Sail Life I’ve just realised that you’re planning your boat work as a “sprint”, on a weekly cycle, using us as your “scrum” ;) All hail Mads, the scrum master!
I believe that most of us appreciate these videos whether or not they demonstrate a big visual leap forward. I mean we're all in this with you, vicariously speaking. We appreciate every video!
So this is the first time I have made any comments on this and I want to start by saying I have been a journeyman “Fiberglass” technician for about 22 years and have training and experience in vacuum infusion, hand laminating press molding gelcoat application and mold building. Essentially I can take base materials to a completed product and preform all the processes necessary to bring it to the open market. Not trying to boast I’m just explaining my experience. That being said I must say that while not everything I have seen has been specifically laminate industry standard, there has not been any single thing that is terribly bad about anything that you have done and for the most part you have gone above and beyond what most builders would consider necessary. My hats off to you for your attention to detail and desire to achieve experience. You will have a fine vessel when she is complete. Keep up the hard work.
I'm disappointed you did not try to attach the butt end of the beams to the cabin side wall. That is the most critical area for the best support. You do have the best DIY Vlog .
Mads, If you haven't seen it yet, in todays video Andy @ Boatworks Today gave you a shout out. Apparently he is lusting after your longboard sanders. He also recommended your site to his viewers who haven't found you yet.
Add shorting the cockpit drain hoses to your to do list. That loop allows water to stay in the hose. Water freezes, hose breaks, water thaws, water runs into cabin, we learn new cuss words in different language.
I agree. The better design is to always use 90 degree elbows after the thruhull so the hose lays along the hull. 90 up at the transom thruhull, then run the hoses straight up and the turn under the cockpit floor and 90 into the cockpit drain. No low spots for water to collect and freeze in winter which would happen after a snowfall. The present hose arrangement will flood the cockpit after snow thaws, guaranteed. Otherwise your work in truly inspiring. Thanks
Having just caught up with your last two years worth of your videos, which has taken me just over a week to accomplish, I am now up to date!! I am fascinated by all the work you have put into Athena so far and am very impressed with the quality of your work and your attention to detail. Being an old sea dog myself, (but no longer own a boat) the mundane tasks I had to do to maintain my boat in sailing condition now scare me in retrospect due to my LACK of attention to detail!! I am really looking forward to following your progress on Athena to watch a virtually new boat emerge from the wreck that she originally was. By the way, if you are in Copenhagen at the end of November I might bump into you. If I do, then the drinks are on me. I'm popping over from the UK to meet up with some Danish ex-colleagues for Christmas lunch and a few glasses and it would make my trip even more special if I could sit down with you for an hour and discuss your fascinating lifestyle change, If not, then the best of luck to you and Ava on your new adventure.
Thanks Mads. Dont know what I would do without you. I would be at home alone with the wife!! OMG What would I do for 22 minutes and 21 seconds? Hope your trip goes well, welcome back to the states.
Love the lines with the dodger, some don't, I do. Looks like a bad-ass sea Warrior for sure. No doubt in my mind that she'll be much much better than new. As always, you do nice work both on Athena and with the videos. Thanks
Thank you so much for your videos! I recently bought an old boat to fix up, before finding your videos. I was beginning to feel discouraged because of how much work I realized was going to be needed. Your videos are wonderful motivation, showing me that it is completely possible, and is just a factor of time and perseverance. Thank you again! Looking forward to learning more through your videos!
A small job that can be done in a short time: fill in the lettering on the deck gills with a contrasting color, hobby enamel would do. Perhaps blue for water, dark yellow for diesel, black for waste. Colors help prevent accidents.
Hi Mads, Ive just caught up with the last video now. Kind of a bummer for me, since binge-watching will no longer be possible. Ive immensely enjoyed watching ALL of your video's very very inspirational. Its quite extraordinary to me to see what you can do if you just do it, and if of course you have some talent, which for sure you do. Anyways, enough yammering on :-) P.S. Im a little puzzeled as to why you let the acid-pissers get to you while you're so clearly in a much better place. Thanks again for the highly inspirational, very entertaining video's
Madds after sanding fibreglass dot take a hot shower, you should shower as cool as you can stand it, then turn the heat up after all the fibres have been washed away, otherwise if you jump straight into a hot shower it opens up your pores and allows the glassfibres to enter thus causing severe irritation, another spiffy vid may i say.
