ML Boatworks- Sport 12, 20, 20L, and 40 Hydroplane Online Instruction manual

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You have now reached a stopping point with the sponson build. The only things left with the sponsons, are fully epoxing the insides, adding E-glass or Carbon fiber to the inside of the ride pad and non trip area to strengthen the ride surface, bonding in a piece of aluminum to the inside of frame number 3 on the RIGHT side so a turn fin can be added later in the build and bonding the top decks.

We will next examine the center section parts, and begin building the center section....Starting tommorow! Good night, Mike

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Ok, Now its time to start the center section. Below are some pics of the parts you need to do the center section. Please remember first and foremost, you DO NOT bond the sponsons to the center section until you have all the interior epoxy and E-glass in place in the sponsons, and the top decks are bonded. If you bond the top decks after bonding the sponsons to the center section, you will find your difficulty of installing the sponson top decks goes threw the roof! Here are the starting pics:



You will see the laser etching on the front to aft frames. Pay close attention to the labeling "Left Outside, Left Inside, etc.". You want to make sure you put the right piece in the right place. The "Outside" marked frames actually have NO laser etching showing on the outside of the hull. All the laser etching should show up when looking inside the hull. So the "Left Outside and Right Outside" frames actually show their laser etching towards the center of the hull. Later pics will explain this more:



Crossmembers. As you can see Frame "D" has a doubler. This doubler mounts to the FRONT side of the full length Frame "D".


Here you see the Servo doublers that will get bonded to the "Left Inside" front to rear frame. This allows you to mount your steering servo directly to the engine well frame, thus eliminating a need for a metal servo mount! You will also see a bunch of bars. Those make up the center sections front nose. It is very important that you pay close attention to the labeling. We will discuss this soon.

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First things first, Find your bottom pan, and the front to rear frames labeled Left Outside and Right Outside. There are some toy tab pieces that need to be removed from the frame and cleaned up so your kit can be tied all together down the road. Once you have removed those tiny rectangular toy tab pices, your frames will look like this:

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Now you can find your Left Inside frame and will notice the laser etching will face towards the left side of the boat with one spot saying "ST SERVO". You will find those other two pieces, and bond them with CA in layers to that frame like below:

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Now find the transom crossmember, and crossmember "A". Those will then need to be bonded with CA, or Epoxy. Please make sure that the laser etched line in the rectangular transom plate is facing the outside of the hull towards the rear, with the line touching towards the bottom of the boat. This laser line will help you later when you go to mount your strut to the transom. It serves are you "center of hull" marker"!



Make sure those toy tabs extend down below the bottom of the rectangular transom plate. They will later notch themselves into the floor pan!

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Next is the most complex part of the hull. Please take special care when reviewing these pictures. Putting these peices below together wrong can be a pain. This is the center section nose block. As shown earlier, and posted directly below, there are 8 pieces of layered ply that have to be bonded together, then shaped to fit the front to rear plates of the hull. As you see, there is one plate with toy tabs at each end. These tab into the "Left Outside" and "Right Outside" plates. This piece says "Tab for Nose- 3 above- 4 below" What this means, is below that plate, you will bond 4 of the notched plates lettered "E". Above that Tabbed plate, you will mount the other 2 notched plates lettered "E" and then above those 2, you will bond the plate marked "Top. The reason for this plate named "Top" is so when you sand these to shape, and bond them to the center section, those notches for the "Left Inside" and "Right Inside" will not show on the top side of your boat. Its just to be pretty!



Once stacked, they should look like so:




You may also end up with the notches looking a little squiggly. This is just the nature of the laser machine. If they look like this:


Then take a razor blade, and clean them up enough so the 1/16" ply from the "Left Inside" and "Right Inside" can fit inside:

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Next, fit this Nosing to the "Left Outside" and "Right Outside" Plates. You will see the overhang. At this point, get a magic marker and mark the curvature as best as possible. This will guide you as you start disc sanding or hand shaping your nosing block:


Notice the magic marker in black, helping you figure out the curvature:


At this point, it is up to you, to take your time, and start sanding away at this block. A disc sander is recommended, but if you do not have one, 80 grit and a long of hand power can get the job done. If going that route, I would try to use a dremel to take away the bulk of the material before you start hand sanding. When you are done, you will end up with a nosing that looks like this:

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More to come today, stay tuned! Mike

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Alright, So, now that your center nosing is shaped, we will start on some construction of the center. First thing is to bond the "D" doublers together. The short doubler is to be toward the FRONT of the hull, the full length goes towards the rear. The center pan has dashed lines on it, and it shows the placement as well, so take a look at it as well.



In this picture, you can see that doubler more clearly:

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Now you will want to start dry fitting your crossmembers into the center bottom pan. There are toy tab holes in the pan that the crossmembers fit into. Remember, this is a dry fitment stage, do not glue anything yet! Here is your starting point:



With the above dry fitted, you will then take an 1/8"x1/8" batten stick included with the kit, and start to slide it down the crossmember like so. Same left to right side of the hull:

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Next, slide another 1/8"x 1/8" stick threw the hole in frame "C" and back to the transom, just like the above stick in the inside edge. Finger marks the spot!





Make sure the stick is flush with the dashed line. This will allow the outer plate to sit in its proper place:

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At this time you can DRY fit the batten sticks that go in the top next to the engine well. There will be 1/8" and 3/16" size sticks that go in this area. Again, you should have glued in the lower sticks, but these upper should stay loose for the time being:



A shot of the upper, and lower engine well sticks:


As you can see, we want the sticks at the front to be loose, that way once the nose blocking is installed, we can then fit the upper sticks into their location:

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You should now, start adding weight to the top frames as we will begin gluing the lower sticks, and frames to the center bottom pan. This will ensure you framework is good and square. Leaving the top front area of the sticks looks, start gluing your framework and sticks into place. Take your time, make sure the sticks are sitting flush, that your transom plate is locked into the front to rear members properly before you start the CA gluing process:

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Now, we will move to the outside panels that run from front to back. They should push into place, and be flush with the lower pan. They sit ON TOP of the lower pan. If they do not go in place and sit properly, then your batten stick at the bottom is probably not in its proper place. If it does, feel free to glue it to the crossmembers:



Now lay your front nosing into place:

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Once you have the nosing in place (dry fitted), you then will want to take a 3/16"x 3/16" piece of batten stick, and make it the correct length to lay in the slot just behind the nosing. You will then want to shape it like the below piece so your top deck skin will lay in flush behind the nosing. Like so: