October 2024

 Oct. 10

The weather is getting much nicer and I'm itching to do more work on the boat. Last week I finished the jams for one of the lockers (closets) and mostly finished the other. I completed the putting together doors for both. I'll upload some pictures when I take them. I've also worked out some custom made hardware for the latches.  I'll probably make these out of black walnut to contrast with the white oak.

The drawing on the left is an edge on view of the door with the door jam on the right. The right drawing is looking from the inside (door not shown) with the latch (gray oval) engaged with the jam. I'll probably replace a bit of the jam with HDPE so as not to wear out the wood. The bottom drawing shows that I'm planning to use some bearing material (sleeve) for the stainless steel (SS) bolt. 

My wife took a few good photos that I'd like to share below.

That is yours truly.

Me and my wife hanging out and dreaming.

Now some recent work. I hung the locker doors. I used half pin barrel hinges so if you open the doors up all the way, you can lift them off and get them out of the way. But really, they open flat against the cabinets so I only expect to do this when outfitting the boat for a voyage.

Eight door latches for the design at the top of this page. The only question is: Is eight enough. These are made from some black walnut that I've had for awhile. I always wanted to have black walnut accents to counter the white oak and I think this will be a nice start. These will be nice and shiny when they are clear coated. 

September 2024

 September 15,

Working on some trim and figuring out how to finish some of the closets. 

Vee berth from above.

One of the closets with hand grips. There will be a door here and open storage on top where the hand holds are. I spent quite a bit of time working this out so that it looks good. This photo doesn't really make it look good but it's much nicer in person. 

The Vee berth seat in the raised position. This section will drop down making a nice seat. When raised, like it is now, it makes a nice sleeping area for two. 

All trim rough fit. There is a bit of sanding and fitting that still needs to be done.

I finally figured out what I'm doing here. The inside of this "cabinet" is the lavatory for the guest bathroom on the starboard side. I need access, hence the opening at the bottom. I'll put a cabinet door over that later. There will also be open storage at the top. 

August 2024

August, 3

 Oh, the hot, hot, dog days of August. A good time for some cabinetry. 

There will be four hatches in the Vee berth to gain access to all that space underneath. Here is one laid out but not installed. The hinges are half pin-barrel type so when opened you can slide the hatch off the hinges and remove altogether when loading the hold.

Here, I am clamping in the support for the hatch. The support is just doubling up the plywood around the edge of the hatch with a rim the hatch can sit on without falling through.

August 10, 11.

Half of the "Vee" berth laid in showing the two hatches with the rim.

Hatches fitting tightly.

Additional support for the "Vee" berth bed.

"Vee" berth in without hatches. 

Removable insert for the "Vee" berth. This drops down to make a seat.

Under the seat of the insert, I have added a drawer. 

I've been cutting out these hatch holes and making new hatches from additional plywood. This has worked well for the various size hatches that I've needed in the "Vee" berth. It's also a significant waste of expensive plywood. I decided for the salon where all the hatches (or access panels) can be about the same size, I've decided to make a nice router pattern and use a 1/8" router cutter to cut out the hatch hole and hatch at the same time. This saves time and significant amount of plywood. It took longer than I expected to make the pattern, and some trial and error, but ultimately the results were pretty good. I've cut all the access panels or hatches in the salon area; two in each bench and two in each crew berth bases above the benches. I'm going to dress the edges of the hatches with laminate tape using heat activated glue. This will result in a 1/16" gap between the hatch and the hatch hole. Very acceptable. 

The router pattern cut 2 3/4" larger (radius) than the actual hatch. The radius needs to be almost perfect because any defects are magnified (like a lever arm) to the much smaller radius of the hatch. The large PVC pipe section with 80 grit sandpaper glued to it (purple cylinder on the right) really came in handy cleaning up the radius.  

Starboard side bench in the salon. Adding the lip around the hatch hole to support the hatch cover and add strength to the bench. 

