From a “cruiser” to a racer

Evolution of a Corsair Marine F28 CCR

The Corsair Marine F28 CCR is already a racer!! What I am trying to do is just to give her a more aggressive look, save some weight and set her up for blue water sailing

January 2023

High aspect radio rudder

Building the new full carbon high aspect ratio rudder.

Building the back bone

Covering the back bone with high density foam

Sanding down the rudder shape

September 2022

Carbon tiller extension

The tiller of an F28 is not the most comfortable thing, after several design concept i have decided to build an extension tiller that allows me to steer the boat in a more comfortable way when sited in the cockpit and closer to the winch and stoppers..

March 2022

Rotating mast carbon leverage

February 2022

Carbon Boom

The original boom was not that bad, but I found it quiet difficult to roll the sail without wrinkles and reefing was a nightmare for the sail. Since I am planning to put new sails on the boat and sailing often reefed, I have decided to go with a standard boom and lazy bag layout in order to increase sail lifetime and have a more reliable reefing system. Maybe also save some weight.

December 2021

Carbon spray hood

In the last sail trip that I made in the Mediterranean I faced some rough seas and strong winds. I was not happy with the original cockpit entrance. It is impossible to go below deck without flooding the cockpit. This force me to come up with a better layout. Taking inspiration by ocean racing sailing tris, I have designed a raised deck that allows me to enter from a door that can also be sealed closed, allows me to stand below deck and gives me the view forward. Nevertheless gives me some spray protection when steering.

Design and cardboard proto. I have imported the drawings of the Corsair manual and scaled them to 1:1. From there I have build up the model.

For some might not look so cool, for me was awesome. Did not have much to think, started right a way with the mold production.

The production having the 3D model was not so complicated, the foam it is easy to work and to get in proper shape. The mold must be fully sealed in order to pull a proper vacuum during carbon lamination. I have used unidirectional plus twill carbon layers.

After the first carbon layers I have added 20mm of foam to increase stiffness without increasing weight. Smoothed done the foam, this is special foam (Airex C70) compare to the cheap one of the mold. This one has a much higher compression module.

Had some wrinkles here and there but not that disturbing. Lets go and installed on the boat.

Fits!! Lets cut up the boat…

Fits just perfect. I have glued the over structure to the deck just to keep it in position. I will than bond it to the deck with carbon.

Just need a door…

Now that everything is glued together just need to laminate all. Very time consuming operation specially if you want to pull vacuum. At the end it will be very similar to a monocoque construction.

Time to put some filler sand and paint.

Last detail eagle eye windows

January 2021

Converting wooden parts to carbon fiber

I have started from the simpler parts. I’ve toked all the wooden parts inside the boat and converted them to carbon fiber sandwich parts. Tables, covers, panels, etcetera…for this few parts I would expect an overall weight lost of 6-7 Kg