More Epoxy, Sven Yrvind and Exlex (Outlaw).

On the thick of tightening Covid19 restrictions, I got out to buy some fresh epoxy before it gets too late
 No confidence  with  government management of the pandemic. I now understand the reticence those that lived through the Depression and WWII have towards authorities.

Anyway, I can now kick on with rebuilding the starboard scarph join and get this puppy 3D for keeps.

Reading Sven Yrvind's article, from his website, about yacht design and all pumped to a) finish the Paradox build and get sailing in her, and b) build a longer, narrower Paradox similar to "Exlex". Amazing fellow.

Here's the view I have right now, just down the road from the Bote Cote agent's place.

Tanilba Bay; a hell of a place to launch and retrieve when the tide's out!

Here's for a Hard Life!

After the glow of adolescence faded into early middle age, daily surfs, weekly football playing and training and a lifestyle based heavily on excitement, risk taking and exertion gave way to comfort and leisure.
Into life, I woke later, used a car more often, ate fatty foods, sat at home and at work. But the money poured in and I thought this was success. I was deluded by the consumer messages we devour from tv and put peers. Them the kilos mounted up around my body amd the healthy  lifestyle seems harder to achieve.
Then my wife of 29 years revamped and I had to work harder to raise money to raise my two teens and run the house on one wage ... and increasingly I rekindled my energy for sailing which had been discouraged. Vigour, and inspiration, physical and mental wellness sprang from the ashes. Perhaps, I have been rescued from an old age of rest, comfort and boredom? 
Eighty-something small boat sailor, building and innovator, Sven Yrvind has thoughts on comfort.

WITH FOUR SQUARE METERS OF SAIL AND ONE OAR

Many people misunderstand life. They think comfort is happiness, but unfortunately, that kind of happiness only works in the short term because, like drug abuse and instalment purchases, it burns energy intended for your future well-being. Those who enjoy effortless comfort are constantly deprived of energy. They lose strength, become lazier and fatter, have less good health and are more easily bored.

On his blog I have read that Sven regularly runs, bicycles everywhere, eats vegetarian and has no seating in hos home-workshop. Wise man. He is now building towards a voyage in a 4m boat, solo around the world. 

Dry Assembly

Well I don't know if I

should be elated,  I'll explain,  our just excited.  But over the precious two days I've begun lashing bulkheads and hull sides together  making a roughed out 3D Paradox for the first time.  It looks fabulous,  though I've noticed as few errors with the bevel,  but they're easily repaired.
No the biggest job is to repair a faulty scarphi join. After I lashed the Transom in position and left for Merewether,  the starboard join opened up! I can't say whether it was under extraordinary load,  the shorter Australian (metric) plywood sheets meant the join is wider of the bulkhead,  or my epoxy is out of date.  Either way,  I'll have to clean it out and repair it with a new purchase of epoxy.  I'll get it done,  "spilt milk" and all.

Ridder Builing 2

So here's the foiled and sanded blade. Made from two layers of marine ply, it's heavy
 There's no way it would float, but the plans call for a 3lg of lead to be moulded onto the bite out of the rear of the blade. I have two old ace heads that could be modified to fit the bill.
I do think their weights, combined with that of the blade, should be enough to withstand the forces during a round up in heavy weather. Besides, I do want to avoid working with lead. I melted down several hundred kilograms for a 25 foot keeler I fitted our years ago and it had me feeling quite  billious for a while after. And in those days of early adulthood I was a lot fitter, and there was no coronavirus to ward off.
I musn't forget to put a groove on the rear of the top of the blade for the rudder lift to go.

Feeling:  Inspired and energised.
Downers: Having to buy more epoxy resin.
Next: groove, add weight. Layer with 6oz glass

Update:

So here we are! Two old axe heads sliced  in Galveston the way to being used as ballast. Haha. Weight, just under 2.5kg so not far off the design requirement, but no lead being used. 

Scarphing? Tick

I've just laid up my second scarph. The next step will be a dry run at a 3D Paradox.
The eagle-eyed reader will note that the bow sections are not properly formed on the bow plates. Two reasons, one that I'm thinking about forming a bluff or square bow and that sheets of ply on Australia are metric, so 40mm of so short. NB AUSTRALIAN BUILDERS: the stern plate does not use the full 2400mm sheet, so back adding length there you could still achieve the designed length.

Me: "What's a few mill?".

