Starboard hull:
the cracked hull, it probably needs another load of filler just to bring it up to where I want it to be.
I have at this stage 'over-sanded' it a bit so I could re-lay another coat of filler over it .....
I'll lay that during the week




The bare timber is the high spots, the grey is the low spots, the white is the original color, & the filler is actually a purple color although it doesn't show that well

starboard hull:
as you can see I've rubbed through in a few spots (timber visiable), interestingly enough the rub throughs line up with the internal frames

and the dusty mess I now have in my shed.....



All up I'm satisfied with the end result so far, its mostly straight and with clean lines and many of the marks in the paint have been sanded out.
These marks are from being dragged over objects and have left snail trail dents over the hulls, I thought I'd have a heap of filling to do but now its blocked back there's only half a dozen odd that need a slight fill to be perfect.

tomorrow.... half a hull left to block back, and fill a few of the snail-trails....
go out to the boat club for the opening day




tonight....... rest my shoulders

the "snail trails" I was talking about, most of them have been sanded out with the exception of the one in the last pic..... its DEEP !!!!





The odd thing about these trails is that some of them were in the original plywood prior to painting whilst
others have since happened whilst Karp was white (with pink bits - from its original name) and some have been during its grey existence.

What I cant figure out is how they happened, rocks or other "beach" objects would leave a far more jagged scratch, these are almost perfectly formed as if done by a smoothed object ..... even a close inspection of the trailer shows nothing that one can point a finger at, the other oddity is they are from the very bottom of the hulls and are also right up near the decks...... yet not one was seen on the decks prior to removal..... they also aren't limited to any particular part over the length of the hulls from the bow to the transom and on both the inner and outer part of each hull







ouch !!!!


this one I'll have to fill, its been sanded to the point where I'm starting to cut through the ply on either side of the trail (just out of shot), so one more job for the micro-balloon filler.
All up I think I'll add a soup-spoon of filler to each hull to smoooooooth out all of the remaining blemishes, and at the moment being under weight, that's a good thing

well the filling is well and truly on its way to completion, at a guess I have about 30% remaining to fill and block back.
Slow slog but the finish is well worth it.

So while I'm waiting for filler to set...... better fill all those staple holes.
didn't realise I had used so many staples in the process of "nailing" down the new decks.....




so we fill n sand the hulls and then we fill n sand the decks and then we fill n sand the hulls a bit more and then we..... run out of resin and micro-ballons

mutter mutter mutter

Finally .......

after ALL this time Karp is in full primer






37degres outside in the shade.... felt like 45 in the shed but it was a case of now or never.
I'll start blocking back tomorrow in a sultry 35 degree heat

106 21699

I have NEW beams
I have NEW tramp tracks
I have a new centre tube

Now I need a new mast or 2

&
Association Membership paid


life is so less complicated when your on holidays, and you get soooooooo much more done

Could those snail trails be from trapeze harness hooks?

interesting point.....
possibly some are but as to which ones is anyone's guess

most are in the bottom 1/3rd of the hulls and seem to be mainly where the beach-wheel frames would sit and are parallel to the deckline, only a 1/4 of the marks would be a vertical direction, those one's most likely could be a body trying to climb back onboard, I've tipped old Shy over many times and have not marked the hulls at all with the hook but I have marked the deck once from the hook

Luckily they didn't take too much to fill and all have been smoooooooth'd out now


Been tidying up a few other ugly's over the last few days, mainly the centreboard case slots, they are now shaped to match the boards both on the deck and keel points and the boards are now a sweet fit.

Couple more mods to do before I'm completely happy enough to say "Done" !!

one hull done

and the other about to be




the deck slots have had the exact same treatment

The next few posts may or may not make much sense so please bear with me as I stumble through this.....


