Rainbow hours so far - 130.5

  At this time Bob Eger has introduced me to John Hanks (J Class Secretary) Its just a short 3 hour trip down to Lake Havasu City from Las Vegas, so off Jenni and I go. We got some plans, videos and I have been picking John's brain ever since. If you want to know anything about building 1/16th scale J Class Yachts, John Hanks III is the source!

  Fast forward and we're back home in Las Vegas working on drawing and cutting frames.

At this time its September 2018 and I have been laying out, cutting and sanding frames. I'm about half way through them when we get notice that the house we were renting was sold and we needed to move in 30 days. Needless to say work has come to a stop. With just a short time to move, we found an apartment and the dream of building Rainbow had come to an end for now. We spent the next few months contemplating what we would do and where we would go. During that time there were more trips to Lake Havasu and we were becoming great friends with John and Barbara Hanks. 

 It is now the the last week in December 2018 and I get a call from my good friend Bob. This is where you see what a good friend he is. He tells me he is going to build a new j, Svea and he wants to sell his Ranger to me. This is a Novak fiberglass hull. It is hull #1 and he will be in Las Vegas to deliver her in two weeks. There really was no way to say thank you and you can see that in my face. 

  Did  i mention what an awesome wife I have? We are now living in a 1 bedroom apartment and there is an 8 foot 3 inch J boat residing in our living room. Nothing more needs to be said there!

  As you can see the deck fittings and cabins is not complete. Some people have completely plain decks, and that's OK but one of the things that drew me to the J's was the scale and the completed decks. Another trip down to the Hank's to learn about building all these little details and getting her all rigged. 

It's now the end of March. We have spent a few days with John and Barbara Hanks. John has helped  me get all the rigging completed and I have taken a lot of notes on cabin and deck fittings. All this is going to be a big help when construction resumes on Rainbow.

  While down at Lake Havasu City we once again get notice that we will need to move again. Long story short we have just over 30 days to find another place to live.  We decided we had enough of Las Vegas and decided to head back home to Boise Idaho. Packing begins as we prepare for the 1000 mile move.

So now we are here! Finally setting up the shop and unpacking. Opened a box today and  found the Rainbow frames and plans. So here we are,almost a year later from when we stopped work on Rainbow. She is out of the box and work will start again.

  Keep checking back as I will post up on here weekly as the build continues along. You can check at the top of the page as I update the amount of hours I spend working on her.

Well its been a bit since i got much done. Ive been busy at work, holiday's  and its been cold. Very cold and the heater I had wouldn't keep up with the below freezing temperatures.

This week I got a new heater and it works great. Spent the day cutting and adding frames to the stations on the building board. Great progress today.

So I got started laying out the frames for the aft section of the boat and the seemingly endless amount of cutting involved with each one. 

I was cruising along and making good progress, but work has come to a stop.  My scroll saw has broke down so no more work till Monday when I will pick up a new one.

Its Monday now and I just got another scroll saw set up and I now have about another 8 frames to cut. Back at it!

I've now started planking Rainbow. This is a process that i thought would go faster than it is. So far its taken about 30 min per plank to get them in place and glued. It should start going a little faster as i get a system down and the planks get shorter as I work up the hull. As I install the first 8 foot planks and twist them around I alternate from one side to the other to keep the pressure on the frames the same and even on the hull. The one thing I didn't expect was how sore my finger tips would get manipulating the planks. I have 6 on each side now. I will spend the day tomorrow planking and will see how far I can get.

I can't believe its been over 2 months since i posted up on here. I will try to be better than that . The last 2 months I have been planking off and on. I have been sick, off and on and work has been busy requiring me to work some overtime and now with the Covid -19 pandemic that has increased for me.

So for the last 2 months + I have been plugging away piece by piece. Above you can see the progression as I have moved along. I have done a little sanding along the way and have a ton of sanding and shaping to do still,now that the planking is finished.

Besides sanding, next on the list is to add wood blocks to the bow and stern so I can finish shaping both ends of the boat and get ready for fiber glassing. Also I have all the material to build the rudder. Lots to do.

It's Also time to start thinking about some of the internal workings of this girl. I am going to use the Servo City Arm winch setup for sail control. You can click here to look at that set up. https://amyajclass.com/servocity-arm-winch  I am using this set up in my Ranger and it works well and I like it, so no sense re inventing the wheel. On the back stay I am considering using a linear servo set up that was shared with me by David Ramos. Need to do a little more research before I make a decision. On my rudder servo some guys shared a direct drive setup that I am considering also. Always looking at new innovations.