i550 Sportboat Vlot

No i550 (again) but still fun

2012-02-27T14:28:00.000+01:00

Again , no i550 but this technique stood on my wish list for quite a while. That is the hand's on variant.
This weekend I assisted a friend of mine with the vacuum infusion of his little boat. An O-jol.
We already made together the female mold and finally we came to the stage that we could actually do the infusion.

Check out the 100 lime laps pictures @ picasa.
When you select the slideshow option and change it to a 1 second interval it will only cost you 100 seconds..
https://picasaweb.google.com/112668701968219472430/OjolInfusion
It sure did cost us much more...

Check this out!

2012-01-04T08:05:00.001+01:00

Some of you might have clicked on this blog link before but now the guy is going into a very interesting phase.
This fellow Dutchmen is building a Farrier F-39 trimaran virtually on his own with the help of vacuum infusion.
He is now busy to apply the dry glass. If you are interested in high tech do it yourself foam build then his site is a must!

Here the link to the dry glass pictures
http://framsblog.wordpress.com/2012/01/03/finished-dry-stack-of-external-laminate-on-the-mainhull/

Or just wander around on his fabulous web page and be amazed.
http://www.fram.nl/

Needless to say that I am a big fan and following him for years...

Helping out an other boat builder

2011-12-31T10:09:00.003+01:00

I have helped out an other local boat builder. He is building a O-jol and if you take a look at my blog list it is the one at the bottom. Be aware, it is written in Dutch...
Halfway his build, the core is red cedar and the outside was as smooth as a baby bottom, he decided to pull a plug. and that work is a two person job. We have placed in total 8 layers of glass around the hull and we will try to separate the two in a few days.
This was for both of us a first and a learning experience. Maybe the second learning curve might be vacuum resin infusion?.. And if you want to know more about that technique then take a look at the blog from www.fram.nl he became a real autodidact in this area by building a 40 foot Farrier trimaran mostly on his own...

The first four layers at the bow

see all the pictures

Bulb for hull number 349

2011-12-07T11:32:00.001+01:00

It seems that my bulb-plug-cement-mold-thing is having a second go.

The making of bulb # 349

This time we have also put some extra reinforcement metal bars in the top side inside to prevent breakage.
The lower half was still intact. (because that one was reinforced)
To be more precise the lower half of the mold is the top side of the bulb.
The first pour will be for hull number 349. Located only 30 minutes drive south from my place.
And I think I will melt down my bulb one more time to get a nicer result and I want to try something else.
I will put a piece of easy to shape soft stone in the top-bulb-bottom-mold part and fix it with two screws from the outside.
This soft stone will have of course quite some resemblance with the shape of the lower part of my keel.
When the lead is poured and cooled I just have to chisel it out.

Cling film shininess and one extra steam hole.

more pictures

Router tool in action

2011-11-27T15:02:00.003+01:00

NACA 0012 fine tuning

2011-11-26T13:14:00.002+01:00

After allot of milling, unscrewing, measuring, sanding, screwing, milling, measuring etc of the two wooden gliders of the routing tool the milling result is quite close to the wanted NACA 0012 profile.

Here a look at the profile

Against the light, close enough.

Two test samples

Now I have to double check the height over the complete run to be sure the profile will be the same thickness over the complete length. When the actual milling of the profile will be done I will make a movie like I did when pouring the lead. The advantage to make the profile this way also makes it very easy to mill two indents at the widest point of the profile. These indents will be filled with carbon to cope with the side forces.

Keel router trial

2011-11-24T22:29:00.008+01:00

It has been a while but I had to do some other stuff. Like sailing, work, finishing my bedroom and converting my daily commuting BMW K75RT motorcycle into LPG (Liquefied petroleum gas) and after that something else broke inside the engine (the drive chain for the alternator) this was just bad luck and nothing to do with the conversion. Result I needed to replace the engine for a younger one.
When looking at my blog stats I noticed there was allot of traffic out the states from the i550na.org/building-wiki. Pointing to my one piece lead bulb build pages. That is fun! This fact also helped me to pick up the build of the boat.
Together with the weather, not so nice anymore, so it is time to do some woodwork!

I have shown earlier my router "contraption" and went on with the thing. I made a "curtain" out of brush (the one you place in front of you mail box) to keep the splinters in the airflow.

