| Bolero
Project |
Tuesday, March 4, 2008 I began the day by sanding and cleaning up the areas I worked on yesterday: the hull-deck reinforcement at the chainplates, and the cockpit fairing areas. The Peel-Ply on the chainplate area laminate worked reasonably well, but since the material had been folded for storage, I ended up with a few places where it didn't lay down sufficiently, leaving interruptions in the overall surface texture. So I ended up sanding the laminate lightly to more effectively even out the surface for future laminations. (Photos: Port left, starboard right) |
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After cleaning up, I focused on creating templates for the new chainplate knees. First, though, I had to re-cut the slots through the deck, since yesterday's laminate had covered over the slots from within. This was a straightforward task, after which I mocked up one of the stainless steel chainplates to determine how much should extend above deck. The old chainplates' pin centers had been 1-1/2" above deck, which seemed overly high in this situation, particularly since this meant that on the starboard side, with its grotesque, bulging, and thick mess of a previous repair, the top mounting bolt on the chainplate ended up too close to the underside of the deck. I was sure there was sufficient leeway in the turnbuckles to allow for the chainplate pin hole to be somewhat lower. However, I also wanted to be sure that I left sufficient room abovedecks for the toggle at the terminal end, as well as the chainplate deck cover. So before I made any decisions, I took the new chainplate up to the attic and tested it with one of the new stays to see how much clearance the toggle required, factored in the deck cover, and made a mark. With a bit of extra, I ended up deciding to project the chainplate far enough above deck so that the pin center was 1" above the deck surface. This allowed enough extra room belowdecks for the top mounting hole to have sufficient clearance. |
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Next, I used cardboard to template the chainplate knees. It took several iterations of scribing and cutting before I got a decent fit on each of the four locations. Once I had the hull and deck sides of the template defined, I marked for the inboard edge and overall shape of the knees, with about 7" of width at the top tapering to a 2" width at the bottom, and an overall length of about 12". |
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In a final chainplate-related step today, I installed two layers of 1708 biaxial cloth on both sides of the 1" thick laminated plywood blank that I made for the chainplates. I laminated two layers first on one side, then flipped the arrangement onto some clean and flat plastic, and laminated the second side. The fiberglass on the blank would add additional strength and thickness, and provide a good base for the eventual tabbing that I'd use to secure the knees to the hull and deck later, during installation. |
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During the rest of the day, I worked on the beginnings of the main bulkhead--the one that would define the aft end of the cabin, or the forward end of the cockpit. I'd already leveled the boat as necessary in both directions, so I began by clamping a straight board athwartships across the deck with its forward edge aligned with the marks I'd made previously that defined the location of the bulkhead. At that time, after carefully measuring and double-checking, I'd sawn small notches into the corner of the deck at the cockpit edge to ensure that the marks weren't lost during painting or sanding steps. Once I had the board clamped in place, I checked the measurements once again, running a tape from the bow to each side. The marks--and the board--were spot-on, fortunately. |
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Next, I needed a centerline. I ran a small line from stem to stern, eyeballing the stem's centerline through the casting and measuring at the stern as necessary. I also made measurements for the sake of argument in way of the chainplates, where, conveniently enough, I already had lines drawn on the deck that I knew to be perpendicular to the boat's longitudinal centerline--thus making a centerline measurement easy. The string confirmed, within acceptable tolerances, the other marks, and eventually I transferred the centerline as demarked by the line onto the board at the bulkhead location, as well as a couple other spots on deck for future reference. |
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Using a 4' level to strike a plumb line, I aligned a small scrap of wood across the cockpit sole with the leading edge of the bulkhead board above; when the scrap was properly aligned on both sides, I hot-glued it in place. I needed this board to secure a tick board that I planned to use to template the bulkhead. I also transferred the centerline down to the new board in a similar manner. |
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Now, I aligned another straight board vertically with its straight edge on the centerline, and screwed it into position. This was the tick board, and the centerline would be the reference point so that I could transfer the measurements to a cardboard template. Then, I used a tick strip, which I cut from scrap, to template the port side of the bulkhead. Then, I reversed the board, repositioned it on the other side of centerline, and similarly templated the starboard side. |
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With both sides templated, I removed the tick board to my bench and transferred the marks to the cardboard. I decided to leave the cutting till the next day. |
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