New chainplate

The old backstay chainplate was mounted inside of the lazarette and giving unnecessary extra load to the transom, which of course, with the years had got bended improperly inwards. Alex removed that old chainplate and built a new one in 1/2 inch (12,75 mm) stainless steel that is mounted on the outside of the transom instead of inside. The chainplate is cut from a 316L steel plate and has been bent under heat. The process of bending it, drilling the holes (countersunk) and polishing of the plate took Alex around 12 hours in total. The chainplate is now fastened with six bolts, two of them has encapsulated nuts inside of the new plywood knee which is glassed in place. The four remaining bolts goes through the knee and the transom. Will show you the inside and the glassed knee when that space is tidied up if that could be of interest. Just too bad that we need to remove the boats name from the back and move it somewhere else on the hull, but at least we've got the backstay issue out of the way and the transom has slowly been forced back into its right shape. This installation should definitely give a more even load to the transom.

This is how the boat looked from the back before the new chainplate installation. Nice from a far with the name clearly visible, but not so safe nor good for the construction cause if you looked close enough, you could clearly see that the whole transom was being pulled inwards by the old chainplate. 

Work in progress

The mainsheet traveler was only one of all the things that we have found out wasn't accurately installed on our 'new' boat, good for us that it hadn't had an opportunity to break before we noticed. A furiously flying boom is never a good thing on a boat, we can do without that type of disaster. Here's Alex making the backing plates he wants to install to support the track. Glad we have free access to one of the best boat workshops in the Caribbean here in Antigua so we can get all those very important details properly done.

Carbon design

So this is one of Alex's latest design creations. A paddleboard rack made in carbon fiber, mounted on a Goldfish 36, one of the fastest RiB dinghies in the world. I'm sure many of you know what carbon fiber is and what it is used for but for you who don't have so much knowledge, I'd like to explain what I have learned during this process and tell you why this fiber is widely used and loved by engineers and designers in many industries. Carbon fiber is composed mostly of carbon atoms which are bonded together in crystals. Carbon fiber is a super strong material, five times stronger than steel, two times as stiff yet weights about two-thirds less. The fiber is basically very thin strands of carbon, much thinner than human hair, which is twisted into a yarn or woven into a cloth and can thereafter be used as it is or bought in stiff panels. When building up a surface or a permanent shape from the cloth (or twill), it can be laid over mold and then coated with layers after layers of a bonding agent like epoxy resin, and sanded in between coats, all done in pretty advanced and time consuming manners as what you aim for is a super sleek and glossy surface. 

Due to the lightweight and stiffness this fiber offers, it is incredibly popular in the sailing racing world, if not used for the complete boat, well enough for parts of it like the mast, boom, rudder and many other parts of the yacht. Compared to other common building materials like fiberglass, kevlar and wood, carbon fiber remains as the most expensive and not everyone can justify the high cost it is to produce from this fiber. 

Just a little fact that I found out while doing my research, we all know that most components of a car are made of steel right, imagine if they were made of carbon fiber instead, the cars would decrease their weight by around 60% and in turn this would reduce the cars fuel consumption by 30%. While reducing weight, the cars could also be built with smaller, more efficient engines or have the engines completely replaced with electric engines resulting in massive fuel savings. Fantastic for the environment but unfortunately the material is way too expensive. The cost of carbon fiber per pound is around $10, compared to steel which goes for less than one dollar a pound. But given the fact that carbon fiber had a price of $150 only ten years ago, the price development looks promising for the future. Another downside is unfortunately that the material isn't as easy to recycle as steel, just another problem to solve before it can be put into widespread use in cars.

The dinghy which this rack now is mounted on, is made at the most part of carbon already, so of course they needed a paddle-surfboard-rack matched in the same material. The paddleboards (can carry eight at a time) are to be laid (with cover of their own bags of course) on top of this rack and shall be tied up with lines at the ends where there is a thin spectra hook where to fasten the lines. I think the final product is very sleek having been constructed by hand, what do you think? And no, I had no idea either, that Alex knew how to do these kind of advanced molecular things with such immaculate precision, I get to learn something new about him and his hidden talents every day. Now he tells me he wants to reinforce some important parts of the hull of our boat with a mix of carbon and kevlar, all to make it safer and stronger..

My hard working man

This is what Alex is busy doing when he's not working on Duende. There are not so many other carbon fiber specialists around here in the Caribbean so he has a lot of things to do. Currently he's building this surfboard rack that you can see in the foreground, which Alex has designed for one of the mega yachts and their sexy little carbon dinghy that has a top speed of 80 knots.. will show the rack to you again when it's done and mounted.