Red Color

Now the color has been defined. It is mixed, purchased, and ready to find the hull of Arpex. Only, the hull of Arpex still needs to be made ready to receive its new coating. Mr. Valmir is working on it, fairing whatever needs to be faired. On saturday, next weekend, possibly, the ama might get be painted.

The process of mixing the specific red color was quite interesting. It is a specific mixture, which bears a lot of orange, ruby, white and violet. 

Pulpit and pushpit

Arpex will receive a pulpit and pushpit. To facilitate the description to the worker who will produce the items, I have made a mock up out of pvc tube. The mock up, of course is rather rudimentary. Where you see a kink, should be a curve.

The pulpit and pushpit will also hold the navigation lights. In general, I will keep them relatively low profile. No real work functions need to be executed on the bow or stern.

Navigation Lights

Items related to navigation, sailing are terribly expensive in Brasil. Which is why many people who want to equip their boats, fly to Miami to buy all items. this is actually worth it, despite the flight and overnight cost, specially if you are considering an electronic navigation package.

In my case, I want to keep everything extremely simple. And, of course, I want it now. SO I#m buying locally. These are imported items, so I'll pay a significant premium.

One thing however, which I'm looking for, is to have all lights equiped with LED lamps. In case of the internal lights I'm buying them in original LED version. For the navigation lights, though, I'll retrp fit with LED lamps.

Lightning Bolts

Lightning always has something fascinating, doesn't it? Brasil is among the countries, or regions, that receive most lightnings. Like today. There was, is, a great lighting festival going on. When a front approaches, after a long period of heat, without rain, then lightinings will hit in a spectacular way. You can generally count on that.

It is funny that this happened, just when I was thinking about lighting protection for Arpex... I was consulting my friend Roger, from Tiki Rio, about the issue lately.

Front arriving - Prepare for heavy downpour...

click on the image to see it in full size...

Panorama of the Bay entrance

Click on the image to see it in full size.

No pain, no gain

The list of my jobs is getting shorter. But, there is a problem. I'm concentrating on getting the boat painted. And this depends on many jobs I have contracted. And these never seem to come to an end. Valmir, responsible for getting them done, is slagging, and my patience is getting shorter.

It is not like he isn't doing anything. He is. But it is just painfully slow! He works just enough to keep me from busting. This week he has glued all ant-skid panels, on the decks, cabin-roof and even on the akas. Next step is taping the panels to apply the finishing bog, between the panels. The bog will then be sanded, and then painted... Oh, boy! It takes time.

I'm doing a couple of other jobs in the meantime. Small, and terribly tiring jobs, I admit. Like producing a small wooden cleat, and fixing it on a rear frame. Its sole purpose is to fix the double block, which will bundle the steering cables from the quadrant. Of course I should have produced and fixed it before closing the deck. But I didn't. For punishment, my sweat was poured in buckets. Working in a hot, confined space really got me thinking, that I'm happy to be relatively physically fit. It was quite an endurance test. And it is just a cleat. Can you find it in the picture below? I don't think anybody will ever see it again. ... And I still would have to epoxi coat it... And make no mistake; I will coat it.

I have also started to build the decks between the akas. Its total with is 180cm. One segment (80cm) will be a sandwich, with ply and foam. Another (100cm?) one will be only wood. However the weight penalty for the all wood part is quite significant. The wood of choice would be Ipê, which weights very heavily. Nevertheless; a part of the deck will be all-wood. I just have to decide how much...

Red Arpex - A bit darker

I got some comments suggesting a darker version of red, for the hulls of Arpex. The first was Adri, my girl, Mrs. Arpex. And I agreed. So, here goes a second version, which looks less "fire-fightery". I like it better. Do you?

Red Arpex

The time for painting Arpex is near. So, I need to decide which color it's gonna be. And the favored color seems to be red. I did a quick and very dirty sketch to see how it would look. 

Yes, red. 

I know, white is the practical color. Easy when painting, easy for repairs and maintenance. Which is why 99% of boats choose white (maybe 99.9%?). But to hell with practicality. My girl wants red. I think it look nice too. When I was a kid, I often drew boats, I dreamt of building them. They were all red. Cliche? Maybe. I don't care. Therefore, red its gonna be.

Not that a red boat is very original. But I've picked up this quote today, and I related to it, saved it, and thought about posting it. And in a way it fits to this project. And, well,... I don't think I'm going to fail, either.

