Optimist Club Racer

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tech_support
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Re: Optimist Club Racer

Post by tech_support »

some progress :) We cut an new permanent mold from3/4" pressure treated marine fir plywood, this is the one we will sell to clubs who want to build a little fleet. We now have two club racers being built locally by volunteers for the Indian River Youth Sailing Club. The molds and boats are in their shop space in our local municipal marina. They are completing the boat with a little help from us :wink: Once the volunteers have built these two, they will bring in the kids to build their own boats.

I will be uploading more pictures today

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Re: Optimist Club Racer

Post by ks8 »

Great! :)

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Re: Optimist Club Racer

Post by tech_support »

here is the new mold/jig cut from the 3/4"

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We faired the inside of club racer #1, this is pretty easy as there is only tape on the joints. Large fillets around the frames, no glass there.

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The middle of the boat need a stiffener/stringer that will double as a place to secure the two blocks for the rigging. Here is that piece glued in and epoxy coated

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here is how we made that part (is provided in the kits in a slightly different manner). We temporarily screwed two layers of 6mm Okoume together, then ripped them to an angle on the table saw. Now we have tow layers that will take the bend of the bottom when epoxied down into the hull. One layer of 12mm would not take the bend.

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coat them with epoxy, butter them up with epoxy glue, glue them into the boat. do it all in one shot, dont coat the top surface of the top layer or else your weights will slide off :) Also, dry fit the parts and make aligning marks in the hull so you know where to set down. Clean up any excess glue that squeezes out and there should be very little fairing to do later.

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tech_support
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Re: Optimist Club Racer

Post by tech_support »

Club Racer #1 was then pulled from the mold and flipped over for bottom glassing. We filled the edges and any small gaps with epoxy putty

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before outside glass, we round all the edges. You only need a very tiny radius for 6 oz. woven cloth. It does not have to be perfectly uniform either, we will later bring back that sharp and uniform edge using fairing putty.

edges rounded
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glass laid on dry.
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glass and all wood epoxy coated. If you laminate the glass over dry wood (not previously epoxy coated) be sure to use plenty epoxy. Check back after 20 minutes to make sure the wood has not wicked away epoxy from the glass.

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Here is the local opti factory :)

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peter-curacao
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Re: Optimist Club Racer

Post by peter-curacao »

shine wrote:
Here is the local opti factory :)

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Great but who is who?

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Re: Optimist Club Racer

Post by tech_support »

I don't remember all the guys names :oops:

We made more progress this morning. We glued in the mid-frame, the dagger board case, and the mast partner frame. We used the same location jig to glue all these parts in at once. We also glued up the outside rubrail. The gunnels are glued down to the top of this rubrail

parts to be glued in. Notice we faired the forward section of the boat now, because it is just about impossible to reach after we glue in the partner. The the mast partner and forward frame were previously epoxy glued together using a small cleat from the underside.

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dry fit

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everything glued in

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rubrail glued on at same time. The molds have notches on the outside so that the rub rail can be laminated while the boat is still in the mold

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Re: Optimist Club Racer

Post by chrisobee »

how do you keep from welding your mold to the panels?

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Re: Optimist Club Racer

Post by tech_support »

clear packing tape on all those surfaces :wink:

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Cracker Larry
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Re: Optimist Club Racer

Post by Cracker Larry »

That's a neat assembly method and a great project for the kids and parents. I learned how to sail and row in an optimist. How many builds does it take for a basket mold to be a cost effective building method? It must cost almost as much as 1 hull by itself?
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Re: Optimist Club Racer

Post by Justin Pipkorn »

shine, Why did you choose the green pressure treated plywood for the mold?

I did follow your suggestion both for using 3.5 mil plastic sheeting over the fiberglass splices and then wood flour mix to fill any voids. On the first wood flour fills, I just smoothed the mix with a scraper but used plastic on the next set. The plastic over wood flour just created a new set of voids to fill. The "scraped" version came out much better. Lesson learned!

Otter/Lissa is coming along fine. I'll complete the basket mold in the next session.
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