 July 2024,

July 8,

July fourth holiday weekend here in the states proved to be a productive day working on the boat.  I finally purchased that little bit of southern yellow pine to finish up the ceilings (walls actually). With that, I have been finishing up the sole for the front half of the boat. Interior progress has move along quickly this year. Happy fourth to all you yanks out there.

Some of the new flooring laid out before installation. I'll remove it all and add some epoxy to hold everything in place. The glue is almost not even necessary since everything fits together pretty tight but I figure it will cut down on the squeaky floors.

Some more loosely in place. I number all the pieces in pencil and take a photograph so I know how everything is put together when it is time for gluing. 

I got the much of the sole completed all the way to the "Vee" berth with two more hatches. I'm planning one more hatch on this half of the boat. The salon and galley will have a few (but not nearly as many) as well for access to the keel bolts and plumbing. On this section, I have a hatch to access every space between bulkheads, all keel bolts, all electrical runs, and most plumbing. 

The sole is taking shape. I still need to finish off some edges on the right and behind the shower on the left.

July 21,

I've finished cutting out and dry fitting the remaining sole on the front half of the boat. I'm actually missing one short piece next to a hatch. I need to buy some more flooring to finish out the back half anyway although I was hoping to finish this part with what I had. Below are some images of the finish work around corners and into the ceiling (walls). 

Fitting the "Vee" berth. I spent about half a day making a pattern for this piece. The interface with the ceiling (white wall) is beveled to make a clean fit. This fit amazingly well. Also, the pattern worked for the  other side with only a mild modification. This boat is very symmetrical.

Both pieces cut out. Both have been fitted but not together. It would be very difficult to get them back out again if they were both fitted together. 

Access hatches cut out. More on this later. 

June 2024

 June 2.

I have worked out how all the doors and walls come together at the forward head. Most of the casings are built and put in place temporarily. I was all kinda like a jig saw puzzle. Things had to be put together in a specific order to get everything locked together. I am very pleased with the results. 

Looking forward. To the left will be a door to the shower and beyond, another door, to the "Vee" berth. To the right, will be a door to the "Vee" berth. 

A close up at the casing and trim.

Final layer of epoxy on the shower pan.

June 16,

I turned my attention back to the oil skin locker near the aft entrance. The top of the locker will have storage held in place by a cargo net attached to sides with hand holds. I had my wife test the hand holds so that she was comfortable. We have vastly different size hands so coming up with something that is comfortable for both of us required a bit of thought. All the hand holds are 6" long and 1.25" wide. The will be 1.25" from the radiused edge. This seams to work for most adult hand sizes. I used a hole saw to cut the rounded ends of the hand holds and used a jig saw to connect the two holes to make elongated slots. The jig saw cuts are cleaned up with a chisel and then block sanded. I also wrapped 80 grit sandpaper around a metal pipe to clean up the hole saw cuts. A router is used to make the radius around the slot and on the top of the hand hold. I spent quite a bit of time cleaning these up before the router work. The router bit bearing is going to follow the wood and any bumps will be translated to the radius.

I have rough cut the hand holds using a hole saw for the ends and then using a jigsaw for the sides. 

A block with 80 grit sand paper is used to clean up the cuts. A router with a bearing is used to round off the edges. If the cuts are not perfectly clean and straight, the bearing will transmit imperfections to the round off. 

Ah, nice and clean.

May 2024

 May 5

Progress continues on the sole. I've now have everything installed that can be installed. I will need to complete the ceiling (wall boards) before installing the last few sole joists in the forward Vee berth. I also completed the installation of the through hulls for the both heads. The details are in the pictures below. There are a few subtle issues with through hulls that I would like to discuss. The obvious issue is that if they are below the water line then their integrity is critical. Failure could lead to the loss of the vessel. Most inadvertent sinking occur due to failure of the below the waterline plumbing either due to a broken hose, sea cock or siphoning of water because of a lack of a vented loop above the water line. Those issues aside this fixture runs through the hull and potentially exposes the core material (wood in this case) to sea water. 

