Making a “air-core” FibreGlass oar – part 1

My oar design on paper and plywood for the mould

It is my personal belief that all cruising yachtsmen (and yachtswomen) needs to learn the skill of fibreglassing. Who knows where you will be when you need to quickly whip up some fitting to safely do the next leg of journeying across the seas? Lets just hope that we will even find the resin still useable when we need.. yeah right..

Moulds.. made of plywood

Use a Fb/G working suit if you have one...

Let me try to describe this process in the proper sequence.

1. Design the oar, get the numbers right
2. Build the moulds, calculate the materials needed
3. Buy the materials… in my case, I bought almost everything from Wee Tee Tong.. 10m2 3oz Fb/G cloth, 10m2 Fb/G matt, 1×20kg tin polyester resin, 1kg MEKP(hardener), 1l Liquid wax, 4l Acetone … and then gather some other stuff like disposable gloves, paint brushes, vinyl sheets and car wax (mould release). Get a good 3M respiratory with charcoal filter for lungs protection from the fumes.
4. Prepare the mould by covering with vinyl sticker sheetins and then rub on generous amount of car wax. This picture shows our moulds, made of plywood and covered with leftover gloss vinyl sticker sheet and waxed for mould release.
   

   Cutting the rolls of fibreglass to the right size.

   From left, the bottom of blade, the upface of blade and the half oar (top half and bottom half is the same).

5. Cut the Fb/G to size, adding 1inch to every edge. My plan was to lay in the sequence of cloth, matt, cloth, matt. Plan and cut all the neccessary pieces for the job. Wear a protection suit and gloves if you wish to not get that Fb/G itch.
6. Mix polyester resin, note the formula. Dont be too ambitious to mix a big patch for the whole job… it will set before you can finish. I made my resin in batches of 300ml to 450ml and I found that I had just enough time before they become gluey jelly like.
   

   Painting on the resin, get as much on as possible

7. Paint the mould surface with resin. Add cloth to the mould, try to straighten out the cloth and let the wet resin hold it down. Paint more resin onto the cloth and tap it with the brush to make sure it soak thru the cloth. Cloth becomes transparant when throughly wet. Add matt and drench more resin until throughly soaked. Excess resin will drip down onto table… some waste is unavoidable.. Repeat the process, add cloth layer, wet out and then add final matt layer.
8. Repeat step 7 for the other moulds. Mix up more resin as needed. Let the layers and resin dry overnight.


Fb/G shell should come off easily from the waxed and vinyl mould

9. The Fb/G is ready for popping when dry and hard. Its only a little tacky in some areas on the top surface. We found that Liquid wax was not neccessary to make it less tacky and more handleable.
10. Saw off 1 edge of the Fb/G on the mould, and lift from this edge. The shells should lift quite easily from the vinyl. Wear gloves when doing this as the insides may still be quite tacky and the edges or some loose strands of fibres are very sharp.   
11. Cut off the excess Fb/G edges.. Tada! My shells are ready. This picture shows the blade top and blade bottom put together before the excess edges are cut off.

cut off the excess on the sides

Wrinkly surface from the vinyl

This is my 1st Fb/G doings and I think it went pretty well… I didnt get much of itch despite not putting on the suit, only had 2 piercings by the loose strands (and then I decided to wear gloves :p) .. after 3hrs of dabbing and tapping with the brush, my right hand and fingers were crampped for the whole night and so no games for me…  As we were working outdoors, the fumes werent too bad..

This is roughly the shape of the oar blade

Opps, the wrinkly shells. A result of chemical reaction between the resin and the vinyl. Not a problem for me as there are still 8 more layers to be added to the shells.

So we did this and then we were out of time.. more fibreglassing next weekend. .. TBC..

A little better, s’il vous plait

I was a little embarassed when I brought some friends out to dinner couple of nights ago, at a pretty well known restaurant serving chicken rice in Serangoon gardens. We were early and the waitresses were happy to serve up quickly.

More diners came and soon all the tables were taken, and the room was loud with lots of chatter. .. above that chatter was the occasional (rather too often) drop of utensils and used plates into the wash bin that was in a corner of the room.

