I offered up the deck panels to check every thing including placing and filling the Turtlepac tanks. I found the forward tank tie-down webbing was not against the rising bridge deck, as I had assumed, but actually met the deck panel. This meant I had to sand back some of the deck underside (see previous post) to bond the two forward composite tank tie-downs. I also bonded the aft tie-downs into the compartments.
See the video showing the making of composite tie-down fittings for the Turtlepac tanks and following are more bits in the tank compartments.
Below – Final unidirectional straps over the catwalk beams and onto the inner surface of the water tank compartments.
Below – I used a hole saw to cut through the first laminate in the port and starboard base respectively of each water tank compartment. Then a chisel to pry the plug of balsa and top laminate off the base laminate.
Below – This tool is an old 10mm rabbeting bit with the guide cut back to the body…
Below – The battery powered drill on a slow speed….
Below – The rebated edge of the partial cut-out.
Below – The rebated core around the drain cut-out was filled with rolled up unidirectional, ‘rope’, overfilled with stiff glue mixture and the aft tank tie down fitting bonded nearby.
Below – Once cured, the same hole saw used to final cut-out from the lower side using the obvious original drill point as a guide.
Below – Because the unidirectional is overlapped by both laminates, further reinforcing is not required around the hole and a small rounding over is all that’s required. I will make and fit a cowl over all the drain holes in the boat prior to the external paint.
Below – The drain from inside the compartment, before shaping and paint.
The Scrumble Project 