Cherub Sticky Weekend
by Jamie Pearson 10 Apr 2019 14:51 BST
6-7 April 2019
So what is a sticky weekend it's a weekend where we get together and build shiny new things for our boats for the upcoming season.
Well that went quickly! I will start with a thank you to Paul for the use of his workshop, time and effort for the weekend. Also thanks to his wife for letting us borrow him.
Thanks also go to Martyn, Andrew and Digby, I do feel a bit guilty that most of the projects were mine, so thanks for getting them done!
Martyn and I met Paul at his workshop and started to clear it, forklift, Marmite, goods trailer and an RS feva were parked outside. Unloaded poppy from the box trailer and started to unload the Volvo. Digby then turned up on his new motor bike. (Very loud; both him and the bike). Quite the collection of toys!
Sticking with toys, and the saying 'he who dies with the most toys, wins' based on his workshop alone, Paul is winning. We're all very jealous.
So what did we do?
Digby and Whapshott started the layup of the dagger board mould I acquired, the recipe was recorded and will be published soon.
Paul, Martyn and I discussed how to fix my mast tip. I had ordered a new ctech tip as the current one had been written off before... naughty, naughty, very naughty. Out came the buzz saw and off the old one came. With some careful sawing the male joint of the mast was exposed from under the old tip.
Post lunch we tested the vacuum for the board infusion on side 1. With that done the second board was layed up and tested.
Paul and I searched for the radius of marmites jib tack to make a mould. After lots of head scratching, the actual work of making the mould was 90% done in 20min. Grr! Wish I had a workshop!!
Martyn primed the new boom mandrel and cut his cloth. After working out what the actual recipe was... the big stick began. Again the reci[[e was recorded and will be published soon.
Starting with the infusion, both boards were done within about 20min, for which we all stood around gawping at it.
Wet layup of the boom took about 30-45 minutes but was far more messy!
The excess resin was then mixed with additives to make bog and I stole it to fix my new tip in place. Paul broke out the lasers (yes, lasers!) to make sure the mast was straight. Attention was made so that the taper did not affect rake at the top of the mast.
Day 1 done. Curry time.
Day 2 was a more sombre affair. We had pretty much worn ourselves out with day 1.
We started with an argument between a boom, a mandrel, a container and a forklift. After some diplomatic persuasion it was off and 2500mm of carbon oval section weighed in at 1.7kgs.
Track was then stuck on Poppy's mast and Marmites where some had started to crack.
The boards were still curing as we used slow hardener (oops). One did eventually go off after some cooking and we popped it out.
Thanks to all who turned up, once again, a brilliant weekend with friends making stuff to do with boats.
I'm fully knackered!