Radio Installation

 

There's no advice in the instructions about how to install the receiver, batteries and switch. Some thought is needed.

Bella - sails

The material supplied with the kit for the sails, is very lightweight as used on a spinnaker. So have decided to make some from a heavier weight dacron.

SOFT WHITE SAILCLOTH SAIL CLOTH DACRON BOAT YACHT POLYESTER COVER SCW | eBay

The company sells a variety of sail material - the crispy version is suitable for larger boats. The material arrives folded and the creases iron out on the soft version - its a bit more a challenge to remove all the creases in the crispy version.

The method of construction is the same as used on the Suhaili model, by using double sided tape and ironing. The sails are single panel but do have a curve of 5mm formed in the mainsail luff, which does give the sails some shape.

Bella - Making the hull

The frames and keel were initially glued together using "superglue" in two stages. the weights holding the frames down on the worktop, which is flat and the square ensured the keel was at 90 degrees. 

The panels were added one at a time and tacked in place using superglue. One tip I picked up from a German blog, glue some glass paper to the pads on clamps, then they don't slip off. Its important to ensure the side panels are pushed right down into the slots at the tops of the frames. The bottom panels needed a very fine trim to fit. The slot for the keel needed to be widened due to the modification/increase in thickness made the keel/fin.

Generally the hull is ok after being removed from the baseboard. At the bow the chine joint hadn't glued, so this needed attention with a couple of clamps and glue. Think a small piece of glass fibre tissue on the inside face with increase the strength in this area and stop the joint breaking. The plan is to create a epoxy fillet on the inside of the chine joint.

The bow is very fine and the wood is end grain, so vulnerable to damage. So will look at finishing this square and then adding a small hardwood section to prevent damage to the hull.

 A short piece of 3mm thick acrylic has been fixed near the bow. This is for the eye that the jib will attach to. The eye has a M3 thread and once the deck is on, this will be drilled and tapped to provide a secure fixing.

Bella - Making a start

Most of the parts are made from 3mm plywood, including the keel/fin. Not only is this a little thin but lacked any aero profile, so I decided to glue additional 3mm ply on either side. This will increase the strength and also enable a simple profile to be created, which should enable to boat to perform better, especially when sailing to windward.

The ballast weight is provided in the form of two castings, these are made from some form of steel, so will need to be well finished to stop any corrosion. On closer inspection these were not identical and also the fixing holes were not equally positioned, so this meant that there needed to be some adjustment.

By opening up the holes it was possible to use a piece of 4mm dia brass to line up the two halves. The plan is to fix these pieces to the keel using some West Epoxy and threading the bass rod to clamp them in place. Some shallow holes were drilled on the inside face and also through the keel for the epoxy to flow, to ensure the weights are secure. There will be a need to fill/smooth the final shape, as well as clearing some of the white coating, so the epoxy will bond directly to the steel.

The rear frames are glued together in a sub-assembly, before an initial dry fitting for the rest of the frames.