segunda-feira, 26 de setembro de 2011

Dilemma (text)

Dilemma
As far as boat building goes last 18 months have been poor in terms of turnover. Every time I make plans to give the boat a good leap towards completion I find myself tangled with all sorts of other presumably important and urgent things to do.
To start with I must build a shack ( 15x 3m) to breed rabbits, ducks, chickens and possibly a pig for domestic consumption. We have enough space and the prices of protein are getting off the budget, and then there’s nothing like home grown food. We already have home grown vegetables; now just have to add the animal protein.
Then I find myself facing another dilemma. Recovering or converting into stove wood an old corn dryer (espigueiro) clearly in intensive care. The boat may be delayed a month or two but this human artifact is at least 60 years old. Can’t say no!
Throwing in a glass greenhouse for the wife and some interior and exterior face lifts, oh boy , do I have plenty of work to deal with.
And then, of course, I have my professional activity in civilization where I get , although miserably, some source of income.
Can’t complain though. It’s keeping my blood pressure down. After being through a sort of high blood pressure gale ( waking up with over 100mmhg diastolic) and gone to the Cardio ( Holter, stress test, echocardiography, and the whole lot) it seems that I just need to keep working hard! By the way, the stress test was about to kill me. At 168 pulses/min on a brand new tread mill which the operator clearly looked like she didn’t know how to turn the thing down, gave me a glimpse of how one can shut down to death if caught running from some sort of an evil creature! The truth is that after the episode my diastolic pressure feel down as low as 65 mmhg! The heart was just a bit rusted I guess!
Been medicated allright ! But nothing like an off the shelf “maduro alentejano” ( Portuguese red wine). In acute situations it clearly beats all those fancy molecules like lisinopril and the benzodiazepines.

Dilemma





























quarta-feira, 21 de setembro de 2011

Not much new!

The boat is on back on its "feet" again!
All exterior lamination has been done. Now I can walk safely on the inside without the risk of cracking the putty bonds.
To brace the top and bottom laminates where layer overlaps were less extensive I applied an extra tape 0/90 280gsm between the arms mounting areas estending about 350 mm each side.


Unless you're a feather weight, walking on the unsupported cabin floor panels is a bit risky. To be able to work confortably on that section i built this simple jig out of some tube stock I had with some minor adaptations.
Here the jig can be seen in place and it works just fune. It's very easy to install from the inside without the need to get into the tight space.
Most recent work was to laminate the UD's across the cabin floor each side of the beam mounts.
Plans ask for 150mm wide 500gsm UD. I only have 100mm wide tape so I put two extra layer of 0/90 underneath one 200mm and the 2nd 150mm. That should give an equivalent 100 mm wide 780gsm plus some distributed reenforcement which I hope it will be an adequate compensation.
Next job is to complete the inside taping of the dagger board case,front bunker tops and bow inteior sealing and bonding.
Then, I'll be ready to open up the slots for the beams. Still a lot of work ahead!
On another register I've been tempted to go for a custom made carbon wing mast. Still waiting for cotations for the alluminum poles ( like Sparcraft F 185C). I'm pretty aware of the risks involved once you get into carbon mast building but I can´t resist the challenge!
I'm sure a boat such as an F22 can gain a lot of extra speed from a properly designed and built carbon wing mast with variable section.
Will see!
If anybody as any good inputs on this subject I would appreciate.