Closeup of the "curtain"

And I made a longer strong back in between the two rails to place the glued red cedar keel half's. I am planning to make the keel with a split in the middle. Inside I will also place two stainless steel rods from top to bottom. as is sort of common now a days. As it looks right now I will add some carbon cloth in the middle when gluing the two part together to make the keel as strong as possible. I did not use oak but the light weight cedar so all the extra strength I can create is welcome. The little milling I did went like a hot knife trough butter. Now I need to check if the pattern is what it should be. The intention is wanted profile plus 40mm radius.
The fact that this milling is going so easy might cost me some extra time when I will make a new rudder for my old E-boat. She can use a nice new profile at the back...

edit
One night later I did test number two. I seems that I need to improve the shape quite a bit more but the printer is not working as it should. First need to fix that one...

Hull #241, the pictures

2011-03-09T20:20:00.006+01:00

I have had a very good time visiting the building site of hull #241 in Zaandijk the Netherlands.
This is a father and son build. The father is the owner of a very nicely build by himself wood epoxy 12.5m yacht.
This yacht is equipped with water ballast tanks (1500 liter each) and a 125mm overflow pipe. Because the water is very shallow there this boat also can pull up her keel with hydrolics in between 210m an 70cm.
About hull # 241.
There is no name for the i550 known yet but the build is a very professorial one. And a boat with some nice features!
For instance the i550 also has water ballast tanks 130liter each and a quick fill/overflow valve but "much" smaller now "only" 110mm... This size is used to be able to tack quickly. The way to use it is to open the valve, wait till the water is gone to the low side, and tack.
Also a very nice keel sleeve ending outside on top of the roof. Build-in this sleeve on both sides a 1to4 pulley to lift the keel with ease. The entrance will be at on side of this keel sleeve with a hinges flipping to the side. The hull does not need allot of filler so it seems. The "Portland" build is applied. This means do not follow the straight line of the frames but let the wood tell you how it should curve. In practice this means that the sides of the frames are curved.
The cockpit is different shaped then the original design and also the cabin is wider then the original design. Or a slide-up and kick-back rudder nice for shallow water sailing. This will be a sliding cassette in a kick up cassette locked with velcro.
The funny thing was that we both thought that we where the only i550 builder in the Netherlands.
Now it seems that I only own a lead bulb and 80km away from my house an almost finished i550 looking for the rig and other finishing parts. Nice! Learned allot borrowed some keel and rudder profiles and quite some idea's.

More PICTURES!

Wednesday March 9 I am going to visit the build of hull # 241

2011-03-08T15:37:00.000+01:00

I have got a email from an other Dutch i550 builder an tomorrow I am going to pay them a visit!
I will take may camera with me to "borrow" some idea's (finders keepers)
It will be fun!
It seems that they have already something out of wood.

On my build there was some "interference" like a week skiing in the French Alps an other stuff.
Some small progress but that will be documented later.

Lead Zeppelin, the first part of Vlot

2011-02-05T21:51:00.006+01:00

This Saturday we were having a party in my garage with quite some audience. A lead melt down party. Not everything went the way we planned but the overall result was a fine achievement for the day. After 2 hours of heating all the lead was liquid.
The problem with this amount of lead is that the surface of the melting pot becomes bigger but the capacity of the burner stays the same. The surface is so big that the lead solidified against the "cool" surface. Cool is below 327 C Next time we need a bigger burner to pump enough heat in the lead. Besides the 3kw burner underneath we also used a big burner normally used for roofing but we used it for resolving cold spots. We could use two of them next time. Great stuff by the way. These things sounds like a hot air balloon is taking off. At the end of the pour we had a problem that the lead was not liquid anymore in the melting pot but we still had 15% to go. So we "burned" allot of time to melt this last piece of the filling. In that area it look a bit like the Grand Canyon with the erosion height layers.
.

The start

Sticky liquid gasket so help is needed

The result

Family

But the first part of the Vlot is a fact.

For more pictures see the slideshow at the right
We also walked around with my just received GoPro Hero HD so have a look

A perfect bulb mold match

2011-01-28T23:26:00.004+01:00

The second half of the mold for the bulb came out well. I might plaster with pure cement the inner surface a bit to fill up the holes.

The light weight plug did his job.

I don't know the weight of two shells but when pouring lead and filled it will be one big heavy thing, thats for sure. I am now thinking to make a little foil shaped cement plug to screw on the bottom of the first half (remember I pouring upside down). After the lead pour it would be just a matter of unscrew this little plug and when the lead is shrinking when cooling down I don't thing I can get this thing out the hole without breaking it. I rather break only this little thing then a whole side of the cement mold.

It might be that there is more interest in a lead copy on this side of the globe. It is allot of fun making this thing (could it be lead poisoning?) so I might make an other one with less wetted surface, scaled down in 3D to say 92%, with a part of the lead in the foil. All in one piece. Again with the two-pour-cement-one-pour-lead-system. But then with the split vertically.

