She doesn’t have enough lip!

So we left the Jag in the best state she had been in for probably a few years. The deck was properly joined to the hull, there is no more rotten GRP on her and no holes in the deck that shouldn’t be there. That in itself made us very happy, but we were going to take it one step further and make her look more complete than she had been since the unfortunate incidence.

The hull was at the correct height due to Sam’s efforts and so the next step was to get the lip back on. Unfortunately, the shape of the port side is not exactly as it should be, despite our best efforts. Although we had done our best we couldn’t get the shape 100% and so we were left pondering how to get the shape of the lip. With the two girls there for mental support, they promptly stuck 3 A4 papers together and started tracing the shape of the lip on the intact starboard side. The idea was to create paper templates from which the lip itself could be cut out of 6mm marine grade plywood.

The lengths of each section was, you guessed it, as long as 3 A4 papers stuck together longways. To avoid too much time making the tracing pieces and to give us enough buffer in case the port side was off too much, the traces were only done roughly.

Once they were finished, the sections were traced onto the scrap plywood we had obtained when buying the marine plywood and cut out. Holding them up to the hull we could see that they would be good enough to trim and use as masters to trace onto the actual plywood that would permanently be attached to the hull.

The template sections were then roughly trimmed into shape with a safety rim of about 5mm all around, then transferred to the marine grade plywood and again cut out. As the wood was damp from sitting in the garage for a few months, I took it home to dry out.

A few weeks later, in mid March, we returned to the Jag to continue work, but the weather was not playing along. Although it was very sunny and relatively warm in the sun, the temperature was not high enough to do any work with resin. As it turned out this was good as it meant we weren’t rushing to get the lip stuck on.

Sam came armed with a vast knowledge of GRP this time, having sat through a weeks course training on the subject. There is still much to learn about the stuff and with his newly acquired knowledge he is more set then ever to do things properly. So the whole day was free to measure the lip sections, offer them up, see whether they fit and if the hull would look symmetric and generally get the lip perfect.

Two things occurred to us during the course of the day: we had underestimated the length needed for scarfing, so there was about a foot missing at one end, and the second section from behind did not fit the shape of the hull. We decided to do the obvious thing and cut a new section, a foot longer, to replace this particular section.

The next step was to measure the hull accurately again and make sure the lip we were fitting was the correct size in the correct place and that the hull, when viewed from above, would look symmetric. This will mean that we will need to fill any hollows in the top of the hull, but we are sure that in the end the result will be well worth all the time spent measuring and getting the sections perfect.

Once the sections were as accurate as we could get, we had to make sure that we could get them back in the exact position as when we had done the measuring. To do this Sam came up with a plan of drawing lines on the wood, hull and deck. To locate the sections simply line up the lines and voilá; they are in the correct place.

After many hours spent measuring, drawing, cutting and sanding we were satisfied that the sections could be used to rebuild the lip. The final picture of the day says it all: a very happy looking Sam holding up the sections. The hull has never looked this good and we are really itching to carry on working. Hopefully the weather will soon allow us to work with resin.

The plan now is to return when the weather is better, scarf the sections together and glue them onto the hull. Following that we will glass over them, starting at the deck and going over the lip and joining onto the outside of the hull. This will be a major milestone in this project and will be, when the time comes, properly celebrated.

The deck and hull

The weather outside is slowly getting better and so as the trees start thinking about this year’s fashion, we were dreaming about sailing the Jag.
Unfortunately, life has had different plans for the both of us; Sam is settling into his new job and for myself, my fourth year at university is taking up a lot of my time.

The Jag however is just as eager as us and she should be; since the last blog entry we have done some work on her. Before Christmas we were kept very busy putting more weight on. This included rebuilding the hull up to the correct height as well as repairing all the holes in the deck due to rotten GRP and core.

Finally we got to the stage where we could ceremoniously rejoin the deck to the hull. This procedure however took way longer than we had anticipated. Many things needed to be considered; is the distance between the hull and deck correct? Does the hull follow the correct profile? Is the deck at the correct height? And so on. Therefore the first task was to measure, remeasure and then measure again, tweaking the hull into the shape it should be. The hull was then secured using various measures. The most obvious was of securing the hull to the deck was the eyebolt which goes through the deck and attaches to a chainplate which is in turn screwed to the inside of the hull.

