Poured rudder pad and rest of transome....

Since I am waiting for some more composite parts I decided to pour the remaining part of the transome. I had a crazy idea to frame in the rudder pad and pour it with the extra NIDA-POUR I had. Well the idea worked great. I still need to grind and far the edges. After I do that I will glass over the new pad with a few layers of biax. Here are a few pics....

This is the frame. Made it with paint mixing sticks and blue 3M tape.

 This is the new pad just after I poured it.

 Here it is with the frame off. I still need to grind, but NO WOOD!!!!

Inboard stringers done.....

Today we installed the inboard (main) stringer. These were cut at a 24 degree dead rise from Compsys. Each stringer took 48oz of resin to wet out. The install was the same as yesterdays secondary stringers. Enjoy the pictures....

This is the jig that we made to space the stringers the correct distance from each other.

Once the stringer was wet we placed it into position and installed the jig. The white stuff you see in this photo is wax paper so the wood won't stick to the wet resin on the stringer. 

This is the jig in place with the wood on top to distribute the weight. I used a 5gal bucket full of water for a weight. This system worked wonders.

This is the first two stringers done. We did one at a time, leaving the jig on for about 30mins per side. 

Now onto the front two. These were a little more difficult due to the curve of the bow. I used the same jig but adjusted it to fit the curve.

This is Scott Lewit, owner of Compsys checking our work and progress. It says allot about a company when the owner is willing to come by and give advice on what the next step should be.

All done. It took us about 2 hours working time to do this job. It was an all day job but allot of the time is waiting for resin to dry. Each stringer took about 30mins to wet and set.

Secondary stringers installed.....

Today was a GREAT day with the boat. I got an early start with my Buddies Shawn and Brian with me. The goal today was to get both sides of the secondary stringers installed.

First thing I did was wipe the inside of the boat with acetone. I then dry fit the stringers that I was installing one more time so myself and my friends knew what we where doing. I had a crazy idea to spray the resin instead of rolling it. I figured it would slow down are working time. If I could get everything wet out quick I would have more time to roll and brush all the air out. That said, I have a gel coat dump gun that I used for a few other projects, if it can spray gel it can spray resin. It worked soooooo good. Ok so here are the pics and the steps.

First step is to wet out the underside of the PRISMA preform stringers. This is the most important step. Make sure the entire underside is wet!!! As you can see in this picture that the dump gun sprays the resin very good.

Do the wet out in sections. The performs we are using came in 4ft lenghts. We did two at a time. This seemed to worked well for are 24oz mix of resin. 

Once the underside is wet, flip the stringer over into position and wet out the topside. You want the stringer tabs to be as transparent as they will get. With spraying I used 24oz on each side for a pair. So that's two 4ft sections both sides really wet was 24oz of resin.

Once the first row was wet and in position we started to roll and brush all the air bubbles out.

I just repeated the process for the second row.

That's about the extent of these wonderful preforms. The entire job took us 2 hours. 

First side done.

All done and ready for lunch.

Poured transome and dry fit stringers....

The Transome pour went great except I did not have enough NIDA-POUR. I was about 5 gals short. Not a big issue, this product allows you to pour at a later date.

I also dry fit the Compsys stringer system. This is a great product, they where cut perfect to the 24 degree deadrise I ordered. They give you a ton of tabbing to get a good bond to the hull. I do have to do a little more grinding :( not happy about it but whats another few hours of grinding to insure a good bond..

The Rebuild Starts....

Well today I started the rebuilding of my 23' Fish Nautique. I will be building the boat from the transome forward for the most part.

First I trimmed the skin I made a week ago of the transome and got it fitted inside the boat

Below picture is the skin dry fit with the 2x4's acting as spacers for the NIDA-POUR cavity.These will be removed once the skin is glassed in.

Once dry fit, I glassed in the skin with vinyl ester resin to get a good bond to the existing polly resin.

I used two coats of glass for this to give me a strong bond

After the glass was dry I removed the 2x4 spacers

I then had to brace the skin from the front to prevent it from bowing out when I pour the transome. For this I used another 2x4 cut to length across the front of the skin. I ran two 3inch screws from the outside in to hold the wood in place.

This is where the day ended.

Started the composite Transome

Well all the wood and grinding on the inside of the transom is done! That job took alot longer then I was expecting. 

Today I sprayed the outside transome with PVA for the skin that I will use for the inside. This will be used as a "frame" so I can pour the transome. If it doesn't make sense it will on the next post  

After the PVA dried I layed up two layers of +-45 Biax in opposite directions. Once it cures I will pull the skin off and cut it to fit the inside dimensions of the transome. That skin will get glassed in about 1.5 inches in from the factory transome and the NIDA POUR will go in-between. 

All Done