A PAUSE IN THE PROCEEDINGS

Haven't posted in a while  , Sections 7 and 8 have been mostly completed by Mid 2017  ,  all sections now surround our house like a fence  . Google earth picture shows most of them and I have added the positions of the last 2 .

The bow of  Hull 2 almost extends over the back fence to the neighbors place .

This has given my Garage back so I was also able to start in on the rudder blades and rudder bearing housing .

Created a half form for the shape of the Rudder

And from this created a number of  fiberglass blanks

These will form the base of the Rudder Blades . Mounted these in a vertical jig and added  multiple layers of  resin impregnated Quad Axial cloth to build up to the desired thickness .
Since it was winter , had to pre-heat the resin so it was runny enough to saturate the cloth as Quad axial cloth is woven very tightly . Very messy job .

The final blade will require some filler on the outside to create a nice finish but by laminating
over a male mold the cloth wraps around the front in a continuous piece so structurally is much stronger .  The Design of the blade is a   MacLear Thistle  which allows for a greater rudder angle and acts like a side thruster at full angle .

Also created the rudder bearing tubes  , these were created like the stern tubes for the prop shafts , only a larger dia and much stronger due to the rudder shafts to be made from 2" Stainless Steel .

These have an internal Dia of 3" and a glass thickness of 5/8" and a length of 30" . The lower bearing will be Vesconite  , a  self lubricating thermoplastic and the upper bearing will be cast bronze .

The Rudder blade pieces ended up with a 3/8 " thickness , 36" tall  , 3 3/4 " width and length of 27"

These will still need to be trimmed to size  , a 4" section needs to be removed and glassed into the propeller tunnel as a base  , the rudder blade swings below this base .

I managed to get an old 2" prop shaft cheaply so will cut this into 2 lengths , add some tangs to it and use it as the rudder shafts . These will be glued into place and the rudders filled with high density foam .


Havn't gotten much done over the last year  , its transition time and this is going to be tricky , next phase of the construction will need to be done in a large shed  and the only way to fund this and the rest of the construction  is to sell the family house , Am currently renovating the house and organising family , not an easy task . Hopefully by the end of the year we will move the sections to the new location and continue the build .