thevirginian

Harold,
You should, still. Even the lightest of cloth (0.75oz) will be better then none. Believe me, the first hydro I built years ago I didn't glass, just paint, and it developed hairline cracks in the layer of paint, allowing water to seep into the wood. The result was a lot of wrinkles in the ply sheething. I learned my lesson from that. Of course, you want to watch the overall weight, but on the other side you should not make a boat too light, either. It can and will blow over so much easier, if too light. Am I right, Marcel? How much does you big cat weigh, finished that is? With 57" and radio installed I estimate the total weight at around 16-18 pounds. My hydro weighs a tad over 14# with everything in it. That's fairly light.

MaxCorvette

Harold,

Like 'thevirginian' says, you have to glass the outside. Glassing the outside is probably more important then the inside.
Use some very light glass, I used 50gr glass on the outside [about 1.7oz], 25gr [0.75oz] was also an option but I would have done 2 layers then.
This will prevent cracks in the paint and also when the wood starts to work under temperature changes it will keep the seems and cracks closed.
Another good thing is when you have a crash it won't damage the boat that much since glass is very stronge.

It didn't safe the nose on the small cat but it only damaged for about 2.5cm and that was at 50Km/h..

My V1 cat weighs about 22pounds 'Ready to Run' so filled up and everything, even that is light compared to some epoxie hulls that can weigh more and still run beautiful.
The lighter the cat the easier it will flip and the harder it is to reach high speeds because of those blow overs.
A heavy cat is a steady cat, not to heavy of coarse else it will be a brick with an engine
A light cat 'can' run faster but is very hard to keep steady.

Marcel

KD0EM

Thank you, Marcel and Thevirginian for your comments, and the vary good advice on fiber glassing the out side of the hull, I should have knowen better, I will be glassing the out side of the hull!!!!

Marcel I am not having any problems with the sheeting at the vary back of the hull, the buckles that I am talking about are on the back sides of the hull, the back 0f the hull slops down a lot and also the sides slop down over the sponsons. The buckles are about ½ inch high, I was thinking about making cuts from the side of the sheet to the stringers that should take them out. I maybe could dry fit it one more time and take a picture and post it to make it more clear.

What program do you use to edit the pictures, by adding red and blue lines, I tried using paint but it would not load the picture.

I am going to be cutting the sheet to the outline about 1/8 inch larger then the hull.
Harold

MaxCorvette

I know what you're talking about, the same place buckled on my small V2 cat. Since it didn't buckle on the V1 cat after I cut out the gap on the back I thought that would do the trick.
Try cutting out the gap first and see if it still buckles, cutting the blue lines should help also, maybe even making a small V-gap along the blue line.

I would cut it a bit bigger then 1/8", I did 1/4" this way it is easier to glue it on and taking the excess wood off is not that much work with a sander.
Try to get the glass around the corners of the deck, will be much stronger for the seems.
This is not possible on the bottom since the strakes need to be sharp...

I can open the pics in paint just fine, but I used PhotoShop..

Finally going to get the cnc cut wood for the V2 and a new designed mono, so I can start building myself soon!

Marcel

KD0EM

Thank you, Marcel for the good tips and help on this build, I will try just what you said, I will get it done.

Have fun building the new V2, The building part of the hobby is what I like best, are you going to do a build thered on RCU? Got to get to work now, running late..

Harold

thevirginian

Watching your cat come to life makes me itchy to get started with mine. Still have a few other project to finish first, though. Keep those pics coming. It's very intersting and helpful. Thanks for sharing your experiences with us.

KD0EM

I have ruff cut the top deck sheet ¼ inch larger then the hull, I then dry fit it on the hull and pulled it down with masking tape to see if I will be able to get the buckles out of it, sure enough I think I can get the job done, I am going to put 1 or two coats of resin on the underside before I epoxy it on the hull.

Harold

PS. I do not know why the pictures are so large on this post, I did it the same as I always do it, and the size of the pictures are 800X600. Sorry.

thevirginian

Thanks for the pics, Harold. How thick is that ply you used for the deck? Looks like 1/8" ply to me.

martno1fan

Harrold if youd wanted you could have used 1/16 ply that would bend much better,another tip for you if you cut the hatch opening first before fitting it it will also bend much easier than bending a full sheet .Best way to get any wood to bend is to soak in hot water for a little while and i mean hot!! then clamp it down over the shape you want it to bend to and leave it overnight.Ideal way would be a steam box but not many people have one of those,but thats how we used to bend mahogany and oak planks for full size boats and some were 1" thick,its surprising how plyable they became once steamed for a cpl of hrs .
Mart

MaxCorvette

Steaming or using hot water is a very good way but not all laminated wood likes this...
I used my 1/8 ply dry also and will use it on my V2 build again, works fine for this cat.
Keep the pics coming

KD0EM

Virginian the ply I used on the top deck and sides is 1/8 inch, I used 1/16 inch on the tunnel and bottom of the sponsuns.
Harold

KD0EM

Hi Mart, Thank you for your comments, and also the tip on wetting the wood with hot water, I did give that some thought but I am going to try to get the deck put on to day, I am now doing final prep work.

