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SECURING THE WATER JUGS AND MYSELF

On Exlex I had a diameter 25 mm stainless steel pipe beside the bed to secure my seafety belt to. It was heavy. Exlex Minors middle name is now Light so here I will use a rope saturated with NM-epoxy attatched to Divinycell.

Here I am doing a mock up. Later the thing will be be laminated to give extre reenforcement where needed.

Below pictures.

A 15 mm rope is sawn on to a 20 mm H200 piece of divinycell using my sailmakers palm.
Saturated with NM-epoxy the rope becomes very stiff. Think of a frosen rope but even much more stiff.
This arrangement allows me to tie down the jerrycans and also in breaking seas get a safety belt attached. This is a mock up. The real thing will be reenforced with fibers, carbon fibers I belive.

Using textile instead of metall safes a lot of weight. This is in the interest of speed.

To be continued…

Regards Yrvind.

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MORE OF THE SAME

The stowage in the Captains cabin besides the water also contains the batteries. I have found a size of nearly the same with as the water jugs so now I have filleted the panels in place.

Big deep clamps holds the port panel in place while the fillets cure. Part of one battery can be seen behind the panel to the right of the picture.
Here a mock up of the saloon, the deck and the two aft windows. The windows have a diameter of 20 cm or 8 inches. Headroom is sufficient.
A cardboard mock up of the lunch box center of the picture in brown. Volyme about 45 liters. The picture shows the port one. There will be another one to the starboard side but not so wide.
The beginning of the real lunch box. I do as much as possible of the work on the bench, for convinience and for better results. Now the box is upside down. Doing filliting and tejping work later would have been extremely difficult.

To be continued…

Regards Yrvind.

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A BOOK AND MORE MOCK UP

I have done more mock up, now in the saloon. I now have a pretty good idea of the finished boat. Exlex Minor have turned out very roomy despite being only 4 cm longer and 19 cm vider than Exlex that was indeed very cramped. Exlex Minor have definitely place for two persons friendly persons to cruise long distances a boy and a girl.

Edition Paulsen did 11 of October publish a book titled 100 Marin. Its a selection of famous yachtsmen from the last 150 years including Jules Verne, Bernard Moitessier, Francis Chichester, Jack London, Naomi James plus 94 other equally famous person and me. Its a mystery how I got included, but I am proud to be included in that crowd.

Below are some pictures click on them once or twice to enlarge.

Me in the Captains Cabin flanked by water jugs batteries and other stuff.
The saloon. I am sitting on the anchor box containing anchors chains and rope about 15 cm high. On Exlex port side, to my right is a box containing food 38 cm high. Its counter is 35 cm wide and 54 cm long. On the starbord side is a smaller version. There will be windows aft and on on each side giving  a good 180° vieuw.
There is also a place to sitt on the flour for a secound person or if you just feel like a change.
The book is big and heavy and comes in a box. It is also at 99 € very expensive.
The langueage is French but there is plenty of pictures.
Here is to order.

To be continued…

Regards Yrvind

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MOCK UP WATER & LAZARETT

The main bulkheads are in place. they are now also filleted and taped with carbon fiber +45°/-45°.

Next step is to do mock up of water storage. There is 12  five liter jerry cans. 6 on each side. Empty ones can be moved to leeward. I think I have found some AGM batteries with the same with 19 cm as the jerrycans.

Also in the stern a mock up for a lazarett is made. It will be the place for oilskins, diving flippers and mask. There will also be a snorkel although my lack of teath make the use of it difficult.

Below some pictures.

The six jerrycans on the port side, further aft comes batteries
Aft end below deck is the intended place for the lazarett.
Each container holds full about 5.6 liters of water. Twelv of them gives about 67 liters. Add to that 7 one liter bottles for daily use and it makes about 75 liters. Now in Exlex Minor where I got more space I also plan to have grape fruit oranges and apples as water containers. Fruit have about 90 % water.
Putting carbon tejp on the edges of the panels for the water storage and the lazarette.

To be continued…

Regards Yrvind.

 

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MORE MOCK UP AND COMMENCING WITH THE REAL STUFF

Thanks to the mock up I have been abel to refine Exlex Minor and fix the position of the bulkheads that I have started to fabricate and install.

Below are pictures of the work. Click once or twice to enlarge.

There will be no place aft for a guest. The space is planned for wet gear. This also gives me the possibility to sit lenghtwise and athwartship. The picture shows the mock up of the miniature half bulkhead.
The same miniature bulkhead seen from the side.
Working on the main bulkhead. Here I am tejping the two skins of the sandwich construktion together. There will be a lot of running through this door so edges that can take wear is desirable.
Installing the bulkheads. The fore bulkhead close to the camera have been moved aft 40 cm, the main one in the background have been moved aft 30 cm. Captens cabin 190 cm long is between the two bulkheads. The effect is that the fore cabin is now very roomy. It is 240 cm long.
An unexpected advantage of the new mock up is that it has created a guest cabin in the foreward part of Exlex big enough for a modest size girl. Who knows what magic the future will offer?

