Hi,
I've been away from my Star 45 build and the writing of my Star 45 Construction Manual for over two months now. Life can get in the way sometimes...
Hoping to get back into it more now that spring is coming and the weather is improving. Not sure how much longer it will take me but just hang with me and we'll eventually go sailing!
I have been a bit stuck on my deck design. Finally came up with this:
The pattern was made by using a sheet of poster board. It wasn't long enough to cover the 45" so I taped two sections together. I then messed around with some designs. It's not ideal but it'll work for now.
Next I traced it out onto my decking material (1/16" x 12" x 48" birch ply) that I bought from National Balsa. It's thicker than the real racing guys use but, as a reminder, I'm not that interested in national level competitive sailing and would prefer to have a stouter boat that I can play with here in the Seattle area and not worry about. The 1/16" thick deck will be plenty stout, especially after I clear coat the bottom and put a layer of glass on the top.
The outside edges were easy enough to cut on the bandsaw and then clean up on the disk/belt stationary sander that I have. The hatch openings though were trickier and I'm still not completely happy with them (just don't look too closely at them!) I used a Forstner bit to make a pretty good sized hole in the middle of each hatch. Then I used a router on a router table to carefully cut out the hatches. It's not perfect, but a little filing and sanding and it's good enough.
There is about a 1/8" overhang around the outside edges where it will meet the deck. I plan on gluing it down eventually and then trimming the edges.
Remember that I installed three different sets of keel mounting tubes (6 tubes total). I was originally going to make a slot for all the holes (see the lower paper version of my deck) but then decided that 6 holes drilled with a smaller Forster bit looked better. I'm happy with how they came out although they're not perfectly aligned.
I also bought the RMG on/off switch which looks great. I'll need to drill a 20mm hole for that before I install the deck.
Note that I'm planning on covering my hatch openings with tape, not solid hatches. If you're planning on making hatch covers then you'll probably want to stick to squares and rectangles.
These larger openings should allow me access to everything that I'd ever need to fiddle with, and that includes places for the battery and cables and such. I'm planning on sticking the battery to the inside with Velcro tape.
Next steps:1.) Get the insides ready, including the rudder control shaft, 2.) figuring out if I want to make a doubled-up layer of decking material for the sheet through-deck fairlead block from SAILSetc, 3.) putting a layer of glass on the top, and 4.) gluing the deck on. After that I'll cover the deck with glass and then finish/paint the hull. Then on to deck hardware and rigging!
Wish me luck!
Aloha
I've been away from my Star 45 build and the writing of my Star 45 Construction Manual for over two months now. Life can get in the way sometimes...
Hoping to get back into it more now that spring is coming and the weather is improving. Not sure how much longer it will take me but just hang with me and we'll eventually go sailing!
I have been a bit stuck on my deck design. Finally came up with this:
The pattern was made by using a sheet of poster board. It wasn't long enough to cover the 45" so I taped two sections together. I then messed around with some designs. It's not ideal but it'll work for now.
Next I traced it out onto my decking material (1/16" x 12" x 48" birch ply) that I bought from National Balsa. It's thicker than the real racing guys use but, as a reminder, I'm not that interested in national level competitive sailing and would prefer to have a stouter boat that I can play with here in the Seattle area and not worry about. The 1/16" thick deck will be plenty stout, especially after I clear coat the bottom and put a layer of glass on the top.
The outside edges were easy enough to cut on the bandsaw and then clean up on the disk/belt stationary sander that I have. The hatch openings though were trickier and I'm still not completely happy with them (just don't look too closely at them!) I used a Forstner bit to make a pretty good sized hole in the middle of each hatch. Then I used a router on a router table to carefully cut out the hatches. It's not perfect, but a little filing and sanding and it's good enough.
There is about a 1/8" overhang around the outside edges where it will meet the deck. I plan on gluing it down eventually and then trimming the edges.
Remember that I installed three different sets of keel mounting tubes (6 tubes total). I was originally going to make a slot for all the holes (see the lower paper version of my deck) but then decided that 6 holes drilled with a smaller Forster bit looked better. I'm happy with how they came out although they're not perfectly aligned.
I also bought the RMG on/off switch which looks great. I'll need to drill a 20mm hole for that before I install the deck.
Note that I'm planning on covering my hatch openings with tape, not solid hatches. If you're planning on making hatch covers then you'll probably want to stick to squares and rectangles.
These larger openings should allow me access to everything that I'd ever need to fiddle with, and that includes places for the battery and cables and such. I'm planning on sticking the battery to the inside with Velcro tape.
Next steps:1.) Get the insides ready, including the rudder control shaft, 2.) figuring out if I want to make a doubled-up layer of decking material for the sheet through-deck fairlead block from SAILSetc, 3.) putting a layer of glass on the top, and 4.) gluing the deck on. After that I'll cover the deck with glass and then finish/paint the hull. Then on to deck hardware and rigging!
Wish me luck!
Aloha
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