PS: The starboard scarph gave way during the dry fit. Cracked open all the way along.  At the time I thought a) I'd stressed it to much during assembly,  or b) the resin was too old. 
This week I bought a new Bore Cote epoxy kit and after sanding off most of the old resin,  replied the starboard scarph. This morning though,  I was less than impressed with the result.  The epoxy has not dried hard, it's more like a hard gel , and it's milky in colour.  I do know the BC epoxy is water clean up ,  and both times the scarph was glued in unsettled weather conditions and covered while setting to keep them dry.  It's possible that small amounts of moisture,  or the high humidity,  has caused the epoxy to spoil. If this is the case,  I won't be buying Bite Cote again.
On a positive note,  reading Oughtreds book on boats building he recommends tapping scarph joins.  Tick.

Major step - ready to go 3D

Phew,  finally I have all the bulkheads and the hull side pieces ready for a dry assembly. Well, i tell a little lie,  I still have to glue one of the scarphs and wait for the first to set. hehe
Just waiting for the showers to pass and I'm on it.

The next phase will see the hull sides and bulkhead number 3 tracked together,  then all the other bulkheads and finally the bow. That's the last step before flying it all in 3D  forever.  It's been a long time coming.

The Ultimate Dinghy Sailing Challenge

Since getting on Facebook those few years ago I've learned much about dinghy cruising; mostly old guys, home made or modified craft, sailing alone or in groups, for sheer pleasure.
Now, I say pleasure, this needs to broadened  out to encompass the dubious pleasure of  completing arduous adventures. These are often carried out alone, like Howard Rice sailing a 13' Scamp in the channel country just north of Cape Horn. Sailing together in Raids, which ar e typically multi-day leisurely cruises, pulling in at night for catered meals and some drinking. Then there's what I'd think is the pinnacle of dinghy cruising such as the Watertribe Everglades Challenge, a kind of group solo event, where a group of sailors and paddlers, set off together to race via checkpoints to a destination 300 miles or so along the Florida coastline. Some guys on sea kayaks, skis and paddleboards, paddle might and day for several days to finish. The sailors obviously do what they need to, whether it be sail, row, paddle or tow their tiny boats southward.
(The Paradox was designed for an event like this, and it's designer Matt Layden has placed well in  several events).
Preparation for this or other challenges may take years. And its no just about the boat being made fast and safe, its the sailors too. Many umder go rigorous phsical and mental training to give themselves every opportunity to complete the course before the course is "swept" (ie: the sweeper boat gathers the alowpokes and tows them ashore).
Over the years I've "friended" guys that habe sailed  several challenges, guy that set off on their first challenge, and guys that are
virgins. So early March is am exciting time, as we spectators from around the world follow the  events, through photos of the start, quick posts on the run and reports by organisers.
Very often things go wrong, on fact more often than not as only about a third of the field finish each year and sometimes on heavy weather, fewer still. Mostly, "fails" are due to illness, wxtreme fatigue or gear failure. And really, for everyone concerned all the sailors are winners for just getting to the start line. Unfoetunlately, sometimes sailors die. This years race has been marred by the apparent death of 73 year old Jim Slauson. Sailing solo on a self-by
Built 17' dinghy, he has somehow become disoriented and parted from his boat and has not yet been found.
Sorry news for all followers of the EC. But, it underlines the nature of challenges the we dinghy sailors undertake, and a risk we all willingly accept as part of our lifestyle 

Rudder Building

A picture tells a thousand words.  So now I may say less?

Mark one, cut,  trace and cut,  then glue. The it needs to be shaped into a foil. I know foils from surfing and earlier bodywork.  But,  filling threat notch with 3kg off lead , I have no clue .
Next Stage: Foiling

 Roughed out with plane. (Showing  the notch on the trailing edge where lead is  let in. ) Thos allows  the rudder to stay down while underway. I read that  the builder of the Enigma 460 prototype simply used a rope  downhaul.  One of the Paradox's crowning glories is that she makes do with just four pieces of rope: main halyard, furler, mainsheet and rudder uphaul. Adding a rudder downhaul would seem to diminish the simplicity of it all.

Better with belt sander

I'm tempted to saying something pithy like "the ply does not lie". What that simply means sixth at the various layers of ply are great indicators of depth and fairness. Of a join on the ply is wave, your sanding is off. Great fun, till I ran put of petrol for my generator

To be continued....

