South African "Catalina" 22

greg_m

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May 23, 2017
692
Catalina Jaguar 22 Simons Town
This was round two on the water line as well as trying to tackle the troughs in the below waterline area at the bow. Will slowly make my way aft filling the voids as best i can. The boat will never be as new shape from the mould unfortunately.
 

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greg_m

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May 23, 2017
692
Catalina Jaguar 22 Simons Town
Thanks for the link. I had in fact purchased one of those floor carpet glue spreading trowels with the serrated edge with exactly the idea of spreading the fairing compound over a larger surface area but only leaving thin lines of compound. Then long board sanding the hull to knock off the high spots leaving behind the troughs of ridges. Then only filling in the areas where the ridges are left over. I never tried it because I thought it was a daft idea. Now I read in the link to the forum you posted, post #6 from JimConlin, that somebody else recommends this process... so now I am keen to try it out.

Will definitely take photo's of the process when I get to do this job. Problem is the good old Cape Doctor is at it again... excess of 30 knots gusting into the 40 knots making working on the hull impossible. To much sand and leaves blow onto the hull as well as the actual sea spray carry over leaving every surface a wet smudgy sticky sandy messy. No good for fresh epoxy resin and fairing compound. :(
 

greg_m

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May 23, 2017
692
Catalina Jaguar 22 Simons Town
On Sunday last, 10/Dec?2017, the Volvo Ocean racers left Cape Town on the next leg to Australia. They felt the full force of the wind once passing around Cape Point! 5 Knots to 50 Knots in the space of an hour was the comment made by the race commentators! Just our daily breeze....

Check out the in port race on the 8th:
and the departure on the 10th:

Hectic action!
 

greg_m

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May 23, 2017
692
Catalina Jaguar 22 Simons Town
Ok... so finally the wind calmed down enough to make a start using the new plan. Using 80 grit I long board sanded the entire starboard side of the hull from the waterline to the keel line following only the length of the boat. Then washed it all down. This took a couple of hours after work yesterday evening. In the pictures you can see clearly the valleys and the hills.

The valleys are the darker mottled areas while the hills are the lighter areas. The much whiter areas forward and along the waterline are whats been faired already and in my opinion completed! Time to move on...
 

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greg_m

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May 23, 2017
692
Catalina Jaguar 22 Simons Town
This is the glue spreading trowel used for laying down carpet or vinyl flooring. Never used it before!

The idea is to lay down a thin smooth layer and then scrape it down with this trowel leaving behind ridges to sand off.
 

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greg_m

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May 23, 2017
692
Catalina Jaguar 22 Simons Town
After smoothing on a thin layer of fairing compound it was time to try the serrated edge trowel. First go was not so successful, scraped it all off and redid the thin layer. Reason being the tight radius cross wise and the curve of the hull lengthwise. Had to learn to concentrate on keeping the trowel parallel with the curve along the length of the hull while dragging it straight down the radius of the curve. Turned out ok for my first try.

You can clearly see ridges where the fairing compound was left behind, valleys where the hull is visible on high spots and a couple of areas where no ridges are which shows really low spots. Used slow hardener so I had time to play around and cater for mistakes/trial and error!

It got quite late in the evening so the low level setting sun was reflecting off the hull a bit in the last photo's.
 

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greg_m

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May 23, 2017
692
Catalina Jaguar 22 Simons Town
It was then time to really take advantage of the lull in the wind and do some real work!

A quick dip in the splash pool, break out the Weber and bbq some chicken for supper... brandy and ginger ale on the rocks to quench my thirst!
 

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greg_m

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May 23, 2017
692
Catalina Jaguar 22 Simons Town
Ok - feedback time.

IMHO = It is my honest opinion that this idea of using a serrated trowel and building up fairing compound using ridges and troughs would be great for changing the contours of the surface... NOT for filling low spots.

