December 19th
What a fiddly job it is trying to get at all
the timbers especially their lower sides with a small paintbrush -
managed it in the end. On the decking underside mask off all the glue
lines, i.e a mirror image of the inwale, beam, and block areas and
then paint with a liberal coating of varnish. remove the masking tape.
The
object of this task is to leave no unexposed timbers below deck that
will absorb water and give rise to potential swelling or detoriation
problems. Note the reinforcement around
the rudder post hatch and on the hull, at the bow reinforcement for
the winch sheeting return tube.
When all is ready say a prayer or two for the deck glueing because if anything can go wrong at this stage, Murphy will determine that it will. And of course this is the last time one can 'go below deck' except through any hatchway!
Needed will be, a few small clamps to hold down around the main hatch, some short lengths of 30 x 20mm timber to spread across the width, three or four heavy weights and/or bricks to lay atop the lengths, a good roll of masking tape with a large number of strips already cut off and ready at hand.
Thursday 20th December:
-Mix enough glue (I always run out and end up spreading it too
thinly) probably about 45 mls, six teaspoonfuls of resin plus three
of hardener. Cover beams, inwales, and the bow and stern pieces with
a liberal coating and likewise the unvarnished areas of the decking
underside. 
Epiglue
takes a good six hours to go off so there is no hurry with this job.
Present the decking to the hull 
over
the registration pins and pull firmly onto the hull with masking
tape strips. Place clamps, timber lengths and weights everywhere to
ensure good contact especially down the king plank and around the
hatchways. Allow to cure overnight. Note:
Be especially liberal with the application of glue around the inwales
and bow and stern plates. Some day in
the future you will ram a solid object at speed and the 4.5K lead
hull will not want to stop! A consequence is a severe strain on the
decking to inwale joins as the hull wants to spread apart to absorb
the energy.
December 21st
Probably the best deck to hull glueing sesion yet. Everything went together nicely yesterday and I had about 5ml glue left over. Removed the weights and masking tape this morning and was pleased to see a good bead of hardened glue extruding all round. The registration pegs were sawn off and sanded down to the deck.
The excess ply and glue bead is then sanded back to the hull
sides. For the initial work the Black and Decker rotary file is a
wondrous machine 
but
you have to be careful not to sand back too far. Then with the hull
upside down carefully sand into the hull until the hull itself shows
the touch of the sand paper/file. There will be excess glue below
(actually 'above' seeing she is upside down) on the hull sides but
with luck this will flake off with a little persuasion from a steel
straight edge such as a putty knife without scratching the gel coat
of the hull.
I have noticed on previous models that paint does not like a sharp 90 degree edge and often cracks and flakes along the decking edge. So on J100 I am rounding off the deck edges to a good 3mm radius and will take special care when painting to have a good wet undercoat first.
December 24th
Too close to Christmas to be very productive over these few days. However did start fitting the deck fittings today and I am relying on the partially thread and cyno harden technique outlined earlier.
Carefully markout on the deck the proverbial centre line and from the
bow the positions of jib fittings, jib sheet anchor, mast step foot,
and backstay anchor. From the mast step foot mark out at right angles
the chain plate positions (thingies to which the mast support shrouds
are attached). These latter have been reinforced before the deck was
glued down weren't they - not so with J100 - despite all my measure
and remeasure I discovered that the forward of the the three shroud
anchor holes had no reinforcement beneath (see the little hole in
front of the shroud anchors fitted). It was no great trouble though
to mix up some glue and position a couple of small blocks that will
be drilled and tapped later today. Oh yes - and who
forgot to lay in a plastic tube below decks to take the Rx antennae?
The hole alongside the jib fitting at the bow is a plastic insert threaded 5/16" UNF to take the sheet feed tube from the drum below decks to the running rigging.
December 28th
I hope everyone had a great Christmas.
Not much work done on J100 these last few days. Before painting there is a need to make and temporarily fit as many of the nick-nacks as possible so that everything can come together in a rush! Screw holes made in the deck can be hardened up and waterproofed with instant glue.
I
made up eight shroud tensioners (for A and B rigs) and as the
commercial supply of bowsies seems to have dried up, produced about
fifty of the neccessary little creatures from a nice supply of black
plastic from The Warehouse's kitchen utensil handles.
