Deck Hardware

Last week I finished rounding up the various parts and pieces that will enable me to finish enclosing the hulls once the cabin roofs are installed. This includes a large hatch over each bunk in the cabin roofs and an opening portlight in each aft cabin bulkhead.

Other deck hardware includes mooring cleats. The two larger ones in the photo below will be the bow mooring cleats. The sterns will be fitted with the same. The smaller cleats will be mounted on the cabin tops, near the outboard sides for use as midships mooring cleats; good for attaching spring lines, fenders, etc. You can never have too many cleats on a boat, and after sailing Abaco to the Bahamas, I like the way David has his cleats located on the decks. In order to mount the two bow cleats, I am having to install a small, 4-inch inspection plate forward of each forward bulkhead, so I can reach in with a wrench and through-bolt the cleats to the deck. Large backing plates will be used on the undersides of the decks.

The big deck hatches that will be fitted over each bunk near the forward ends of the cabins are manufactured by Bomar and the opening size is 16 x 16 inches. This is large enough to get in and out through if necessary, and will let in plenty of air. The hatches can also be locked in the vent position, allowing some air into the cabins, while keeping out the rain when the boat is left unattended.

The opening portlights are the Lewmar Standard series in size 0. Though small, they will help greatly in allowing a cross-flow of fresh air down below, and they come with insect screens for those shallow water anchorages close to the beach. In addition to the two that will go in each aft cabin bulkhead, I'm considering adding one each on the inboard cabin sides forward of the main bulkhead and just above the cockpit seats and jib sheet tracks.

In the photo below, you can see that the outer cabin sides have been primed in preparation for painting and installing the fixed Lexan portlights. The starboard foredeck is a bit ahead of the port one in that it is now primed and most of the little fairing issues have been taken care of. Both foredecks will be painted soon, then the bow access hatches and bow cleats can be mounted permanently.

We finally got a break here just yesterday from a two-week long heat wave in which afternoon temperatures have been at 100-103F every day. After living with that for awhile, today's high of only about 88F felt like a taste of fall!

Insights from a Tiki 30 Delivery Trip

When building or outfitting a boat, it's always helpful to spend time actually cruising on similar vessels to get a better understanding of what works, what doesn't, and why. Taking David Halladay's Tiki 30 Abaco over to Nassau, Bahamas from West Palm Beach, Florida, was just such an opportunity. The non-stop 24-hour first leg of the trip, plus a couple more nights of living aboard both at anchor and at the dock gave me some new ideas about outfitting my own Tiki 26 and steered me away from certain ideas I had been planning all along.

For example, the bar-mounted sliding hatches shown on the Tiki 30 plans seemed like a logical modification to incorporate into my Tiki 26 build. They are slick in operation and offer several different opening configurations. In the real world, however, they become a royal pain and are subject to being torn off by the wind (this has already happened once on Abaco). They can also become head-cracking deadfalls in any kind of a seaway if they slip off the prop sticks that hold them in the half open position. In the fully open position, flipped back on the retaining cords as shown in the photo below, a gust of wind from outboard can also send them slamming down. It's clear to me and to David Crawford, who went with me on the trip and who has logged over 1,000 miles on Abaco that hatches that slide forward would be a better option. So, having learned this from experience, I'm back to planning hatches similar to the ones shown in the Tiki 26 drawings.

One feature on David's boat that I've always known I wanted on mine is the aft net beam and aft tramps on either side of a boarding ladder. I can't imagine being without this as it proved so useful while cruising. It's essential, however, that the tramps are made of good, solid material that can be comfortably stood on, just as those on Abaco are. These tramps become a perfect "back porch" for emptying buckets, washing dishes or whatever, as well as an extra margin of safety for anyone falling out of the cockpit.

Interior space is at a premium in all the smaller Wharrams, especially the Tiki 26 and Tiki 30. One thing that helps is having a place for everything and keeping everything in its place. I've never been a big fan of Wharram's "flexi-space" concept, as an empty hull without built-in shelves and other organization results in a pile of junk. Who wants to live on top of their clothes for days or weeks at a time, or have to move everything out of the way to get at something stored under a bunk? In my opinion, shelves are essential, and though I've already built in a few, after this trip I have begun making and installing even more.

The shelves on each side of the main bunk in Abaco's starboard hull can be seen here. They do not intrude into usable space, due to the shape of the hulls, but are infinitely useful for keeping stuff you need close at hand.

Other essentials that can be seen in this photo are the opening portlight on the inboard side of the cabin, and the opening deck hatch over the forward part of the bunk. In the tropics, getting some air flow into the boat makes all the difference in the world in liveability. Abaco is also equipped with 12-volt fans over each bunk and in the Nav. station and galley.

This view of the Nav. station shows the mounted DC circuit panel that controls all the onboard electrics, as well as other equipment such as an AC inverter, solar panel charge controller, VHF radio, and barometer. After we were offshore, however, I was dismayed to learn that there was no bulkhead-mounted clock onboard, but thankfully, I had my watch. Also lacking was a ship's logbook, but that's another story and has more to do with the racing versus cruising mentality.

