tapping the keel seam, adding a compression member in the bow, and closing the bow and stern.  These steps are easiest to do with the float in the upright orientation.  So we made two sets of cradles to support them.  The cushioning is just foam pipe insulation split around the form edge.  At about $1.25 per 6-foot section, this was a very economical solution, and seems to work well.

 We reused the old form frames to make the cradles (hopefully we won't decide that we need the forms again!)  I traced out the shape of the hull at the two beam bulkheads using the pattern for the bulkheads.  I added some margin for the hull thickness and for some cushioning.  I also made sure I left at least a couple inches at the bottom of the forms so they don't split when handling.  The difference in height of the two sides in the photo is a result of reusing the old forms which already had cutouts. It took a little thought to get the vertical placement of the aft form correct so the float deck is level.

 At times, I will want to support the floats on their side, such as when we fair and glass them.  So I kept the forms that were positioned directly under the beam bulkheads (forms 5 and 11).  I then recut the two adjacent forms (4 and 12) to match these so I have two sets, one for each float.  Most importantly, I wrote "Keep" in large letters on these  pieces so I don't accidently reuse them for some other purpose.

Here is the cradle structure without the forms installed.  Since I wanted to be able to change orientation of the floats depending on the task, but didn't want to make a dozen cradles, I made the forms interchangeable.  Note the slots (dado) cut into the two vertical supports.  The forms simply slide into the two slots.  No fasteners are needed to hold the forms in place.  In case you want to do something similar, here are a few key dimensions:
Verticals: 24" long with 3/4x25/32 dado
Horizontal: 41.5" long (dependent on width of your forms)
Legs: 24" long
Vertical support gussets: 10" x 10"
Leg support gussets: 16" x 16"

Floats in the winter

 Winter has arrived at the boat house.  This is the second big snowfall we have had this year.  This time, however, the forecast is for cold temperatures, which will put a damper on the float building progress.  Hopefully it will be warmer than the meteorologists expect so I can get back to it.

 Nonetheless, there was notable progress prior to the snow storm.  We now have two whole floats and the form frame is history.  Hurray!  Here is the starboard float sitting upright for the first time in cradles.  See the next post for more about the cradles.

Here is a view from the rear.  The floats are taller than they seemed while laying on their sides.  Setting the cradles on the strongback makes them a little higher than I would prefer.  I considered dismantling the strongback since I don't really need it until we start the main hull, but I hate to take on the extra effort if I don't have to.  So given the available space, putting the cradles on the strongback was the best option for now.

Boat building art work

 Building a glass-reinforced plastic boat requires a lot of supplies.  Through the past six months of building, we have gone through boxes of brushes, stacks of tray liners, reams of rollers, and gloves galore.  And we always seem to have some left over epoxy that is kicking to fast to use.  In an attempt to make productive use of this detritus (or occasionally by accident), Dawna and I have started making boat building art!  No doubt the global demand for this high art will inspire absurd bidding at elite auction houses such as Christie's.  Here are a couple of our finer pieces.

The first piece is a great example of modern art of the "found object" genre.  No doubt Rauschenberg aficionados will find this piece true to the spirit of the mid-century pop culturalists!  You will surely appreciate the juxtaposition of the practical nature of the modern boatsmith's tools and the way these discarded tools express the desire of the boat builder to drift away in a steady breeze.

The second piece expresses the sense of severe pain that a boat builder feels in his back when he is twisted into a pretzel while trying to work inside the float of an F-82R trimaran.  Note the weaving of the brushes into the form of a deformed spine.

Let the bidding begin!

Taping the inside deck seam

The weather continues to cooperate thanks to El Nino (or is it La Nina?).  So we are continuing to take advantage of the not-exactly-warm, but warm enough weather to work on the second float.  Here you can see the inside of the bow end of the float.  On the right is the deck seam that we just finished taping.  Note the mirrors we used to see what we were doing while we applied the tape.  This shot is looking in through the open bow.  It isn't really as spacious as it appears, I just stuck the camera inside to take the shot.  But it does have a somewhat sci-fi look, like inside the underwater alien ship in The Abyss.

Now I will remove the million drywall screws holding the hull to the form frame.  Then we can pop the hull free and take down the form frame.  Then we start on taping the interior keel seam in the upright position.  Hopefully we will be done with interior work for both floats before the New Year.  Happy Holidays!

Tape and gussets

At last, we finished taping the bulkheads into the starboard float.  We also made a new set of gussets and used foam filets to form the transition between hull, gussets, and bulkhead.  This time we tried wetting out the tape before putting it in place, then laying in the wet tape.  This saved some effort working the epoxy into the tape through small access ports.  I think this is a better way to do it, though in either case the tape was fully wetted and strong.  In this photo you can see the finished product.  The other side of this bulkhead was taped via a 6" diameter access port, as shown before.  I'm pretty happy to be done with this task, though we still have several tasks remaining that have to be done through the access ports.  Next we will tape the deck seam, then we will remove the float from the forms.

Progress taping bulkheads

 The weather cooperated this weekend, so we were able to make some more progress on taping the bulkheads inside the starboard float.  I'm sure the skiers would have a different evaluation of this weather.  Here is a shot of the shroud bulkhead after we filleted and taped it.  This side is easy to tape thanks to the large access hatch.  As we showed in earlier posts, most of this work is done through 6" diameter inspection ports with a mirror.

 Although the mid-day temperature in the boathouse is getting into the upper 70's, as soon as the sun goes away the temperatures plummet.  So I am running a small heater inside the float to allow the epoxy to cure.  In this view the lower half of the access hatch is reinstalled as I close up the hull to insulate it from the cold night.  We keep the heater set on low power and set the thermostat on 65 F to minimize the heater operation.  We just want enough heat to keep the epoxy chemistry cooking.  I also set the heater on a scrap of 2x6 so it isn't in direct contact with the epoxy and foam hull.  I really don't want to look outside and see the warm glow of our boathouse burning down!

 And here is the starboard hull with all of the access ports closed up and the ends covered with towels.  Its cozy warm inside, while the boathouse drops below freezing.

We should finish up the bulkheads and deck seam next weekend.  I had to make a new set of gussets to finish the bulkheads since the original pair fell victim to the sawz-all a couple months ago.  Here you see the new gussets in the vacuum press.  I'd like to add a heating pad to the inventory of tools to keep vacuumed parts warm.  For now, I'll settle for a slow cure until the boathouse warms up tomorrow.