Great job. That aft tank support is going to be great but working hard when the tank is full and your boat is heaving. Just a suggestion. Maybe glass or fill the ends of the aft beam . The only place water can sit is between the end of the beam and the hull. (The rest of the surfaces near the end of the beam are on an angle and water shouldn’t sit for extended periods there) and the end of the beam is end grain - although it does have a coat of epoxy but that isn’t as substantial the rest of the work you have done in that area of Athena. Once that tank goes in it would be great to have piece of mind that it was glassed on the end. Anyway, can’t stop pushing the like button. Great stuff Btw If you bought the deck fill connections from Mannship then I am glad because they are the same as the one I had on my hc48 and they were great. You should use the plastic levers that might have come with them or the plastic Barlow or lewmar levers you can buy. Don’t use winch handles you will scratch them up and over tighten them. Am thinking you would hate to scratch them:)
I am refurbishing a 1970 westerly tiger 25 in Chicago. Inspiration from these videos places the focus of my efforts on quality. The project is more enjoyable and rewarding thanks to you. Thanks for sharing your journey!
The kiwi grip is still off gassing just a very little bit but because of the texture, small amounts of the gas, which is likely toxic to the flies, pools in low or zero wind. Fly lands, consumes gas, dies. It's a working theory.
The beams need end support in the form of a saddle at the cabin wall. This will provide shear strength to the beams. The port windows limit the cross section of this knee, but would provide some support and might even look nautical.
Been watching you work on Athena for a while now. You are very thorough and precise with your work. All of your methodical work will pay off when you’re at sea. Especially in heavy seas. Thanks for your great videos. Very much enjoy watching you work.
9:57 "This is one of those times where it would be awesome to have someone help me" Que Ava stage left. No not yet?Well really enjoy your time together.
Hi Madds, Have you considered making wooden cradles to support the beam ends? Clearance around the port lights seems minimal but notching the lower portion of the beams next to the cabin walls may allow you to fit U-shaped cradles. Epoxy the beam ends and cradles to the cabin walls to make it strong and spiffy. Ken.
I enjoy these videos so much, I feel I must become a Patreon member - very soon. In the late 80's and 90's, I restored and sailed an old 1945 sloop in San Diego. It was originally a 26' Navy hull that was converted to a ketch, and later to a racing/cruising cutter-rigged sloop up north in Sausalito, CA. I totally relate to what you're going through. I was very thorough, however I now recognize I was young (inexperienced), in too much of a rush, and too time and budget constrained to do things so well. Now, I'm in Western Pennsylvania vicariously reliving a part of my youth here on RU-vid ;-) I wish I could find out what happened to my old boat Victoria (formerly Narvik (sp?)). The registration was(is?) CF2348BJ. If anyone had any info on her current status, I would love to hear it. She used to race a the St. Francis Yacht club in SF area, and I donated her to the Boy Scouts in ~2000 in San Diego.
I'd add two screws from the sides of the cabin top as well, frankly, you want as much help as possible when it comes to a structure that has that much give, it's not the weakness of a specific item that will separate (destructively or not) something, rather how many cycles it will be able to endure.
Mads - just two cents worth - your deck drains - I did flag earlier they are small - - for mine I think a straight run to where the deck drains run out of the yacht will be a better solution - at the moment I see the piping has a "U" in the line - respectfully - you need to get that "U" run out of the process - love your work
No wonder the fly`s die when you walking around without your working shoes... ;-) As a carpenter I often wish I had three hands,- but it seems like you also have find your way around it. Another good job and nice video. Thanks....
Nice job Mads! Looking forward to your pre-recorded next video. Hope you enjoy your trip to LA. Keep up the good work and remember to......STAY SPIFFY!
This is the first time watching one of your videos on a big screen (only had my phone before) and I have to say, Athena looks even better when I can see small details. :)
I remember seeing the film Ava made about plastic and the planet, have you thought about the amount of plastic cups you are using to mix, what about using paper cups ?
I have been enjoying your videos for a while now and I really like the way you work. Your tasks are well thought out and you have a great way of explaining your processes. Keep up the good work.
For your fill it (sp) you can use the trick that home construction use when dealing with caulking. Use your index finger and drag it along the 2 surfaces. It creates a pleasing look, is quick, and helps to bed the materiel in the crack. With the glove you should be able to do the same for thickened epoxies.
I think fixing those beams, as well as the tank supports.was good work well done. I really enjoy following along. Have a great, safe trip, enjoy your time with Ava, and I look forward to seeing your stream in a couple weeks!