The first thing I did was to make sure that there was a good surface to mount the flanged sea cock. I laid down a patch of fiberglass and added several layers of epoxy (after initial curing) to fill the weave and obtain some margin above the weave so I could sand the area smooth.

Prepared area for sea cock/through hull installation. 

I described the drilling of the holes earlier. I used silicon bronze carriage bolts to attached the flange to the hull. On the outside of the hull, the holes for the carriage bolts were tapered to accept the square locking part of the carriage bolt.

Typical carriage bolt with square lock under head.

When I tighten the nuts, the square part digs into the tapered part of the hole and into the wood below. If I had not tapered the outside of the hole, I would risk creating a fracture in the fiberglass outer shell. 

Before any bolts are installed, the holes are drenched in thin epoxy to create a water barrier and help with a chemical bond of the thickened epoxy that will accompany the installation of the bolts prior to the curing of the thin epoxy. From earlier discussion, you will remember that thickened epoxy will not bond as well to wood as thinned epoxy and once epoxy is cured, additional coats of epoxy will only make a mechanical, not chemical, bond to the subsequent layer. The trick is to use thin epoxy that will be soaked up by the wood and let it partially cure. While it is still tacky, apply the thickened epoxy. 

Thickened epoxy is applied to the base of the flange, along the head of the bolts and around the head of the through hull that screws up into the flange of the sea cock. Everything is installed and the nuts (with washers and locking washers) are tightened bring the carriage bolts flush with the outside of the hull. The through hull is then screwed into the flange from the outside. Everything is wiped clean.

The outside of the hull showing the carriage bolts and through hull installed. Notice on the inside of the through hull fitting there are two splines. You can buy tools that fit inside and interact with those splines to tighten the fitting but any piece of metal the proper size will work. 

The finished sea cock imbedded in thickened epoxy. 

One thing to keep in mind is that the threads on the through hull are NPS. The NPS stands for National Pipe Straight so there is no taper and no expectation of a water tight seal without some kind of pipe dope. In this case I have used epoxy on multiple fronts to prevent water ingress into the boat and into the wooden core (in my case that would just be the plywood). There is no concern about replacing these down the road. These are solid bronze and made to last. If I need or live to replace them, the bolts can be cut off, nuts cut off, and the through hull drilled out. Usually, these are so imbedded that this is required anyway. 

I also permanently installed the sole that I had previously fit. To start, I marked all of the pieces with a sharpy on masking tape and took a picture so I would not get confuse to where everything went once I dismantled everything. I got confused anyway but since I had pictures I was able to sort it all out. 

All the piece that would be removed are labeled.

The sole is installed. There are three hatches/access panels on the left that do not yet have latches. I only bought a few and I ran out. I wasn't sure how well they would work. It turns out they are perfect. I just hope I can find them again because I'll need about 10 more. 

May 12,

The second shower pan has been installed over the weekend and is ready to clad in fiberglass. 

May 19,

Fiberglass is all wetted out. I waited about 4 hours and came back and trimmed all the edges. The epoxy was stiff but still rubbery and it was very easy to take a sharp knife and trim all the edges. I also took the drain apart so it would not be epoxied together. I noticed two bubbles at the drain. What I mean by a bubble, is fiberglas that has lifted off the wood with an air space. This is bad and would have to have been sanded away and reworked. By catching it before the epoxy cured I was able to drill a few small holes and take a syringe full of epoxy and force the epoxy between the weave and the wood.  It was very satisfying to see a white area (bubble) slowly disappear as the epoxy filled the space and soaked the fiberglass cloth from underneath. The following day, I cleaned the area with soap and water to get rid of the waxy residue. I will later apply 2-3 more layers of epoxy until the work can be sanded smooth.  

May 27

I've applied two more layers of epoxy on the drain pan sanding between each. I'll likely apply one more layer and sand smooth.