This eyebolt kept the hull at the correct shape around the area of support, but also held the deck at the correct height, an added bonus as it was very difficult knowing what the right height was.

As well as the eyebolt, we supported the deck from underneath about a metre forward of this point, again to avoid the deck sagging. Although it looks very chaotic, the method we used was crude but did the job perfectly well.

 

The last job we did was to tape the gap closed from the inside and to attach cling film onto the inside of the hull. This would act as a catch for any of the gloopy mass we were about to start spreading all over the hull.

Once everything was set up the bonding could start. This was achieved with thickened polyester resin and a tool Kirsty had made to give the resin the correct fillet radius.

The outside was easy to fill, just fill in the gap with gloopy resin, push it down so the gap was filled with no air bubbles and the go over the top with the filleting tool. We then waited until the resin had set and the went to the next job; filling the gap from the inside.

This step was highly entertaining. We started by just using a spatula to fill the gap from the inside, very difficult as access is very limited and as we weren’t on the moon, gravity was a force working against us. Resin was going every except where it should; the gap. Remembering we had syringes lying around, I enlarged the opening hole, filled it with resin and used it to press the resin in exactly where it belonged. Sam then used the spatula to achieve the curves we all like to see.

 

 

The final bond was excellent, we spent happy minutes knocking on it, hitting it and generally seeing how strong the bond actually is. The verdict was as expected; the repair is rock solid, however it did make us worry that maybe the starboard side was not strong enough. We decided that we didn’t want to start taking apart bits of the boat that were in good, original condition and hope that they did a good enough job when building her back in the 80s.

To finish this stage of the repair Sam got going with his favourite tools. First he measured the starboard side accurately, getting dimensions for the height of the hull, then marking these dimensions on the repaired hull. The final task was to cut, grind and sand the hull down to these markings, making the hull the correct height to fit the lip.

We are very happy with the quality of this repair and are very hopeful that the further repairs will be just as good, or even better. For the meantime however it was time to go home and get back to the day to day tasks.

Merry Christmas (belated)

So 2015 is in full swing, exams and jobs are needing too much attention and the JAG is more complete than last year. Although we have not had the chance to work on the JAG this year, the final work session last year was very successful.

This Christmas saw more equipment obtained for the JAG, courtesy of my parents. They donated a Yamaha 2 stroke 4HP outboard and lent us a good polishing machine. Thank you very much!

We’d like to take the opportunity to thank all our fans, and especially all the people who have helped us so far, be it with hints and advice, morale support or even donating equipment. We could not have got so far without your help!

Stay tuned for any updates, hopefully this year will be full of very exciting news and progress!

Putting on the Pounds

Well the past few days certainly have seen a lot of activity in our top-notch boat repair yard.  Josh is already getting ideas for running it as a business once the Jag is out (Fergusons take note!).  Both of us have set aside a good proportion of September to speed along the recovery of our bedraggled wee yacht and she has been getting lots of attention this week.

We left you last – buoyed with the acquisition of our sails and exchange of boat talk – in the beginnings of structural repair to the gaping hole along the port side that was sapping so much of our confidence. On Monday Josh picked me up and we drove the 30 miles to the Jag.  Of course it wasn’t until we got there that I realised I had managed to forget my keys to the garage and even worse, the tea-making facilities!  The blunder cost us another half hour as we had to retrieve my Mum’s keys from her work.

Once we could get the garage open we set into motion the meticulous plan for the week drawn up by Josh.  It must be the German in him! 😛

Monday

Our goal was to get the bulk of the structural GRP repair completed over the next few days.  We had already cut out new core-matting for the two large holes in the deck were the stanchions had been, which had drawn water into the original core and rotted it, effectively delaminating the two layers of GRP.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Around the areas we had stripped out the old core we chamfered back the top layer of GRP with a flap disk sander on a grinder.  This has been called into battle a fair few times in the ‘destructive phase’ of the build and creates a huge amount of dust but works a treat at eating away glassfibre.  I’m not looking forward to the day we have to clean out the whole garage.