We might be in the middle of a good story and then a loud “thump” “clang” of stuff being dropped into the bin. .. I saw my guest “jumped out of their skin” at each crash. It was disturbing for me to see such inconsiderate behavior by the waitresses, but I dont think they deliberate did that. This is a restaurant with 1st class food, 2nd class environment and 3rd class service… very sad… I dont think we will ever go back there again, despite the best tasting chicken rice in town.

Another discovery, my visitors (mostly from the US) actually prefer to eat at hawker centres rather than mid range restaurants or air-conditioned foodcourts. Can you guess why? How about these reasons: 1) Bad enclose acoustics resulting in very loud chatter and loud dish dumping noises 2) Too crowded and even if seats are available, its usually near a central dish dumping station or else its in the alley way or worse, near the toilets…. under the exhaust air vent from the toilet itself! 3) Too business like.. no local charm in the food that is served.. food are prepared by uniformed robots in branded chain food outlets.

We might be better than most… but there is alot of room for improvement… dont you think..? Starting from our expectations. If we take everything now and think it is good enough, then we will never get there.. .. very sad..

Building a mast for S/V Calliste

Self hoist up the mast

Its alot more complicated than my pictures will show.. but I am putting these pics here, in case you are thinking of building your own mast too.

Its not that we want to build a new mast like its a hobby thing, but that we had no choice. Calliste’s mast was damaged in the Tsunami of ‘04. We found that we couldnt afford to replace it by paying a professional boatyard and Doug wouldnt trust them around this region to do it properly. As is, he found many faults with the original mast from forespar. Hes dissapointed that pro riggers didnt know or just didnt care to make it right.

Doug taking notes at the loft office

……….The mast is a the most important structural fitting on a sailboat. It is the main “engine” and produces no carbon emissions, runs quietly, dont need no greasing and certainly no constant need of refuelling…. but.. mast making cost as much as buying and installing a new engine, and the sails are about as costly as diesel.

Work laid out on our finger between Calliste and Eleanor

Just setting it straight, sailing is not free energy.. after you add up the cost of the setup, it is surprising how much you will have to pay for it. … I should say, wind is free, energy and propulsion is not..

Workshop to machine the parts

This time, Doug is determined to do everything the “right way”. Given our limited finances and facilities, it was a challenge right from the beginning.

Lets start with setting up the workspace to actually fabricate your own mast. .. the 1st being the computer, internet and forum. Do as much research as you can, join the rigging forums, hook up with people who have done rebuilding their mast, buying parts and locating materials. The information that we gotten are aplenty but may not be complete, so we had to fill in some blanks.. and then figure a way to correctly produce the bits and pieces and then mounting… blar blar..

Working at our pontoon office.

Okay, next the workspace. .. its all over the place. We have the desk at home, the cabin onboard Calliste, the container workshop, the finger between Calliste and Eleanor, sometimes the gangway and even up on the mast. ..

Putting it together.. it fits! Spreader, baseplate and thru-bar

Alrighty, what have we got so far..? After 3 years of working on it.. almost full time … Here are some of the bits and pieces.

The spreaders were purchased from Rolly Tasker in Phuket. Baseplates and thru-bar were machined from flat stock T6061 aluminium which we could get easily from a stockist near our place in Singapore.

Doug made his own endcaps too!

These spreader endcaps were machined right here in Sebana… DIY by Doug… They look like a pretty close fit to me.

Dry fitting the mast splice.

We wanted a 1 piece mast without welding, but thats not possible. No company will make a 45ft aluminium extrusion and even if they did, it will be impossible to properly anodize that length. Our previous mast was welded and painted, something that Doug does not want in this “perfect” mast that is working for.

Checking the angles .

It was a surprise to us, but really, splicing better than welding in many ways. .. and many high performance racing sailboats have spliced mast and performed very well under great load.

well.. I think we are getting there… soon we will be able to anodize… which is another topic on its own..

… perfectionist is not quite enough to describe Doug… hmm… I wonder what is the word that would better describe his incredible desire for building everything perfect? Help me guys!

A very windy day

Sailboat, para-boardsailing, and wind surfing.

