Frames Going In

Started on the frames yesterday. As mentioned earlier I have made F53.5 & F110 12mm just to make things bulletproof. It looks very solid so maybe it is a bit overkill. It is taking longer than I thought but I'm getting there. I got F110 stitched this evening. I will make a spacer for now between F110 & F124 to make sure the keel box will fit snugly.
Not sure how everybody else is measuring things up but I am setting up my stringline and measuring from the front of the stem to get the frame distances (I use a bit of electrical tape round the stringline to mark the spot). I lay a straight edge athwartships and measure from the bow left and right to get the perpendicular. I then use a plumbob to scribe the line on the floor for the frame position. Seems to be accurate so far.

Turns out it's F110 that sits on a panel joint not F169.5. I trimmed a little off the sides of the frame for fit and the outside of the hull looks fine with no obvious deformation apparent except for the very top. This may disappear once the shear clamp is attached but I may add some extra glass tape along the top, we'll see how things progress.
I'm hoping I haven't created a stress point which will come back to haunt me. On the plus side, the hull is looking pretty smooth as it curves back from the stem which is great.

Addition of backing plate at the top of the hull

First strips of glass

The floor and transom are glassed in. Woohoo!! Long way to go though so not getting too excited. Thanks to the guys on the i550 website for their advice. I had forgotten about the dreaded amine blush. It has been a bit humid here so I got stuck into the filler with water and a scrubbing pad followed up with a good sanding. There were a few bits I needed to patch up so I got that done first thing this morning before getting the glass down.
I have decided to double the thickness of F53.5 and F110 as they look too light for my taste. The extra weight will be negligible so what the heck.

No pics as everybody knows what a hull looks like.

Basic Hull Shape

Cradle is reassembled and aligned, down goes the floor. Funny thing but it doesn't sit straight at F89, off to the right. I pulled the floor out and measured for square. Turns out the sheets are out of alignment so the floor curves like a banana. Obviously this was the root of our earlier problems with one side apparently being longer than the other. Now that it's sorted things are progressing smoothly (relatively).
The sides went on fairly easily and I left the bow section unstitched until everything was where it should be. I decided that the floor sections from F89 forward were sitting too flat so I made a brace from 4x2 shaped to the bottom of F53.5 and screwed this to the underside of the hull, a pile of bricks took care of F89.

I now have the stem screwed into place and the transom stitched. The floor sections have now been filled and I will probably tape everything tomorrow.

Lessons learned: I guess having crashed and burned like the Hindenburg the first time around I was aware of most of the issues and worked to minimise them. Shaping the floor and sides now so that they match the shapes of the frames will ensure easier frame fitting later. I measured the hell out of everything so I am confident that the boat is square and symmetrical.

 When we [Leigh (#343) and I] first planned the cutting we decided that due to the amount of problems builders were having with the shape of the bow we would experiment and place the short section to the stern. So far so good although I think F169.5 may sit right on the joint. Not sure whether this may present a problem. Stay tuned.

Hull 203 has moved home

Well the original project was for two boats #203 & #343 (see our original efforts at http://i550act.blogspot.com/). As is the way of the world things did not go according to plan. We ran into some technical difficulties to which we could find no obvious solution and the project came to a grinding halt.
A few months later, with Leigh's house going on the market, a new home was required so I have moved the build to my house.
The first few weeks were depressing with a huge pile of ply and associated gear all piled in my shed. I started by not starting, just doing little moves and bits and pieces. I didn't really have much enthusiasm for a big tidy up but by and by I had a well sorted shed with enough room for my tools and machinery and the boat.