Roller end caps to protect skegs

After a few instances of damage to the skegs from the trailer roller mounts I wanted to protect the skegs. Here are some shots of the old rollers.

roller

The skeg sometimes get cut by the mounting pillars

I picked up some 3 1/2"  roller ends and new 13" x 5/8" shafts and installed those today.

Here are the shots after.

End rollers installed

Better shot of the end rollers

I also raised the center roller about as high as it would go (see the first shot). That should guide the hull up and over until the skegs get on the rollers.

Trailer damage to the skegs

The Gig Harbor trailer has cut up my skegs a few times.

Just yesterday I scraped a skeg against the roller mount as I was pulling her onto the trailer. This has happened before.

Scraped the skeg on the trailer rollers

I've had to do more maintenance on the skegs than on any other part of the boat.

If I had to do the skegs all over again, I'd seriously consider just building the things out of 2" UHMW plastic. I have no idea how to bond UHMW to the hull though. I expect that even bedding compound won't stick to UHMW.

There are roller guide end caps that should protect the skegs. I'll do some investigation.

Holes through the skegs might not be a great idea

Some time ago, I drilled and filled holes through my skegs for toggle bolts so that I didn't need a strap to go all the way around the boat. I was very happy with the situation.

Until I noticed that there were some cracks in the skegs that weren't there before.

<I have pictures, I'll modify this post with pictures when I can.>


Today I did some investigation, sanding and patching. I now believe that it was not the stress from the bouncing on the trailer. I think it was because I din't get the holes sealed as well as I thought. I used red oak for the skegs and I think some water got in and seeped throught the wood pores and caused it to stretch a bit.

I sanded everything down and recoated with epoxy and graphite powder.

I also found another area where the skeg had rubbed against the trailer and scraped it down to the wood. That must have been recent, as I had found that before on the other skeg and patched it already.

Too bad it's such a pain to work on the skegs under the trailer.

I will continue to experiment with this and let everyone know.

More maintenance work

Last weekend, I posted about my attempts at maintenance. Over the week, I've finished up quite a few of the projects.

Centerboard rigging

The simple 6mm standoffs I built are now done and attached. This seems to keep the rope & tackle away from the sides. It still bumps occasionally, but not nearly as bad as before.

In the pictures below, you can just see the standoffs.

See the standoffs under the cleat and under the padeye?

Another shot of the fully attached fairlead.

Skeg trailer hitches

I got this idea from Simeon. In this thread on the SCAMP message board, he talked about tying a rope through his skegs to his trailer. I thought that was a good idea as I've never liked the belly strap method where the straps go up & over and have the possibility of marring or breaking the coamings.

But I didn't like the idea of threading a rope through the skegs each time. I rather liked the idea of toggle bolts instead.

I ordered some 5/16" toggle bolts that were rated to like 900lbs on the pull through. If I were to do this over again, I'd use 3/8" or 1/2" toggle bolts instead. I also ordered some short webbing straps and stainless black 1 1/2" fender washers.

Then I got to work drilling holes in the skegs.

After piloting, I used a 1 1/2" paddle bit to chow a hole in the side of the skeg.

Hole in the skeg

Hole with washer inserted.

I over drilled with a 1/4" drill bit a guide for the toggle bolt. This will be filled to make sure no wood is exposed.
Then I filled the hole with thickened epoxy glue and glued the washer in. It's easiest to sink the washer in just a little bit so it is a mm or so below the surface. You can fair this later with thickened epoxy.

Washers glued in  and tape over them to hold

 When that was done, I drilled the 5/16" hole through the middle for the toggle bolt.

Toggle bolt and eye nut in place

And here it is with the strap in place

 I wasn't too happy with where the washers ended up and since glue doesn't stick very well to stainless steel, I then mixed up another thickened batch of epoxy and faired over the washers. This way they are unlikely to fall out.

Shot after fairing a bit.

toggle bolt though the hole

port side in place

and tied down.

shot of the interior with the toggle in place

I used it just today and it worked fine.

Downhaul rigging

I wanted to re-do my downhaul so that I could get more tension on the luff of the sail. I had been using a single block/v-cleat combo to pull it down, but it was hard to reach and hard to get leverage.

I decided to do something more like the plans. To do that, I wanted to have a fairlead and cleat on the cabin top. When I built the cabin top, I had placed a doubler under the cabin top  where I knew I might want a cam cleat.

I just needed to create a block of wood to raise the cleat up just a little bit. I cut that from some spare chunks of doubled up 6mm plywood and re-coated that with epoxy.

Then I had to sand it down to fit flush on the curved surface. I used a trick I learned from Dan bcbimmer. Just tape a piece of sandpaper on the curved cabin top and rub the piece back and forth.

Shaping the block to fit the surface

After it was shaped, I need to sand down the paint to get it to stick.

