Ama decks

For some reason I thought I needed an access port in each ama. So I made holes and rings and glued the rings to the undersides of the decks:

I didn't bother with neatness, partly because these amas are supposed to be concept test units, but mostly because who cares about the inside. There will be a plate on the outside, and the rings make a thicker part to bed screws in.

All taped up and nowhere to go (tape is substituting for clamps):

 I enjoy that the nice sweeping curve of the sheer comes from straight-edged planks.

The "rub rails" were flattened on their top edges to accept the decks, and rounded underneath for the glass cloth to grip without kinking and making air pockets, which would happen with sharp corners.

Aft hatch

The lid for the after hatch was traced from the opening, glassed on the underside, and an inner piece glued on. Then comes the edge piece:

Making a frame to frame the lid.

Without the frame, the sides bow out. Plastic wrap (re-used wrapping from the cloth purchase) will keep the lid from being glued to the frame base:

More work on the amas

The ama sides were wired together along their bottom edges with stainless steel wire:

Then a fillet and a single layer of glass tape was applied on the inside, burying the wires:

(The rub strips were temporarily screwed on, to make sure the sides opened up in a nice curve.)

Then the wire ties were extracted:

John noticed that I was heating the short end with my mini torch, as I had done in the past with copper wire that I used at that time, so I could pull it through the epoxy that it's embedded in inside. He showed me that stainless wire just needs to be grabbed firmly and pulled out, as it's stronger and smoother than copper. Great tip!!

The bottom joint was then rounded, and a layer of glass cloth applied:

The nearer ama has had a "flood coat"—a second coat of resin—applied, to fill in the weave.

A weighty issue

I've been asked a number of times, "How much does it weigh?" or, "What will it weigh?", to which I've had to answer that I don't rightly know. Well, this morning I took my ancient fish scale to the shop and put the boat on it:

(Two notes: 1) balance point is midships, 2) amas on the right)

Now I know that it weighs 37 lbs as it is. It'll probably gain another couple of pounds when I move the furniture in ;-) .

Amas & placement

The sides for the amas got a layer of 4-oz glass:

Checking out the ama placement:

The stick is 7' long.

The waterline is just under the main hull chine amidships.

More coaming & lip

When I put the pieces together, the coaming was too high with three layers of ⅜" foam, so I used two layers instead.

Couldn't decide what to do with the after end of the coaming, so I just cut it off at the end of the cockpit and rounded it. It should really end better. Maybe I can come up with something.

 

Coaming and lip are now glassed (need finishing). The hull is basically done, could go paddling tomorrow, but I'll restrain myself. Still lots to do.

(Maybe what I'm calling the hatch lip is actually a coaming as well?)

Coaming and lip

I put the first layer of the cockpit coaming on today:

Here's the plan:

The forward-most part was done with a smaller piece, and the side pieces were long, without too much curve. There's always a loss of material when cutting out pieces like this, but there's enough here to complete the job, with probably some left over.

The deal is, this stuff will bend nicely if the outside of the curve has been lightly glassed. The epoxy resin is quite flexible when thin. The foam compresses on itself, making itself denser and possibly stronger—if that makes any sense. If you try to bend it with the glassed side on the inside of the curve, the glass just cracks and splits in a straight line as the stuff folds neatly in half.

Here's more foam-bending goodness:

I measured and cut long, put each bend in gently in sequence, then cut the ends to match.

The bends need to be forced into the corners, but once there behave well.

That aft hatch opening reminds me of a submarine. . . Maybe I should paint it yellow? If I did—and that's a very big "if"—it would have to be a bright, rich yellow, like this: