#37

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Re: #37

Postby tomodda » Thu Mar 14, 2019 12:10 pm

Spent an evening doing wet-sanding, made a huge difference, the hull really looks nice (IMHO). Smooth as a baby's bottom. On the other hand, I'm rapidly reaching my limit-point of "good enough." I'm not going to be racing my boat anytime soon, so I'm just getting her to the point where I'm satisfied that I'll have good light-air performance.

How crazy did I get? The whole boat is orbital sanded down to 1000-grit. The front third of the boat (up to the centerboard, anyway) is wet sanded to 2500-grit below the waterline. I'll be polishing up the centerboard and rudder as well, at least the leading 1/3. I'm trying to get up the gumption to wet-sand above the waterline, just because it's pretty. In theory, you don't need to sand above 600-grit, but 2500 really looks nice and I can feel the difference from where I only sanded to 1000. And yes, there are papers all the way up to 7000-grit, but I'm DONE. Good enough. Spring is starting to spring here in North Carolina and I want to get out on the water!

In other news, I gave in to GreenLake's heavy hint about waxing and bought a bottle of 3M compound and 3M hard wax. I already have a buffer so I figured why not. I did a small section last night, looks VERY nice and is slick as can be. I haven't waxed a boat in years, but it's certainly far less of a pain on a 17-foot boat. Finish wet sanding hopefully today and tomorrow, compound/wax/buff on Saturday and fingers crossed for Sunday......
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Re: #37

Postby GreenLake » Thu Mar 14, 2019 1:38 pm

Impressive!
~ green ~ lake ~ ~
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Re: #37

Postby tomodda » Thu Mar 14, 2019 4:52 pm

I'll be impressed when she is back in the water, but thank you! Yeah, I do have to admit taking pride in a see-your-face-in-it mirror finish. Doesn't photograph very well inside the barn, but I'll try to post something once I have her back out in the sun.
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Re: #37

Postby Alan » Fri Mar 15, 2019 6:03 pm

This has been a really interesting thread, and the boat looks great!

Scrolling back through, I didn't find a mention of the kind of paint you used. Did I miss it?

I'm guessing you're happy with the paint, whichever kind/brand it is.
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Re: #37

Postby tomodda » Fri Mar 15, 2019 6:10 pm

Kirby Marine Paint:

https://kirbypaint.com/collections/topside-marine-paint

Since I'll be drysailing (trailer), I simply used topside paint all over, below and above waterline. I called the Kirby folks and had a decent conversation with the owner, who gave me specific pointers for my project. 3 thinned down coats, no primer needed, don't try to cover everything all at once, roll and tip. So far so good.... It's not cheap, the paint or shipping, but my time and effort are worth way more, so I didn't mind paying - came out to $150ish bucks for a gallon of the green, quart of tan, quart of red, plus shipping. Anyway, I highly recommend!
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Re: #37

Postby tomodda » Sat Mar 16, 2019 11:20 pm

Uffff.... I just got done wetsanding the entire rest of the boat - above the waterline plus everything below the waterline aft of the centreboard. Wetsanded to 2000 grit! I did the Center board as well. (Below WL, forward of CB, I had already done on Wednesday, to 2500 grit).

I am sooooooore. Took 6 hours, some 2 hours of power sanding any leftover rough spots above the WL, an hour of cleaning and calling my psychiatrist to find out what drove me to do this, then 3 hours of wetsanding. 1000, 1500, then 2000 grit, approximately an hour per grit. Besides the sanding, I had to wipe down the boat after each grit, to get the sanding dust/water "mud" off. Otherwise, the mud would clog the next paper. Not fun.

But it was worth it! The entire hull is baby's butt smooth, shiny, and you can't tell that it's painted - looks like gelcoat. Looking forward to compounding and waxing, and getting her back onto the trailer. And into my local lake...
Last edited by tomodda on Sat Mar 16, 2019 11:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: #37

Postby GreenLake » Sat Mar 16, 2019 11:23 pm

Save the money for the shrink. Just go sailing. That'll restore your equilibrium faster than anything :)
~ green ~ lake ~ ~
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Re: #37

Postby tomodda » Sat Mar 16, 2019 11:27 pm

Kidding about the shrink :)

But I swore to myself that I wasn't going to obsess about a racing-level hull finish, and then I went and did it anyway. Oh well! Mostly figured that since I'd put all this effort in, may as well do it "perfect."
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Flippen' Flipped, Finally!

