Building The Magic Class 30: July 2009

end of JUNE into JULY time lapse clip

- Week 43 PHOTOS- Prepping Bulwarks, Locust rub rails, cockpit coaming, etc.

The MC-30 lead ballast arrives at the yard.

A detail of the scupper on the port side.

All Bulwarks are installed and faired.

Here is the silicone bronze bow fitting.

Alfie and Brendan discuss the waterways and chock fittings.

The four Aft chocks are made by Alfie out of Lignumvitae.

I got the doors open for a profile shot with the bulwarks on.

Brendan cuts out the cockpit hatches with a jigsaw.

Voila.

A detail showing how the cockpit coaming corner post is held in.

Brendan prepares to glue and fasten the mahogany cockpit coaming.

And here it is finished.

Another view.

Where the two edges meet at the aft port side.

A detail showing the coaming attaching to the coach house.

Two layers of clear epoxy were laid in the waterways and inner bulwarks.

The Last Shot of The Week. Bulwarks are installed, locust rub rails fitted, cockpit lockers cut, and coach house coaming installed. A big week.

-Week 42 Write Up- Sanding the Deck, making and installing the Bulwarks

This week started out by dusting off the random orbital sanders and sanding the teak deck down with 36 then 80 grit to remove the mess we left with the caulking guns. Once all the black stuff was removed, a beautiful result was shown; the finished teak deck.

Brendan finished his forward hatch and Oliver and I milled out the Wana I cut up a couple weeks ago to create the base for the bulwarks. They need to be full length, so we scarphed together two 20 foot sections. And sense the shape of the bulwarks change as the shape of the hull changes, there is a compound bevel throughout the 40 feet of Wana that constantly changes to accommodate for the shape of the sheer. Oliver did a wonderful job of shaping these with the power planer while I milled out the Cedar for the bulwarks.

Brendan was busy making a complex jig for laminating the cedar bulwarks around the aft section because of the severe shape. Once that was finished, we laminated up the two sections and Brendan shaped them to fit and scarphed them together.

The Wana was installed on Wednesday, glued and fastened to the deck. Thursday was spent shaping the Cedar bulwarks. Since the shape of the sheer changes, and it would be difficult to bend the Cedar into place, a lot of shape had to be cut into the wood using the jig saw, block planes, and finally the file board. Three sections of bulwarks were scarphed together to fit the length of the boat, and then scarphed into the laminated sections at the stern.

At the end of the day friday, the port side bulwarks were shaped and installed with glue and fasteners.

In other news, Dave drove the lead ballast to the shop so we could take measurements. Alfie brought over the silicone bronze bow piece. And the rudder stuffing box arrived. In the mail are the bow and stern pulpits.

Lots to do.

-Week 42 PHOTOS- Sanding the deck, installing the bulwarks.

We begin the week by sanding the caulking in between the teak deck.

It really makes a difference...

And cleaned up easily.

Here the whole boat is sanded from 36 down to 80 grit.

A detail of the bow section.

Another perspective.

Laminated cedar for the aft bulwarks.

Brendan explains how to shape the changing bevels in the Wana bulwark base.

This shows the blocking used to clamp together the bulwarks.

Here, we fit the forward section of Cedar for the bulwarks.

A detail of the Cedar resting on the Wana base at the bow on the port side.

The Cedar laminate for the aft section.

Brendan trims it down on the band saw.

The Last Shot of The Week. Brendan scarphs the two aft Cedar bulwark sections together.

-Week 41 Write Up- Teak, Caulking, Wana and the forepeak hatch

The last of the teak planks where glued in on Monday, and Oliver finally got to join me in the laborious and uncomfortable task of sanding the glue in between all the teak seams so that the black caulking would get a good bond.

After the seams were sanded, we applied almost 80 tubes of caulking to them, making sure to wipe with acetone to remove the teak oils first. The caulking job was easy, I used a pneumatic caulking gun while Oliver struggled with a battery powered one, then switching to a manual one. It took a solid day to get all the seams filled. A putty knife was used to press the caulking down into the seams to try and reduce air pockets, although we do expect some.

Brendan worked on building the forepeak hatch, which is almost finished and looking very nice. At the end of the week, Oliver and I had a chance to begin milling out the Wana for the base of the bulwarks. Working on these bulwarks is the next large task for us.

After that, we have the centerboard to build, as well as the rudder, the installation of the rudder post, the companionway hatch, and many pieces of hardware that needs to get installed. We are narrowing in on completion, but still have a lot of work to complete.

I will be sure to let everyone here know of a launch date as soon as I am made aware of one.