Here is a picture of a scap 1/8 ply that I did a test bend on a day or so ago, it dose bend nice and holds the shap after it drys.

Harold

KD0EM

Hi Marcel, I am going to try putting the top deck on the hull today, Hope you look at this post before I get that far, I am wondering if I should not epoxy where I got the red marks in the picture? So when I cut that part of the deck out for the canapy I will not have to cut all of that out at the sane time.
Harold

MaxCorvette

Hi harold,

You have to epoxie the deck 1 time on the inside before glueing it on. But I guess you already did that.
And when you glue/epoxie the deck in place you don't need to epoxie the 2 red dots in front but do epoxie the redlines on the rear, this will keep the plug in shape because the ribs will stay on the plug after cutting.
You will cut/saw right through those ribs in the rear when removing the lid/canopy.
This is a bit of a hard part on the project since the lid opening is not included in the rib design.

Marcel

KD0EM

Thank you, Marcel for the quick reply, I am still doing prep work and getting things ready to put the deck on, I put two coats of resin on the under side of the deck sheet, put thanks for the reminder any way.
Harold

KD0EM

This set of pictures is showing some of the prep work I did before the top deck was epoxy on the hull, I dry fit the top deck, pulled it all down with tape, and then I drilled small holes in all the stress point thought the 1/8 inch top deck ply into the stringers and ribs, I then cut round tooth picks in have and took the top back off the hull and epoxy the have sized tooth pick in all the holes.

Before doing all this I CA the sponsons to the building board in 4 spots to hold it and take out any twists that it may have, you can see in the pictures where I tacked it down.
Harold

KD0EM

This set of pictures show the cat after the top deck is epoxy on the hull, I would not recommend doing it the way I did, after putting on all the epoxy and trying to get the top back on the hull, lining up all then pick was vary vary hard before the epoxy sets. Ones I got the top down to the hull, I started from the center and worked out to each end and also to each side, I pushed down at the picks put some 5 to 15 second CA around the pick and hit it with a shot of accelerator, I also used lots of tape to pull the sides down. I got it but I do not think I will try this big of Pease again.
Harold

MaxCorvette

Ok Harold, this is a different way of doing it
I can believe this was a lot of work. I did it a different way, but this does give me ideas.

I dry fitted the deck like you did with lots of tape, but then I used building pins that I put in almost the same places along the length stringers as you did the toothpicks.
I did not put pins on the outside stringers because the tape should be able to hold it, but that is not a bad idea.

On my next build I will use your toothpick idea but then the same way I used the pins, so I will drill the holes in the length stringers, but I wil stick the toothpick in from the outside, like the pins, not in the frame first.
The toothpicks will make a very strong connection, this deck will never rip off the cat under any circumstance.

The way you did it was a lot of work but is very strong, only thing you should have done different is putting the picks in from the outside.
Did you use thickend epoxie[glue] and lett the deck cure upside down? This way the redundant epoxy wil have formed fillets along the ribs, making it even stronger

Very good build!

Marcel

thevirginian

I agree with you 100%, Marcel. First the tape to hold the deck doen and then the toothpicks from the outside. I even would mix some milled fiberglass into the 30min epoxy to thicken it up a bit. The toothpick act like wooden nails. Very strong indeed.

KD0EM

Marcel do you think I should glass the hull before or after I make the deck cover and cut it out? I have got more pictures to post when I get home tonite.
Harold

MaxCorvette

I would glass the hull, then make a canopy on the deck just the way you like it, then cut it out, that way you have a plug to make a lid/cowl from.
But I guess it doesn't matter when you glass the hull as long as you glass it...
Have you thought about the canopy? Are you going to make your own or use a exsisting one?

Marcel

KD0EM

Hi Marcel, Yes I am going to make my oun canopy for it, I have got some ideas for it.
Harold

KD0EM

Here are a few more pictures after getting the top deck epoxy on the hull, I have started sanding and rounding the sides, the picture did not come out to well.
Harold

KD0EM

I am going to be making levers to let the heat out of the hull, I am posting two pictures of the location that I was thinking of putting them, any one got any input on this?
Harold

MaxCorvette

Harold, this looks great! I know it looks a bit bulky and squarisch at the moment but when you add a canopy it reallly comes to life.

you will need the small squares in the first pic on the end of the floaters. The exhaust will probably not fit without these airducts.
At least mine did not, but then again we run different pipes here then you mostly use.
The one in the middle will not fit if you make your canopy a bit larger, like mine..
You can make a air-out in the transom if you really want the extra air-out in the middle.
But I would wait with the middle one to see if and how it fits when finished.
Don't forget nacaducts in the front, they are even more important.

The second MaxCatV1-L is finished here in Holland. It's running with a standard zenoah and tuned pipe and reaches 85Km/h with a PS 7016/2, not bad I think.
We wil meet this month and go boating together, will be fun!

Marcel