Protective capacity of Paradox Sailing

An interesting resume by Mat Llayden on the attributes of his "Enigma" design after completing the Ultimate Florida Challenge over 29 days of sailing, towing by hand, and  sculling. Enigma was the first sailboat ever to complete that course, third in this evemt just  hours behond two ski paddlers who benefited more from the course and conditions.

At home after the event.

"Enigma worked really well for most phases of the race, obviously she was least competitive on the river sections, held back further by my slight injury. She was surprisingly non-slow on the long road portage- if not for the wheel trouble her portage time would have been among the better of the eight boats that did it. Her best performance though was where there was enough wind and open water to set her up and let her go, when the low-stress, reliable, take-care-of-her-crew nature of this enclosed-cockpit, self righting cruiser lets her keep covering miles in comfort while most of the competition is exhausted, uncomfortable and looking for a campsite".

Paradox Build - Rear Hull Plate, portside

Aah, back to building again. And what a bloody relief it is to be progressing in life.
   I had been delayed with the project of late as the shackles to buy plywood were being amassed. Fortunately the notion was it upon to use the cheaper Construction Grade Plywood. A couple of sheets were had from the local hardware chain store for a third the cost of marine ply.
At home the Paradox plans were dug out and after a quick orientation a stern hull platewas marked off and cut out. The softer timbers of CD Grade ply are a pleasure to work with
 The harder marine grade seems to want to fight and struggle with tools. Feeling very chipper with the quick and excellent result, a rash decision was made to have a crack at a scarf. Woo!
The scarf is marked off with the dimensions of the stern plate, and deciding on the correct face* it was roughed out with an electric plane, before belt sanding to a great finish. The layers of the plywood are your friends as they guild you quite clearly through the depths. Job done!

* Now the angle of the scarf is made so the bow plate overhangs the stern plate. That way, any weathering or weakness on the join will not be made worse by the flow of water into the joint. Further, CD Grade ply has a " Good face", so you want to ensure that face is external on the hull.

@ March 11.
I bring the bow plate down to "double check" it before cutting a scarf and introducing it to its same side rear plate.  I quickly realised there was a major problem with the bow plates that I made several years ago. Now I need to go buy more CD Grade ply and so both bow plates again.  How it got that weird I will never know.
Hopefully I can recycle the bow plates into the rider assembly. 

To be continued.

Paradox Build- The Stem

The worst thing about taking a break from building is that you forget the feel of the build and it takes time to get back into the groove.
Today, I am particularly flummoxed by the Stem. The plans are economical with detail, probably giving the sharp witted builder just enough information to charge ahead with the build.
Well, I'm not the sharpest pencil on the third draw down, and I note that the builder of Paradox "Johanna" made a mistake with the Stem.

So, the top image is a photo of Johanna's stem (with a large chunk to be added), then below are the plans. The key issue is that the Stem is three dimensional. Arrgh!

But, ahead I must forge. No matter if I make a "cock up", at least I will be learning from my mistake. :)

Paradox - Marine Ply vs Construction Grade Ply

When my Paradox build began a sheet of half-inch marine was $80. Now it's upwards of $120!
While put buying hardwood to repair my daugter's horse float yesterday I had a yarn with the salesman about plywood. Hos prove was "$130 or more" and went on to suggest CD grade. So to reassure myself about it's qualities I asked. He said: "They used the same glue. Marine has two good faces of grade timber veneer. CD has just one good side". He reassured me that if it was going five to be epoxy coated inside and out, if you didn't mind slight imperfections, then it was a no brainer. CD grade it is, as soon as this rain eases. 

CD and Marine Ply?
Before  I took a long hiatus from building I had already prepared two of the four hull plates from Marine Ply. Subsequently the price of marine ply doubled and I  deided to go CD.
I think I avoided major hassles by NOT blending the two types of ply on the hull. The Marine Ply is heavier  and stiffer that the CD and the two would therefore flex differently and possibly weaken the scarf joint. Don't want that!
Reminded of an incident in my teen years. A "mate" took a liking to one of my surfboards and used to take it out whenever Ai wasn't about. One morning after qwaiting for him to bring my board back ,  he rocks up with a big grin "Sorry I dinged your board, but me and my dad fixed it ". I was astonished to see that rather than use straight fibreglass he had cut around the damage and fitted in a block of wood. I recall thinking it looked crap, but went surfing anyhow. The board snapped right through where the timber plug had been. Lesson: don't mix materials.