January
4th
Everyone has their own way of doing the "Paint Job", but in all cases patience and attention to detail pays rich dividends. Actually I suppose one of the first jobs we all do is to doodle an outline of our master piece and then try various paint schemes until we are satisfied. Doing this on the computer is a lot of fun. J100 will have a metallic red deck and keel, and a metallic gold "midrif". If you intend to race the J you are making, keep the paint job as simple as possible. Within a month she will be back in the yard bearing the scratches and abrasions of competition and begging for a repaint
I find that the commercial spraycans of polyurethane enamels do a great job. A decision too to paint the waterline and below in a contrasting colour will be of significant advantage later on in judging the model's sailing behaviour at a distance.
If it is decided not too keep the pristine 'jel coat' finish, and most of us don't because during the decking exercise we scratched and damaged it, then a good rub down with fine wet and dry emery will ensure a good base for subsequent spray applications. Apply one heavy or two light coats of undercoat to the deck area and then after it has thoroughly hardened almost completely remove the undercoat with successively finer grades of wet and dry. This way any imperfections in the decking ply can be completely removed.
Painting is done in a number of sequential stages with the boat upside down on a painting table or sitting in its cradle. The stages may differ in order in as much always spray darker colours over lighter colours!
-
The keel has already been undercoated in a previous operation
-
If the deck is to be painted in a contrasting colour mask off the hull.
(for fine-line borders don't use cheap masking tape - the paint will
invariably bleed through and spoil the finish) and apply one
application to the deck. If I am very "lucky" it will
likely be scratched before all the painting is finished and thus
provide me with the golden opportunity to lightly sand and re-spray
it again in a final operation for a perfect finish! -
Once the decking coat has thoroughly hardened, mask off the deck and place the hull upside down on a painting table with the deck painted area suitably protected from scratches and paint drift/over-spray. Spray a 7 cm band (to slightly overlay the waterline mark) in the contrasting colour. Remove masking tape as soon as the paint has started to harden. Leave to harden 24 hours.
-
With the hull upside down on a table, suitably supported on padded bearers,
arrange
an erasable ink (OHP fine) pen in a stand to mark out the waterline.
Adjust the bearer positions to lift the stern a little relative to
the bow until satisfied that the waterline will approximate that in
the general diagram
(measured amidships on J50 and J90 the waterline is 63mm below
deck-level). Then with the horizontal marker draw a dotted line all
round the hull. Mask off to this line and then erase the line. This
will be the final spray application unless we have damaged the deck
as in 2. above. - Don't forget to paint the rudder
at this time, in the same colour as the keel and below-waterline hull.
January 6th
Oh how I love spray cans of paint! I managed a beautiful coating of metallic red on the deck (see photo above) and then attempted the metallic gold midriff (upper hull sides) today - got blobs of paint all over the place - looks horrible, so spent the larger part of the day sanding most of it back to the light undercoat. Maybe the temperature was a bit cool so I will try again tomorrow when the weather is a little warmer.
January 8
Took a long time yesterday getting rid of the paint blobs - very fine wet and dry paper with copious application of water - in the end managed to get a good coating of gold metallic on the hull sides and you can hardly see where the blobs were.
Today J100 came into the kitchen table and I marked out the
waterline 
with
the fine OHP pen in its stand. Then masked off to the line. When
trying to get the masking tape to follow the curves onto the bow and
around the stern it is a good idea to lay down a short (30cm) length
of tape on a nylon cutting board/pad and slit it long ways with a
steel rule and keen blade to give several thin strips (5mm). These
can be then lifted from the nylon board individually. The thinner
strips can be persuaded to follow the curving hull lines without
crinkling. The wider tape can be laid down next overlapping the
strips and here the odd crinkle or two is of less consequence.
Newspaper is used to mask off the larger areas - the idea is not to
allow any gap where spray drift can get in and spoil the previously
painted surfaces.
Applied
two coats of metallic red to the keel and lower hull sides and then
after allowing 15 minutes for the paint to dry carefully peeled off
all the newspaper and tape - a good clean edge!
Fixed and running rigging will follow on PAGE FOUR.
I would be most glad to respond to any queries that builders of the Canterbury J might care to direct to me - left click the button below.