As well as the two big holes in the deck we also measured and cut out a section of core-matting to bring the level of the hull back up above the deckline in a similar way to the smaller repair we had already made near the bow.  Its bottom edge butted up beautifully with the uneven top of the inner mould, like the border between two countries on a map! 🙂 We stopped it flopping over with a strip of plywood covered in clingfilm that we clamped onto the outside of the hull and left all 3 core-matting sections to cure overnight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday

We decided to cut out a conservative 5 layers of woven fibre and chopped strand mat to lay on top of the new core-matting.  Josh is getting quite handy with a marker and a (pretty blunt) pair of scissors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At this point we were still dealing in glugs and dods of resin/catalyst as our prefered units of measurement but we must be calibrated well as the mixes have all done more or less what we wanted. 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

Josh had brought a very cool mounting contraption for his camera and in all honesty we lost a bit of time in the morning ‘testing’ its usefulness for video.  However we did put it to work recording our glassing efforts in case we need to send anyone to sleep. 😛

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the close of play on Tuesday we had a hull that extended above the deck for the first time in a good long while but felt much better for having cut it down in the first place.  Having a nice straight edge simpified the job dramatically and gave us a small number of consistant repair areas.

Wednesday – More mess!

After the joy of having built something the day before, Wednesday was something of a disappointment as it was back to removing material, albeit this time mostly our own.  The flap disk sander was called into action again to scrape off lots more paint/gelcoat/GRP from the stbd deck in readyness for repairing the hull-deck joint and rebuilding the lip around the gunwhale.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The only thing that has put in more hours than the grinder is the resisdent hoover.  This is a fantastic little machine that gobbles up everything from the fine sanding dust that lands in thick drifts to big lumps of plaster without so much as a clogged filter. 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

We left the Jag for the next few days with sanded down repairs in the deck with lots of old GRP on show and a clean cut hull amidships to just the right height mostly by accident but I’m claiming intuition on it.  Sure it flared out a couple of degrees more than we would have liked but it was absolutely solid and a first rate repair as far as we were concerned.

More pics on our Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/tamingthejag?ref=bookmarks

We have sails!

Things are looking up for Sam, the JAG and myself now! We have just completed the first repair on the boat and through the JAGUAR owner’s association we have come in contact with some very special people.

After posting our project on the JAG group forum we got many emails of encouragement and one that made us grin from ear to ear like Cheshire cats! One group member, who also owns a JAGUAR 21, was offering us a set of sails.  The offer was too good to be true and when asked what the price would be, the answer filled us with gratitude. Saying this was a great project and he sees no better use for the sails than to see them being used once again on our boat, Tony said we just needed to collect them. We received the offer early this year, but we just never managed to get the time to meet up with  Tony and his wife Ann until last week. We would be in Edinburgh anyway picking my girlfriend Sarah up from the airport and so Sam and I decided to go on a day trip to Port Edgar.

Meeting with Tony and Ann was a special occasion for us. They are lovely people who said a lot of wonderful things about this project. Since we have had the JAG we have heard everything from “Scrap her,  it’s not worth the effort” to “It’s a lot of work, you sure you can do it?” and in front of us now stood two people who had not the slightest doubt that we would finish the project and get the JAG back on the water. They sail and race their JAG 21 and had lots of hints and tips on how to solve problems, even offering us to have a look and take pictures of their boat when we needed help with the original layout for deck fittings.

The sails were in the back of their car and Tony was hoping we would find them alright for our needs. Once we had explained the situation with the current set of sails which came with the JAG, he was pleased to be able to help us out.
When we took delivery of the JAG the seller gave us a bag of sails. The contents were shocking; the mainsail was torn into three pieces with no hope of saving and the jib, well that would have suited a GP14 very well, it even had the correct stampings on it!
The sails which looked at us from out of a box looked fantastic; the battens were tucked down beside the material and what we could see of the sails looked perfect! On closer inspection we found that they were indeed in excellent condition. They will need some attention in the usual places (UV strip etc) but they are by far better than anything we could have hoped for!

We spent a long time talking to Ann and Tony about JAGs, and Tony promised to email us a few suppliers of parts which we will need further down the line. After insisting they didn’t want anything in return they departed as they were flying out on a well earned sailing holiday in the Mediterranean.

At this point Sam and myself would like to thank Ann and Tony deeply for their generosity and hope to keep in contact with them throughout the duration of the build and beyond.

After their departure Sam and I had a few hours to kill and so we did the obvious; walk around and look at boats! On doing so we came across a fixed keel version of the JAG 21 and scrutinized it as best as we could.

Seeing this boat seemed to be a sign, we had just been handed a set of sails, the first GRP had been put on and now we were looking at a well maintained and undamaged JAGUAR 21. It was as if the world was urging us on, telling us that we could indeed get the JAG back on the water and get her sailing as she was designed to.

We are now itching to get back to work and complete the repairs. This would mean finishing a major milestone and  getting the JAG more than half way back to her original condition.
But until then we are keeping the sails warm and dry and hoping they will soon be hoisted for the first time, on a boat that will hopefully look and feel new, but with that distinct character and familiarity that boats have when they have been salvaged and rebuilt.

The first signs of progress

So there I was, it was a Sunday and Sam had to work, leaving me to get along with the JAG on my own. A week had passed since Sam and I had laid up the coremat in the anchor well and the polyester had cured well. It was still flexible but strong enough to carry the weight of the glass fiber which was to be laid up on top of it.

On my last trip to my grandparents they allowed me to take my grandfathers old tools back with me. Along with an electric screwdriver and vintage hand tools, a belt sander was in the tool box. The belt sander already had a lot of use while we were preparing the holes we laid up the coremat in and we had gone through the old belts that were with the sander in the process. A very helpful tool, it allows us to chamfer the edges quickly and smoothly while collecting the dust in a dust bag. Much better than the angle grinder and flap disc we had been using and so we are very grateful for the tools.

Before I started work I had to get a few parts from the shops, a new angle grinder, flap discs and sanding belts were on my list and so I made my way into the dangerous world of B&Q and SCREFIX to seek out these essential materials. Once I had returned the real work could begin.

After inspecting the hull, I saw that around the hole we cut out where the stanchion base had been, the GRP was delaminating. Whether this was just due to it drying out or it had been like that the whole time, there is no way of knowing. However it was clear that it could not stay this way. As we now had a new grinder I put it to good use in cutting the deck layer of GRP off. The top layer was cut back until it revealed good GRP which was still bonded. This left a frighteningly big gap, but the inside layer of GRP was still solid and so the enlarged hole does not go all the way through the deck as can be seen in the photo below.

 

The same was done just aft of the anchor well, where another stanchion base had leaked water into the core. For both these holes coremat was cut up to fit snuggly into the holes, again to provide support for the glass fiber which will be laid up later.

We had hoped that it would be the end of getting rid of original material, but deciding between keeping as much original boat as possible or making a solid repair, the choice is an obvious one.

Once this work was done the effort was focused on the repairs that had been done the week before. The coremat was now fully bonded to the boat and was strong enough to hold the weight of the glass fiber and polyester which was to be put on. It just needed some sanding with the orbital sander to get it smooth and to the same level as the original GRP. Sanding took a couple of minutes and was done surprisingly quickly, which meant more time to finish the preparations, including hoovering the dust up and cleaning the surface with acetone.
The first repair to be tackled was the anchor well. With five layers of chopped strand mat cut to size and more matting waiting to be torn to size, I mixed up enough polyester to saturate the matting. As is usual the surface was wetted and the mat laid on and dabbed until it was transparent. Then the next layer was laid down and so on. Five layers of precut matting were put on and then the repair needed to be built up to the correct level by tearing the chopped strand mat into small pieces which were then placed where necessary.
The same procedure was followed with the hull repair to which four layers were applied.

