So here we are in the heat. Why? I do not know. Things are back to normal. Ben is cursing and frustrated (tra la). The temperature is in the upper 90's, on a cool day. As long as there's shade and a breeze, it's tolerable. I downloaded Windows 10 (what was I thinking??????? oh yeah...it's free). The touchpad was squirrely as hell and had to be adjusted. There is some kind of new internet thingy that I don't know what it's supposed to do (what were they thinking???????). My mail shortcut doesn't work on the desktop. It has much much useless stuff that I am sure the geeks love. I am afraid to activate Cortana (Cortina?) as I see no reason to talk to a computer and have them talk back, especially after the touchpad sends me to somewhere I don't want to be. Cover your ears (?) Cortana! If I wanted a computer to talk to me, I would like it to sound like a plumber from New Jersey: "Yo, Chuck, whuddah youse want?" I am working on finishing the rudders (again). The rudders: our nemesis.
Didn't believe me, huh? Oh yeah, the rudders. Now that the port stern is back to being what it should have been, I started putting the rudders back into what they should have been.
Four cheeks reinforcing the rudders. I would glue one on one side of each rudder one day.
Then, being quite biblical, turn the other cheek, and glue that on. Ben commenced to cut the parts on the sterns to accept the rudder hinge. The hinge is a Jacob's Ladder approach to attaching the rudder. Here's a mock up.
|
|
We dry fitted the rudder to the stern
Now, what ya do is cut 4 corresponding notches in the stern and rudder, drill oversize holes, fill them with epoxy, drill the correct size holes, ease the edges and lash them on! Piece of cake! Except.......
It's not as easy as it looks. The holes are on a tapered stern and there are no good reference edges.
Not so good! So Ben made a jig to guide the holes. Now fill the holes back in and start over.
Naw, not that one- didn't work. Back to the drawing board!
The drawing board! next to the jig that didn't work, next to the other jig that didn't work, next to the piece of PTFE (Teflon) that he used to make the jig (patent pending).
Good jig, bad jig! In jig time! At the very very bottom of the rudder is a notch. This said notch sits atop an oak block screwed to the hull that helps support the rudder. If you look hard at the rudder picture and concentrate, you can see the notch. The block looks like this.
|
|
Of course, they have to be epoxy coated and glassed and two PTFE washers go between the two pieces. What, you want simple?? In our push to enjoy the warm, sunny weather, we sanded the gunwales so we can put the fillet in, fill and paint the hulls. Pleasant!
Ahhhhhhh, shade.
Ahhhhh, sanding fiberglass over head. The shower water is black. We turned off the hot water heater. The cold water is hot enough to take a shower. We use the hot water tank as a reservoir for cooler water. Well waddayaknow!
Oh yeah, one of my fire ant bites. I have never seen a 2mm long critter so mean and ornery as these evil creatures. Apply gin and tonic liberally to stomach!
The Music ♫: Lee Dorsey: "Ya Ya"
A dedication to Windows 10!!!!!! Just like Spinal Tap, they may go to 11!
RSS Feed
