Skip to main content

Hatches, pt. 2

I've been working on the main hatch for the past few days. Today I did the big glue-up for it.

The first step was to line the inside of the hatch opening with thin strips of wood that would extend up above the deck. Mine extend 5/8" above the deck, but I just chose that length randomly based on how it looked.


The hatch cover is held down by magnets. You can see the inner magnets in the picture above. They have been embedded in the fore and aft strips of wood. I used a 1/2" Forstner bit to make the holes, and then epoxied them in. When epoxying them in, I set the strips on plastic so that the magnet would be completely embedded in epoxy and wouldn't come out. It also smooths the side of the wood.

Next, I got to work on the hatch cover. It too will have a piece of wood both fore and aft with matching magnets. See the picture below. Then on the outside of those pieces, I will epoxy a nicer looking piece of cedar.


In the picture below, you can see the plastic spacer I used between the two magnets. It kept the epoxy from sticking to the inside hatch pieces when the cover pieces were curing. 


Below is a picture of the how the end pieces of the cover were glued up. When cured, the end pieces came off easily due to the plastic spacers.


Today, I fitted the side pieces to the end pieces, and then glued the whole thing together, including the top of the cover.


After about six hours, I removed the cover (it was a bit tough to get off as a small amount of epoxy somehow got between one of the corners. But it finally came off. I'll need to do a bit of a cosmetic fix later) and ran a bead of thickened epoxy around the inside top edges to further secure the 1/16" plywood that forms the curved cover.

Tomorrow I'll remove it again and start any cleanup and final shaping of the cover.

Then onto starting the rig. Finally!


Peace!


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

IOM Sailboat Stand

I made an IOM boat stand! The plans are from David Jensen in Bellevue, WA, USA. I found the plans through someone else's blog here , and a model sailboat club from Australia here . It was pretty straightforward to build. My only contribution to the design is that I laser cut the cradle out of 1/8" Lite Ply. I made eight copies, and then epoxy laminated two sets of four each. Turned out really well. If you wish to laser cut your own set, here is my DWG file . You'll have to have your own laser cutter, or send the job to a laser cutting company like National Balsa . Here are the original plans , and here are the original plans for just the cradle . Thanks to David Jensen!! Note that in the picture below, my boat is not finished! Yikes. You can't see it in this image, but there's a small chuck of self-stick foam behind the bulb to protect the bulb. I'll eventually incorporate some Velcro or a strap of some sort to hold the bulb in place so

IOM Rig Box (IOM Sail Box) plans

So all the cool IOM kids seem to have nice wooden boxes to store their rigs in. This might be my next quick project then, so that I can pretend to be cool too. :-P The rig box images that I've seen online are mostly similar, and would work well, but David Jensen from Bellevue, WA, USA (The same guy who designed a fantastic IOM boat stand I posted about earlier) has a really nice design that he shared on RC Groups . Or if that link doesn't work, the go here and search for " IOM sail box " or " IOM rig box ". It holds three sets of rigs for the A, B, and C rigs. He also has a nifty way to attach his IOM boat stand, with a boat on it, to the rig box. His rig box has wheels attached, so once everything is loaded up he just wheels it to the launch spot. Very nice! There are other sources online. They show different variations of the same type of sail box. Here's a nice looking one . Here's a YouTube video of a really nice one . Wil

A Wooden "Alternative" IOM RC Sailboat

Being forced to stay home due to the Coronavirus quarantine has had a positive impact on my boat building. I still haven't been able to sail my newly completed Vickers V8 IOM, yet have just planked and glassed a wooden Alternative IOM . It only took me eight days. It usually takes a couple weeks. I haven't been motivated to blog about it, but I started planking on 5 April and finished planking last night. Today I sanded and have fiberglassed the outside. The Alternative by Brad Gibson was a challenge to plank due to its up-swept bow and flared sheer near the bow. It turned out okay, but as any builder will tell you, there are goofs all over. One that I only discovered after sanding is a lighter colored plank on the starboard side. It really showed up after fiberglassing as the epoxy brought it out... GAAAAH! How did that get there? The other goofs I'll let you find, but that one is pretty obvious. Here's how it looks so far: Here you can see that mu

IOM Alignment and Measuring Jig (UPDATED)

I need to start to consider how I'll mount the fin and bulb, and get it all straight, so I made a 3D modeled alignment jig: Ian Dundas in Scottland sent me pictures of his setup. I just bought a laser level too! He does amazing work and has been a great help in this project so far. There is also another jig featured on page 14 of the winter 2008 Canadian Radio Yacht Association (CRYA) newsletter that features one. It's by Lawire Neish. Read it here . I took both those designs and made my own version that features sliding cradles for the hull, a fixed waterline sight, proper depth to cradles for the bulb, etc... Most of the parts can be laser cut, and the two end pieces and the base can easily be cut on a tablesaw. It has fixed waterline sights that are 420mm above the top edges of the bulb sliders in the base. The fore and aft cradles can be slid up and down to adjust the waterline of the hull. You'll see that the overall interior length is 1003mm t