Time flew while doing this repair and it was over quicker than I could believe. I was left to use a disc roller to ensure the matting was adhering properly and then use a brush to apply another layer of polyester which will act as a sacrificial layer when sanding the repair.

The boat looks good now and rebuilding her is giving us a massive boost and we are more set than ever on getting her back to her former glory.

The pictures below show some of the repairs:

When I  left the boat the polyester was setting well, leaving the repairs solid and strong. Of course they are far from finished. Once they are fully set more work will be needed, sanding, fairing, filling and more sanding until the shape fits the original shape and the surface is smooth, ready for painting.
We are very happy that we have added GRP at long last; progress is very apparent now and it is good to see the boat looking more like herself. I’m sure the JAG is feeling better about it too as it is the first time in many years that she is starting to look like herself again.

All being well September will give us plenty of opportunity to work on the JAG and hopefully get a major part of the repair done before the weather closes in and turns too cold to do and GRP work. Stay tuned for more updates as and when they come!

 

 

Are we there yet?

That’s a question we’ve been asked many times throughout the past few months. The answer is simply no! There has been some development though.

It has been a long summer and surprisingly the weather was mostly good, which unfortunately did not stop boring things such as work taking up our time. This meant less time to spend on the Jag, resulting in, you guessed it, less progress than we had hoped.
We have come up to a major milestone though; up till now our efforts were focused on reducing the boat, taking off bad GRP, cleaning up our work just to find more rotten GRP and ultimately cutting back the port side more than we had originally anticipated. With each cut our motivation sank, how could we possibly complete this repair when everywhere we looked the boat had signs of rotting GRP and delamination? The final result of our labour was a large gash in the port side as well as in our hopes. The port side of the hull is now cut down to below deck level and the holes on the deck are a screaming sign of how much work we still have to do. It seemed we would just end up with a boat that was past repair.

But then it happened! We ummed and ahhed a lot that day and did a lot of thinking and decided it was time. The glass fibre and polyester was waiting patiently on a shelf, waiting to be used, to fulfill their reason of existence; to turn this skeleton of a boat into a good looking (and hopefully well sailing) beauty.

Our plan was simple; lay up some coremat to provide support and let this dry out before applying glass fibre and getting on with the repair.
The preparation was extensive, we smoothed the cuts, chamfered the edges of the GRP, cleaned the surfaces with plenty of acetone and stood back to look at the boat for the last time in her current state.
So finally, after all this time in which we had just cut and sanded and ground material off the boat, it was time to turn the corner and start rebuilding her. We had waited a long time for this moment and were very excited but nervous at the same time. If this went wrong our work would be for nothing and our hopes would pop like a hydrogen filled balloon exploding on contact with a flame.

As we did not want to risk making a mistake and having to sand, scratch and peel our repair off the whole side of the boat we approached the matter on a small scale and just attempted two small repairs for the time being. The idea is to rebuild the hull and deck separately, leaving a constant one inch gap all the way down the side. Then we can rebuild the outer lip and bond the deck and hull this way, rebuilding the boat to its original state and creating a strong joint.

We started on the hole in the anchor well and the gap in the hull in the same area. The first step was to cut the coremat to the correct size to fit the holes with an overlap of about 1-2 inches. Mixing the polyester for the first time was exciting but we paid attention to mix enough catalyst in, scared that the polyester would not set properly. Then the precut  coremat was saturated and the surface of the boat  the coremat was going to be applied to was wetted before waiting about 10 minutes for the polyester the start gelling up. Once this happened the coremat was laid up on the boat, rolling it on until it was sticking properly.

After much celebration and some looks of surprise from David we tidied up the garage and put the boat to rest. Now that we have started the first repair things are going uphill. Hopefully we can catch a good run during September and get the majority of the repair finished before the weather turns to cold for polyester to cure. Any more updates will of course will be accompanied with a blog entry so keep tuned in to hear more.

