Tuesday 8 July 2014

Dinghy build

We're hoping to get a few days next week to go sailing and hopefully take Teal a little further afield so I'm trying to squeeze in work on the Apple Pie dinghy when I can. It has been set aside for the last few weeks because I needed to buy more epoxy which I couldn't because there was still a fair amount of bills outstanding following the rush before launching Teal, rigging, survey etc etc etc.
Anyhow I bought some the other day and got the outside of the hull sheathed. Last night I filleted the seat bases in place and this morning I glued the seat tops on and filleted the edges, I think I will sheath over the seats also.
The plans have the seats in the same arrangement but they are mounted on twart supports and don't provide any buoyancy. I considered making them that way to save as much weight as possible but concluded that it wouldn't add much weight for the benefits of having some built in buoyancy. So I have made the seats as per the plans but they are sealed boxes instead. The longitudinal seat and dual row lock positions are a great idea because they allow the rower to sit further forward to trim the boat if carrying a passenger.
I sheathed it in 195gsm woven rovings and it has so far taken about 4 kgs of epoxy including the fillets. I don't know if I will have enough to completely fair it after but I do have an abundance of epoxy primer and paint which I figure will almost do the same thing.
I need to get some solid timber for the skeg, runners, gunwales and knees.


I put an extra layer of matting on the corners because no doubt they will get knocked about.




We went down to Teal yesterday to fit the chain pipe on the foredeck so we can get the anchor set up properly and then headed out for a sail.
We sailed off the pier and out South of the robber bank about 5 miles South of the harbour, then back in and sailed on to the mooring, Its great when the engine can be avoided altogether, Teal seems to make headway in the absolutely lightest of breezes, if time was never an issue I can see how she would be just fine engineless as you would imagine any boat of her era would have had to have been .


Next season I will lower the waterline aft, I don't think she needs anymore ballast now, She had several waterline marks and I went with the last one which was used, Presumably she had been sitting lower and lower as the years went by.
  

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