Month: August 2018

Exlex Minor will sometimes, after an ocean crossing be used as a beach landing craft. She will also be transported on trailers. This calls for a strong bottom.

To get a very strong bottom on a sandwich construction you need a tough core. Diab has supplied such a core. It has military specifications and is used for submarines among other thing. Yacht 40 – 50 -60 feet use a core of a density of about 80 kilo per cubic metre. The core I have chosen has a density of 350 kilos per cubic metre and is very strong, roughly strong in proportion to its density. Each sheet is tested.

I have now started to do the bottom.  The core is 27 mm thick. I cannot bend the sheets. They are to stiff.  Therefore I have cut them into smaller pieces and I am cross planking her bottom. That way I can give her the desired lungutudinal curvature.

Below some pictures.

Abowe: The first three cross planks.

A closer look. The circle is where the test piece has been taken. First I got angry at all those holes, but when Anders at Diab explain the purpose I got proud that such care had been taken to produce the material to my boat. No haphazard manners here.

65 centimeters of the lenght of the boats bottom has been done today.

I have also added 10 fluoerscent tube to get more light. Winter is coming. Being in a well lit workshop brings happiness.

In the bow end of the boat I have with the help of a laser marked the center.

To be continued…

Regards Yrvind.

I got the mast safely to the workshop yesterday. After walking a while I saddled the bike and started pedaling. It was wobbly but I mostly keept to smaller streets. When crossing heavy trafficed streets, if such are to be found here in Västervik I did it by walking.

Today I have cut down the masts to size 2.6 meters long. They weigh in at about 2.5 kilos without paint and a few small fittings. The track will be grinded away  so they will weigh about 3 kilos each when finished. That will be wery handy. They can easily be set and taken down to suit the weather conditions. The masts of late Exlex had a weight of about 5 kilos so this weight reduction will improve stability and handling a lot.

 

The bow panels seems to come together nicely. I do it bit by bit as not to crack them.

Some pictures below.

Starting the mast transport from Marström Composite factory idyllically situated at the Baltic a few hundred meters from my small flat.

One of the masts cut to 2.6 meters on the scale.

The scale reads 2656.7 grams or about 2,7 kilos

The difference between the weights of the masts is 63 grams.

There will be a third mast made from glass fibre. Glass fibre makes it possible to place the AIS/WHF antenna inside the mast. This protects the mast and an eys sore is gone.

A combination of Spanish windlasses and clamp gets the side panels gently into place. The panels are here a bit longer than the boat. The reason to get a good curvature by bending. Once the are fixed the excess material will be cut off.

To be continued…

Regards Yrvind.

Taking delivery of my new masts by bike since i put my car on hold…

The masts intended for the Europe Dingy class and will be cut down to size for the balanced lug sails.

To be continued…

Regards Yrvind

 

Today the 27 of August it is exactly one month since I came back from my voyage in Exlex. The progress of Exlex Minor is going well. Today I put on the first pieces of Divinycell on the mould. Pictures below.

The first three pictures show how I managed to bevel the bow with the help of trunnels. This is the first step in converting a hard chine boat to a boat with a spoon bow. When the Divinycell comes on more shaping will be done.

The bow from the side showing how the trunnels keep the plywood in position.

Below, one more close up of the trunnels.

The male plug is now ready to take on the Divinycell, but first I insulate it with a plastic film to prevent the Divinycell from getting glued to the plug by any epoxy leaking between the pieces.

Finally two sheets of Divinycell H 100 40 mm thick is in place.

To be continued…

Regards Yrvind

I am have now started to shape the bow. Its not evident how to proceed. I am trying to bevel the edges much in the front then let it taper of towards the back. To keep the plywood together I am using trunnels or treenails set in NM-epoxy, because  it is easy to saw and grind them.

Below are some pictures. The plywood is screwed at the edges. If I remove the screws it will fall of. The trunnels are inside the screws. When the epoxy has set I can remowe the screws and bevel the edges.

