Wizard
by Ralph
M
When Chuck emailed me and asked
if I would share about building my boat I reluctantly said I
would, so here it goes: …
I had been surfing the web and looking at boats designs for
a long time. I narrowed it down to Erik Lerouge's Vik70, or
Richard Woods Wizard
catamaran, both designers are top notch and have exhalant reputations.
The long and short of it was that the Wizard is more family
friendly and with a wife that’s not mad about sailing
and two small kids it seems a bit better for us.
The wizard plans are well drawn easy to follow and come with
full sized patterns for the hull (male mold). I decided to build
the hulls using a female mold, I gave it a lot of thought and
asked every one about this... Yes even the designer and got
the same answer its up to you either way is fine.
Mr. woods did say if I was to use a female mold I would need
to add about a half inch to the patterns to allow for the planking.
At this point in my build I am very glad that I decided on the
female mold method. It’s easier to set up, all work is
done flat (using gravity not fighting it) at a good working
height. Glassing the outside of the hull on the male mold would
be no problem, but to glass the inside of a small hull like
this seems like it would be a good way to go swimming in epoxy.
With the female mold the inside is glassed first then the two
halves are put together and taped.
The two beams that will be used for the strongback. The MDF
that is used as the forms. The largest hull pattern was about
17" x 45" I got 4 pieces 2 x 5 by using one 4x10 sheet
of MDF
Frames set up and planking started.
the planking is tongue and groove sometimes called "speed
strip or Quick strip". I started the planking near the
center and worked my way out. I used gorilla glue (Polyurethane)
to glue the strips together, I fill the groove of the strip
to be added with glue then press it on to the tongue of the
last plank. This means that one plank needed to be tongue on
both sides to work out in two directions.
More planking, the pieces are run out long and thin trimmed
flush to the top of the mold using a router.
Hull trimmed flush to the frame and glassed.
Dagger board trunk installed.
First half hull done and off the mold, only 3 more to go...
Two halves put together
TA DA!!!! First hull off the mold only one more to go