It has been a unusually windy week. Almost non-stop blowing of 15-20 knots for 4 days, even blowing quite hard through the night. This is the North East monsoon season, but I dont remember if we ever had this much wind..

This guy was air borne for 5 secs!

So anyway, the wind is in and the wind-lovers are out! Pardon me, my poor camera cant take good telephotos at dusk. Insufficient light for focussing.. I think.. I dont like the dull bluish tint on these shots…

Look at this guy, hes airborne! No wake under his board, that must be fun. .. only 5secs…. what do I know about boarding and parasailing..? Nilch..

Retired, for the day.

He has had enough, I suppose.. seems tired but reluctant to leave. Still a lot of good wind to go surf in…

Retired para kites.

Resting kites laid out on the square of the park, while the “regatta” is still going on. I didnt think there were that many in this club..

Pleasantly surprised I am, on this nice evening walk along Changi coast road.. my regular fortnight walk, coming back from Sebana on the Belungkor – Changi ferry.

Para-sailing regatta?

A layman’s case against the rich and powerful

If you dont already know about this case, do a search on Prita Mulyasari to read all that has been going on for more than a year now. I am happy to have read on 29/12/09, that she has been acquitted of the charges laid upon her. Follow this link and read the good news, http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/1027504/1/.html .

Over the New Year’s weekend, I had been thinking, why do I care about this woman and her plight? Other than sympathy, which makes me happy for her, why does this news affect me so much that I kept thinking about it? I may have gotten it all figured out by now.. not sure.. but I think case is a milestone in civil rights awareness in a developing country that is brought about by information technology that enabled Facebook. It gives me comfort to know that at least some good is coming out of the rapidly advancing technology…

I have for a long time, felt that my involvement (being part of the team that work on the 45nm, 32nm, 28nm and going into 22nm) with developing technologies was not leading to “goodness” in society. Everywhere I see kids (and adults) playing with electronic gadgets.. and shutting the rest of the world out of their minds.. and I think to myself, that when they are in a crowd, they are really alone in their world… That is sad, really. I should think, that there is a time to be alone, and a time to be alive. A time to see the world thru your very own eyes, beginning with your immediate surroundings.

Are we going into a age where our answer to “why do we have friends?” is “so that I have someone to send SMS to!” . Or are we going towards having no real friends, but have thousands of imaginery friends on Facebook? I thought we were… so like I said, I was really quite happy to know any case where technology made a real positive difference in someone’s life.

New moon New year!

Moon rise over Sebana on New Year's Day!

Today marks the 1st yr anniversary of funvinyldecals blog… and so I feel the need to commemorate this by posting a good picture here.

To the new year! Cheers everybody.

Christmas day sail!

Waking to the sounds of Doug preparing for a Turkey bake on Calliste, ending the day with a nice little sail on Eleanor, enjoying a Turkey wing while sailing around the estuary… surely a most memorable one for me.

Our 1st Buttonball Turks

We always like a Norbest Turkey whenever we get one.. but this year, we were late and the only remaining ones on 23rd were Butterballs. Well, time to try a different brand or else its no Turks right.. It cost a little more and is bigger than our usual.. we hope it turn out well.

Beautiful weather for working out in the cockpit.

Thats me doing my usual contribution to a Turks bake of preparing water chestnuts and chopping onions, I am off for a day of games…

Haha.. back on my FB games.. hooray for wifi.. when it works.

Well… I was also the carols “DJay”, searching and finding Celtic Woman Christmas songs thru U-tube.. I always like classical/musical stage and costumes… Think I am going to buy that DVD..

Doug had to build a tent because the old top wouldnt totally enclose Turks.

1100hrs, Turks was ready for the oven. Seems to be much bigger than we thought, only inches between the oven top and Turks. .. oh wow! Think about how much meat we’ll have… YUM!

Is that a gluttony look!?

Seems to me, I can always get a funny pic of Doug when hes handling Turks… recall the T-giving one? 

Turks taking up all the room in the oven..

Then, all we could do is wait 4hrs… hungry hungry hungry… snack snack snack.. In the meantime, I got Eleanor rigged and ready to go.

Santas' on board! Lucky me, I got a wing..

