Thursday, December 31, 2009

A lot of carbon


I forgot to post a picture of the hull as it currently is. The picture is from the day after I came home with the hull, mast(2 pieces), boom and the rack tubing. A lot of carbon. The hull is carbon with nomex honeycomb core and is a Chinchillazilla hull from Bobby and Nat in SoCal. It was hull #1 that they didn't want so they sold it to me. I've started to fair the bow a little to square it off a bit more (I had to get that done for the bunk creation) and other than that, I've left it alone for now. I'll be working on the deck layup in March and assembly from March until early June. I've assembled craft foam into a large block to create a male mold for the foredeck. Nat and Bobby went with an Assassin style strut on the bow, no foredeck, but I'll be a little more traditional. Also, big thanks to George at West Coast Sailing for parts and info. I'm going to use a lot of stock Bladerider parts to both keep the build faster and simpler and George has been a big help.

Powdercoating the dolly frame



The day after picking up the frame from Andy and Ron Carter, I dropped the frame off at the powdercoating shop in Salt Lake City. The following day it was ready to go and I jammed it into the sedan and brought it home in a snowstorm. I couldn't resist setting it up to see how it looks and it came out great! Now it's time to dry fit the bunks, then finish those up and put the finished dolly away (with the boat on it) for the Winter. I just received a few pieces of acetal/delrin in black that will act as spacers between the bunks and the frame.

Dolly bunk creation






A few layers of scrap fiberglass laid over the bottom of the hull and on top of a layer of rug with plastic over it to act as a spacer created both of the bunks. The layup was about 3-4 layers of fiberglass, some unidirectional, followed by a piece of balsa core for structure and something to use for depth when bolting to the the dolly frame, followed by more fiberglass. Then they will be faired with bondo, primed and painted with flat black paint. I'm at the fairing and painting stage, that is, after they're dry fitted to the frame.

Home built dolly






With the help of Ron Carter (a friend and member of the Park City Sailing Association and active Laser sailor in the fleet) and his son Andy who is an expert welder with his own motorcycle customization business, we've begun to create a dolly for the Wicked Breezy. At home I laid up two bunks, one for the bow and one for about 2/3 aft on the boat that will support the boat on the dolly. We used 2" o.d. round aluminum tubing for the main frame and 1" o.d. for the handle and axle. 1.5x1" rectangular stock was used for the handle vertical, that was leftover from making 9 Opti dollies for the fleet in the PCSA and the tube that gives structure to the frame and acts as the housing for the axle has an i.d. of just over 1". Two pieces of black pvc pipe with 1" i.d. cover the axles and act as long spacers to keep the axle centered. I went with a couple of "stock" items to finish off the dolly, grips from wheels from Seitech. I really wanted the wheels from Seitech both for weight but also for their size. The grips I could have saved a few bucks and picked up from McMaster. The frame was powdercoated satin black by a local shop and it looks great. Now all that's left is to fit the bunks, fair them, paint them and install the Pro-Grip padding for the boat. Then I'll plan to take a break for a while as it's too cold to lay up the deck here at the moment.

Origins of the name

I suppose I should start with the definition of the name of the boat. Being from Massachusetts originally, wicked is a common phrase for 'cool' and of course when it's really windy, it's usually 'wicked breezy'. Wicked of course is also defined as being bad or devilish. My wife, Brie, also has a few nicknames and a couple of those are Breeze and Breezy so in the ultimate combination with multiple definitions, Wicked Breezy was the choice for the boat.