hey guy

Just to let you know im in the middle of bending my first hull and from station 1 to 3 has a huge crack along the tape guide line. so far i have put a threaded rod and huge washers to spread the load and ill continue to bend and fix it later. any ideas how to fix it or should i start over?

Matt (pissed off) <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />

Hi Matt

I had a crack appear in my build about 100mm long, I closed the hull immediatley and repaired it. Firstly the crack was open a little, so I brushed a little epoxy into it and got the hair dryer and warmed it a bit so it would thin and soak into the crack, then put a 25mm wide piece of f/glass the length of the crack and flattened the join as best I could to its original shape (flat ply) and tried again a few days later.

Are you steaming the ply? I'm not sure, but when I build again, as I got to about half way with the bending, I would again hit it with the boiling water and towels to help it along a bit more.

Regards

thanks matt

i put bolts through it, and it hold it. the crack was on the keel line about 1 meter long. my method worked but the transom broke aswell on the port side half way up,in two places, im not steaming it but i will when i make up 2 new sides cos the other one is stuffed, but im goin to make something like a tent with gas stoves under it boiling water, my boss said he use to do it in the 70's and he just bent it up with ropes on the ground, any who, im buying more ply and cedar and start over.

cheers
matt

Hi Matt

To steam them, try and get a 44gal drum, even half a one. Stick your burners under it and boil up some water, when its boiling throw in some towels or blankets and boil them up again, then lay them on your hulls, you can pour some more boiling water on them as well.

I'm not sure what you mean by tent, if your thinking of steaming up the tent, like steaming up the bathroom, I don't think that would be good enough, you might need the more direct approach.

I used a old copper that I found out at the farm, designed to boil water with open fire underneath, worked well.

When setting your hull sides up for glassing the keel line, make sure the glass tape is accurately placed both inside and outside, this I think is very important. My thinking is if the inside keel tape is out further than the outside one, it would almost surely lead to breakage.


Regards

hey matt

The tape was accurate, i made sure of that, i do everything on the mark, i made the boat right on 4.9 meters so im doing everyhting right, just going by what the plans first to find out it was an expensice break.

thanks for the info, im goin to try it, this aint gonna beat me, cos i want to come out of class with a boat.

thanks
matt

matt stone please contact rob lott my details are on the vmca website under contacts, i might be able to help you out.