Thad Allen's Apache + The Birth of the Cheetah Cat

[Steve 1]

[Steve 1]

Hotcoating about finished lamination next .

[Offshore Ginger]

:

steve that is the one , and now sombody is going to make big buck off an old idea !

[Steve 1]

: steve that is the one , and now sombody is going to make big buck off an old idea !

LOL and the Old Guys were most likely using one 100 years before me.

[Steve 1]

I will show a couple pictures of the Bagging without giving up too very much of what I did and how it was done.Briefly since I was working alone except for my small helper, the boat hull was divided into 6 parts; the sides, the sponson bottoms and of course the tunnel so I had a place to stand while doing one side.I did not have a chance yet to build a proper glass cutting table there was no spare time.

The sides and tunnel were 3 layers of Glass fabric , The running surface was 7 layers (bunch of uni also) Now this plus the peel ply,Breather and Bag had to go on and vacuum established with some time left for the for the excess resin to come up through the peel ply and into the breather then the next day into my dumpster where it belongs.

I Always use Large Vacuum pumps ( another story) in this shop I had a big Ingersoll Rand Piston Duplex unit as my source and the vacuum channel running across the actual work was spaghetti cut 11/2" pvc pipe in the event of a small local leak the pressure stayed exactly the same across the panel being done.

The fabric was cut and weighed then a corresponding weight in resin was prepared , The gel time was set for @3 1/2 Hours since I was alone.

That water bottle manometer is a very accurate way to measure small critical vacuum levels especially when using a low viscosity resin that did not like anything over 3HG when wet bagging I have made those tubes out of 8' fluorescents before, take some tacky tape and presto.

Last Bag going down Here, My helper left his car parked by the glass drop box

[Steve 1]

The next Day,removing the screws that fasten the frames to the base so the hull can be turned upright and the fixture removed.

[Offshore Ginger]

Steve1, i really enjoy all the adult toys on the floor including the beach ball .

[Steve 1]

Steve1, i really enjoy all the adult toys on the floor including the beach ball .

Yes I guess my son was hinting at going to the water.

[Steve 1]

Turning the cat upright the target weight at this stage was 500 Pounds.

[Steve 1]

Almost down.

[Buoy]

Turning the cat upright the target weight at this stage was 500 Pounds.

Holy Crap!!
500 pounds!

Loving this thread, I'm learning a lot, and I realize there is so much more that is going right over my head.

[Steve 1]

Holy Crap!!
500 pounds!

Loving this thread, I'm learning a lot, and I realize there is so much more that is going right over my head.

Thank you for your kind comment and for looking, this is bringing back a lot of old memories for me.

[Steve 1]

Hopefully all good memories ?!!

Yes they were and my life was never the same after this.

[Steve 1]

Fixture out after removing a ton of screws by hand and now Inspecting the Hull Shell,You can also see how the Core worked out in the tunnel, I beat the 500 pound mark BTW

[Jesse James]

Then you would like something more like this?

that is sweet.... 18-20 feet 110 mph with 200 merc?

[Buoy]

Yes they were and my life was never the same after this.

When I was 28, I built my first (and only) house for a customer. Lost my azz on that deal. But, I still have great memories of doing it. And it's still standing, and looks better today 10 years old than a lot of brand new homes.
Pride in a project goes a long way.
I know what you mean about accomplishing something, and it changing your life.
Steve, I wish I had your talent.

Keep posting.
Some of us are just loving this.

[Steve 1]

When I was 28, I built my first (and only) house for a customer. Lost my azz on that deal. But, I still have great memories of doing it. And it's still standing, and looks better today 10 years old than a lot of brand new homes.
Pride in a project goes a long way.
I know what you mean about accomplishing something, and it changing your life.
Steve, I wish I had your talent.

Keep posting.
Some of us are just loving this.

I Thank you for following this and your good comments,This project was constantly on the scales after removing the fixture, Now up till that point I was like a madman wiping and sanding the laminate and smallest resin drip, the way the glass was layered into the hull layup avoiding any extra fairing material being needed,I used Danny's scales which I knew were accurate, I could not mention the weights to anyone beside Steve 2.

[Steve 1]

I rolled the cheetahcat outside for a few pictures.

[Steve 1]

Top view

[Steve 1]

My crew.