Our prod is a bit of work in progress. Rob has engineered a great way of attaching it to the boat and from our limited sea trials, it seems to be built for task. The prod is completely removable and will be kept on the cabin floor when not in use. This is mainly to keep the weight out of the bow of the boat. The prod currently weighs in at about 12kg and is made of a broken aluminium spinnaker pole. A similar prod made out of carbon on similar boats weighs about 20kg.
This weekend we added 500grams of glass and kevlar, mainly to make the prod tube snuggly fit the bow fitting, but also to hopefully add to the sideways strength.
I have been lucky enough over the years, to have helped with a few laminating jobs like this, dating back to my dear friend Sara Winther’s Europe dinghy mast and tuition we were given by Tim Willets.
On Saturday we used two excellent products that I would recommend to any one: peel ply, to wrap the laminates and resin in, and shrink wrap to put even pressure on the laminates.
Peel plies are a tightly woven fabric, often nylon, and impregnated with some type of release agent. The peel ply will stick to the laminate, but it will pull away without too much difficulty. This makes a nice surface to the laminates … meaning less sanding.
Shrink tape is a thin plastic which has been treated so it won't bond to the laminate. It is highly stretchable so it can conform to complex geometries, once it place it is heated and shrinks to make a “compression bandage” around the laminates.
Other successfully completed job this weekend:
- new forestay made and fitted
- new luff foil
- completion of PC “ready for sea”
- collected sails from sail maker
- rig check
No comments:
Post a Comment