Actual real life boat being built

Discussion in 'Powerboats' started by Verytricky, Dec 9, 2009.

  1. Cookee
    Joined: Mar 2009
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    Location: Devon England

    Cookee Boat builder and racer

    Here's what we did last Friday. We had made a pair of A frames which will also be used to tilt the mould when laying up the boat. We needed to control the whole thing to stop it turning "at it's own speed", so Kitten robbed a set of front brakes of his XJ900 and made a disc, welded the whole thing on and voila! Thanks to the very nice Paul Mcarthy at Wolf Rock (he's our neighbour) for the use of his fork lift truck - again! The Photos are pretty self explanatory I think ............

    If you want to see the whole sequence, there are more photos on Facebook - we are listed under BananaShark
     

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  2. Cookee
    Joined: Mar 2009
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    Location: Devon England

    Cookee Boat builder and racer

    Here are some renderings of an open version of the same boat - I think the flames are more suited to the US market though!
     

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  3. Cookee
    Joined: Mar 2009
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    Location: Devon England

    Cookee Boat builder and racer

  4. yipster
    Joined: Oct 2002
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    Location: netherlands

    yipster designer

    only took 4 secs to download, thanks for keeping us updated
     
  5. Cookee
    Joined: Mar 2009
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    Location: Devon England

    Cookee Boat builder and racer

    You must have a great broadband service over there - sadly we're not exactly at optical speeds in deepest darkest Devon!

    Here are some more for you of construction of the deck plug ..........
     

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  6. Cookee
    Joined: Mar 2009
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    Location: Devon England

    Cookee Boat builder and racer

    About time for an update - having a windscreen in a boat requires quite a bit more work at this stage - we have the screens now and Kitten has taken a pattern off them - not using anything with styrene in it of course - he used PVA glue and ended up with a shape the same as the inside of the screen.

    The pattern is then being used to make a plant for the mould which will be used to make the actual boat. The pattern will form part of the structure of the cockpit roof - in effect we are building the cockpit roof around the pattern taken from the screens therefore ensuring that it will all fit together perfectly every time. The only assumption in all of this is that the screen manufacturer is capable of repeating their side of the job accurately!

    Photo 1 screen with protective wrapping if you can see it!
    Photo 2 the pattern is taking shape - the screens are laying outside face down
    Photo 3 the pair of patterns are done - removed from the original and the surface is covered in Formica
    Photo 4 the plant is then laid up onto the pattern thick enough to allow for the thickness of the screen and the glue that will hold it in ensuring a flush fit in the boat
     

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  7. Cookee
    Joined: Mar 2009
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    Location: Devon England

    Cookee Boat builder and racer

    The rear end is nearly finished - Formica doesn't do compound curves so some of it has to be done the old fashioned way with filler then high build paint, rubbed down and polished, the flat or single curve areas can be covered in Formica.

    The extension that will extend over the drives is not on the boat - the shape you see in the photo with Kitten in will allow outboards to trim up if fitted and will provide a positive location for the extension when inboards are fitted.
     

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  8. Cookee
    Joined: Mar 2009
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    Location: Devon England

    Cookee Boat builder and racer

    Things are moving on nicely:

    Kittens special turning mechanism born out of motorcycle front brakes and the ram from an engine crane - makes turning everything very controllable.

    Extreme tilt to enable laminating of the centre of the mould.

    Balsa going on to stiffen the mould and ensure the boat will be as straight as the plug.

    As always more photos on our Facebook page which can be reached via the front page of the BananaShark website or directly by typing BananaShark into the search box on Facebook.
     

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  9. Verytricky
    Joined: Oct 2005
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    Verytricky Large Member

    New News: The mould is done, and the plug is out!

    The mould is now ready to start building boat number 1.

    The plug shows the shape of the boat quite clearly - we have only ever seen half the boat at a time before. It is a very distinctive design. You will clearly see this boat is not the same as any other boat.

    Now we wait 4 weeks for hull number 1 to be revealed!
     
  10. Jeff
    Joined: Jun 2001
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    Location: Great Lakes

    Jeff Moderator

    Looks amazing. I have really enjoyed seeing this boat come together in this thread -- thanks so much for the updates and the great photos! And congrats on the boat and the build!
     
  11. Cookee
    Joined: Mar 2009
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    Location: Devon England

    Cookee Boat builder and racer

    A bit overdue on an update - we haven't been idle! Some of the photos were taken by our fearless leader during his visit. To give you an idea of how technical building a plug is here is a photo of aligning the turning mechanism, it doesn't have to be much out of spot on to make everything bind, and over the 34' + of the mould that requires some good maths and measuring!

    The exoskeleton of the deck mould

    The soft wood wedges with a little help from the fork lift!

    The half ping pong balls worked a treat!
     

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  12. Cookee
    Joined: Mar 2009
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    Location: Devon England

    Cookee Boat builder and racer

    Unfortunately the cockpit roof decided to stay in the mould, that was removed separately! An idea of how striking and individual the bow of the new boat is going to look - of course the contrasting colours make it look more striking than plain white, but the bow will be unmistakeable as a BananaShark one - we like to stand out in a crowd!
     

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  13. olli
    Joined: Sep 2007
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    Location: Germany

    olli Junior Member

    Wow!

    When I read about it for the first time on BM I thought:
    No, not an other dreamer telling everybody he is going to do this and he wants to do that blah blah.... How wrong I was! And I am happy I was that wrong because I am really looking forward to see it run. Pressing all my thumbs it runs as good as it looks. :)
     
  14. Cookee
    Joined: Mar 2009
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    Location: Devon England

    Cookee Boat builder and racer

    As you can see dreams can become reality if you believe in something and try hard enough!
     

  15. Verytricky
    Joined: Oct 2005
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    Location: London

    Verytricky Large Member

    Just remember to add double *EXTRA* lubrication to the mould around the cockpit/canopy of boat number 1. It really should be a canopied boat, not an open topped racer!

    :)
     
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