Hi Alan, nominally the polimerisation temperature range is 18-25°C and 40-60% RH, below 18°C may become difficult. Seen the budget. The design weight is 4598g therefore non problems up to that weight. The model drawing refers to NZL-92 , not NZL 87. Wish you good progress Ciao Claudio
Thanks Claudio, that explains the slow curing, looks like warm weekend so all should be ok NZL 87 is my boat #2 purely for my own identifaction purposes, NLZ 92 (#1 hull) will be completed later as I will do most of my testing with # 2 boat. Cheers Alan
Finished the hull fit-out with installation of S/S fishing swivels for backstay mountings and then fairing the bulb. Doesn't look very nice with grey primer over everything but ... On the finishing straight now with just building the rig then everything is ready to come together which I will do after the IACC Cup in Itlay next weekend, I would like to see these boats in detail just to in case there may be any other ideas/details I should consider before finally closing everything up. Cheers Alan
Hi Matthias, Have send you PM about my travel arrangements to Italy, looking forward to meeting up with you. Cheers Alan
Claudio, have PM back from Goose he is studying heavily and working long hours at the same time, he is planning on picking up his build again during the coming winter... he sends his regards Cheers Alan
Hi guys I've been following this with great interest. I tried the idea of running both sheets up through the main sheeting post and I couldn't get them to run smoothly. As long as they run together it's not bad but assume the wind died as you were sheeting out. Now you have all the slack coiled below. If the wind pulls out the main, the main sheet sometimes traps the jib sheet and it won't come out easily. Is there a fix, have I done something wrong? Any ideas? Thanks Don Something I didn't know. I just read on Sails Etc that if epoxy cures at say 20C then later it can soften (warp) at any temp above that. If it cures at 40C it doesn't soften until the temp is above 40C. What this meant to me is that if you build a fin(or hull) in the winter when your shop is cool it will be more vulnerable to summer heat. I'm thinking we should all be making an oven so that all our epoxy parts will be cured at 35 or 40C. That way we don't have to worry about the sun so much. Apparently you can heat treat it after to raise the softening temp. Something to think about.
Don, on the epoxy theory - I would find that hard to believe, especially for epoxy brands designed for marine use, otherwise wouldn't all boats be built in the summer? I will be happy to "ask the experts" if you wish. Perhaps it is a specific brand - and since some are cured in autoclaves, or are built by infusion, it sounds a bit odd there would be those potentials for failure. Dick
Hi Dick Here is a link to the Sails Etc article. Look down at page 13. I really don't know if it's true or not but Sails Etc should be a reliable source. http://www.sailsetc.com/downloads/2009/MI 02a Boat Notes - 2008_1_.pdf Please do check with your experts, confirmation would be nice. Don
Don - sent off the question after reading the position paper from SailsEtc.. Unfortunately, they didn't say what brand or fomulation of the epoxy is, so my response will probably be based on WEST System products that I use exclusively - both for my past big and current small boats. I will revise my earlier statement, in that it is known that heating can influence epoxy. I use a special woodburning "pencil" to heat screws on golf club heads to allow their removal for club head refinishing, so yes - heat will soften epoxy to allow twisting and distortion. Graham goes to great lengths to provide suggestions for storing and travel, removal of keels when not racing, etc. so I acknowledge that I have had experiences where high heat has impacted construction. I just have never heard of the issue of curing at a much higher temperature (as a heat-treatment) so hopefully the guys at Gougeon's will be able to respond with some infomation backed up by techinical testing for our education. Will post when received. Dick
Hi Alan, still here and watching your build, nice work as always. Just to offer a little advice on the above. Claudio is correct regarding polymerisation temps and you are now facing the winter of epoxy cure discontent that I have just been through..(finally- now my workshop has a ambient of 18 c - 22celcius without the use of heaters bring on summer and the joy of daylight saving). First off, if kept in cool place and out of direct sunlight, epoxy (part a and b) will keep for many years. The hardener may darken but this does not affect usability. I have just finished off a 5 litre container of epoxy which is 6 years old and it worked perfectly. To speed up and control the 1st stage of cure (from workable film to hard but still dentable) keep your epoxy in a warm place. Somewhere in the house if you can get it past your missus. Allowing it to remain around 20 c as left in a cold garage you will be mixing it at a very low temp ( based on a German winter and a uninsulated garage), also try to warm up your project before application of epoxy. buy yourself a cheap digital thermometer from your local pharmacy and keep a close eye and record of what is going on. As for final cure phase of epoxy , you discovered that your hulls were not hardening up a few months ago and post curing (to specific datasheet specs) solved the issue. Well mate, welcome to the winter problem of post cure....you may need to build a small oven and it can be as simple as a few sheets of polystyrene and a oil filled portable heater (with thermostat control). Keep up the great work mate. Gary
Hi Gary, Actually I had to cut-out the 1 st backstay beam mounting as the epoxy just did not cure, still sticky after 3 days, (5:1mix) so I cut it out and made new beam and mixed epoxy at 5:3 on 2nd time around and it worked ok. On re-reading the spec sheet, it states curing temp is 25 degree's C, hence the formulation is clearly not suited to my "variable backyard working conditions" Gary, thanks for the tips mate I will try them & buy thermometer and start documenting conditions etc. . I will start by trying to find more suitable epoxy formulation. Don in regard to your problem of "running both sheets up through the main sheeting post and I couldn't get them to run smoothly" I've tried various types of sheeting in the past and the only one I have found that works trouble free, is braided line. Further, the home made Fairlead with "gentle 90 degree bend" (no kinks) which is aligned to the winch line travel should ensure that all runs smoothly and rounded eye-lets at entry and exit of the fairlead definitely help the whole sheeting as system fiction-less, as it can be. On epoxy heat treatment topic, I make my own golf clubs and when re-shafting I usually heat the cured epoxy until it just starts smoking (don't know the temp) at that point the epoxy melts to sticky consistency, have only ever lost one club head playing, that was in Thailand in 40 degree heat Cheers Alan
Next WE there will be a WINNER !!! This is the IACC120 Cup : ..................................... Claudio
Hi Claudio My building project was halted for some days, due to heavy work load. Now I have come across a question regarding setup of section templates: I understand from the plans that the distance between sections S0 to S11 is 98.5 mm each. However I couldnt find the correct distance between S11 and S12. Do you have that number at hand or should I just measure it from the plans? Thank you for all your help. Roman
Roman, on the drawing is marked the distance between s12 and s10 equivalent to 134mm. therefore, substracting the 99.5mm (s10-s11), you get ? cheers Claudio
Claudio, either I am blind, or I don't have the same drawing (Maybe there is one I dont have? I downloaded them from the IACC120 website) Thanks anyways... I think I should manage to do the math Roman
see: page 1 - post 2 Zip file page 2 - post 20 mounting drawing, here you can see also the 34.5mm you look for. page 19 - post 188 The quote 134mm is always marked Drawings revised recently to introduce centering new data that can be downloaded from Matthias site. cheers Claudio
Claudio Just to understand things properly: the 134mm distance you are giving between S10 and S12 as well as the 99.5mm distance between the sections s10 and s11 are for the boat NZL-92 ? I might look a bit daft, but cant find the posts you mentioned to download the rest of the drawings for Alinghi SUI-100. Roman