To be contained…

Regards Yrvind.

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THE START OF THE MOCK UP

Today I hae started the mock up. As so often happend before my idears when faced with reality had to be modified, luckily to the better. The most surprising was the creating of a revolving door.  Its a semicircel that turns on a horisontal lengthwise axis. I think it has much promis. Also having today spent time inside Exlex Minor I am impressed with all the space.

Below a picture.

The mock up of the two main bulkheads are now in place. Between them is the Captains cabin, aft is the dining room, forward is the forepeak hopefully containing nothing but being a place from wich I can hanel the foresail. The two semicircular doorways can be seen in the ulkheads.

To be continued…

Regards Yrvind

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NOW I HAVE A HULL

Its a small step for mankind but a huge one for me. I have a hull and I am very happy about that.

Please keep support my project.

Her weight is 182 kilos. Her lenght is 580 cm. Her beam 123 cm, same as Matt Laydens Paradox, a boat a have sailed a lot. I have not copied Matts beam. Its convergent evolution. Concerning the weight I am happy about it and in general with the work so far. Everything looks very promising.

Below 3 pictures.

Exlex Minor is a big enough boat for an old modest man. There is even place for a small girl. Only a show-off has use for a bigger boat.
The boat is weighted for and aft. Here the scale showing the forward reading of 50 kilos.
Adding the numbers. Forward 50 kilos and aft 132 kilos gives a total of 182 kilos. Exlex Minor have a very strong bottom. The Divinycell has a density of 350 kilos a cubic meter, also there is several layers of glass fiber on the bottom for beach landing. I have also done a calculation of the center of gravity by measuring the distance between the two points of weighing.

To be continued…

Regards Yrvind

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MORE ABOUT CARBON ON OUTSIDE OR INSIDE

Yesterday I showed some pictures about why I have chosen to put the carbon fiber on the inside of the Divinycell instead of the outside.

Below are photos of tests I made about 15 years ago. Those tests convinced that placing carbon fibers on the inside of a sandwich construction makes it way more stronger than to have them on the outside, regarding impacts.

These two samples each are laminated with carbon fiber. The left one on the inside, the right one on the outside. Hitting them with a big hammer the right sample was easily penetrated the left one got a dent but no more.
The inside of the same two samples. The left one with the carbon on the inside shows no damage. The right one with carbon on the outside is completely penetrated.

Clearly the difference to impact impact is like day and night. It is no more difficult to or not much more difficult to put the carbon on the inside than on the outside, but it so much more safe. My advice to builders of small ocean going cruisers: Use carbon fibers on the inside to get a strong safe boat.

To be continued…

Regards Yrvind

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WORK ON THE INSIDE

Exlex Minor is built using the sandwich princip, an superior way concerning weight, stiffness, strenght, insulation and flotation. The boat has however to be laminated on outside and inside.

After doing the outside lamination with the help of friends I have now started on the inside.

Before that the mess created by wrecking the mould had to be gotten rid of and the inside surface shaped to a nice finish.

Below are some pictures.

The boat turned 90° the moulds was glued to the flour but with the help of a big hammer, – laying in the left lower corner of the picture, – they were smashed, letting me lift hull and and mould and turn it over with the help of the chain hoists.
A view of the inside of the bow, a lot of things to get rid of well scruwed together and glued, but by getting at a week point I succeded to get rid of the lot.
To fair the hull I used plywood. Most of the boat was hard chine. I however wanted a spoon bow therefore I cut away the edges at the bow. To keep the plywood together I used the kind of sticks ladies support their flowers with as can be seen here. One stick does not give much strenght, but plenty of them adds upp to a stiff construction.
The mess. Håkan kindly lent me his big Mekonomen van. I drove the mess to the dump. I have a driving licence. I got it August 1957. I have used it a lot. The police have never cought me for speeding parking offence or any other bad deed. The should give me an award after 60 years of good driving.
The inside was not even. It had to be grinded and sandpapered to a good even surface. It took many hoers of hard boring work, but in the end it was well worth the effort and it shore gave me a lot of pleasure to see the result. It made me plenty happy to get such a nice hull built by my own hands, not to forget the help from my friends.
I use carbon on the inside. There it contributes very much more to strenght than if I had placed it on the outside, becouse on the inside the fibers takes up tension forces distributed by the Divinycell over a large area. The tension forces has its origin in much smaller local compression on the outside skin. It makes all the differences to the safety of the boat. I would say for all practical purposes this configuration makes Exlex unbreakable. It feels nice to sail such a thrustworthy boat on the big routhless ocean.
Working om the bow I leaned the boat forward. Working on the side I keep the boat heeled over. Arranging your workpiece makes work more comfortable. It is also easier to apply the NM-epoxy and the Tanso carbon fiber.

To be continued…

Regards Yrvind