Sign Writing

Apologies to anyone who may be a sign writer.
But......

I have a real problem with paying $300 for a simple sign that just requires someone to hit print on the vinyl cutting machine.

So.......

I did it myself.

Pretty happy with the result.

The mask.


Mask on hull.








Removing the mask.







No excuses when your brush has a name like this.




Still waiting on the taxi checker tape. Ordered it from the States and got absolutely massacered on the exchange rate.

All those little jobs

Spent the weekend with he who can't be named doing all of those little crappy jobs that look like nothing but end up taking half a day.
Footstraps on, rudder pintles on, rudder foils sanded, CB's sanded, and more buffing.

Pintles Fitted



Foot Straps


And hey Joann, no I haven't bounced on it but I've found someone who has.

Also...Florin Isvoranu, how come when I go to your cat blog I can't get in???

Tramp and Buffing.

The trampoline is tensioned up and finished. (Broke one rivet gun on the 5mm monel rivets, second one lasted.)

The tramp is from Goodall sails (AHPC) and they were awesome. The guy who made it included a hand drawn diagram with the button spacing measurements and a couple of long distance phone calls just to check on what I wanted. Highly recommend them.




Above and below pics show underside of beams with attachment points.



Apart from that we've been doing plenty of buffing, fitting the centreboards, and a bit of tidying up on the mast.


Starting to get a shine up.

I'm back.

So, after a long layup of being seriously distracted by other issues I'm back onto the boat.

I know I've probably been slack but....

The other day I was talking to a friend and he asked me how close was I to launching. I replied that I could probably do it in two weeks if I got stuck into it but that there is really no hurry. I have enough stuff going on in my life that is urgent or has deadlines. This is supposed to be fun, so that's why I am sometimes a little casual about progress.

Anyway...

Hulls assembled and doing final buffing.

Trampoline half fitted. (At least now I know it fits)

One Down and then the Rain

My wife showing interest in the project.


It took a while...But I never said I wasn't a bit thick....

I just couldn't understand how you can get a good finish with a paint that you can't cut and polish. (For those that don't know, the 2pac is best not touched out of the gun, any attempt to cut and polish will diminish the gloss)

That's OK in a spray booth but at home, what do you do about insects, stray dust etc?

Well...

You buy about 12 plastic drop sheets @ $2 a pop and line your work area with them.

Ceiling, walls and floor.

Easy.



Really happy with the result. Good gloss and no more work to do.

Apart from that I've been performing the really fun task of removing sail numbers (my main has the wrong numbers for this boat.)
Man......
What a demoralising job. Takes about four hours, half a can of thinners or turps, and a six pack to remove three numbers.

Anyhow...

No work on the other hull this weekend because of this.



Next weekend may be in doubt too as my wife's car will probably need some work to pass Rego'.

I think I'll use the bad weather this weekend to start building up the main beam, dolphin striker etc.(or maybe I'll just do nothing.)

Also. I think the seals have gone in my compressor, which didn't come as much of a surprise as it is just a "Heap O Shit" brand. It's still OK for blowing stuff down and pumping up tyres etc, but I am worried that oil maybe getting into the moisture trap.

So, I think I'll hire a good compressor for the next hull as the paint is too expensive to risk and buying another "Heapo" is just a waste of time.

I'll post some more pics of the painted hulls and some of the actual painting when the weather clears up and I do the other hull. Probably in a couple of weeks time.

Also, you've gotta love this (blatantly stolen from SA, where it was probably stolen from somewhere else).

YELLA!

Sorry for the absence, we had about three weekends of bad weather where I couldn't consider painting. Then I had to work pretty long hours for a couple of weeks so nothing much got done.

We have just had a good weather window which allowed me to finish the port hull.

I applied the primer with roller and brush, "tipping".

For those who haven't heard of te method what you do is this:

Apply a small area (around 0.5 sqm) with the roller, this gives you a nice even paint distribution. Then you run over it with a high quality, 100mm brush, which removes the dimples left by the roller.

This method gives a really nice finish as good or better than most amateurs can achieve by spraying.

Unfortunately, in my case, I had no choice but to spray the top coat. Reason being I am using yellow and with the brush/roller you will always overlap a little on each section you do. With yellow this results in a highly visible darker area.

I was all keyed up to finish preparing the other hull for painting this weekend but there is no longer any hurry as the forecast is for rain so.....
Maybe next week.