Why do I say this from my experience? I spent more time sanding down unwanted ridges. During this time I did see that you have a lot of possibility for shaping a new curve or contour because of the height of the ridges. But sanding ridges away where you actually don't want them is not only a waste of time and effort but also a waste of materials. I even resorted to using my belt sander to get rid of the most of the unwanted ridges.

I could far more quickly use a wide flat edge trowel to scrape away the excess on the high spots of the hull and leave only materials behind in the low spots. Lot less material waste, lot less time sanding. Even if I had to do this several times to build up to a flatter surface it would work out much easier to do.

Again my opinion and also why I was hesitant to try it in the first place.

Now to file off the serrations along the one long edge of my trowel!
 

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Apr 5, 2009
2,774
Catalina '88 C30 tr/bs Oak Harbor, WA
Ok - feedback time....
Now to file off the serrations along the one long edge of my trowel!
You would be better off with a 12" drywall taping trowel. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Wal-Board-Tools-12-in-Taping-Knife-20-042/100660210
The blade is a thin sheet of stainless steel which is stiff but will allow some flex. When you are working on a curved surface you hold the trowel with both hands and use the last pinky and ring fingers of each hand to flex the ends of the blade to fit the curvature of the hull.
 
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greg_m

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May 23, 2017
692
Catalina Jaguar 22 Simons Town
You would be better off with a 12" drywall taping trowel. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Wal-Board-Tools-12-in-Taping-Knife-20-042/100660210
The blade is a thin sheet of stainless steel which is stiff but will allow some flex. When you are working on a curved surface you hold the trowel with both hands and use the last pinky and ring fingers of each hand to flex the ends of the blade to fit the curvature of the hull.
I did exactly that... except here in SA we have a "Builders Warehouse". I purchase a trowel that you describe exactly. I also used it exactly the way you described.

Not only was I able to fill voids more easily, there was also way less wastage. In fact I used only 200g of fairing compound to complete the whole remaining starboard side = about 4m length. And all I did was exactly what I wanted to do = fill the valleys. Not reshape the hull.

The previous section I tried with the serrated trowel leaving ridges took 200g of materials and barely made it half a meter length of the boat.

Picture will follow soon...
 

greg_m

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May 23, 2017
692
Catalina Jaguar 22 Simons Town
After the sanding down of the ridges I decided to wash down the hull and scope out the shape and fairness while it was all glossy wet. I must say to me you can clearly see the difference between the faired parts and the unfaired parts of the hull. It looks way better than I expected of my own efforts. Unfortunately the camera does not really bring out the true details but here's the best of the shots I took anyways.
 

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greg_m

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May 23, 2017
692
Catalina Jaguar 22 Simons Town
Ok - so the promised pictures. I started applying the fairing compound next to the section where the ridges were. Just to see if the new plan would prove any better. I think so! Check it out...

The new section is given a light sanding to remove any crap from wind debris, washed down and then cleaned with Acetone.
 

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greg_m

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May 23, 2017
692
Catalina Jaguar 22 Simons Town
Then next morning I decided I liked the results so prepped the remainder of the starboard side and applied fairing compound in the same way. It got a bit tricky in areas where there were multiple curves which look flat from one direction but completely hilly from another direction. The boat will never be perfect but all I am aiming for is to fill the voids as best as I can.

Photo 126 and 129 shows this very well. The trailer must have put a hole through the hull at some stage. This was then clearly repaired on the trailer so although the hull has a convex curve the repair is concave = a big ding in the hull! The compound must be all of 1cm thick just to make it flat never mind bring it up to match the hull curve. So it will stay a bit flat in that area but looks a shiteload better than not fairing it out!

Used the leftover compound to even start the port side waterline area!
 

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greg_m

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May 23, 2017
692
Catalina Jaguar 22 Simons Town
Except for final sanding and finishing touches I think the major fairing work (that I want to do) on the starboard side is done! Now onto the port side... weather/holidays/family activities permitting.

