Roobarb Canoe

 So I have finished the main work on the carriage mould and dug out the seat mould. Bit of prep to do… filling here and there, return flanges on the seat and returns and packing on the carriage. The seat mould returns are off cuts of worktop from work, poly propylene I think. I position the foot hold loose tools with double sided tape, then go around them with some wax and a fillet ball. Need to test the vacuum on the moulds as well, I suspect they won’t be good enough for resin infusion but if they are that would be a good technique to use.  The carriage mould is 800mm wide, tracks on Monkey are 840mm. I’m making 15mm packing peices both sides to make it about the right width. Roobarb’s will need 15mm the other way as she will be narrower.  As always feels like its slow but at least there is progress. Far too cold out there at the moment to do too much and will need heating on to do any laminating!

 Grp mould for carriage Gell, then tissue and 1 ply of csm  2x3 plies of csm later… Smelly dirty job… might try the epoxy paste again. Used the one from axson and alchamie in the past but I see that easy composites do one. We’ll see how this comes out, looks like lots of prerelease but you can see it’s not got too hot which is encouraging so hopefully not too much shrinkage. I’ve used a clear gell so I can see through it, might be helpful if I resin infuse I’ll leave this for a few weeks to mature and cure before using it but will strip it off the pattern work one evening shortly

Weiring made from an old bedroom cupboard…. Wax on, wax off… then some PVA

 So now finishing the carriage  Some high build primer from Scott bader. Not used it before, this is the first coat, I think I’ll sand back and do one more.

 I thought I would fit the majority of Monkey out before tackling the seat and carriage. Most of the fittings are reused from the original fit out but there are some here off Andrew Eastwards Pau Amma and some out of the fittings box. Some I have had to buy new, the jib track being the biggest purchase, and I have new guides on the ronstan cleats where they were worn out. Jib track, Allen 29ner spec. The radius was a bit bigger but went down really well. Shroud adjustment, Cunningham and kicker Jib cleats, still need to work on the routing under the jib track Kicker will need a prodder but not sure exactly of geometry yet. Selection of ruder gantry’s , second one for a T foil, it’s a bit heavy as yet, but ok for a prototype. I’ve put the mast up and checked the height… but have a few issues to resolve Track, some just needs re sticking but this lower section needs replacing. I have some carbon tube to do this and I expect to extend it down almost to the heal. Holes now redundant, l...

 Monkey is back from the paint shop. Before she went 26kg, now 27.4 so Chris has done a good job. Hes managed to keep the weight down by not priming the hull just doing 3 top coats.

 Here’s something I prepared earlier   I had the kit CNC cut some time ago and glued it together. Needs finishing, then a polyester mould. Might resin infuse the part, not sure yet.

 Now that Monkey is out of the shop I can set up for making the seat and carriage. The seat will be from the mould I made for Dragonfly’s. The carriage mould I had to cut up to get the part out of (oops) so I’ve had this recut and I need to remake this mould. The stations I had CNC cut for Roobarb were on top of the seat mould so I’ve slotted them together, I’ll set them up properly after the Monkeys seat and carriage but here’s a taster of what’s to come.

 Last day of work on Monkey before spraying Sanding hull, with help from Maple and Jib! Sorting out trolley… Finall weight of 26kg before paint…. Interesting to see what painting puts on

 Turned over and sanded the bottom. Filled a few dings and faired in the port chain plate (starboard one ok) very nearly ready for paint shop!!!

 Time has passed by….didn’t make the nationals this year and had to bail from the worlds later this year. Unfortunately the worlds are now cancelled. On a more positive note Monkey is now nearly finished… spraying in a couple of weeks A somewhat random selection of build photos below… Setting up the chain plates  Bonding in the stump. I think this was just about finished pre aft deck going down Aft deck laminated , dry fitting the fore deck  Goose neck decisions…. Two different off sets, I went for the shorter of the two Jib track support bonded and tabbed on Laminating the fore deck upper skin. The lower skin was done in a second operation. Bonding on the aft deck. The batterns were there to ensure the edges were straight     I faired the hull in with an epoxy and ballon mix, sanded, then epoxy primed.  I like the seldon horn cleats for the dyneema halyards but didn’t like the price so thought I would make my own, effectively paying about 3 times the price...

Written in 2021 but not posted... This years nationals was at Weymouth held jointly with the Cherubs. In a moment of madness I decided to do the Lord Birket at Ullswater on the Saturday and Sunday before the nationals started on the Tuesday. Long very quiet race Saturday with an unusually subduded feeling ashore… Sunday morning the lake was mirror like, after the race was postponed twice I thought it was time to pack up and head to Weymouth. As always the sceanary is stunning and the company good, caught up with many old friends. Drive to Weymouth was wet…. and long but arrived 9:30 ish so not too bad. Sat nav seemed to send me down some surpriseingly small roads. Measured boats and sails on Monday , Tuesday blown off for racing so more measurements but all caught up now which is a good feeling. Racing on Wednesday was good, we had about 22 boats entered , blustery conditions meant that only 5 finishes for second race. Generally boat going ok but not particularly on pace. Both me and b...

 Back in 2021…. Got the angle grinder out and started trimming Monkey Weighing Monkey with no fittings before trimming,34kg Ready for cutting….. Decks off This is the repair I did in Richmond 2014 for Chris Hampe. Rob Bell went through the side…. Just didn’t see each other until it was  to late. You can see in the next photo this all came out so I could rebuild a bit lighter and neater. Dagger board case out Fore deck off Remains of v bulkhead Left overs The final state