Carnival ending

You might have been led to believe that carnival ends on Ash-Wednesday. Not here in Rio. The party action goes on. Today, Sunday, we have the parade of the winning samba schools, and many street blocks playing in the streets. The big Monobloco attracts around 500.000 people in the city center. 

Now, for me this is not a great temptation. Big gatherings, specially in the baking heat,... I had my share - thank you. I do like street blocs, but I like them small, and intimate. 

Mind you; all pictures were taken from the internet. 

Baking hot

On a baking hot day, I managed to do this and that.... But not much. I admit, it was too hot to work. At 3pm, on the hottest hour, I called it a day. Still happy to have been there, and done a couple of things.

Impressive America's Cup

Holes and openings

By all means, today was a piping hot day. Nevertheless, I made good use of it. The main task was to cut the hole into the coachroof, for the ventilation hatch. I was dreading this task. I don't know... drilling holes into the hull, or cutting anything off, gives me the creeps. Go figure. Now I just did it.

Actually Valmir pushed me towards it. He demanded orientation for the anti-skit patches on the coachroof. Well, now he has them.

Other holes in the hull: The U-Bolts for the diagonal braces, from main-hull to ama, which will also hold the trampoline, fore and aft, have been produced.

The ama hatches have now received their "hinges" ("dobradicas").... Yes, I remembered the good English term.

And, for the finish, I produced a little barrier against the rainwater. Without it, the rainwater from the rooftop would drain into the cabin. I'm glad I remembered this. I have a similar one on the other side. of the main hatch.

5 years building Arpex

The other day I took a few minutes and picked out one picture out of each weekly folder of my construction pictures. All pictures I took during construction are saved according to the date they were taken. In that way I have one folder for every day I spent building my boat.

Even if not much time has been spent during the selection, I did it rather "quick and dirty", I have tried to pick pictures which were taken from the same perspective, which was not always possible. Nor did I have a suitable picture in all of the folders. Which means that some of the building dates are not represented. The result was a selection of around 100 images, which I then transformed into this short, 3 minute movie, which shows the transformation occurred in 5 years of construction time.

I admit that I often marvel, and feel surprised even, when I look at the object which was built with little more than basic line plans for the hulls. Funny; it looks exactly how I had it in my mind... One day, in not to far distant future, I hope to finish this clip with the pictures of Arpex, floating in its element.

To make it more entertaining, I have added a little song to it. I hope the artists, Café del Mar, will excuse this non-commercial use.

If, however, your country does not allow these type of movies, then try this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uxTJ4YAvZA

Carnaval... still shakin'

 Lovely colors. Who could resist?

All pictures from the internet.

Short break (...from carnaval)

Yesterday I took a short break, and drove out to see Arpex, and maybe, maybe work a tiny little bit. The boat was just fine, but not painted, of course.

I tried to find a good position for the handrail, and continued pondering about the little hatch. SOmehow, I am reluctant to cut into the coachroof, to install the hatch. I fear leaks. And for ventilation I'm also planning a similar sized hatch facing downwards. I'm considering checking first how things feel, once the boat is in the water, and maybe cut later.

And I did also work a tiny little bit, as planned. I have shaped the blocks which will hold the ama hatches. After that I went home early.

Enquanto isso, na Marquês de Sapucaí...

Yesterday, the samba school contest on the Sambodromo has started.

The official Carnival parades take place just before the start of Lent. They are held for four consecutive nights, during which schools parade one after another from 8pm until the morning. The Access Group A samba schools are hosted on Saturday, Special Group on Sunday and Monday and Group Rio de Janeiro 1 on Tuesday. The Special Group nights are by far the biggest attractions. The parades are televised nationally and are watched by large audiences.

Each samba school has a preset amount of time (90 minutes) to parade from one end of the Sambadrome to the other with all its thousands of dancers, its drum section, and a number of floats. Each school has its own unique qualities according to its own traditions. Schools are graded by a jury, and the competition is ferocious. On Ash Wednesday (quarta-feira de cinzas), grades are gathered and one school is declared the winner. The Parade of Champions is held the following Saturday featuring the five winning samba schools in the Special Groupcategory.

And, you might like the contest or not. I think it is a great show. And seeing it at least once is a must. But, whichever way how you feel about it, the show offers the world a feast of pictures.

Having a ball

There is time for boatbuilding, and there is time to enjoy - Baile de carnaval.