Sawford's Zip Build

sawford11 · **Posted:** Tue Dec 06, 2011 4:00 pm

Thanks upspirate (or should I say eagle eye)! That was a rookie mistake on my part. I did exactly what you said, attached the breasthook to the block by placing two screws vertically. I will need to change that soon and put the blocking behind the breasthook. I would have had a heck of a time later trying to remove those verical screws.

On a side note, I am curious how much epoxy I have "oozed" between the building form and the boat....hopefully none at all, but for some reason, I have a feeling at least one member is going to wind up being stuck to the boat! I mean, I seem to get epoxy all over everything, tools, floor, boat, shoes, me.

upspirate · **Posted:** Tue Dec 06, 2011 4:44 pm

sawford11 wrote:

On a side note, I am curious how much epoxy I have "oozed" between the building form and the boat....hopefully none at all, but for some reason, I have a feeling at least one member is going to wind up being stuck to the boat! I mean, I seem to get epoxy all over everything, tools, floor, boat, shoes, me.

You are doing it right then!!! :wink:

Roberta Hegy · **Posted:** Tue Dec 06, 2011 5:29 pm

Use some wax paper wherever you think you might have ooze out.

Roberta

vupilot · **Posted:** Tue Dec 06, 2011 7:30 pm

Looking good. This is about the point where if you have neighbors that can see in your garage they start to figure out what it is your are building in there.

sawford11 · **Posted:** Wed Dec 07, 2011 5:35 pm

I started using masking tape and/or wax paper...just hope it's not too late. Don't want to have to remove the building form with a sawzall!!! Epoxied one of the shears tonigh after first laying down a layer of roofing felt paper. Had that lying around and figured this would work out perfectly.

Thanks vupilot - yep, it's starting to take shape...although one of my neighbors asked me which was the front :lol:

vupilot · **Posted:** Wed Dec 07, 2011 9:57 pm

The Ark jokes from across the street will come next. :roll:

Great idea with the roofing paper.

sawford11 · **Posted:** Sat Dec 10, 2011 5:38 pm

Yah, I've been asked, "Are the pairs of animals showing up on your driveway yet?", "Are you growing your beard out?", and I also heard some rumblings about Noah....Oh well, I can take it!

Permanently attached shear number 2 last night and this morning, installed the second lamination on the first shear. Maybe tomorrow I will free up some clamps and laminate the second shear.

Also noticed a dip in the keel between the transom and frame number two. I think what happened is that the angle on my knee must not have been 100% in line with the keel. ((Thinking back, I laminated the knee, then used a benchtop sander to even out the edges on the laminations. When I did this, I must have taken a little too much off the front/botton of the knee.)) Anyway, when I then installed the carriage bolts through the keel and the knee, I cranked the bolts down and 'drew' the keel down onto the knee until epoxy oozed out. The amount I closed between the knee and transom was not very much. At the time, I thought the knee moved up toward the keel, but actually, I think I deflected the keel down onto the knee.

In any case, to correct the low spot, I used some straight edges and masking tape, and created a reservoir, then poured slightly thickened (maple syrup looking) epoxy into the reservoir. It looks like it self leveled and should fix the dip which was probably at most 3/32", maybe 1/16" deep. The reservoir went from just ahead of the transom to just ahead of frame 2. I made it longer/deeper than the dip and will just spend some time with the sanders tommorow or the next day to get the keel exactly where I want it. That's it for now, just some photos below of a clamped up shear.

Roberta Hegy · **Posted:** Sun Dec 11, 2011 5:56 am

Looks nice!!

Roberta

Moeregaard · **Posted:** Sun Dec 11, 2011 12:45 pm

Very nice job and I like the idea of the roofing paper. Our Zip's been on the water for over three years and we still have its "drip line" on the floor of the carport. As for removing the building form, we did have to do some minor surgery to the building form for removal, but only because we installed the deck beams when building the frames.

-Mark Shipley

sawford11 · **Posted:** Wed Dec 14, 2011 7:10 pm

Thanks Mark.

I began some very rough fairing this evening. Only spent about 30 minutes doing that and then had to take some time to look at some examples...I am a little confused on how to fair the shear where it attaches to the breasthook. On the zip, the breasthook is two layers of 3/4" ply. The top layer, 3/4" plywood, of the breasthook (since the boat is upside down, it is currently at the bottom of the build) has a triangular shape that creates the point at the front of the boat. That point is cut vertically from the plywood so the edge is currently perpendicular to the floor. If the hull were connected to the "breasthook point" the hull would be vertical at that location. However, in order for the hull to follow the contour of the stem, the hull cannot be vertical. That being said, I assume I need to fair the "breasthook point" and the adjacent shear. I am just not 100% clear how much I should fair off of the breasthook. Time for more research....If any past zip builder knows what I am talking about, please feel free to chime in...In the meantime, I think I will reach for a cold one and look up some past build blogs.

By the way, that 30 minutes of fairing pretty much trashed the workshop. A combination of hand planer, electric planer, and belt sander really created some waste.

Roberta Hegy · **Posted:** Thu Dec 15, 2011 6:06 am

The tip of the breasthook will get faired to coincide with the shears and stem. Take a look around pages 6-10 at the fairing I did in the "Roberta's Zip" topic in the forum. Use a 2X3 ft. piece of plywood as a guide to fairing. You should be able to easily make the plywood conform anywhere on the frame and lay flat to the mounting surfaces with some bending in the areas of the boat that have obvious curves. Fairing can take weeks and is a slow process that takes a good eye, lots of fitting and refitting, and enormous amounts of chips and sawdust. Be patient as this is what really gives the boat it's nice clean lines and good fit.

Roberta

upspirate · **Posted:** Thu Dec 15, 2011 7:05 am

This is Roberta's Zip after fairing:

http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/3778/fairing2014.jpg

http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/60/fairing3003.jpg

Iggy · **Posted:** Thu Dec 15, 2011 8:35 am

Argggh... the dreaded keel/knee 'low spot'. I had the same issue on my Malahini as well. I like your solution. I used a wood filler in my case.

Just keep an eye on it, mine reappeared a bit after I put my plywood on my hull. Not much, but just enough to piss me off and make me float some extra epoxy/glass and sand it smooth again before painting.

sawford11 · **Posted:** Sat Dec 17, 2011 12:50 pm

I spent a little over an hour fairing this morning and can tell this process is going to take me some time. With the holidays around the corner, I probably won't have much progress to report over the next few weeks. I plan on taking lots of close up photos of the complete fairing. Hopefully, some others will find them useful in helping them understand the fairing process. Then again, who knows how good mine is going to turn out. They might be photos of what not to do :shock:

upspirate · **Posted:** Sat Dec 17, 2011 3:51 pm

Looks like you figured out how the breasthook point gets to it's final shape!

Looks great!

Oh BTW, the next one will be easier!! :wink:

Glen-L.com

Sawford's Zip Build

Who is online