So I'm thinking this will be my last entry before Christmas so wishing ya'awl happy holidays/festivities/Christmas...whatever floats your boat!

upload_2017-12-19_15-4-3.jpeg
 

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May 23, 2016
1,024
Catalina 22 #12502 BSC
well done and lookin good!, give yourself a pat-on-the-back, enjoy the holidays/family time, and give your power tools some time off as well! :thumbup:
 
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greg_m

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May 23, 2017
692
Catalina Jaguar 22 Simons Town
Hi guys... belated compliments of the season and all!

I have been working away on the boat when I could over the holidays and now just this weekend and up to last night I have completed the cabin internal deck refurb!

Just to re-cap: that was remove the old inner deck lining, remove all old rotted plywood, clean and sand surfaces, apply new ply wood laminated with "peanut butter" glue all round, cut away inner lining in way of hull deck joint, clean out hull deck joint, apply filleting "peanut butter" and cover with CSM glass mat to permanently bond the deck to the hull, apply new CSM glass mat several layers to complete the laminated deck structure, make up and fit new wooden beams support structure for the fore deck hatch, apply CSM glass mat to cover all new wooden structure, re-work the entire window fitting and support structure for side windows, fitted new plywood companionway wash board support structure all round, apply CSM glass mat to laminate structure and seal wood, cabin roof ventilation holes needed to be dug out and re-worked to water proof the roof laminate structure, external hatch sliding rails and cabin roof handrails renew plywood laminate in way of bolt holes, apply CSM mat to seal all new wood and FINALLY apply white Gel coat all over the new structures: under deck, cabin roof sides and roof,rear cabin bulheads and the new companionway structure!

It has been a year in the making but I can now declare that huge project completed!

I'm happy... :):):)

Pictures to follow when I actually get the time... lots going on at work and at home!
 
Apr 11, 2017
571
Catalina C22 Solomon's Island, MD
Incredibly impressive work - that is a year of solid accomplishment to be proud of.

I haven't done 1/4 of what you have, and I've already decided on a Viking funeral in my C22. Have you estimated how many beers it took?
 
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greg_m

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May 23, 2017
692
Catalina Jaguar 22 Simons Town
So last time I added pictures was discussing the fairing of the hull and needed to put an anti-UV type coating on the hull as the sun is really beating up the exposed epoxy I have used to sheath the hull with. I decided to tackle the starboard side first as this is the side that sees the sun mostly.

After the fairing was completed I approached the epoxy resin supplier to discuss my epoxy degrading UV issues. He suggested coating the boat with a type of epoxy used to make surf boards. It is supplied clear, has anti-UV agents and finishes off to a nice smooth glossy surface. I bought some of the resin and some white pigment to add white colour to the coating.

After waiting for a wind free day (it's been howling a nasty South Easter up to 40 knots mostly the past couple of weeks - they had to close the railways station because the beachsand has covered the tracks as well as built up in mounds on the roads!) I washed down the hull to get the sea grime off, sanded for goodness knows how long to get the degraded epoxy off then washed again then wiped down with acetone to prep the surface. I then mixed up batches of epoxy and white pigment and painted the starboard side. I got one layer down and then the weather turned windy again... so you see one layer only so it's thin however I'm extremely impressed with how nicely it comes out and how smooth it gets. Applied using the roll and tip method.

A couple of before pictures and then after. I was working in the heat of the day so I was working against the clock. Not the neatest job but very satisfying to see good results anyways :)
 

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greg_m

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May 23, 2017
692
Catalina Jaguar 22 Simons Town
The companion way frame update:

So I wanted to install a new frame as the old one was rotted and puny to say the least. I made the choice that as the wood was rotten and the teak was severely beaten up/not restorable I was going to go with fiber glassing in all the wood I installed. I also wanted more of a "lip" around the entrance way to support the wash boards as well as be a more substantial water trap so to say. After fitting the solid wooden frame I then glued wide strips of 6mm waterproof ply wood to the frame. I then filleted in all the corners with the "peanut butter" mix to soften corners and edges. I then covered everything with CSM glass mat to add strength and seal the wood!

This job actually started in November 2017!
 

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