Postby tomodda » Sat Mar 23, 2019 10:36 pm

IMG_20190323_202141_crop_889x679-800x611.jpg
Right-side up
IMG_20190323_202141_crop_889x679-800x611.jpg (122.73 KiB) Viewed 15573 times


Yay! Finally done painting/sanding/compounding/waxing and here she is! Even managed to hoist her up and flip her back over. Been so long, I'd almost forgotten what the topsides look like.

Tomorrow... Trailer!
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Re: #37

Postby GreenLake » Sun Mar 24, 2019 2:51 am

Nice! And I say, Nice!
~ green ~ lake ~ ~
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Re: #37

Postby tomodda » Sat Apr 27, 2019 10:55 pm

Went for the first sail of the season today! Am exhausted, but grinning from ear to ear. Had great wind, 15 knots gusting to 20, whitecaps on the lake. She can move! The refit put a whole new life into old #37, really hustles along. I'm very grateful for all the forum tips and tricks. I used inhaulers for the first time and immediately felt the difference - much better jib set, and happier main. Dunno how it translated to speed, but the boat just felt more in tune. I also played the vang sheet much more aggressively than my usual set it and forget it. What a difference! I still need to get the hang of it, but I was definitely steering with my body weight and the vang, leave the tiller alone. I'm used to steering with the head sail (keelboat, masthead rig) , but this was a whole new ballgame. Lastly, did it really happen? I was broad reaching, in a nice groove when I remembered that I still had the board all the way down. I cranked it back by a third, scooched a little further back on the rail and all of a sudden - zoom! She got up, got real quiet, and just took off. Only lasted 20-30 seconds, but was glorious, whatever it was. What a difference a smooth bottom makes. :)
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Re: #37

Postby GreenLake » Sun Apr 28, 2019 4:01 am

Nice!
~ green ~ lake ~ ~
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Re: #37

Postby tomodda » Wed May 01, 2019 12:07 am

Some photos. In the backyard, all the wood bits back onboard:

IMG_20190417_121416_1024x454_800x354_640x283.jpg
Backyard
IMG_20190417_121416_1024x454_800x354_640x283.jpg (187.89 KiB) Viewed 15415 times


After a long day on the water. Sailed hard, and put away wet. :D :

IMG_20190427_185350-01_800x676-840x710~2.jpeg
On the Lake
IMG_20190427_185350-01_800x676-840x710~2.jpeg (117.83 KiB) Viewed 15415 times


I'm happy, was definitely worth all the blood, sweat, and paint fumes!

Tom
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Re: #37

Postby GreenLake » Wed May 01, 2019 1:12 am

nice!
~ green ~ lake ~ ~
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Re: #37

Postby tomodda » Mon Jun 17, 2019 10:31 pm

Hi Folks:

Now that I have almost 2 months of sailing on the "new #37", I wanted to share some thoughts and observations, in the hope that they might be useful for future Daysailer skippers. So, for what it's worth:

-I'm constantly tinkering, it's great fun, although sometimes I overdo it, overcomplicating the rig. Well, live and learn. I've got more sail controls and convenience on the water, at the cost of more time rigging /unrigging my boat at the ramp. Arrival at ramp->Sailing away total time has steadily increased from 30-40 mins to an hour. That being said, I like my new rig, so it's worth it to me. What did I do?:

a) 20:1 boom vang. Works great to help "steer" the boat upwind and do it's usual thing downwind. But this is the big rigging complicator, it adds 10 mins or so, even using snap-shackles wherever I can. I'm still tinkering - fine-tuning the cascade lines, and thinking of ways to simplify the setting-up procedure.

b) Boom outhaul. I started at 2:1 and quickly realized that it needs another block. 3:1 is Ok for now and it works great. Just a bit fiddly when I'm taking the mainsail off the mast, since I have to remember to loose the outhaul. No big deal and an outhaul really helps me upwind.

c) Open cheek block on the boom for the topping lift. This one is a great convenience, my toppping lift is tied off at the masthead, comes down to a cheekblock at the end of the boom and then forward to a little horn cleat at the middle of the boom. The cheekblock has an open back, so I can just pop the topping lift on and off when I rig/unrig the boat - and there's a little lip so I dont have it pop out when I don't want. Advantage is that I can easily change the angle of the boom underway - there are times (broad reaching) when I want the end cocked upwards a bit, making a nice fat "belly" (GL is gonna argue with me here), and also when I'm motoring I pull the boom up for convenience, I'm a tall guy. And if I'm beating close-hauled, I like some slack on the lift, so it doesnt catch the mainsail. Anyway, works for me.

