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