RE: the unofficial home of the dumas dauntless
 

Hi Chuck,

The owner of the vessel has helped me tremendously in recent days. The shelter will not be cut in half. It will be cut closer to the side and just movethe shelter sides in. The shelter will keep it's shape, just narrowed.

-Rich.

RE: the unofficial home of the dumas dauntless
 

Hi Chuck,

I don't want to edit to add to the above post, but hopefully I will not have to reshape everything all over again if I cut it correctly. It will be surgery no less.

Bieng that the original craft is no more, I want to add everything I possibly can to this model to replicate the original.

-Rich.

RE: the unofficial home of the dumas dauntless
 

Dauntless Captains,

Over the weekend, work was done on Dauntless. The framing I did in the bridge deck was expanded on the port and starboard walls. The back wall on the bridge deck was also framed and built out.

I also began surgery on the bridge shelter. This was done carefully not to destroy my original work. After 12 hours of delicate work, the port side wall was removed and an additional half inch was also taken out. The new widened port side deck was sanded and shaped to be uniform with the deckhouse roof, and the shelter side was epoxied into its new location about ½” in. This was a lot of work. All I have to do to port is adjust the width of the top of the shelter, and then it is done. The same will be done to starboard. I don’t plan on posting those pictures, but when the work is complete, the “after” shots will be posted.

-Rich.

RE: the unofficial home of the dumas dauntless
 

Rich,
We want pictures.

RE: the unofficial home of the dumas dauntless
 

Rich:

I'd like to see some pics too, if possible. Where this 'widening/narrowing is takling place is confusing.

And I'm back to back to marking the forward windows on the cabin. I get 7/8" wide by 7/16" tall (or 14" x 7" scale) but the 'radius' on the rounded corner rectangular windows wasn't mentioned by anyone. Anyone got that # for me?

Still awaiting the damned build-door/worktable, and if its not here for Friday, I'm gonna go to the salvage yard and get one myself. Wanna get a start before the doc books my TPN Centtral IV Line installation date (heck, still waiting on the referral appt!)

RE: the unofficial home of the dumas dauntless
 

Hello Captains,

So you guys want to see the surgery, no problem.

Last night, I decided to do the starboard side as well. Being that I took my time with the port side, I was able to get familiar with the process so I was able to bang it out in about 2 hours. The port and starboard top corners will be the only thing that needs reworking.

When the side was removed, the deck was sanded and epoxied to flow with the deck house top as one long continuation. The back wall will follow the same grading. The back wall will have curved outer corners like the deck sides. I am still working on that .

Hopefully this will give you a clear idea of what I am doing.

Here are pictures of the bridge shelter.

-Rich.

RE: the unofficial home of the dumas dauntless
 

Cont'd,

The deck was planked and widened using 1/8” wood strips. My goal was to make the entire width of the deck ½” Wide. The bottom floor was framed the same. Then vertical frames went up for support in specific areas. I began adding another layer of wood strips under the deck for added support but need to continue. The wood strips used is basswood.

This area is still being worked on, but more to come.

Here are pictures of the deck.

-Rich.

RE: the unofficial home of the dumas dauntless
 

Rich

General, what is the basic size of your craft?
length-wideth-height
butch

RE: the unofficial home of the dumas dauntless
 

Hi Butch,

Here is the size:

Length: 49.5"

Width: 14"

Height: 10"

3/4"= 1'

-Rich.

RE: the unofficial home of the dumas dauntless
 

Rich:

So let me get this straight: the bridge shelter area was the only area that was narrowed, and only at the level of the upper cockpit sidewalls and roof? If so, whats the amount that they are moved inwards from planned locations? The superstructure between the bridge cockpit and aft open area was not narrowed as well? Or will this be done later?

Very neatly done renovationbs by the way, I just hope any mistakes I make can be repaired as neatly as this renovation of yours is done.

WhiteWolf McBride

RE: the unofficial home of the dumas dauntless
 

Hi Whitewolf,

The cutting done on my bridge shelter was done by very careful planning. Before I put a saw to the shelter, every step was taken to ensure that this surgery would to go very smoothly because I had no room for error. It took many weeks of hard work to build that shelter so any wrong cuts could have been disastrous. If you have already put up your shelter, do not change it because my model has changed. The work I am doing here is a little extreme and considered unnecessary to anyone building Dauntless.

-Rich.

