FN France - The Black Death

Well they say that everyone eventually returns to their roots and in my case that is true. I started in this hobby as a French captain and liked it. Time to return!



Sooo...
Hull arrived today from Kevin. He did a great job both in production and packing/shipping. I'm really pleased! I'll be posting progress as it happens so stay tuned. I'm hoping to field some new techniques in this build as well as rip a bunch from the pros, as is my custom.

 

Didn't have much of an opportunity to work on the France today, but I did work on stretching the hull to its correct beam. I'm using a piece of AL angle for the deckstep crossmember. The hull needed stretched almost 3/4 of an inch. I'm guessing that's ok/normal?


AL crossmember.


The plan is to mark and cut the hull before molding in the subdeck. Then install shafts and the rudder post before moving on to inside the hull. Ordered some FeatherLite for the waterchannel today as well.
I'll probably work on marking the hull tomorrow and hopefully start cutting before next weekend, we'll see how it goes.

 

It isn't unusual to have to brace out a raw glass hull like that. Kevin is meticulous about dimensions, so his mold is most likely spot on.

 

Yeah, the hull looks right stretched out. This is my first large fiberglass hull so I'm learning as I go. I didn't know if that much droop was normal but I guess it is. Thanks!

 

Yup they all pulled in a bit. Widest point should be outboard of the wing turrets, 7 and 7/16 based on shiplist, the beam on the plans might be slightly off with scaling (and selecting the correct line to measure from)

 

Gonna use Kevin's swift little blue tape trick for the deck?
Wish I'd see that 16 years ago. my first boat was a nightmare with the subdeck and deck.

 

I'm not going to use the traditional wooden subdeck. I'll be doing something new by molding in a fiberglass subdeck. More on that later.

 

Glorious.... glorious!!!!

 

Works for sheeting also.

 

please elaborate on what's going on in this picture. are you just using the tape as a temporary skin?

 

The tape is used to build up a template that is transferred to the balsa to cut that panel.

 

ah. neat.

 

Tried to mark the waterline this evening only to find the hull leaks! Lol

Oh well, I have a coat of epoxy curing on the inside to seal two pinholes. Better luck tomorrow I hope.

 

I haven't really moved this build forward that much. Kevin is lightyears ahead of me but that's the usual.
On this build I had the idea of an easy molded fiberglass subdeck. The results are ok but I'm not sure it was worth the effort.
So the idea was to create a positive mold of the deck, fiberglass it, and then press the hull onto the fiberglass before it cured. Afterwards the mold could be removed and the inside reinforced with more fiberglass to create a strong joint.

I used masonite to create the molds. Here, I've traced the hull outline onto the masonite and then marked how wide I wanted the subdeck to be. The inner outline was then cut out and glued to another piece of masonite.



This was then given multiple coats of epoxy to seal the masonite and create a smooth surface. I added guides along the mold to hold the hull in the correct place when it came time to put it on.

I didn't get any pictures of the bow layup, but I did get some of the stern. A thickened epoxy mix was added to the deck rim to capture the step (I tried dyeing the epoxy black but as you can see it is more of a grey).



Then a layer a matte was laid down.

Then the hull is set on top and weighted down.


More to come...

 

Hulls narrowing after removal from the mold is normal but the amount is variable, and it's always easy to remedy with braces until the deck is ready to install

The first Vangurd hull from the modl I sold to Strike was 1/4" thick on the sides and pulled in about 3/4". I installed brass tube braces along the length of the hull so match the correct deck width. More than 10 years later the still unused hull has 'relaxed' into the position it was braced at and the brass tube are no longer required.

Same with the second Hawkins Class heavy cruiser hull made this fall. I used a hotter mix for the resin and it pulled in 1/2" more than the first hull. It's been braced for 6 weeks and is now wider when the braces are removed.

 

And here is the finished product. The bow piece came out pretty good, just took a little prying to pop the mold off. There are a few air bubbles in the epoxy but for the most part it came out good.


The aft part however, didn't part very well at all. I had to chisel out most of the masonite and there is still some left on the rim that I haven't removed yet.


Some air bubbles here and there but for the most part the lines are crisp.

All in all, the subdecks came out ok. They look good and should hold up. Whether they were worth the effort is debatable but they make the boat unique.

And this is as far as I've gotten on marking the hull...


...

 

Looking good, dude! Quite a novel subdeck idea, and I bet you'll get it down perfect next time.

 

Nice Caleb! Did you use any wax or release agent between the Masonite and the deck?

 

I used automotive carnuba wax (I know it's not really recommended but it worked fine on the bow). I think my mistake was to let the mold sit a few days after the last coat of wax before I fiberglassed it. Possibly the wax "dried" and wasn't as effective? When I was chiseling out the mold I found that the mold surface and fiberglass would part cleanly once I got under it. Just had to dig through the layers of masonite to get there.