As always for more pictures hit slideshow at the right.

Second half

2011-01-27T21:48:00.001+01:00

I just found out that it is called cling film, the stuff I pack the plug in. The nice thing about this stuff is that it is a bit elastic what means a nice smooth fit and the plug stay clean. I think the result is better then tape.

Before blub

After blub

Now we'll wait..

Half the shell

2011-01-25T21:41:00.003+01:00

The first half of the mold turned out well. Now the same PVC foil will act as an separator for the second pour. In this half I also will make the funnel to let the lead in and an air hole. Before I can pour the lead I have to wait at least 14 days to dry the cement I am afraid...
My first lead experiments did cost my wife a flower pot. (I had a kettle full of lead and this was the first thing in sight) And the moisture inside this inferior pot made a moon like surface.
Maybe a pre pour can do the trick for this mold to get the water out somewhat quicker. This lead melting thing is real fun I must say. A real male thing I think? Somewhat dangerous and not a normal thing to do.

Still a bit wet but nice look at the shiny surface

When dry the two shell parts will fit as an oyster and one half will get a narrow strip of liquid gasket to prevent the lead leaking out. I'll pour it upside down to get the horizontal split as high as possible. When the lead is still liquid most of the stuff is below this line. Only the liquid lead above this line can squeeze out.
I can't wait till this thing is dry to bake my "Lead Zeppelin".
Invite some friends, have some fun, have a beer...

Pouring cement

2011-01-24T20:47:00.000+01:00

This whole weekend I was a bit busy for my work so I only got time this Monday morning just before I went to my work again.
I will try to make the cast for the bulb in one piece with a horizontal split.
I did an experiment with static foil to keep the plug and cement separated and I think it will work.. The plug itself has a hard board plate around it following the plug at the widest part. On this hard board a PVC foil is placed. This foil will be used again when the first half is dry enough to turn.

Plug in plastic waiting for some cement.

Melting pot

2011-01-16T20:49:00.001+01:00

I have collected some hardware to keep going with my i550 project. I was a bit out of balance due to very clever ideas from Christopher Beckwith the designer of the boat and now busy building "Elroy" (the little son of the Jetsons a famous H&B cartoon).
His idea was to make the wetted surface smaller by moving a part of the lead into the foil.
I already printed the scaled down bulb drawings to 93% but when I layed them out and kept the finished 100% bulb next to it the difference was not impressive. So I decided go on with the 100% sized bulb. As the title is showing I made a melting pot. The pot was an empty butane/propane tank. After I removed the top I made a teapot like pipe on it an I tested the melting pot with some very dirty wheel balance lead. I noticed that the pipe I welded on was a little too narrow (15mm). The plus with this setup is the fact that the lower part of the lead is coming (that is the clean lead) out first so the lighter stuff like iron or stone will be floating on top. The rubbish can easily be spooned out and after replacing the 15mm pipe for a 22mm pipe the thing worked real fine. As I did not yet finish my cement mold so I had to find 'something' else. A flower pot of my wife looked like a very good choice. After pouring the 350 deg. C lead into this ceramic pot a nice cracking sound could be heard...

The test setup

An other exiting new piece of hardware is a vacuum pump. With this tool I will make my foils for keel and rudder. The thinking how to do it already started..

JAVAC A real Aussie pump

First router tool test

2010-12-19T22:28:00.006+01:00

I did some welding and matured the tool with a metal framework. Welding is not my occupation. that obvious. But still the result is very rigid and straight. The metal will take care of the stiffness. The wood for the guidance.

The result

The nicely fitting rails are mounted on/in a wooden carrier. The rails in fact is aluminium profile used to make a fly screen door. The result of a walk though the hardware store with the ball bearing in my hand try to fit it on all available stuff they sell. I alway first do a round through my house to see if I can reuse 'stuff'.

I also did the first trial with the router and "some" foam with the right NACA pattern on the printed on the side of the foam.

This printout is again borrowed from Chad's site.
Need to work out a connection to the vacuum cleaner when routing. The stuff that came free was quite static...

There is one problem with this tool.
The tool is not high enough for the rectangular base material to have it done in one go.
The two corners will hit the metal frame when trying to go for one go. So I have to work with a spacer for the last run.
The first run, without this spacer, then only the two corners are milled away.