RE: the unofficial home of the dumas dauntless
 

The shelter was the only thing narrowed. the 3 sides of the deck were planked additionally on the inside wall of the bridge deck. The bridgedeck wall is now 1/2" wide vs the 1/8" width as provided from Dumas. The newly created deck width follows the slight contour of the cabin roof. Nothing else will change there. -Rich


[quote]ORIGINAL: WhiteWolf McBride


So let me get this straight: the bridge shelter area was the only area that was narrowed, and only at the level of the upper cockpit sidewalls and roof? If so, whats the amount that they are moved inwards from planned locations? The superstructure between the bridge cockpit and aft open area was not narrowed as well? Or will this be done later?

RE: the unofficial home of the dumas dauntless
 

-R.

RE: the unofficial home of the dumas dauntless
 

Rich

Mine is real close to your's
44" long
14" wide
22" high
Butch

RE: the unofficial home of the dumas dauntless
 

Hi Whitewolf & Butch,

I checked out Dauntless. Here is some info.

Hi Whitewolf, I checked out my forecastle window dimensions. Here are my measurements: Height is 7/16" tall by 14/16" wide. These measurements are not carved in stone. Now that there is no more full sized Dauntless, we will probably never know what the actual size of those windows were, but any variation around that size range is fine.

Hi Butch, Yes, these boats are really similar in size,cool! I just checked out Dauntless' height to double check while I was taking measurements for Whitewolf. The height was not 10" but was 11 3/4" high from keel to shelter top. The original measurement was from chine to the shelter top. The mast will also add a few inches to the overall height when done.

-Rich.

RE: the unofficial home of the dumas dauntless
 

Does anyone know how much weight will be needed for ballast in our Dauntless's and where it will be needed? I've got the hull done and I don't want to work on the decks till I know where I need ####.

Thanks

Joe

RE: the unofficial home of the dumas dauntless
 

Joe:

Well, with two lead-acid motorcycle batteries I needed about 2 kilos of lead (in addition to the small weight of the radio & drive gear) in my 52" American Enterprise, which is the closest comparable hull I have and have successfully run at speed.

As to placement, what I'm going to do is this: get a load of the hanging blind weights (the flat metal sheets down the bottom of the vertical type) and put holes through the hull formers for mounting them left and right, then when I have the boat mostly finished, begin mounting the plates using releasable ty-wraps and run-test the hull. I salvaged my plates during a few friend' moves, but you might ask an install tech or two from a blinds company to 'hoard' 'em for ya (they often junk the old gear regardless of quality - often has good cabling too!) You might also find something usable at the local salvage store. I used this method on the AE, and it worked really well, beast can get up and plane like a PT boat!

Getting the hull to sit at the waterline while at the dock is not the only test - getting it performing at speed is the other! You may not want weight too far forward so it can plane some, but not too far aft so that it goes critically nose-up off a small wave. The weight method noted also allows for some left-right balancing as well as fore-aft adjustments. And if you don't want to use ty-wraps, use bolts, but be sure to use locknuts, vibration can work normal ones loose. Better yet, R/C aircraft plastic wing bolts, you can put a cross-hole through for a locking cotter/snap pin.

WhiteWolf

RE: the unofficial home of the dumas dauntless
 

Hey Guys,
I was lucky enough to get my hands on a doctors office being torn down, that had a x-ray room in it.
The very soft lead sheets that covered the walls, is very pliable, and I got three sheets 3x8 feet.
It conforms to the hull, and when I get the right amount, I then glue it in place, and paint it.

Another thing you can try, is go to the local junk yard, and grab the old wheel weights, of the auto rims.
Get a good smelting pot , like I use for fishing weights, and a propane torch.
Make a mold out of aluminum foil, by pressing it into the place where it will be placed.
Then take sheet metal, and use it as reinforcement on the outside of the mold, spray with pam, or other release agent and pour.

Butch

RE: the unofficial home of the dumas dauntless
 

Hi Joe,

If possible, wait on the ballast. Continue to build the cabins and get the finishing work squared away. Once you have the motors and all your gear in place, give her a float test and begin ballasting. After the ballasting is in, do a trial run and adjust as necessary.

On the original Dauntless, the engine room carried most of the heavy weight. That area is located under the bridge deck floor. Weight in that area will help bring her closer to her water line and be correct. Dauntless also had gas tanks situated fore and aft the engine room. These are also good places to add some weight to do fore/aft adjustments to get her to plane correctly as mentioned by WhiteWolf.

I will likely use BB’s for ballasting.

Here are some pictures for reference. Note the engine and the gas tank placement.