Below a closer picture.

And one from the front. Click once or twice to enlarge.

The material for the trunnels comes from a flower shop. Its sticks to help the lazy flowers stand up. Flower crutches. I mean what motivates a flower to stand up once its stem has been cut. If I was a flower and a big animal came and cut me lose from my roots. I would not stand up just to please the cruel cutter.

To be continued…

Regards Yrvind.

To be continued…

Regards Yrvind

Its not going to be a plywoodboat, but I cover the moulds with plywood to in an effort to shape the bow to an compound curvature. That way I hope to be able to give Exlex a spoonbow.

Some pictures below.

The first one the bow that I try to make into a spoon shape. It is not evident how to do that but the idea is to make it in stages.

The aft part from above. More plywood pieces is on its way.

The stern.

Screw scarfing the Yrvind way.

To be continued…

Regards Yrvind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

VISITING FRIENDS

As late as Sunday night 12^th of August 2018 the idea was to first to build a prototype of plywood before starting on the real composite Exlex Minor. Somehow, for several reasons, very late in that night I changed my mind. The train of thoughts started with me having problems finding good marine plywood. Some people say that if encapsulate the plywood in epoxy you can use the cheapest plywood. Maybe so but the idea of using an inferior product goes against my grain. Then it was the spoon bow; with thicker Divinycell it would be easier to sculpture a nice round shape, an other reason was that the plywood version and the composite version always would be different due to different skin thicknesses 18, 12 and 9 millimeter for bottom side and deck for plywood versus 25, 40 and 20 for the Divinycell core. A third reason was I was eager to get sailing and would be more motivated if I was working on the real boat. It was a complex decision with several factors working for and against the final decision. During the night I kept tossing ideas against each other. Finally when I fell asleep Monday morning the decision was to go composite. I hope I made the right decision, time will tell.

When I woke up I phoned Anders Lindström at Diab in Laholm, the Divinycell people. Over the phone we worked out what suitable core materials where in stock.

Then I phoned Sten Fransson at Tanso in Jönköping for Carbon fibers peel ply and protecting gloves. He said I could come by. The carbon fiber will be used on the inside laminate to absorb impacts. More about that later.

Finally I phoned Gunnar Malmgren at NM-epoxy in Ytterby just outside Kungälv telling him that I was coming over to the west coast and asked if it was OK if I came by to pick up epoxy

Håkan Johansson at Mekonomen Västervik lent me a big van.

Tuesday 14 of august in the morning I started. My first stop was Tanso Jönköping. Sten took me to lunch and I explained my project and what I needed.

From Jönköping I drove from Ytterby near Kungälv where Gunnar greeted me,

then finally to Laholm. Now it was late. Being frugal I slept in the big car. My money would be better spent on the boat than on a hotel.

Early next morning Anders showed me around in the factory and helped to stove the Divinycell in the car.

On Wednesday afternoon I was back in Västervik. Håkan helped me to unload the car.

Today thuesday 16 of August I have again borrowed Håkans van now to porchase plywood and particle board for the moulds. The ones I made for the plywood version is of no use now as I will build differently. Now I can start to build in earnest.

Below Håkan and the van he lent me.

Below Sten at Tanso

The picture below is from inside the factory, showing a friendly girl tempting me with apples and a machine that works graphite.

Below Gunnar showing me around in the epoxy factory here a mixing machine.

Below a filling up machine.

Below some of the MN-epoxy for the new boat.

Below Anders showing me around in the Diab factory. The machine shown grinds the Divinycell sheets to exact thickness.

Below me and Anders and the Divinycell sheets in the van. My sleeping bag is in the blue sack between us.

I am now safely back home in Västervik working on Exlex Minor. I am thanking everyone supporting me and Exlex through Swish and Pay Pal. Please continue. Your contributions are needed.

To be continued…

Regards Yrvind.