The effects of exam periods

The last few weeks have been very stressful; there was a dissertation to write, many exams to sit and deadlines to meet. But it is all coming to an end now, Tuesday will mark Josh’s last exam and the end of the semester. You may be lured into thinking that we have not been working on the Jag. In a sense this is true. The last time we were at the Jag to work on her was weeks ago. Too long ago! However many hours sitting at his desk and studying in the library also took Josh on a journey through the depths of the internet. The Jag needs parts and a lot of them! So here is what he found: Sails were found belonging to a fellow Jaguar 21 owner. He is letting us have the sails for free, a great gesture which also marks our first sponsorship and makes us even more eager to see this project through. We only need to pick them up sometime next month. A guy on the internet has a wide variety of railings, stanchions, shackles and blocks. Although nothing is definite here, we hope that it will reveal many parts that we will need later on in the year. Along with looking for the many parts that are needed the internet also gives up the secrets of many skills relevant to the Jag. The most difficult task will be painting the boat. The plan is to paint her with 2 component paint using brushes and rollers. This means using the so called “roll and tip” method. A great video showing this method can be seen here:

An Australian paint company have also done a kind of tutorial on painting a boat and the results they produce are quite impressive:

The painting will need great care, preperation and cleanliness to achieve the results the Jag deserves. Although watching videos on how to do it won’t make us professionals on the topic, but it will hopefully make us knowledgable enough to get great results.

Another pasttime that has been the result of studying for exams is many plans for the inside design, cockpit layout, electronic diagrams and other drawings. These are all work in progress and will hopefully be perfected when the time comes to use them. As the budget is tight and marine parts are expensive, we are planning to make as much as we can ourselves. This will include the electrics control panel as well as the inside outfit.

Our Facebook page has proven to be rather popular, we have followers from Scotland, England, Wales, Germany, Romania, Holland, Turkey and South Africa. The Jag is going global and we are proud. We’d like to ask our fans and followers to keep on supporting us and also sharing our posts. Our aim is to reach many people all over the world.

So there we are. We’ve not been as lazy as the absence of new posts may imply. Summer is upon us and that means that any days we have off, we don’t need to spend on studying or doing coursework. That means lots of time to work on the Jag and hopefully we are approaching the stage at which we start reconstructing her very soon.

Keep tuned for more updates.

Taming the Jag on Facebook

As we cannot fit as many pictures on the blog we have opted to also have a facebook page for the JAG! There are more pictures to be seen there and we will be uploading many more whenever we do some work to the Jag.

The page can be accessed using this link: https://www.facebook.com/tamingthejag

Removing the deck fittings

The first task that had to be completed in the refit of the JAG was to remove every single fitting from the deck as well as inside the cabin. Everything came off so that when we come to the final stages of the refit we can reseal everything as it should be.

We spent about seven hours on the first day working on the boat, as well as several hours after work on a Sunday and Josh spent six hours this saturday removing the last of the fittings. Finally it has been accomplished, everything that was screwed or bolted on to the boat has come off, leaving the bare hull which we can rebuild and repair as necessary.

The pullpit is bent, probably in the same incident that damaged the boat so much. We will see if we can get it straight and clean it up so we can reuse it. Taking the fittings off was easier than first thought, most of the sealant had dried up and was easy to remove, the hatch came off with a short tug when all the screws had been removed. The starboard window came out too easily, water had been penetrating the sealant for several years, causing it to unstick from the GRP. The port window was more difficult, the sealant was still good and needed some persuasion to come off.
Seeing the state of most of the sealant, it was a good decision to remove everything from the boat, including the hatch and the windows. They will now be resealed properly during the final stages of refit, ensuring there will be no leakages.

Once the fittings were removed Josh concentrated on the old repairs. This were worse than originally thought, but that being a good thing. Instead of grinding the old repair down with an angle grinder he was able to pry the bad repair off the hull using a hammer and bare hands. The majority of it just peeled off, leaving the original damage visible.

It was good to be able to see the full extent of the original damage and we now have a better idea on how to repair the damage. At one point the damage is so severe that there is a hole right through into the cabin. This sounds bad, however it does mean we can repair it easier (paradox or what!?)

The damage doesn’t look so bad now the old repair has gone and we have full sight of the damage. Now that the fittings are off and the damage is exposed we can get onto the next step, grinding the damage down and preparing the boat for a full repair.