Trying to be as efficient as I can so that I can get the boat done by two weeks from tomorrow morning so that I can have the boat seaworthy for the 16 November clinic. It's a "Learn to sail your T37 clinic" for new T37 people. It would be a perfect maiden voyage!
Today I worked on getting the rudder control arm installed and the rudder linkage arm put in. I actually had the servos taped in as well and was working on the placement of the battery pack and switch and such when I remembered that I hadn't yet installed the mast step. When the servos were in I couldn't get to the mast step on the bottom of the hull, so out they came. Will have to get to the hobby store this weekend to buy some more servo tape I guess.
The mast step is just a carbon fiber tube sealed at one end (see an earlier post I did on sealing the end of the mast step) and then placed through the hole in the deck. You then put the mast in and align it so that it's barely raked backwards about a degree, and so that it's perpendicular to the hull laterally.
The instructions say to make a pile of thickened epoxy at the bottom of the mast step and to sink the mast step into that pile. That sounds too messy to me so I made a small wooden frame to enclose the epoxy. It's a bit cleaner but it was still a challenge to get the thickened epoxy into the frame while under the deck and with the mast step in the middle of it. It's better than a pile of epoxy but if I were to do it again I would add the mast step frame to the things I would do before gluing on the deck. In that case I would have to have made it a larger frame so that I would leave room for the step once the deck was on. By that I mean that because I would be estimating where the step will go in the future, I would need to make the frame/box thing larger so that I don't accidentally glue the frame down where the step needs to go.
I tried to clean up some of the epoxy I put in, but I had to use long sticks to put the epoxy into the step frame and it seemed to go everywhere. I cleaned some of it up but there's still some left. Still... better than a pile of epoxy!
Here are some picture of the mast lined up with some squares. The instructions say to remove the mast, but I can't see doing that without moving the mast step out of alignment. I'll just be super careful not to bump it until it's cured enough to remove the mast.
If you look carefully you'll see that there is clearly an aft rake in the mast. Not sure if it's one degree or not, but it's raked nonetheless.
Tomorrow I'm off to West Marine to buy some varnish. I'll epoxy in the deck screw-eyes and then when dry I'll start with the varnish. Probably three to five coats will be enough. That will take most of this next week.
In between coats I'll start to work on the rigging. Two weeks to go... fingers crossed that I'll make it!
Steady as she goes!
Today I worked on getting the rudder control arm installed and the rudder linkage arm put in. I actually had the servos taped in as well and was working on the placement of the battery pack and switch and such when I remembered that I hadn't yet installed the mast step. When the servos were in I couldn't get to the mast step on the bottom of the hull, so out they came. Will have to get to the hobby store this weekend to buy some more servo tape I guess.
The mast step is just a carbon fiber tube sealed at one end (see an earlier post I did on sealing the end of the mast step) and then placed through the hole in the deck. You then put the mast in and align it so that it's barely raked backwards about a degree, and so that it's perpendicular to the hull laterally.
The instructions say to make a pile of thickened epoxy at the bottom of the mast step and to sink the mast step into that pile. That sounds too messy to me so I made a small wooden frame to enclose the epoxy. It's a bit cleaner but it was still a challenge to get the thickened epoxy into the frame while under the deck and with the mast step in the middle of it. It's better than a pile of epoxy but if I were to do it again I would add the mast step frame to the things I would do before gluing on the deck. In that case I would have to have made it a larger frame so that I would leave room for the step once the deck was on. By that I mean that because I would be estimating where the step will go in the future, I would need to make the frame/box thing larger so that I don't accidentally glue the frame down where the step needs to go.
I tried to clean up some of the epoxy I put in, but I had to use long sticks to put the epoxy into the step frame and it seemed to go everywhere. I cleaned some of it up but there's still some left. Still... better than a pile of epoxy!
Here are some picture of the mast lined up with some squares. The instructions say to remove the mast, but I can't see doing that without moving the mast step out of alignment. I'll just be super careful not to bump it until it's cured enough to remove the mast.
If you look carefully you'll see that there is clearly an aft rake in the mast. Not sure if it's one degree or not, but it's raked nonetheless.
Tomorrow I'm off to West Marine to buy some varnish. I'll epoxy in the deck screw-eyes and then when dry I'll start with the varnish. Probably three to five coats will be enough. That will take most of this next week.
In between coats I'll start to work on the rigging. Two weeks to go... fingers crossed that I'll make it!
Steady as she goes!
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