New build 28

[matt195583]

Perseverance mate, we all started out with a dream. I have been living mine for the last year and it was worth every hour of overtime and every hour spent hanging upside down  in a locker working on god knows what.

[Sunset]

I'll keep chucking along and get there one day.
Graham sent me the drawings to cut the stern in last week, so hope to get that done this week. It' probably going to be to cold to do much epoxy work other than a few keel lamination's in the small shop. Cold weather is good sanding weather as long as your out of the wind, so I'll get some more of that done.
Hope to get some of the remaining jobs done so we can turn this thing over sometime in the early spring. That will be a major motivator, having the hull up right for the first time. The glassing of the inside will be much easier and does not have to be finished hardly at all. It will all covered with foam and interior panels, so it should go real fast to the point of installing bulkheads.
Still doing a lot of thinking about trying to give the boat positive flotation. It's a challenge because nearly everywhere you use foam would use up storage space.
Doing the math the hull it's self will add about 800 to 900 lbs of flotation. That will only cover about half of the lead keel weight. The foam sandwiched hull may make up the remaining lead weight. But that still leaves a lot of boat to float. It just may not be possible without using to much interior up.
One of the things working in my favor is the catketch rig center of effort is quite a bit lower than most rigs so she will not require as much lead ballast.
Well thats enough rambling on, we'll see if I can get something done this week.

[matt195583]

I am no expert when it comes to boats but I would imagine on a 25 footer attempting to make it positively buoyant would be an impossibility or at best totaly impractical. You would probably be better off reducing the risk of failures that lead to sinking.

[Sunset]

Your probably right Matt. One thing I got going for me in this build is the cold molded cypress wood already puts me 800 lbs ahead of the game over a straight fiberglass hull.
I have been thinking of sealed cockpit lockers and sealed storage for rarely used items as a major part of the positive flotation.
In the bow for instance I can have a sealed compartment for the holding tank under the berth, with a removable lid for maintenance. The last boat I built had cockpit lockers so deep you had to stand on your head to get to anything on the bottom. Some foam and a higher bottom to the locker would be another way also.
Anyway it's a goal to have, and no way to test it.

[matt195583]

For sure, seal-able lockers is a good way to go. I have a similar issue with one of the cockpit lockers. One is only about 1 foot deep the other is way to deep to be practical, I was thinking a false floor in the deep locker might be the ticket. That way I could store the rarely used gear under the false floor and have ready access to the things I use under way.

[Sunset]

I got the stern cut in today, here's a few pic's. Got some minor faring to do yet. Tomorrow we'll cut about 4 more keel lamination's, I'm afraid to go much further than about 8 inchs on the keel at this time.

[Sunset]

One more

[Sunset]

Finally I have got four days to work on my boat. So we will be doing some fairing of glass overlaps and install some more keel lamination's. Also going to start drilling keel bolts.

I was looking inside the hull the other night and it just looks so huge inside. It doesn't look like I could ever fill all that space with equipment and furniture!

We did some measurements the other night also and it looks like instead of a normal v berth, we can get a full size mattress in along one side of the hull and still have standing headroom off to the side. The aft end of the forward cabin is 8 feet wide. It would be nice to have a regular mattress up there like some of the larger boats. We would have to sacrifice about 6" of main cabin to do it and make some wedge shaped locker, but may be worth it. We also can build in some drawers under the bed.

[Sunset]

My wife told me from the first breath I took while telling her I wanted to build a cruising keel boat that I was insane.

She was right, but it's to late now  . I have a good start on one that will be nice once all the effort is spent.

I grinded, fared and added two more keel lamination's today. A total of ten more hours of work and you can barely tell that I was there.

I think or believe that once the hull is turned and I start on the inside that it will become much easier to be motivated.

Sometimes I wish Graham would have told me to fly a kite when I asked him to design this boat for me. Then I set back and look at her lines and run my hand over her smooth hull and think how lucky I am that he did it for me. I'm truly thankful that he did, it's just when I look at the work ahead of me that is discouraging.

I know it will be a rare boat being a very well designed cat ketch 28 cruising design. I just have to figure out how to get through this rough bump in the road of all this fairing and sanding. Maybe I am being to picky with the way I'm trying to finish the hull, maybe not. I look at a lot of factory boats where the hull isn't perfect.

Charlie Jones gave me some great advice a while back. He told me he never paints the hull in high gloss, but then told me I could try and if I wasn't satisfied I could shoot the 2nd and third coat in a slightly flatter coat.

 

[CharlieJ]

You'll get there, and it'll be worth nit.

Hey-I built a 35 foot trimaran  THREE hulls to fair. Only took 7 years, working after work.

[w00dy]

I'm definitely feeling the drag too, Sunset, and I've only been working for a few months. Something about fairing seems to take FOREVER......All I can say is try not to be too hard on yourself.

If sanity requires taking a break, toning down the workload, or focusing on other projects for a while, don't fight, but accept that it will be better for your mental health in the long run. IMHO, trying to grind through at the expense of your happiness is risking burnout or worse, boat-burn-down syndrome (does anyone here know what I'm talking about?)   :D

[CharlieJ]

 ;D

For sure. Once or twice, I seriously considered taking a chain saw and walking straight across the boat with it, side to side.

[Captain Smollett]

(does anyone here know what I'm talking about?)   :D

Yes.  I've had to put working on the boat on the back burner...much to the distress of my crew...for several months.

It seems almost like a paradox or cyclic thing, though, because it's when the work has the least "show" to it that makes it harder to stick with it.  Fairing is a good example...hours of work, and little to show to the outside observer.

In my case...that's a double paradox.  I work days on end, getting needed "behind the scenes" repairs done, and a visit to the yard gets the question, "What have you been doing?  It looks the same to me."   >:(

Yep.  That makes me want to keep digging at it.  Then I hear, "When are you going to get the boat done?"   ;)

Sailboats and schedules rarely mix.  Seems true even in the boat yard.  I say that if you need a break, take one.

[Tim]

Yep, 4 years to do what started out as a simple repaint. Sitting here today with the topside finally prepped and taped, watching the weather get fouler and fouler  ;D
Fortunately I have another boat to sail, but of course that is also some of the problem  ;)

Hang in there progress is progress.

[Sunset]

Thanks for the encouragement.

[Sunset]

It's been a long while, I haven't done anything on the boat for 8 months. Been very busy with life, sold my house and am building a much smaller one!,,,, downsizing big time so we can go cruising. I should be done by March and be able to hit the boat big time again. I kick around the idea of not having a land base any longer, but the need to help with the wife's and my parents made my decision for me.
Hopfully I will be back at it full time a few months after the first of the year.

[David_Old_Jersey]

Keep plugging away  8)

[Sunset]

Got a new boat shop built, but of course its not finished like everything else I get into. But it shouldn't be to much longer before I can get back at the boat again. Went to Key west for two weeks and put a bow thruster tube in for my brother on his trawler, along with other fiberglass projects.

[Frank]

Congrats on the boat shop. Should make projects easier!

[Sunset]

Has anyone used Raka's 425 epoxy hardener? They say it is a cold weather hardener and will cure in the 40's.