Re: Foam blocks in weird areas
Posted: Mon Mar 18, 2013 6:45 am
I saw other "weights" (?) too. There were torpedo shaped things that were HUGE that Mike said were for the big boats. Those were outside. In the same spot I saw some really space age looking keels too, some with wing things that could turn and pivot and alother one that looked like it had some sort of sliding ballast that shifted from side to side. Really strange stuff.
I also saw the boat in the mold getting layup and stuff. One guy was soaking a ribbon of fiberglass with resin on this huge 30 foor table and then he would squeegee out almot all the resin and hand that off to a guy in the mold that would set the ribbon in place and then he squeegeed the ribbion even more!! It seemed like most of the resin ended up on the floor! Thier process was more like making a carbon composit than fibergalss the way I remember it. In carbon composit you vacume suck every last ounce of resin out of the carbon mat to get the strongest and LIGHTEST layup.
The guys at the factory were doing this rather slow and painstaking 'squeegee out every ounce' move over and over alternating the direction of the 'ribbons'. They were working on a box shaped area near the spot where the daggerboard goes. There was more than one hull mold - I saw another that was empty and there were guy waxing and cleaning it. The mold was tilted on a jig thing.
There is actually a lot of labor in the whole process from what I could see. I dunno - I'm very ignorant on boat construction.
I wish i could explain better.
I also saw the boat in the mold getting layup and stuff. One guy was soaking a ribbon of fiberglass with resin on this huge 30 foor table and then he would squeegee out almot all the resin and hand that off to a guy in the mold that would set the ribbon in place and then he squeegeed the ribbion even more!! It seemed like most of the resin ended up on the floor! Thier process was more like making a carbon composit than fibergalss the way I remember it. In carbon composit you vacume suck every last ounce of resin out of the carbon mat to get the strongest and LIGHTEST layup.
The guys at the factory were doing this rather slow and painstaking 'squeegee out every ounce' move over and over alternating the direction of the 'ribbons'. They were working on a box shaped area near the spot where the daggerboard goes. There was more than one hull mold - I saw another that was empty and there were guy waxing and cleaning it. The mold was tilted on a jig thing.
There is actually a lot of labor in the whole process from what I could see. I dunno - I'm very ignorant on boat construction.
I wish i could explain better.