Just before gluing down the block

dry fitting the parts where they belong (oops, the cam cleat is upside down)

Pilot holes drilled and glued down. Fillet applied

dry fitting the parts

Finally, it's painted

I'll wait a few days for the paint to harden up before I mount the fairlead and cam cleat down. The fairlead is just screwed into the block, but the three #6 screws in the cam cleat go all the way through the block and have acorn nuts on the bottom.

A line on the padeye on the boom will go down and through a double block mounted just next to the mast box. From there, it will go back up to a block mounted on the same padeye on the boom and back down through the double block. Then it goes after through the fairlead and cam cleat. This gives me a 2:1 purchase. Not as good as some others, but I can fix it later with more blocks if needed.

Rudder repair, centerboard rigging and skeg protector repair

In my last post, I discussed some of the changes I wanted to make. Today I did some work towards that.

Skeg work

The UHMW plastic guard that protect the bottom of the skegs had pulled the screws out on the port side. I think I messed it up once when I put it on the trailer a bit sideways.
I jacked up the boat with a racing jack and was able to get under the trailer to fill the holes with new thickened epoxy and screw them down again. While I was down there, I made a parts list for through-skeg tie downs like Simeon has. I'll post an article when I get those done.
No pictures for this one.

Traveler rigging

I had a rope traveler with a sliding shackle around it. The shackle slides along the rope and has abraded the rope a bit. I replaced the shackle with a real 12mm block. I then used a pair of shackles to make a flexible shackle to the sheet block. Works great.

New traveler rigging

I really like the adjustable traveler. I don't change it very often, but it's kind of nice when I need it.

Re-rigging the centerboard

The centerboard tackle was rubbing against the side of the seat and rubbing off the paint. I use centerboard tackle slightly modified from the plans. I've been told there is a better way to rig it, but /i like mostly like mine, except for the rubbing.

All I need to do is to build some 6mm standoffs to pull the tackle away from the seats. I've got the pieces epoxied, now they just need to be painted and installed.

Centerboard rigging as original

Harken 108 turning block. Note the scratch where it jumped the block

standoffs

standoffs with pieces attached

I also used a fairlead to guide the centerboard uphill. 

fairlead in place

I'll finish this later this week after I paint the blocks.

Re-rigging the boom downhaul

I spoke with Rick at the Small Craft Palooza. He encouraged me to redesign my downhaul to really be able to crank it down. The leading edge should be completely taut when not running in light air or downwind. I was using a combo block/cleat from Duckworks. It's okay, but it's hard to get it too tight and hard to reach when under sail. Today, I cut and epoxied blocks of wood to mount on the cabin top for a 2 factor downhaul that cleats near the cabin top. I'll need a tufnol double block and then I'll mount it all later. I'll post pictures when I get it all done.

Epoxied blocks: padeye, cleat, 2 different blocks for the downhaul rig

Major milestone; Hull epoxied!

Today, Quincy and I painted the entire hull in a nice protective coat of graphite epoxy.

She looks great!

shiny black!

Looks great!

bow

This is a major milestone. Now, the only things I have to do are:

• install the slot strip (on it's way from the UK)
• finish sanding the fillets under the cabin top
• prime & paint under the cabin top.
• decide if I want to install Andersen bailers (I don't want to cut holes in that pristine hull!)

Then I can flip the boat back over and proceed with finishing the rest of the boat.

I have decided on paint colors, I just have to re-scribe the DWL with a laser because the black epoxy covered the line we penciled at scamp camp.

UHMW skeg protection

I picked up some black UHMW from Professional Plastics. I had to buy 12" x 6' sheet, but they cut 1 1/4" strips for me. Now I have extra UHMW, I may add some just under the bow if I can figure out how to mount it.

I laid down the strips on the skegs and drilled pilot holes through the UHMW and into the wood. Then Quincy drilled countersunk holes in the UHMW. That stuff is tough and weird to work.

I also drilled over size holes in the skegs and filled them with epoxy and wood flour.

Black UHMW skeg protectors

trimmed this overhang

Tomorrow, the first coat of graphite powder epoxy will happen.
I also have some slot strip on the way to install.

Skegs glued

Saturday was a busy day; I cleaned up the skegs, coated them twice and did some filleting under the deck and cabin top while she was upside down. It all went well, but I don't have any pictures to share. Pretty boring stuff.

Sunday was a less productive, but at least the difference can be seen.

I started off by sanding and cleaning up the skegs that I had coated on Saturday. I set them on the boat and used the shinto to pare down high spots until I was comfortable with the few gaps.

Then I was completely halted while I decided where to position the skegs.
I bought a trailer with rollers on the back. My plan had been to center the skegs on the rear rollers, which were centered 25 1/2" apart.

Center the skegs on the rear rollers.

However, that put the skegs right where I wanted to put some andersen mini bailers in the foot well.

