I’ve been spending lots of time recently researching shapes to use for rudders and leeboards. While I never used to think this was a big deal, I found out differently when testing the first boat I made. I had two excellent Sabot sailors out testing with the new boat and a Brian Thomas (Corsair).
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Now working on boat #4 and I thought I’d provide a bit of a glimpse as to what it takes to setup the vacuum bag for infusion. Take a look at this time-lapsed video…
The fiberglass and foam are already laid into the mold as is a few strips of peel ply to lay the flow media onto.
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A buddy’s old Sabot has been in the yard this month. He’s looking to get this boat from barely floating to something his daughter can begin sailing lessons this summer and not have it fall apart, i.e., a cheap fix.
Well, of course the more you dig into a boat the more you find that is wrong with it.
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This last weekend I was asked by a parent if I thought their child needed a new boat. Well, that IS the big question, isn’t it.
My dad started racing Sabots in the early 50s and was a better sailer than I’ll ever be. I’ve heard him tell his friends not to get their kids a “beater”
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Not much blogging going on at the boat yard these days. Boats 1 & 2 have been out racing with my kids and they are loving it. We’re heading up to the Sabot Gold Cup at Newport Harbor this weekend with one of the boats. My son’s first “regatta road trip”
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I was not as happy with the quality of boat #2 as I had hoped. Also, the mid-thwart mold had an area where a tube could be placed to allow water to move aft. After several people had raced boat #1 we all decided we liked keeping the water in the front of the boat to allow for easier bailing.
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Sabot #2 is out of the mold. We have modified the mid-thwart mold and have laid-up the next boat’s mid & bow thwarts. Now looking at making mold modifications for the hull to fair the skeg – this could take a while!
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With the fibreglass and foam laid-up, we start preparing for the vacuum and infusion. Below we attached channel medium to peel-ply to keep it from sticking to the top layer of fibreglass in the boat.
Here the flow channels are in place. You can see small tears near the center,
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After making the mold modifications needed to vacuum bag and infuse the resin, we’re now cutting out the templates to be used for cutting the foam and the fibreglass. We chose Triax 20 ounce fibreglass and one-half inch Baltek Airex for foam core. These were chosen to build the stiffest sabot possible that would still weigh-in under 95 pounds.
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With the grooves cut on the “L” stock they were ready to attach. First wholes had to be cut into the plywood platform to allow for the C-clamps to grab the mold without scratching the surface.
First he starboard platform was attached and allowed to cure…
Then the starboard platform was attached.
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