Than put the spacer in between and I can do the rest.
The only choice to be made is the material to be used and if I am going to use a one-piece-flip-over foil or two times half a foil glued together in the middle with an extra layer of glass. This glass layer will also act as a connection for the stainless steel connections of the foil at top and bottom. At the top that is the top plate and at the bottom that will be the lead bulb. I guess it will be the two times half a foil reading it back.

Foil and cast preparations

2010-12-12T16:12:00.004+01:00

I purchased some nice ball bearings for my foil router tool. I also bought two aluminium rails to let my router cart roll on. Add this up with something I borrowed drawing from (again) Chad aka KnotRacing. To be more precise a real size pdf from a NACA012 profile and I am almost there. I found a scrap plate of wood and now I only have to weld a metal frame where I can bold the ball bearings on. When playing around with this profile I found out that my router is only capable to go 4cm deep. Thus this implies that the over sized profile should be as thin as possible. Otherwise I run into trouble when starting with the raw rectangular material. The welding is not yet done.

Router tool

My other concurrent little project is the casting preparation. I have made the box where I will pour the cement in.
I am planning to make the a horizontal split. I also will cast the keel upside down. In this way I can already cast the indent in the plug for the foil profile and this also will be the biggest section because the split will be on the widest section of the bulb.
I will pour the cement in two runs.
First the big upper section (the plug will be upside down you know) and I use a flat piece of hardboard to make a nice flat in between surface for this first half.

This high and the plug upside down

When the cement is hard enough I will remove the hardboard, leave the plug and replace the hardboard with thin plastic and cover the plug with more cement leaving a pour funnel and two extra overflow holes. The idea is that in this way the two cement parts will have a tight shell-like fit. I also will try to reinforce with the cement with wire mesh to prevent premature disassembly.

Let's stick together

2010-11-28T16:05:00.005+01:00

"Willie" is stuffed now. My fingers too...

"It's life Jim but not as we know it"

I have found an insulation plate used for roofing and the guy at the shop asked me at least three times. "Just one?!" This is a very dense cell structure and you can shape it real easy.

"Yellow submarine"

This sanding and shaping was a bit more work. I also used PU glue. This will be visible for at least a week I am afraid...Next time use gloves.

On our local ebay (marktplaats.nl) I have scored four nice alignment ball bearings. These I am going to use for the foil shaping tool I am planning to make. As I have found on the on the forum of Sailing Anarchy there was a guy who used an over sized foil pattern and with this pattern he made his foils with a router. (bovenfrees in Dutch). This brought me to the idea to make a router tool deLuxe. The ball bearings run over two rails at both sides of the raw material soon becoming an nice NACA foil pattern. In this way I can move my router in the length or the width of the foil. The material I am going to use for the foils I have not yet made up my mind. It can be hard wood or soft wood or core cell foam.

Also the material capable of liquid lead is not yet chosen.

1.5 hours previously burned. together with the 4 hours sanding and gluing time sets the total time on 5.5hours

The time spent on searching lost tools somewhere in my house/garage is not included.
And again the time spent thinking, talking and annoying other people about my project is also not included...

First real work

2010-11-23T22:15:00.010+01:00

The bulb frame work. I have used hard board and the very nice pdf's found on the i550 forum generated by Chad. (Knot Racing)
It seems that this bulb shape becomes the i550 standard...

And we name him "Willie"

Only 1.5 hours spent till now. That is real labor with my hands.
This is also due to the fact I don't need to invent the wheel over here. Just print the pdf, glue and saw it.

PDF BULB placed in this thread

P.S.
The time spent thinking, talking and annoying other people about my project is not included...

Recuperate

2010-11-18T10:18:00.000+01:00

Still recovering, yesterday 60 people in my house at the party.
Lead status, now in house 50kg
Still 30kg to go. This week I am planning to make the foam whale.

Hip hip hooray!

2010-11-17T07:02:00.001+01:00

50...

About lead from Wikipedia...

2010-11-16T08:50:00.002+01:00

Lead poisoning (also known as plumbism, colica Pictonum, saturnism, Devon colic, or painter's colic) is a medical condition caused by increased levels of the heavy metal lead in the body. Lead interferes with a variety of body processes and is toxic to many organs and tissues including the heart, bones, intestines, kidneys, and reproductive and nervous systems. It interferes with the development of the nervous system and is therefore particularly toxic to children, causing potentially permanent learning and behavior disorders. Symptoms include abdominal pain, headache, anemia, irritability, and in severe cases seizures, coma, and death...

...and death... So if the project goes silent you know why.
But I have seen others make a straight boat consuming 1 beer an hour. So this pouring lead should be doable.
Till now I have collected 30kg. Tomorrow I will become 50 so lets see how much I have at the end of the day.