-Rich.

RE: the unofficial home of the dumas dauntless
 

Rich,
Thanks for the input! Could you e-mail those pictures?

[email protected]

Thanks

Joe

RE: the unofficial home of the dumas dauntless
 

Cont'd,

The pictures are smaller than I thought, but the gas tanks are the boxes with an X on it. Note that the gas tank under the deck house floor does not extend past the middle window.

-Rich.

RE: the unofficial home of the dumas dauntless
 

Hi Joe,

Looks like we posted at the same time.... Those pics are on the way. They are coming from "Atlanticswell"

-Rich

RE: the unofficial home of the dumas dauntless
 

Note to all:

While we are on the subject, follow Dumas's lead on the waterline placement, it is correct, but don't ballast the yacht all the way to the top of the waterline, that is too much. From the chine to the top of the waterline mark, The water should be around half way up when sitting on the water. I hope this helps.

-Rich.

RE: the unofficial home of the dumas dauntless
 

Well...

It looks like I'll be starting my boat this coming week (but I'm taking Friday off, any guesses?) When I picked up my build-board-door (cupboard door 24" wide x 79.5" tall x 1.375" thick) I lucked into a few other tidbits.

One was a sheet of tempered plate glass from a hockey rink, sized 2' x 4' x 1/2" thick. Its almost long enough to build the boat on, even without the door underneath it! Heavy as heck though, and perhaps with a bit of polishing it'll loose the slight weathering. Got some concentrated glass cleaner (nephew is a rep for Zep Solutions) and will use that and one of those Scotch synthetic scrubbing pads to try to buff it clean. Any other suggestions would be accepted too.

The other neat item was some lead sheeting, probably from an xray office like Werdon sourced his (one side had some adhesive on it, and some drywall remains) The lot is about 8.25" wide x 83" long x 1/16" thick. Guy said it was 20 pounds, wanted $1.50 a pound, I offered him a buck a pound, and argued I was taking the whole messy lot and he accepted it ($20 for the lead, $10 for the door, $10 for the glass)

I also picked up a 52 tpi Zona Saw from Lee Valley, one of the plastic clamp assortments, and some Lepage's wood filler, and will be getting a few metal vise-grip type sets from Princess Auto on Monday along with some other tidbits (diamond cutting wheels, sanding sponges, nitrile gloves, etc.) Any other suggestions?

On the health front, missed the doc earlier this week when I went in with a minor gut bleed (he was headed to Africa for 3 weeks) but have my TPN referral for Feb 26th. I expect I'll have the Central Line install date within 2-4 weeks at most after that, and will be well on the road to recovery of my lost weight (down to about 85 lbs from 120 lbs post-op in April '07 - esophagectomy w/ gastric pull-up)

Oh, also have the fore-cabin windows marked, ready for being drilled at the corners and then cut out. Any other areas that should be pre-marked and cut before assembly that Dumas 'forgot' to warn us about? I have 'edited' my build instructions to note the bridge windshield corners (rounded) and will go back over the former 30-some pages to see if there are any other bits to add (like the elevated deck-edging at the bow)

Lemme know if anyone's already compiled a 'Dumas missed these...' alterations list? Perhaps we could forward one to them?

WhiteWolf

going from frosty -12C/10.4F Friday (without windchill mods) up to +7C/44.6F Saturday and then back down to -2C/28.4F to -4C/24.8F for later the coming week, w/ a full moon at 09:50 on the 9th, and "that day" on Friday...

- not superstitious, just a tad paraskavedekatriaphobic (fear of Friday the 13th's) I bollix'd the L3 in my lower back on Jan 13th, '84. First run down a hill on a plastic sled, and hit a bump at the bottom. Spectators said it lofted me at least 2' in the air and put me in hospital for a week. Due to the Crohns, 'roids and osteoporosis, the crack won't heal, and have chronic back pain as a result.

RE: the unofficial home of the dumas dauntless
 

White Wolf,

I support your idea of a list 'What did Dumas fail to tellus tidbits'. This is my first kit, but I've scratch bulit two models prior to this one I'm close to throwing the plans away and finish building it by 'scratch'. I know I'm going to take all my upper structure wood and replicate it 1/8" birch plywood. I looked at that loose grain in the mahogany and all I saw was gallonshttp://image2-0.rcuniverse.com/e1/forum/micons/m9.gif of sanding sealer!

Well take care and I look forward to hearing and seeing your progress.

Joe