The "NANCY G" a surfboat /lifeboat to motorsailer conversion build in progress

George are you talking about the composition of those rubs on the hull sides? If they're that tough, why not use a circular saw and plow out vertical kerfs, along their length, say every few inches. You may be able to pop them off fairly easily in 3" chunks this way. Yep, you'll likely eat up quite a few carbide blades, but there's less cussing involved, though more dust. Maybe a modified circular saw with a dado blade? Yeah man, plow 'em off with a tool, then smooth it up.

 

Mmm -- you just gave me a light bulb -- Mini grinder with a zip blade -- cross cut them as you suggest every 3 or 4 inches. The air chizel should easily pop them at those lengths. That artic cold spell has finally broke -and I can finally get back in the shop tomorrow -- experiment time. I'll take photos and close ups of the damaged gell coat that will have to be repaired. Man that composition is hard maybe it's carbon dust mixed with the epoxy.
Speaking of a cold spell the Northern U.S. is also really getting nailed -30 chill factor in New York City today. My heart goes out to all those who have been displaced. Who am I to complain about my workshop being cold .

 

Well I gave the air chizel another try using a wider bladed chizel and it does an excellent job knocking off bigger chunks. Figure I could clean all the strakes off in about 15 to 20 hours. I have decided to do this job after the keel and ballast install is completed to preven contamination getting into the peeled off gell coat and exposed glass fiber. Weather tomorrow +5C(mid 30's F) and rain, day after tomorrow +10C( low 40's F). Cozy shop conditions so it's back on the keel. Tools of the trade on this job, full face shield, ear plugs, gauntlet gloves, air chizel .

 

Godspeed!

 

The keel work continues-- next we tackle the fin and skeg plugs.First in the order of priority is a long bench to work on. I just happen to gather enought in house items to make it up. A couple of old solid door sections and my trusty old Hobart stick lightening machine. If you look carefully on the bench top I have drawn out the outline of the fin plus it's extended nose section that blends into the stem at the forefoot. This is just to visually implant in my brain the dimensions I am working with. I find this useful planning when I am away from the shop.The fin will be basically a repeat of previous posts where I went thru the steps of making up a modified 63series.In this case it will be stretched (longer parallel section) with a 63 series nose section and a shortened 63 series tail section. The double set of keel bolts at the end of the tail dictates it will not end in a point but somewhere in the order of 3 in. of width at station 11. Once the fin is installed I will add a short section to carry it to it's proper end taper.I'd prefer to do it this way to act as a sort of break away section in case of impact plus it is easier to shape the vertical curved end section as called for in the design. When cutting out long curved sections I prefer the band saw -- on short sharper curved cuts the jig saw. Because this keel section has no cross sectional taper (slab sided)Both top and bottom cords are identical shapes and can be clamped /screwed/nailed together cut and sanded at the same time resulting in identical twins. To obtain their different lengths, the offset is achieved by simply cutting one or both and inserting different length parallel mid sections. When making the cut make sure it is at the widest part of the width of the cord series you using as your pattern.I prefer to always do a little sanding touch up after cutting as it cleans up those last night shakes. A little trick here to obtain more accuracy-- when cutting out try to cut approx. 1/16" slightly proud of the patterns line and use your sander to fine tune to the line edge.Next post trial assembly on the hull before final bench assembly.

P.S. another little tip -- the lead weights on the clamps and ply. act as dampeners, great when sanding or jig saw cutting.

 

I like a 4 n half inch grinder with abrasive cutoff disk for my fiberglass work. Very fast cutting and grinding. But being carefull is necesary in all aspects of boat work.

 

I like a dado blade (or two) in a circular saw.

 

Boys ! Boys ! This is precision work on my Hope Diamond, Be kind with your choice of tools. Even the term Hope Diamond has a gentle and personal meaning --- Hope I can live long enough to get it completed and that diamonds keep falling in my hands to finance. On thur. I go for my yearly check up, so with a little help from the powers that be the first factor falls into place.
Barnicle, been meaning to send you a PM to say Hello and hope all is going well with you and the build.
Paul, you probably hear too much from me -- Just gleaming a little education along with the blueprints

 

I wouldn't name it the Hope Diamond. That gemstone I heard has a curse upon it.

http://history1900s.about.com/od/1950s/a/hopediamond.htm

 

No fear Hoyt, if it would entise Miss Taylor/Burton to come back as a 40yr.old and and become crew I might be tempted to get that bad luck charm out of Washington. You notice I said 40 and not 20, just a moment of reality.
Speaking of reality-- i'm now into the tedious work of shaping laminated foam planks into the long angled foil nose section of the fin's plug. Taking lots of photos and it all seems to be going great but don't want to jinx myself by overconfident posting. Should have it completed within the week if I don't run out of patience pills. Also set up work scaffolding around her stern in prep for the skeg plug work. So it's moving forward and I will post photos and write ups as soon as this part of the work can be presented in a start to finish sequence. (Which in fact i'm buying time to re do and cover mistakes

 

Keel male molds

Alright enough hanging around the water cooler lets get back to work. Once I got the upper and lower foils cut, I next cut the upright bulkhead style framing and assembled it all in place. To get an idea of how that challenging foil shaped leading edge would look I did a little "String Engineering". Never under estimate "Strig Engineering", that piece of string is one of your best boatbuilding tools. As shown in the photos it looked darn good so I proceeded to install the 1/8in. ply skin over the framing. Next post developing the keels leading edge in foam. ---

 

It is looking good. Thanks for the string engineering tip. It may have given me an idea for my own project.

 

No prob. Hoyt -- I have an engineering degree in strings

 

He's a string puller . . .

 

Before we get into the foam work I thought we best make up a special purpose long board sander. Basically I rounded up a scrapped piece of 1 in by 3 in. alum. window extrusion . Any similar size will do as long as it is straight and long enough to span the upper and lower foils by about 4 to 6 inches extra. In my case i cut it 72in. I then ripped a piece of 3/4 birch ply 1 1/4 In. wide by 72in. long and screw attached it to the 1 in. edge of the alum. extrusion.The reason 1 1/4 in. wide is to allow me to staple stock 2 in.wide in line sander sanding strips to the ply. I try using off the shelf supplies as much as possible. Note for ease of operation I did not attach the sanding strips over the entire length of the long board.(see first Photo). I omitted one until the final top laminated foam plank was to be sanded.