Fishing and the the Back Cove 30

I love eating fish but I am not an angler. If I were an angler I may have fought harder to make the 30 more fishable. There are plenty of dealers and a lot of potential clients who would argue that we should have made the Back Cove 30 into a fishing machine but I am more pragmatic than that as are our designers and engineers.

Certainly a Back Cove 30 can be fished. Even a dock can be fished right? What makes true blue fishermen upset about our design is the fixed seating in the cockpit. This decision was not taken lightly so please let me explain.

First we looked at the results we had with the Back Cove 29 and the fishing packages we offered on that model. The results of that analysis told us that serious fishing was not why people bought Back Cove 29's (or 26's or 33's for that matter). Yes we did sell a lot of rod holders and we sold some complete fish packages as well but they were in the minority.

Second and most important but most difficult for anglers to accept is that there is a technical reason we opted for fixed seating. The opening created for the transom door leaves the two flanks of the transom unsupported on one of three sides. That may eventually lead to gelcoat crazing around the bottom corners. And so we chose the seats because their shape, when seen in profile, is a knee or brace that fully reinforces the transom.

Here's the plug of the 30 deck seen a couple of weeks ago showing the seating on the left, the steps to the side deck in the middle and the aft end of the helm deck seating on the right. 

Of course there is a third point here too and that is the fact that this seating design makes this one of the best places possible to hang with family and friends so come this summer maybe the fishermen can put down their rods for an hour and come sit with us in the comfort of the Back Cove 30. We're serving fresh sea food

Back Cove 30 Hull mold completed

In ten days from now, I and three other associates of Back Cove Yachts will be heading up to Quebec to inspect the hull mold of the new Back Cove 30. The plug, pictured here about two weeks ago, has been finished to the mirror surface that you will see on the production hulls. Note the final finish on the left side of this image. The mold structure was no been built over the top of it. It is critical at this point that the structure of the mold be extremely rigid so that when it is removed from the plug, nothing changes shape.

The next major mold, now in build, is the IGU or internal glass unit. This is the skeleton of the interior where ultimately all of her interior furnishings will be fitted. Recognize any of the surfaces yet?

More to show you when I get back from La Belle Province.

 

Back Cove 30 Hull Plug Nears Completion

Once the carving of the foam billet has been completed the finishing of the hull plug commences. And as much as this may sound like the easy part, in truth this is where the "rubber meets the road."

Last week our designer Kevin paid another visit to the tooling shopin Sainte Claire, Quebec. He inspected the finish on the hull plug before the shop turns it from plug to mold. All surface finish facets from the plug will be mirrored in the mold so this is a critical step where the finish of the plug must be as good as it can be. The result of his inspection is that he is very pleased and expects this tooling to perform exceptionally well in production. Next time I'll have some images to show you of the final finish on the hull plug.

But the hull plug was not his only purpose for the visit to PCM Molds. While they have been working tirelessly to finish the hull plug and mold, there are many other parts that have to be tooled as well. And each of them requires detailed drawings for the production machinery to use and careful inspections along the way. There are several major molds and as many minor parts. Largest are the deck mold, the deck liner (ceiling) mold, the IGU or internal glass unit and the hard top and hard top liner molds. All of these are either in process or about to begin.

As we follow the tooling and production of the new Back Cove 30 we'll be able to make more frequent postings. We look forward to having you follow this fascinating process with us.
 

Two halves make a Back Cove 30 whole

The next step in creating the hull plug for the Back Cove 30 is underway. If you are following the blog, last time I discussed how the raw plug is built. Now we are starting to "carve" the plug on the tool builder's CNC router. These machines have a large table or bed. Across the top is a beam that straddles the width of the table. This beam moves along the length of the table and a router head is mounted on the beam. The router head moves side to side on the beam and has the ability to move up and down. Hence,the term "5 axis milling machine".

This particular router has limitations on it's width and so, the hull plug is carved in two halves and will be joined together to make the complete hull plug.

Until next time then

 

And so the Back Cove 30 begins

Over the next few months I am going to follow each step in the development of a new boat design. I hope you'll enjoy learning more about how designs are taken from computer screen to water.

"Tools" for the purpose of this blog are molds and molds for the uninitiated are the tools from which fiberglass parts are made. Before a mold can be built a full size plug of the part, one that looks just like the actual boat, has to be constructed. BTW that is not always true there are methods of going directly to female molds but that is generally only used for one-off designs.

Today, plugs are carved from large billets of foam using the naval architect's drawings to guide the multi-axis router over the surface and create the form. Step one is to make the plywood forms that you see here. 

 
  
Those forms are erected and covered with wire screening. Then, foam is sprayed on the exterior to give a very (very) rough "buck" of foam that the router will carve.

Next time we'll show you the router in action.