Winward Sheeting Car Upgrade

I took advantage of Cyber Monday and ordered a windward sheeting car kit from Layline.  They had great prices with free shipping, no sales tax, and when I called Henry Mallard a former J/30 owner answered the phone.  I like giving business to those who support the J/30 class.  Layline contributed stuff for the 2008 J/30 North Americans.  Before ordering, I went to the Harken service place in Newport and met with Mike Lee who helped me determine exactly the parts I needed.  He was able to give me the part numbers based on the car and end caps I brought in.  I ordered the following parts to upgrade my ancient Harken traveller:

• Harken 1637 CB Windward Sheeting Adapter Kit
• Harken 1561 Midrange Car standup kit 
• (3) Harken 1526 5/16" Torlon Balls (qty 25 per pack - 60 balls needed)
• Harken 7875 One Drop Ball Oil

There were two sets of double cheek blocks screwed to the original car.  The screws were Loctite in place so required an impact wrench to break them free.  The car kit comes with a tube of Loctite.  Below is a picture of the assembled windward sheeting car - forward edge shown.

 

Note the blocks on the forward edge allow running 3:1 or 4:1 purchase for traveler control.  The view below shows the aft side of the car.  You'll see a black rubber shape in the middle.  This is the standup kit.  It keeps the block with the mainsheet upright and prevents any potential interference with the sliding plate on the car.  Henry Mallard recommended it because some people had problems with the  mainsheet block stopping the plate from sliding, thus preventing the release of the leeward cam.

 

The bearings in the old car were probably original. I figured since the money was spend on upgrading the car, I might as well make sure it slides well on the track.  Harken sells a plastic ball loader that keeps the bearings in place until the car is slid onto the track.  Note that the new series car has captive balls.  The track is interchangeable, but you cant switch the captive versus non-captive balls between the old style and new style car.   The picture shows the path that the ball bearings follow as the car is slid across the track.

This will be installed on the boat in the spring, after I remount the track.

Day 2 - Recore Stbd Cockpit

Continuing from where I left off yesterday, the weather was warm again and supported more core work.  The first thing accomplished was removing the plastic used to squeegee the epoxy, then sanding with 60 grit paper to roughen the surface for a good mechanical bond.  The areas that were punched through on the bottom skin are now fully sealed inside the cockpit locker.

New Fiberglass sanded

 After sanding, I mixed up some Corebond (remaining from the transom recore) and used it to fill in the voids where core was removed around the lip that was cut using the Fein tool.  Corebond was then spread on  the new fiberglass using a disposable notched spreader.  This provides just enough filler to bond the balsa without causing lumps and voids.  Below is a photo with new core bonded.  It was worked in place by hand, and Corebond inserted around the edges with a spreader.

New core bonded

After the new balsa was positioned on the core bond, it was covered with plastic sheet and weights applied with constant pressure for the Corebond to catalyze.  The cure time at 55 degrees was about 40 minutes.  While this was curing, I over drilled and epoxy filled the holes for the hand rails, since these are being replaced over the winter with new Teak - thanks to Charlie Stoddard - Falcon.

Applying pressure during core bonding

Subsequent to curing, the weights were removed and the balsa sanded to make sure the final surface would be level with the surrounding area, since I planned on reusing the skin that was peeled off.

Core sanded / leveled for skin

 To bond the old skin to the balsa, I used thickened epoxy rather than the Corebond.  The Balsa was wet out with neat epoxy using a chip brush, as was the back of the old skin.  Epoxy was mixed and thickened with Colloidal Silica and Adhesive Filler to a mayonnaise consistency.  This was poured in the area and spread with a chip brush.  The old skin was beveled on both the top and bottom edges to allow the epoxy to flow, and permit fairing on the top surface.  The skin was put on top of the new balsa and pressure applied to make sure that voids were forced out.  A plastic sheet was put on the surface and weights applied similar to the method used with the balsa core.  Below is a photo after the old skin was bonded and the masking removed.  That will complete the work until the spring when final fairing, sanding and gelcoat will be applied.

Old skin bonded to new core

Deck Recore Fall 2011

Hey - it's the week before Thanksgiving and we have a gift of weather in the low 50s.  Today I started with work that I've procrastinated on accomplishing.  The stbd side cockpit has spider cracks on the topside, and inside the locker, the inner layer of fiberglass is split.  All this is due to the wet core freezing and expanding.  Today I cut out a section of the top skin approximately 12" x 15".  I was able to remove skin section in one piece so hopefully I will be able to rebond this to the new core and minimize the amount of non-skid matching to restore the surface.

Below is a photo of the skin section removed.  The area where the toe rail was bolted through the deck was the water source.  The holes were not isolated.

Skin Section Removed - Topside view

 The underside of the skin section shows wet and rotted core. 
 

Skin Section Removed - Underside view

The deck area is shown below.  I used a Fein Multimaster both to cut the fiberglass for removing the skin, and to chisel in between the old core and the fiberglass skin.  A claw hammer was used to remove large areas of balsa once the area had been chiseled with the Fein tool.

Deck Area - wet core shown

The picture below shows the area with the core removed.  The dark area on the fiberglass is moisture from the wet core.  This will be dried with a heat gun and wipe down with acetone to get rid of any moisture.  

Core removed - wet fiberglass remains

After the wet core was removed, the inside skin was sanded using an orbital sander with 60 grit paper.  The area was vacuumed, and wiped down with acetone.   The edge was beveled to facilitate fairing the edges when the skin is replaced.  After cleaning, a plastic sheet was used to mask the area in preparation for epoxy work.  Note the area where the skin cracked due to frozen core.  That's part of the problem with wet core in a cold climate.  I put duct tape on the underside of the cracks and holes to prevent epoxy from draining through when the area is reglassed.

Deck area prepared and masked

The area was measured and new balsa on scrim cut to shape.  The balsa will be applied with the scrim facing upward.  It really doesn't matter in this section since the surface is flat, but I find it easier to handle that way.

Balsa trimmed to shape

Glass mat was cut to shape.  Additional pieces will be used to strengthen the area that is cracked.  The  plan is to spread the area with neat epoxy , filling in the voids, then building up the low spots with mat.  I ended up putting a piece of plastic over the mat and used a squeegee to work the epoxy fully into the mat.  Once this cures, the plastic with be peeled off.  This has an added benefit of preventing amine blush from forming on the surface of the cured epoxy.  Unfortunately, the epoxy work was performed as it was getting dark.  I didn't want to stop for pictures, so this will be continued tomorrow.  Temps are supposed to be in the 40s overnight and mid 50s during the day.