Heavy stuff first

2010-11-13T17:16:00.001+01:00

In the famous boat building day of the Dutch the so called `golden age` the first thing they did when starting a build of a boat was the keel. In Dutch `het leggen van de kiel` `place the keel` this is what I am intending to do also. The first thing I am going to make is the Lead Zeppelin. I have calculated that I need something like 6.6 liter lead.
I will make a shape from wood or something soft and will submerge this shape till the bucket will overflow. Then I pull the thing out and fill it up hopefully with 6.6liter. To make a more precise measurement the top opening should be as small as possible. The keel foil itself will be made out a glued together bundle of red wood.
The front of this bundle will be a `hard wood` type to take care of any unwanted underwater collisions.
I also will add some extra strong wood at both sides of the pack to cope with the lead bulb hanging at the tip of the foil or water pushing it side ways. The whole shaped foil will be reinforced with extra strips of carbon at the sides and a few layers of glass/epoxy.

The above was written before I've found the very nice building drawings on the i550 forum.
Now it is just a matter of cut and glue.
Fun!

In my mind the build has started

2010-11-12T09:10:00.004+01:00

I don't know how other people minds work but mine is making overtime when I start up a new project.
Most of the time I am thinking how to make the project as good as possible.
Right now my brain is occupied with the build of a light weight "yacht"..
Two week ago I was ignorant on the subject NACA.
Last week the foil profile light started to shine brighter and brighter.
Especially after reading the thread written by Chad McNeely aka "Knot Racing" on the i550 forum.
http://www.i550.org/index.php?option=com_kunena&Itemid=2&func=view&catid=7&id=355&limit=25&limitstart=125
It seems there are more people building boats in advance.
I already had figured out that I would make a jig for my router.
But my idea was to make a longitudinal version.
If you browse up and down in this thread you will be redirected to a SA link (Sailing Anarchy) here the guy has made a very nice tool where you can go from left to right in stead of up and down.
http://forums.sailinganarchy.com/index.php?s=b18a887cec2c8d5919db00c7af5e1e44&app=core&module=attach&section=attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=137212

I Received the drawings.

2010-11-09T10:15:00.002+01:00

I received the drawings and is also did some measurements in my garage.
For a Dutch citizen I am very blessed with a double garage.
This is a very rare thing to own over here.
The Dutch are world famous for the small size of the country tiny houses and the tall size of the people.
In fact they are known to be the tallest people on earth. Before I can start with this late-midlife-crisis-project I have to do allot of cleaning and rearranging and finishing of running project in my garage. So I think that I will start with the keel and the rudder. These are the small parts but very time consuming. Also figuring out the shape and volume of the lead bulb will give me enough work and all that time I am busy with these two the full size not yet completed hull is not standing in the way...
In fact I am thinking to make a tool to shape the keel and rudder with the help om my router. I also think to make a hole inside the keel to make a space for a dyneema keel-recovery-safety-line.
I am also thinking to make a clamp system to be able to clamp the keel in every desired hight.
If I see the amount of work and time to make a keel I think the rope inside is a must. Especially for me, knowing the sailing waters (a river with groynes...)
Braking the foil but still be a owner of a nicely shaped lead bulb keel with a dent at the front hanging on a dyneema line just seems a nice idea to me.
I also asked a friend if he could get the Okoumé Jumbo marine ply panels for a lower price than I have found on the web and that was EUR 68,= per panel...
The lead, I am afraid, will be taken care "automatically" when I will turn 50 this month.
My wife asked me what I want for my birthday an I said, "Lead, or money"...
The last word she didn't receive the first she did.
And I also sensed some noise about an upcoming "surprise" party...
But first the bulb the keel and rudder.

i550 Sportboat Building in Holland

2010-10-30T08:50:00.010+02:00

Click here the latest building activities or here for the latest pictures.

I am waiting to receive the drawings for building an i550 sailboat hull # 320 named "Vlot".

To be more precise what this is all about. I currently owning a rather old 22" sailboat type E-boat.

Current E-boat "Event" on the river Lek near Culemborg (this is not an i550)

Bought in 2000 and when I read about this even smaller odd shaped build it yourself boat the thinking started. Due to the strange economical situation the world is in right now ordering the plans and hull number was not huge amount.
The i550 can be much faster (it will plane!) in the right circumstances than my present boat. Also the fact that you build it yourself with the old fashioned stitch method and the compact size that just should fit in my garage was a plus.

Click here the latest building activities or here for the latest pictures.