Note also the opening portlight in the aft cabin bulkhead. Element II will be fitted with a similar opening port here as well, made possible by the 4-inch increase in cabin height that I built-in back in the early stages of construction.

Back at home this week with a couple of days available to work on the boat, I've been shopping for parts such as portlights and hatches, and working on the additions such as the extra shelves with high fiddles shown below. The portlight frames to the left in the photo are the inner trim rings for the fixed ports on the outboard sides of the cabins. This is the final coat of epoxy before they will be sanded again and varnished prior to installing the Lexan ports. I'm also working on pre-fitting the cabin roofs and planning the companionway openings. My major goal for the next few weeks is to finish the fairing, priming and painting of the decks and cabins, get the hatches and ports installed, and move the hulls out in the open where I can spread them to assembly width.

For photos and more about the trip to Nassau on Abaco, read my post on Scott's Boat Pages here.

Yes, I'm Still Alive....

But despite the title, I'm making no apologies for not posting here for two months. I've been incredibly busy with other writing and computer projects, not to mention my other carpentry work besides working on my boat. This has been a period of many new ideas and opportunities that I have had to take action on. Work has continued on Element II, although at a more sporadic and slower pace. I'm not concerned about time frames however. Since the beginning I've known how I wanted to build this boat and the quality standards that I have to adhere to, so there is no particular rush to speed things up in time for some arbitrary launch date. When it's ready it will go in the water, and not before. That being said, a lot has been completed on this project and an awful lot remains to be done. The best way to build a boat is to enjoy the process, and that I have done from the beginning.

I don't have a lot of new photos to post today, as much of what I've been doing is tedious filling and sanding in the fairing process. A small project has been making and installing the crossbeam locating blocks on the decks, as you can see below.

I cut these out of some heavy teak boards David gave me on one of my trips to work for him in the Boatsmith shop. One still had the bark on one side. I made these beam blocks just a little thicker than on the plans, adding almost an inch to the height above the deck so that the top of the mast beam will be closer to the level of the raised fronts of the cabin tops. An added advantage is that extra bit of clearance this will provide for the cockpit over the water.

The blocks are squared off on the top now and matched to the contours of the deck where they are epoxied and screwed in place with large countersunk SS screws. When the boat is spread to assembly width and the beams are fitted, I can grind the top profiles of the blocks down to match the undersides of the beams. Meanwhile, the sides of the blocks and all the rest of the deck surfaces can now be primed and painted.

Last week, while working on a residential carpentry project, I scored a great find for my boat in the form of an abandoned aluminum tube that will be just right for making the stern net beam. The owner of the house gave it to me, as it was going to the dump if I didn't want it. It's 14 feet long, 3 1/2" in diameter, and has a wall thickness of 4mm. Cut down to length and capped off on the ends, it should be perfect for the net beam and will save me the labor of laminating one out of wood. I'll have to prep and prime it, of course, so that it can be painted, but at least its one more part I won't have to build from scratch.

Fairing, Fiberglassing and Priming

I'm in the middle of a labor-intensive stage of boatbuilding at the moment - still working on all the details of fiberglassing, fairing, sanding and eventually priming and painting of the decks and cabin sides.

The cabin roofs have still not been installed, as I am waiting to finish up some more interior details before closing them in and making access more difficult. But in the meantime I am working to completely finish all other exterior glassing of the cabin trunks and details such as the hatches and lashing cleats so that the decks can be painted. This involves spreading lots of fairing compound (see below) and sanding it smooth so the glass can be laminated over it.

All the joints between the decks and cabin bulkheads get a strip of fiberglass tape to reinforce them in addition to the sheathing on the main surfaces.

The outer surfaces of the hatch coamings, being made of plywood, also have to be sheathed with fiberglass to protect them from checking in the sun and to bond them to the surrounding deck surfaces.

The twelve beam and four shroud lashing cleats are also made of plywood and are separately sheathed with the cloth wrapping around the radiused edges to prevent delamination.

These small details are time consuming but essential to the longevity of the boat.

All the corners of the cabin trunks are reinforced with a separate strip of fiberglass.

And then the main surfaces are sheathed, as you can see below in the example of the aft bulkhead of the starboard cabin.

Working from the bows back, I'm slowly getting the fairing finished and have began applying the undercoating primer, as seen here on the forward part of the foredecks, stems, and bow hatches.

Fairing and priming the decks and cabins is a much bigger job than the hulls, as there are so many surfaces to work around. After the final coats of primer are applied and sanded, the green topside paint will be cut in to the bottom of the sheer stringer. Everything from the sheer stringer up will be painted an Off-White, with symmetrical patches of non-skid on the decks.

Installing The Inner Cabin Sides

Most of the detail tasks I've been completing on the boat have had little visual impact and things have looked much the same for many weeks. Yesterday, I changed this when I installed the inner cabin sides. I've been holding off on this until most of the interior work was completed, as these will make it harder to get in and out of the hulls with my low shed roof overhead. But at this point it was time to get them on so as there is a lot of finishing work to be done on the inboard sides that can only be done after the sides are on. Having the sides on will also discourage my cat from hanging out in the hulls, (I hope) and cut down on the amount of dust and other trash getting in there.