In the below shot, you are looking up into the footwell. You can see a pencil line near the outside wall. That pencil line was going to be the center line of the skeg. That wouldn't leave much room for the bailer in the little well.

The footwell. See the pencil lines?

I considered getting 5" rollers instead of 10" rollers and rearranging the trailer. That would pull each skeg in by 2 1/2" inches (the second line pencil line above). This would leave room for the bailers just athwart the skegs.

After looking at it for awhile, I decided it was easier to push the skegs athwart by 3/4" (essentially, use the center line as an edge line because the skegs are 1 1/2"). I'll have room to put the bailers inside the skegs, the skegs will still sit on the rollers, I'll have  room to put on a centerboard gasket and the skegs are close to the seat supports for structure.

Once that was decided, then I had the terrible job of drilling holes for the 1 1/4" stainless screws. The screws went through the hull, sole and doubler. Unfortunately, I forgot there were 3 layers there rather than 2. I should have used longer screws.

I measured carefully and drilled down from the bottom of the hull first. Then I drilled countersunk holes from the footwell up.

Two small screw holes

I drove in stainless screws until they just fit into the pilot holes in the skeg.

You can just barely see the screws

Then it was time to butter up the skeg surface. I mixed up some thickened 404/406 epoxy and filled in any low spots in the keg bottom. Then I pumped a couple more pumps to make a slightly thinner epoxy that was brushed on to cover the entire bottom; all uncoated wood surfaces. Then I put on a full bead of 610. These skegs aren't going anywhere.

Flipped them over and drove in the screws. Clamped the aft and weighted them down with tiles and buckets of water. Also ran a gloved finger over the squish out.

Aft clamped

weight added.

Finally this evening, I got a good fillet.

filleted

This week, I'll go pick up some UHMW and may get around to painting the entire bottom of the hull with graphite epoxy.

I don't plan to put the bailers in. I can cut those holes when on the trailer.

This is getting exciting because I'm nearing completion of the bottom.

Building skegs: there's got to be a better way

I thought I had a good plan; laminate 2 3/4" plywood skegs to make a 1 1/2" skeg. Members of the message board encouraged me to use white oak instead. I've worked white oak before; it's hard to work and I didn't relish the thought of shaping it.

I do have some 8/4 white oak pieces that are about 9 feet long from a previous project. I could have cut those down to 1/2" slices and bent them to the hull and laminated skegs, but the thought of weighting those down on the hull and laminating them made me think it would take weeks.

After much deliberation at the lumber store, I finally decided to buy red oak for the skegs. I was able to find 2 pieces of rough cut 6/4 red oak that would work.

I traced the pattern and cut out the red oak with an older jigsaw that I had.  I burned out the old jigsaw cutting the red oak and had to buy another one. Jigsaws suck.

I don't have a bandsaw, but that would have worked much better. I had to cut well outside the line because I've had bad luck with cutting perpendicular.

Cutting the skegs

Skegs rough cut

I attached the template to the rough cut skegs and set up the router with a top pilot 1 1/4" long straight bit. I should have used a shorter 1" bit, it might have been easier to manage.

Cutting well outside the line meant that there was a lot of material to remove.

top pilot straight bit

It didn't go that well. The bottom pilot came loose a couple times and I gouged the pattern and the wood.

Gouge

I flipped over the pattern and removed the other side with a bottom pilot straight bit.

Cut the remainder

After doing the second piece and making a lot of sawdust, I was finally done.

Skegs are done

I didn't get any photos, but I was able to route the finger holds. In retrospect, I should have cut those later.
I also put a 1/8" roundover on the appropriate edges. Again, this might have been better to do after everything was cleaned up and more straight.

I set them on the boat on top of some plastic and cleaned them up by layering on some epoxy thickened with some (relatively) easy to sand 407.

raw cuts.

slathered with 407 epoxy.

I'll sand these when they are cured and get them smooth. I'll have to do some clean up with the shinto rasp, especially on the bottom to get it to fit the curve well.

I don't want to put screws through the hull, so I'll likely use a forstner bit to drill a couple shallow holes in the hull for dowels.

Then I'll fill in the bottom low spots with thickened epoxy about 8 hours before I glue the whole thing down.

This whole exercise was a real pain. There's got to be a better way.

If I were to do this again, I would cut the pattern on 1/4" plywood. It would be more sturdy and offer a better edge. I would also make 2 patterns so that if one did get screwed up, it wouldn't mess up the second cut.

Better yet, 4 skegs CNC cut from 9mm plywood would be just about 1 1/2". Those could be laminated together and glassed.

Afterwards, I remembered that bamboo plywood would probably have worked well. I know they sell  4' x 8' sheets of 1 1/2". A friend of mine gave me some that he was using as stair treads.

1 1/2" bamboo. Maybe I should have used this.