Servicing Vetus Hydraulic Steering Rams Push the cylinder rod side to side and feel it move more than it should — that’s the seals telling you they’re done. Paikea’s steering rams had been leaking hydraulic oil since we got the boat, and once the play in the rod confirmed it, there wasn’t much point putting […]
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Wet Laminate vs. Prepreg: Choosing the Right Carbon Fibre Method Choosing between wet laminate and prepreg is one of the first decisions you’ll face on any carbon fibre project, and it’s one Shayne’s made a few hundred times over — from grand prix campaigns down to a single part on Paikea. Here’s how he breaks
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Vacuum bagging carbon fibre laminate into place where our forestay fitting will be. This is a short clip from our upcoming video about reinforcing the areas on our carbon fibre longeron/beam section where we will attach the forestay and inner forestay. As we will be drilling holes into the existing carbon structure we will need
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The Benefits of Using Peel Ply Peel ply is the layer that never stays with the boat — and it’s doing more work than its five minutes of fame in the lamination stack would suggest. It goes on as the first layer against the laminate, and it comes off before the next layer goes on.
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Removing the Vacuum Bag: What Good Consolidation Actually Looks Like The bag came off well. The breather felt was saturated with bleed-off — more than ideal, which means slightly more resin went in than necessary, but it also means the laminate was fully wet out before the vacuum did its job. The frog’s tongue had
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Rudder Winglets, Saildrive Fairings, and Getting Paikea Back in the Water Shayne had a bad knee. The splash date was fixed. This is what a refit looks like when you have a deadline, a crew of three boys, and one parent on light duties. The kids stepped up. Ayden and Harry got the engine lifted
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