Suggest you consider a third center support for the fuel tank. As is, only two sides of the tank are supported and almost the full weight of all the fuel is supported by the bottom of the tank span, which is supported only by the welds to the vertical sides. Thats maybe 500 pounds static load with a full tank of fuel, and several times that in rough weather bouncing off waves. Unless this tank is unusually heavy wall construction, that's asking a lot of thin-wall welds to endure. At this point, not too hard to do. Likewise, and especially if you add a third support beam, use some kind of crush material between the tank and beams (i.e. rubber) so there are not localized stress points where the tank contacts the beam. Neither surface will match the other and you don't want to concentrate load at contact points. Overall, you want to minimize any flexing of the tank, which can eventually lead to microscopic cracks at welds and weeping type fuel leaks.
True and good point. It all gets down to which way the baffles are oriented and the overall thickness of the tank wall. It looks like a beefy tank in the picture. Apparently he knows more than we do and isn't concerned.
You mentioned wetting out the glass due to thickend epoxy and maybe cold temps. Once the glass is n pace pull out you electric heat gun and warm things up a bit. epoxy will flow and most like get set off to hardening.
Ha Mads, You remind me of my mother and for that matter my wife too. You get a wonderful surprise box and I have to go clean my room before I can see what it is Your such a tease. Hope you have a great time in LA. Looking forward to your ongoing journey.
First of all, I love your videos ! I am actually in a refit with my boat and your videos give me the motivation to continue..... sanding.... and sanding.... did I mention sanding ? You explain very well what you are doing, so I learned a lot of tricks from your videos, very nice ! In one of your videos, a numberplate of a car can be seen. Where are you from ? Denmark ? I guess not, because your english is perfect... I guess more from GB... keep up these wonderful videos !
I really enjoy everything you do and how you do it. I hope someday have my own boat and do the same. Meanwhile, I enjoy it as if I were there myself. Thank dude, and hope to see u soon and have greats days until
Was curious if you epoxied the ends of the cabin top support beams? In the demonstration it took a large part of the force of from your weight on the cabin top
Hi Madz - great and substantial progress. I do not think the cabin top stiffening was well executed from build and you have made as good an improvement as possible without going to a whole lot of trouble. The kiwi grip was only tolerable in your socks because of the fly sacrifice.😂
I can see once you get back she is going to come together very quickly, you're pretty much ready to paint the rest of the engine room. I really need to do the same thing to mine and add some lights in the engine area, always futzing with a flash light when I have to work in there!
When making odd templates and molds, I find cheap car body filler to be very helpful. (autospartel). It's very cheap in Biltema or Thansemand. The way to use it for templates is to mask over the part you are coping with a single layer packing tape and a bit of wax. Then use the filler to bridge the gap between it and a roughly sawn plywood template or fill a gap - like under your support beam. It hardens in a few minutes and is ready to use, or you can carve it as easily as plaster of Paris. If you need a flat plywood template just build it up on the edge the best you can and when hardened and removed you can flatten the template sides with your sander. :-) The plug or template you have made can of cause also be used to make a negative mold if needed and a full-on glass fiber mold it too much work. Simply tape over the plug and cover the part you want to be the mold in filler. When hardened you have an easy mold. See what we did there? The part the tape substracted from the plug is added by the tape over the plug so the mold is 100% the same size as the original face you took the copy from. (hope it makes sense. Qualification: master pattern maker)
Thank you for another fine video Mads. I wish I could clean my work area at the same speed you do (lol). As mentioned by others, you may not see the changes as easily as we do because you are so familiar with Athena but every step is evident to us. How will you anchor the diesel tank to the supports? Will you you be using stainless straps or some other method? Have a safe trip and give Ava a big hug from all of your fans.
Consider laminating the cabintop ceiling with a layer of epoxy coated foam. It creates a strong stress skin diaphragm with insulation value. I want to try it on my sailboat under the cockpit, but I need you to do it first on Athena, as a guide!
The load from the beams should be supported by the cabin sides, did I miss the bit where they were glued pined? otherwise the beams are just thicker areas of the cabin top. Love the videos all the best.
As always loads of usefull information and an instructive approach to getting the message through. Even I understand now how the beams are put in place. I was wondering, why they were not supported in the side like in a house. :-) :-) :-)
Is there a specific idea with the drain pipes from the cockpit that they will be always standing water in those pipes. Is it going to make the lifespan of the tubes a little shorter if there will be a standing water?
Mads great episode and understand all the work you did to secure the beams to the cabin roof. Please though explain what you did to the beam feet and securing them to the side bulkheads as surely that is where the beams derive their loading capability?