Young and Full of Promise

[IanA.]

I remember Freddie from the east coast back in the day. Tormented the elderly Essex boys in their big fat cruising boat's when the breeze was up. Pretty well sailed that said.

Is this the boat that dropped it's rig on the way to Ireland for Cork one year? To be fair it was a pretty fresh trip if I remember correctly.

Great boat. Should be a fantastic ride when she's all prettied up.

Hoping to do some justice to the legacy that Camp Freddie established once we get the Zapata back on her feet. Im really struggling to find much history on the boat before she reached mainland europe so im not sure if she's dropped here rig before. The sparcraft stick i'm replacing is sleeved from just above the boom gooseneck, down to the base. But no sign of breakage on the outer sectrion from what I can see. But its possible to hide a good weld I guess. 

Would be good to know more about the Zapata/Rocket 31 history if anyone knows anything..

 

[IanA.]

Pretty sure my neighbors hate me at this point because of all the dust, noise and cussing going on in my area.

The sanding never ends...

 

[IanA.]

Got my first scolding from the shed owner for making to much dust and annoying my neighbors. 

I’m not happy about it either but the shits got to be smooth. Time for the green fairing compound. 

 

[IanA.]

Got some brown stuff on now(Awlfair surfacing filler). The experts will say i'm not using this product quite right but I've had luck in the past for minor thickness filling like this. Anyways I had a tub of it so i'm trying to use what I got. Once this is all sanded back, will roll on some ultrabuild primer. Then hopefully one round of filling and sanding again on top of that(will probably take two passes) and then the 545 can go on. 



Also finally got back into the bow/crash locker "situation". Been putting it off but it would be a bit silly to have the whole boat faired up with this massive hole in the deck. Bonding some C-plate flanges around the perimeter for support. Will try to strip-plank some HD foam strips and sort of tack them together with some fast set glue and then remove the whole things to laminate the underside. Then drop back into place on the flanges, do some shaping to blend into the deck profile before the outer skin goes on. 



It all looks a bit sloppy I know. Some more sanding will do her good.

 

[IanA.]

Mast design is ongoing. We started by just modelling the original stick dimensions on the new section and updating the hardware/positions to suit the modern sail plan we're chasing. We still need to run the lam calcs but i'm fairly certain we will go to 2 spreaders and move the hounds up. Will probably stay close to the same Jib luff length though and look at some square head options there depending on the amount of sail area we have to play with.

Pretty keen on the MH0/FR0 setup, the runners will be either just above or just below there and then a small GS for power reaching. Funny that the new bowsprit is nearly longer then the foredeck itself. 

 

[Irrational 14]

Liking the sail plan. Chain-plates staying at original location? Agree on 2 speaders, the Zeros pull hard on the tip!

 

[IanA.]

Well the outline for the main and kite were just drawn in quickly as place holders and not actually representing any true sail areas.  

This is probably more realistic of where we will end up though i'm waffling a bit on the bowsprit arrangement. In sub-planning conditions I think the boat is a bit penalized on down wind angles with a center lined tack. I think I will include provisions for a spin pole attachment(still for A-sails) on the mast and then see how we get on. It might be with the all the weight reductions that this isn't needed but I like to have options.

 

[IanA.]

This is an off-cut of the mast section I'll be using. This was from the bottom of a different project so the wall thickness is a bit more then i'll probably end up with. I'm quite a fan of this profile shape as generally its much stiffer and has slightly better aero gains then a more tear drop profile. Also just gives me enough space to fit the HS22 track from antal on the back.

 

[IanA.]

Was able to convince my old man to visit for couple weeks and lend some much needed support. Powering through on fairing the deck back as well as ticking off the other needed structural work. Got the mast collar cut out to its final shape and started building up the lip using c-plate which eventually will help to waterproof this area with a flexible neoprene sleeve which will allow for movement in this area. Will then lay down laminate over the plywood structure(400g, 200g twill). And then tape the outside of the c-plate down onto that.

 

[IanA.]

Also have made some progress on the deck replacement in the bow area. It looks a bit sloppy i'm sure but there is a method to this. Almost done with the support flanges which has proven a bit tricky to glue and laminate from underneath. I made a template of the shape of the opening and transferred onto a piece of 20mm 80kg foam and then laminated the underside with 400g biax and then 200mm wide plain weave tape in a cross. The overlap is where he antal T-lock will be mounted which will serve as a bowline attachment point. T-lock is because I can remove it for racing and keep the deck smooth.

Once I have the flanges done, the idea is to glue down the foam panel, maybe using some ratchet straps around the hull for compression. Will then try and tape it underneath via the inspection hatch of the forward bulkhead. Then I will try to shape the top of the exposed foam as best as possible to match the deck profile but then a bit deeper. And then of course top laminate and then a shit ton of fairing and sanding until it looks good enough. 

This wasn't part of the original budget schedule we put together at the beginning since I had no idea they used balsa for this one part and that it was completely rotted/waterlogged. It needs to be sorted and for sure I am happy we are taking this on.

So we are having to reassess the launch date because of this and a few other factors that have come into play. Nothing major and we are keen to not have this project drag out but reality is that to do the job right, you need to take the time for it and I don't want to spend next winter doing re-work because we skipped some steps. 