d) Cunningham/Boom Downhaul. I've rigged a 2:1 cascade by the mast, on the cabin-top, to pull the tack of the mainsl downwards. As I don't have a Cunningham cringle (hole) in my mains'l, I just loop the free end of the cascade over the lowermost mast slug and then shackle the end to a padeye on the back of the mast, below the sail track. It works, 6 inches of pull yanks the mains'l draft forward nicely. But... I'm not racing, so I dont have to worry about keeping the gooseneck above the band, so why not use a boom downhaul? So I've been experimenting, simply running the same free end over the gooseneck to pull it down. Jury is still out, but if I like it I may rig another small block beneath the gooseneck especially for the downhaul. Anyway, the whole thing adds another 5 mins to my rigging/unrigging. I'm developing a love/hate relationship to the sliding gooseneck!

e) Reverse Purchase jib downhaul. I "stole" an idea from the forum:

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=4274&p=20346&hilit=reverse+purchase#p20342

Works well, although I wont say great. I certainly does what I want - brings the jib down fast and securely (no shrimping!), and even better it keeps the jib from riding up the stay when I'm on mainsail alone. Which has been often, as I don't raise the jib while reaching if I'm solo in more than 12ish knots of wind (it gets tiring, even with GL's wonderful ratchet blocks. I don't have jibsheet cleats yet). No worries about extra weight aloft, as I'm using a small double block for the jib halyard and downhaul, and the reverse purchase block (the one that runs up/down by the stay) lives at the stemhead when the jib is up. But.. it's one more thing to remember - loose the downhaul when I'm raising the jib, one more thing to rig (2-3 mins), and it sometimes snags. No big deal when it snags, just pull on the halyard, but it's an annoyance. However, I quickly learned not to run the downhaul up through the jib's snap-shackles, will snag for sure! Overall, the good outweighs the bad and it's perfect for when I''m single-handing. Also let's me sail up to the ramp area full-blast, and quickly drop all plain sail. Fun!

-I'll be happy to take/share photos or answer questions on any of the above rigging, if anyone is interested.

-In other news, jumper stays aka diamond stays SUCK. They came original with my mast, and I've left them on thinking I'd give them a chance. Also, they're hard to take off, so I was lazy! :) Well, sheer hate has overcome my laziness. I'm constantly getting my main halyard, jib halyard, mainsail, topping lift, etc tangled in the jumper stays. The jumpers completely screw the leading edge of the top 1/3 of my main when ever I'm running or even broad-reaching. And they don't do what they're supposed to do - prevent forward bend! Explanation - I can bend my mast backwards just fine with the boom vang, even with the jumpers, because the jumper struts sweep back a bit. Fine, I think, should keep my masthead in place when I'm running. Nope! I ran down my local lake in an 18-knot breeze - both wing-on-wing and broad reaching (tried both) and the top 1/3 of the mast bent in all sorts of funny directions, mostly sideways and often to the windward! Yes, I had the mast jack properly tightened... Forget that, goodbye jumpers! As a side note, I was parked next to a Thistle while rigging my boat on Sunday and those things have TRIPLE jumper stays, from boom to masthead! I threw up a little bit in my mouth..... Beautiful boat ,though!

-I've been taking it easy on the heeling angles. I know I want to sail the boat flat as possible anyway, but the truth is that I've been luffing the sail a LOT because I'm just not confident about putting the boat on her ear without a reassuring chunk of lead in my keel (or another hull.. I grew up on Hobie Cats). Well, this past Sunday cured me of any worries, I spent my entire time upwind with the rail buried, even shipped green water over the coaming a few times. No big deal at all, my fat behind perched up on the windward rail kept things well under control (insert lead-ass joke here). Even 20-30 gallons of water sloshing around the bilges didn't affect anything. I know, everyone writing on this forum says the DS is stable at high angles, but seeing is believing. Next time though, with a good wind, I'm dragging my crew out on the rail with me, let's stay flat and faster.

-Also in other news, my EP Carry motor continues to be wonderful, it's done everything I've asked of it including pushing me upwind in a 20-knot breeze (while I raise the sails). Only one issue, don't ever let the connectors get wet, motor wont start. Frantic blowing on the connectors does the trick, but it can be a bit hairy.

-Last tidbit, I finally got my "First Mate" aboard:

TaffyTom-640x480.jpg
Sailing with Trusty Dog
TaffyTom-640x480.jpg (65.58 KiB) Viewed 15122 times


Meet Taffy, the AfterGuard Mutt. She soon figured out that the afterpart of the cockpit was all for her and spent a great Saturday on (and in) the water with me. Looking forward to more to come!

Best,

Tom

P.S. How to beat upwind without the jib? Roll-tack, baby! I don't nail it every time, but it usually does the trick. And makes me feel like a 10-year old kid on an Opti again :D
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