Here's a view from the inside of the port hull, looking through the drop board opening towards the starboard hull. You can see the top shelf/step under the opening, and just forward of that, the lower shelf where the two-burner stove will live.

Here's another angle looking forward inside the port hull, the corner of the sink barely visible in the foreground, stove shelf on the inboard side, and the unobstructed inner cabin side in the bunk area. I'm thinking that instead of a fixed shelf on that side, I will make custom canvas storage pockets.

Here's a view from forward in the port hull, looking aft into the galley and main companionway area.

A similar view from forward in the starboard hull shows the companionway steps and the hinged attachment point for the drop-down chart table on the inboard side.

I'm a step closer to having enclosed cabins, but there is still much work to be done before the cabin roofs go on. I will be ordering hatches for the forward ends of the cabin tops and portlights for the aft bulkheads in the next few days.

When the closing in of the cabins is complete and hatches and ports installed so that the hulls can be closed tight against the rain, Element II will at last emerge from the tiny shed I'm building here in so I can spread her hulls to their assembled width and put the beams in place.

Fiberglassing Outer Cabin Sides and Hatches

With the Lexan portlights cut out and ready to be installed, I realized I've got some catching up to to in preparing the cabin sides for the installation. Before the ports go in, I want the outer trim rings completely finished with glass sheathing, primer and paint - that way I won't have to risk damaging the ports working near them with sanders and other tools. So at this stage, I went ahead and applied the fiberglass sheathing to the outer cabin sides. I want to install the ports before the cabin tops go on, as it will be easier if I can reach inside from the top, and will eliminate needing a helper to do this.

Using my usual method of applying masking tape to define the perimeters first, the glass was epoxy saturated and then cut away on the inner sides of the tape.

Before doing this, I built up smooth fillets around the edges of the raised portlight trim rings, and sanded them to a nice transition into the surrounding cabin sides. There were no issues with getting the 6-ounce cloth to conform to the different levels with these fillets in place.

While in the fiberglassing mode, I also removed the front hatches and laminated a layer of 6-ounce on them.

While sanding the fillets on the outer cabin sides, my 5-inch random orbital sander gave up, so I had to make a quick trip to the local building supply and get a replacement. None of these sanders of this design hold up very long to the continued abuse of building a boat. But they are relatively inexpensive. I bought the same model that I purchased about this time last year. This one might see me through to the end of this project if I'm lucky, but keep in mind, I also use my tools for paying work on other people's projects as well.

I have larger sanders for the big jobs, but I find this 5-inch size indispensable for many of the tight spots on the boat. The semi-soft pad allows it to conform around fillets and smaller overall size gets it into many places that otherwise would have to be sanded by hand or my Fein Multimaster.

Teak Toe Rails

While I was in Florida working with David, I had two opportunities to go sailing on his Tiki 30, Abaco. The boat sailed great and many of the extra additions he made from the basic design worked out really well. One small detail that is missing from the Tiki 26 and 30 designs are simple toe rails on the decks that make going forward (and aft on the stern decks) much safer. This is a detail I had planned to add anyway, and after experiencing firsthand how useful they are on the Tiki 30 when going forward to handle the spinnaker, anchors, etc.; I would not be without them.

The plans do show rails on the inboard sides for the trampoline lashings. I used the same dimensions given for these to make toe rails for both the inboard and outboard sides of the foredecks, forward and aft of the front beam, and for the inboard and outboard sides of the stern decks. The inboard rails will be drilled for lashings later, when it is time to fit trampolines.

I used teak to make the toerails for two reasons: one, I spent an excessive amount of time chiseling away and replacing rotten Doug fir trampoline rails when refitting my Tiki 21, Element, and two, I have plenty of it on hand, also given to me by David as bonuses for various jobs I've helped him on. The teak will be there from now on, and drilling through it for trampoline lashings will present no problems. It will also be epoxy coated and painted, even though this is not necessary, simply because I don't plan to spend any time maintaining exterior varnish or keeping raw teak sanded.

Below are the sawn rails, cut to 3/4" by 1" just as the plans show for trampoline rails.

After cutting to length, the rails were radiused on the tops with a router and drilled for screws with 1/2" countersunk bung holes.

Here is a shot of the foredeck rails on the port hull, dry-fitted with screws before removal for final installation with epoxy.

Here, all the foredeck rails have been installed with screws and epoxy; the holes plugged with 1/2" teak bungs.

After the plugs were cut and sanded flush, the rails got their first coat of sealing epoxy. Although they are only 1-inch high, these toerails afford a great degree of safety as you can brace a foot against them when the boat is pitching, making it much harder to slip overboard. There will, of course, be non-skid paint on the walking areas of the decks as well when the paint work is finished.

A closer view of the rails showing the clearance opening for the front beam. There is a good two inches on either side of the beam location to allow for quick drainage of any seas that come on board. Before painting, the inboard sides of the rails will get a nice transitional fillet to the decks so that no water can collect in the corners.

The rails for the stern are also ready for installation, but first I had to finish the fiberglass sheathing over the edges of the decks to the sheer stringers. This is now done and the rails will go on during the next work session.