While I was setting the centreboards in the slots I figured they "should be" dead square with the beams.... so I set a stringline off of the bow, laid my long level into the front beam slot and used a large square to check it all against.


makes sense doesn't it

The 2 young boys are racing around the shed and generally annoying me to no end, anger management was being stretched to the max needless to say

So I eventually tell em to stop it and either get to the house or help dad, silence at last as they go about "duplicating" what I'm doing at the bow.....
#3 son sets up a bit of hay-band over the transom and #4 gets the other level and lays it in the rear beam block, both then stand there looking like they are lining up things and stroking their not yet sprouted invisible beards


As I walk back past the bow one tiny little thing catches my eye instantly...... its an that can NOT be right moment


The two levels laying in the stb hull beam slots are NOWHERE near parallel ...... they aren't even close

A quick check on the rear beam just to make sure there isn't a bit of hay-band under one end of the level or some other thing thats giving such a big twist

After much checking and re-checking I found that the stb hull was laying out.....35mm from square

The port hull was laying IN.... 13mm from square

so the last ~2weeks have been spent re-setting the beam blocks and now both hulls are not only square but perpendicular with each other



Part of the setup stages I went through.. the centreboard is aligned with the stringline and the beam slot is level

so the next few pics are all part of that 'squaring up'...

step one was to set the hulls up square and with the centreboards perpendicular and just as importantly so thet the centreboards centres measured both parallel and square...

That done, step 2 was to add glass filler to the beam slots and then carefully lay the beams into the slots.... the beams had grey tape stuck over them, this allowed me to remove the beams once the filler had cured

Next step was to remove the beams and pray like hell it worked


and it did






this is the rear beam slot on the stb hull and shows the outer bolt hole.....
yep that's 3mm of filler in there
remember this fact, I'll get back to it later

next step was to construct a jig that would let me run the router over the now filled beam slots so I could recut them ....

The filler had acted as a dumpy level and gave me a base line starting position for the router, once the jig was in place and setup correctly I could run the router across the beam slots and cut them accurately

the jig was dead simple....

16mm lump of chipboard
cut a 60mm wide slot in the middle of it
tap in 1/4 whit threads and screw in 4 small coach bolts
use tie-down straps to hold firmly on the deck
adjust the coach bolts up/down as required and check constantly that the set-point for the router is correct





I must have checked each move a hundred times, I figured it HAD to be right and I would only have ONE shot at this....

ta-daaaaaa

It may not seem like much but its taken hours to achieve this

later.....

That gap started me thinking...... right back to the first page of this thread and the crack in the hull that started all this



If..... and I'm just thinking out-loud here, if the rear beam was placed first and had a small amount of tightening done and then the front beam went in with again a small amount of tightening done..... the hulls then squared as we all do....

Now if it were me, I'd then tighten down the rear beam a tad more..... simply because its the easier one to do compared to the front beam, and I'd probably go a little more on the rear beam too if the truth be known before breaking my arm in a dozen spots to tighten the front beam

In Karps case and with that much difference in the beam slots that would have left around a +5mm gap under the front beam on the inside bolt hole

as the bolt is tightened up its pulling against the hull

The hull is resisting but is under a large amount of tension
The more I think about it, the boat rigged and sailing would have been far less stressfull on that part of the hull
add in a badly designed trailer that works at the hulls like cracking a whip

& I guess it was just a matter of when not if


thoughts ??

Hi Kingy.

The work that you are sharing with the Mossie forum is much appreciated by many , Maybe others can refurbish some of the older boats that need some TLC.

We had 4 old mozzies racing at Derri (Deep Lake) today....

752 Sticky Fingers was the 'oldest' and Shy was the "youngest"

It was some of the best racing and closest racing I've seen in years with only 1 sec between 1st & 2nd for one of the races, one simple mistake was all it took to put right on the back foot



All up, the dollar value of these old girls isn't that much even combined we still wouldn't have enough cash to buy a newish mozzie.....
but the value of the closeness of racing is pricless, I'm thrilled at the racing we had today and at the same time absolutely stuffed both physically and mentally.

having seen Sticky Fingers for the first time sailing for 20 odd years..... have to say she's an absolute bargin for what Matt has her advertised for (see the market place thread)

a lot of happy racing hours left in her and she sports some really good bits that Shy is a tad envious of