1600hrs, Eleanor loaded with our special Christmas meal and drinks, caught a puff and off we go.

Ahh... sailing and feasting..

Those bungalow dwellers watched us sail by and waving with drums and wings in our fingers… what must they think of us…! Damned those Decadent sailors…? Hee hee hee..

Developing system for anchoring Eleanor

There was a story about anchoring. A sailor with enough credentials to charter a sailboat took his party out to sea for a week. After 2 days, the boat Charter company receive a call from that sailor requesting new anchors to be delivered to them. “What about the 2 anchors that are on the bow pulpit?”. “We used them, but now we are in a new location and have no anchors to use!” … ? What a luxury! If only I could afford to have multiple anchors or have someone deliver them to me when I need it. Wow!

Getting ready to throw anchor over port

Alright, so what do very small sailboat captains do for anchoring? For a micro cruising yacht like Eleanor, I did not want to incur the expense of building a bowsprit or pulpit for mounting the anchors on the bow like bigger sailboats do.. and no electrical windlass to help me bring it up, means that I have to go up on deck to haul it up anyway.

Anchor dropped

Being a single hander on Eleanor, I find that going up on the bow in rough conditions to be dangerous and should be avoided. So, what are the ways to deploy and retrieve an anchor without breaking a back or leaving the comfort zone of the cockpit?

Letting the rode out.

Here I am trying out my idea. I start with 20ft 1.5″ thin wall PVC conduit pipes, cut into 12ft and 8ft sections. The anchor rode is led through the 12ft section, then the 8ft section. The 8ft pipe is laid on the inside of the shrounds and the 12 ft is run on the outside. 1 small hole is drilled into each end of each pipe, so that a 1/8″ rope is used secure the pipes to headstay. Finally, the 8ft pipe is securely fastened to the shrouds, and the 12ft pipe is held in position by the tension in the chain.

Position of float is too far forward.

A small float attached to the floating red rope is tied to the aft end of the 12ft pipe. The floating line should be about 15ft according to my calculations, but I lengthen it to 18ft later in the trials. 

Retrieving anchor. Something is wrong with this picture.

As you can see, I am testing the system in my berth, trying to identify and fix any initial issues before heading out to a real test.  

Deploying is simple, just throw the anchor over and let the weight drag out the rode.

Pulling on the line to get anchor up on the side

Looking at the picture of retrieving, I find there is much to be improved to reduce the effort at the pulling. It is rather back breaking to pull up just the weight of the anchor in this calm condition, so imagine 20knots, current and 5:1 scope. I should be able to use the winch, but it could chafe the dodger. Next try, I am going to extend the 8ft pipe by 1.5ft.

Notice how the pipe bends to the contour of the hull?

Anyway, so I pulled in the rode until my mark that indicate the anchor hanging with 1ft of chain from the bottom of the hanging down 12ft pipe. At this point, I cleat of the chain and pulled up the float that is near to me at the cockput, until the end of the 12ft pipe emerge, then cleat of the line, reach over and pull the anchor up.

Finally, anchor up on deck.

There you have it, anchor retrieved without leaving the cockpit. Now I am going to sit back, review the pictures and think about how I can make this whole process less painfully back breaking.

Really appreciate tips and comments from you fellow small craft sailors. Cheers for the new year!

My new camera, Nikon L20

Snoozy on watch!

The bad news and the good news. My old L16 died. … the good part of it was… it was pronounced died on the 361 st day of my owning it. .. Nikon replaced it with the new L20. Looks almost the same, but with 10M pix, my pictures should be better…. nah.. its not the number of pixes that make the pictures better!

Anyway, how do you like this pix of Snoozy! Perched on the window of my high floor apartment.. .. scary.. .. well, there is a ledge under the window that is not visible here, so no worries ok.. .. hows the view girl?

Sold OUT!

Went shopping last night(21/12/09) for Turkey and its SOLD OUT! ARRGGHHHHH!!! We are going to have to try another store this evening… fingers crossed..

Got a Buttonball last night(22/12/09). It was S$10 more than our favorite Norbest! I hope it taste fabulous!… But ! the most important thing is, we WILL have Turks this Christmas! YES!