On this week's episode of Onboard Lifestyle, we make some progress on the hardtop for our 435 catamaran SV basik. The ladies team up to not only take care of...
Closed Captions (CC):
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hey everyone welcome back to onboard
lifestyle
over the past few weeks we've been
working on our new hardtop on sv basic
let's get you caught up on our project
the first thing we did was to construct
a form that we could use to build the
hardtop on
the structure gave us an idea of how big
this project was going to be
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with the structure in place we can now
template the support posts that we are
subcontracting out to a local metal
fabricator
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at this point the form was only 75
complete
but we had to move it below the boat
before it became too heavy to move
now that the form was in its new
workshop it was time to make sure that
we retained the exact shape to do this
we double checked all of our
measurements and added strong backs
throughout
we received our shipment from carbon
core and cut the panels to lay out on
the form
the panel positions are important to
optimize for waste and at the same time
pin great detail to seam placement to
ensure
structural integrity
the form made joining the panel's easy
work for this we used west system epoxy
with a 406
colloidal silica filler
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multiple layers of 10-ounce glass cloth
was layered staggering the seams and
alternating the direction between each
fabric lamination
to avoid aiming blushing on the epoxy we
would carefully wash the cured surface
with soap and water between each
lamination
to keep the fiberglass seams from
telegraphing to the next layer
we sanded the surface and smoothed using
the system three
two part epoxy fairing compound
did i mention the sanding the glorious
glorious sanding
one of the most important elements of
this project is to keep the surface as
smooth as possible
and to do this we sand
now that you're up to speed let's take a
look at our project to see where we're
at
let's get to work
here's where we stand right now
we have three layers now down of
10 ounce cloth total of 30 ounces of
cloth
feels pretty good from this side but
this top is huge so it's still
going to feel a little flimsy when we
pick it up we're not going to start
getting the strength till we get the
laminations on the other side
and we'll be flipping this top here
today and start those
you know we've been sticking to a strict
lamination schedule to make sure all our
seams
are offset from each other and we're
trying to stagger those
with at least a foot of variance
actually let's go over those right now
will help illustrate
our fabric and lamination schedule
this was our original panels we cut them
to stagger them in a brick formation and
the first layer of lamination
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was offset so none of the seams were
even close
to those first panels
the second lamination we turned 90
degrees to the
first and again paying attention to the
underlying
seams the third lamination
we went 90 degrees again and offset
those
to the first lamination and we're going
to continue that
to the fourth lamination
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as you can see there's not
one layer that lines up with one
previous to it
that's going to give us the most
strength and making sure that we don't
line up
any two seams in any lamination
throughout the schedule it's time to
release the top from the mold and flip
it over
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um
okay what i'm doing is blocking this up
now
so we can use the same form i've taken
my measurements off here so i know how
far
to flex the top to get it into the
same position as it was on the reverse
side then we can start laying glass
we're getting close
the next step we have to do now that
we've flipped it
and posted up it's nice and stable i
need to locate
all of the posts
i don't want to bolt straight through
that honeycomb the honeycomb actually
will dimple slightly as you tighten up a
bolt
so i don't want to crush it in any
places so i want to inlay a more durable
material that handles compression much
better and we're going to use pvc sheets
for that
i have 3 8 inch pvc sheets so we'll
double it up
and put a nice 6x6 backer we need to
inlay those into the top
so i've taken all of my measurements
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and laid it out
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we'll have to cut in and inlay these
down in there
i'll set these with epoxy and bring the
level straight up
to the core level then we can start our
lamination schedule
so let's do that next
the first thing i do is just score the
surface
my layout now i'll take my oscillating
saw
and plunge and be real careful not to go
all the way through because i want to
just dish it out right to the skin that
i put on the other side
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and you could feel it in there
so
and that's how i do it
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well this is not how we planned today's
project but you know we just have to go
with the flow
uh teal is now up in our stateroom down
for the count
a lot of you don't know but uh in his
youth
he was a little reckless and he broke
his back and his neck on two different
occasions
so every now and again about one or two
times a year
he will actually tweak his back a little
bit
which means that he can't really do
anything except to just lay and heal
and so it's going to be me today working
on some projects because we still have
to stay on schedule
and i don't really have a choice emma's
going to help me today
and we're going to do some epoxy work so
let's get to work
looking for me teal before his back went
out was able to cut these all out
all emma and i have to do at this point
is we're going to scuff these up
so then the epoxy would adhere to this a
lot better than if it was just a slick
surface
and we have 16 to do so i'm going to
call her down here and we can get
started on this
we're also going to put a weight on top
so when it does cure
it's going to cure in a flat plane and
that will
cut down on our sanding before we lay
the cloth onto this
usually my mom is my dad's a foxy girl
but today
it's me
i always think it's kind of funny
because this looks like honey and this
is a
honeycomb composite so i thought that
was kind of hilarious
okay day three how's the patient
actually okay can i just say compass has
been so sweet
he's been guarding teal ever since
just take advantage of a warm body to
sit on
uh day three usually doesn't last this
long usually it's just a day or two but
man you want to talk about how this
happened
i do but first how's it going down there
it's fine don't worry about it
i do worry about it i'm doing
fine i'm going to be doing some thick
and epoxy today
great too bad i can't uh continue my
game while
i'm doing this you have the notes i gave
you right i don't need
notes who needs notes
you need notes come on talk about your
injury
when i was must have been 15 i think it
was
i actually fractured a vertebrae in my
neck and tore some muscles
on a water slide of all things then two
years later
i crushed a disc in my lower back
i was 17 screwing 16 17 yeah
no i wasn't screaming in gymnastics and
i did it on a mini trampoline
and ever since then
i'll get a little backache once in a
while backache
i know it's actually okay
so just back up a little bit because
teal used to have these um episodes
these episodes we used to call them uh
about once a month wasn't it it was once
a month
his back would he throws back out
and we end up in the hospital
and ever since we started sailing the
the episodes got fewer and far between
to the point where it's
uh so much more manageable it's about
once or twice a year
yeah um i think it's because you know
you're a lot more active
so you know that's huge points for
sailing right i know it's
but when it hits me well you're a baby i
know i'm a baby
it hurts it hurts real bad
i actually am very sympathetic i know
you do i just think it's funny when you
whine
wine it's not normal
and here's compass hanging out he's
never too far from teal
when he's hurt i'm gonna come down and
check out what's going on
not if you can't move no i forbid it
okay just suck it up tell me tell me you
got it
i got it okay i trust you i know i mean
what's worse case i
sand everything off yep
don't make me laugh all right we'll let
you rest
i'll go back to work now
this is now the moment of truth to see
how well emma and i did
it's so nerve-wracking
i think we did so good
there is it's a little high right in the
middle but
really nothing epoxy can't fix
right
okay so this epoxy game
is not as fun as it normally is when
teal does this because
i don't get to just be a participant and
just kind of watch
i actually have to do this
not the same
but hey the sooner teal gets better
the sooner he can take over this job
and we can resume status quo
okay so that is it i did all eight
of our post down points and we
did epoxy work on all the seams i feel
pretty good about it
yeah but you know he's just he's gonna
come down and check all this stuff yes
we know teal's gonna come down and check
it out he just can't
help himself but you know watching him
over the years emma and i
have been able to pick up a lot of his
tips and tricks
so i'm pretty proud of ourselves on this
project so far
yeah anyways guys if you like this
episode don't forget to leave a like and
subscribe to our channel big thanks to
our patrons
you we are very thankful for you guys
happy thanksgiving and come back next
week see you then
bye
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you