Jahazi: Radius - second layer (2010)

Introduction

"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea"
Antoine de Saint-Exupery

With that in mind one may think that anybody with a passion for the sea can build an ocean going yacht. But be warned! It is not something that can be taken lightly. It takes time and dedication.This project was started in 2004 with the purchase of plans for the Didi 34. Although almost finished, it is still ongoing.

Sunday, 10 October 2010

Radius - second layer (2010)

The radius had to be done in two layers of 6 mm thickness. The first layer was done after the bottom skin and before the side skin. The second layer could only be done after both the bottom and side skins were installed. The second layer must overlap all joints in the first layer of the radius as well as the joints of the bottom and side skin. At the same time the second layer is laid, the joints in between the panels of the first layer had to be filled with epoxy. Quite a messy job as the epoxy constantly one wants to run out of the joints on the inside of the hull. I eventually used masking tape placed over the joints to keep the epoxy in. This worked quite well until I had to remove the tape. In some places the epoxy ran over the tape and I had to sand down to the wood to get rid of the tape. To avoid this, one can remove the tape and excess epoxy before the epoxy is fully set. The second layer of the radius took me 172 hour.