 

[IanA.]

Plugging away. Got plastic up around the underside in preparation for the great bottom paint removal/battle that will commence again soon. Mast collar is coming together. Needs some laminate still but felling confident it should handle the shock loads when the rig falls to leeward.



Mast collar is coming together. Needs some laminate still but felling confident it should handle the shock loads when the rig falls to leeward.



Also finally made some headway on the sail drive. Was a bit of a disaster due to lack of maintenance. Blasted all the corrosion out of the pits and brought back to shiny metal before using a self etching primer followed quickly with 2 coats of high build. I've now filled around the whole strut and will start sanding back to try and re make a smooth shape. Once happy with that it will get barrier coated and some form of correct anti-foul for aluminum struts(still undecided)



Hoping to get 545 on the deck today which should feel like a nice accomplishment and make it a bit easier to focus on the few remaining low spots that still exist. Just looking forward mostly to get it all one solid color.

 

[IanA.]

Prime-time

 

[maarten]

Nice work Ian. Keep on posting the progress!

 

[Jkdubz808]

Boat looks good Ian.  Keep up the work, I'm following this thread.  All the best to your family from the Winterbottoms

 

[IanA.]

Took a while with the 2 of us just using 100mm mohair rollers. Not sure why I thought that was a good idea and my back is killing me. The results are pretty outstanding though(relative to my own standards, yours may vary).

The cold-cure thinned out the 545 a bit more then I would have liked, I mixed in 10% of the total paint volume(says 12% is max.). Could have done less as it ended up a bit warmer then forecast and we took the next day off to let it fully cure and do some other shopping for the boat. Will have to roll a full second coat after the next round of filling/fairing. 

And we finally settled on the deck scheme of white on white(non-skid to shiny). Awl-grip Snow White to be specific and for the non skid part we will maybe use a matting additive but might do some test pieces first to be sure. 

 

[IanA.]

Got a basic Triton2 system in with 2 displays and the rest of the standard pieces. Will add things down the road but this is a good starting point. I am not in a big rush to get this installed and would have been nice to wait on spending the money but I needed the thru-hull housing. There is a nice round hole in the bottom of the boat that I would like to sort out.



Also, finally got some laminate on the foredeck trough. 600g biax, 250g uni, 100g s-glass twill.

Was planning to also run taping onto the vertical carbon flanges of the mast collar but the remaining resin was warming in the hand and decided to get the peel-ply on and finished. Was thinking always to bag this but it was looking a bit complex around the forehatch and collar openings and then realized a bit to late that I am low on pump oil. I used an old fiberglass roller on each layer to really squish it down and told myself that because its a flat, non-complex surface that just using peel ply is okay. 

 

[IanA.]

Got the big hole in the front plugged up finally. Used some big ratchet straps to force some bend into it. Got it closer to the original deck curve then what I was expecting. Will still take some fairing on the edges and filling in the middle. Looking forward to getting some carbon on this. 





Done a few more round of filling and fairing on the strut. It won't be as good as new but definitely a big step from where it was. Next is to shape and bond on the carbon fairing.

 

[IanA.]

Boat looks good Ian.  Keep up the work, I'm following this thread.  All the best to your family from the Winterbottoms

Thanks Jesse, there seems to be a trend in my family for finding and resurrecting classic kiwi designs. You must have the bug from your family's old Lidgard. Time for a new boat/project finally?

 

[Jkdubz808]

Thanks Jesse, there seems to be a trend in my family for finding and resurrecting classic kiwi designs. You must have the bug from your family's old Lidgard. Time for a new boat/project finally?

We have a 19 foot center console I have been re-doing for a few years now.  She's almost done.  Kiwi designs are hard to find here in south Florida, but I have been trying to keep track of any Ross or Elliots (not necessarily Kiwi boats but little rockets nonetheless) around the SE that I could maybe snatch up as a project boat.  I've always got my eyes open for whats on the market.  

Can't wait to see the finished product mate!

 

[IanA.]

Struggling with the anti-foul. I brought in the air compressor, 150mm hard base R/O palm sander and 40 grit abranet disks expecting to knock some paint off. Instead the paint just gummed up the disks instantly. Tried all different speeds and pressures but nothing worked. I got the carbide hand scraper back out and was able to work 1 square foot area at a time mostly through the barrier coat and then use the air sander to fair into the base gelcoat. This ended up looking nice but its incredibly labor intensive and no way feasible to attack the whole bottom like this. 

Its as if the paint is to hard to scrap but to soft to sand. I feel like I am down to 2 options. Option 1 is use Chemical stripper with plastic to at least remove the antifoul and various layers of barrier coat. Then fair off whatever remains back to the gelcoat. Option 2 is spend 3k+ euros to get the hull soda blasted but I am having a hard time stomaching that cost. 

Anyways I became so frustrated that I needed to work on something else so started cleaning up the bulb. Nearly back to full lead except the really deep pits still full of bog. Needs a touch more sanding, then coat with some 545 to see better the highs an lows. Then template, fair, prime, repeat until I am happy or just give up.