I’m working around the clock to finish my second sailboat before thanksgiving.
The Lowrider has been indispensable again.
This is the intended design: The Hadron H1 singlehander dinghy by Keith Callaghan
albeit mine should have an asymmetric spinnaker in front.
- Cutting out the plywood - 6mm okoume for planks…the rest varies from 4mm to 12mm.
note the puzzle joints. i am hoping the overlay of planks will be mitigate any risk of structural imperfections. plus i reinforced the most vulnerable joins with fiberglass.
- I flow-coated (three layers of wet on wet epoxy) everything as much as i could before beginning the build. A lot easier to do this ahead of time flat and off the jig.
For this build I went with US Composites “Thin Epoxy” and their Aerosil-Cabosil and Fairing fillers. They are cheaper than West System without all the marketing. Their pump system is far superior. I will say West System is a mine of information on techniques and best procedures.
- Bending the planks over the mdf jig. centerboard box already fitted into jig. it might have been easier had i not flow-coated the first two planks…anyway it got done with a lot of clamps and the occasional temp screw.
- Cedar core centerboard and rudder: used lowrider to cut contour pieces to assist when planing.
Here applying three layers of carbon - unidirectional, twill X 2 and a final thin blanket of fiberglass.
Wood boat building regrettably comes with a lot of bad waste.
- Filled any gaps with adhesive filler, applied blanket of fiberglass across bottom planks and tape over all seams.
- Faired in tape seams and applied another three coats of epoxy that absorbs into filler and any unfilled bubbles in tape.
- Primed 2 coats. Waiting on a proprietary filler that pairs with Interlux for final ‘final’ fairing which I will do at the end. Boat color will be red.
- Off jig!
- Taping interior seams and fairing this week…then interior buildout.
