Making Bunk Patterns

Today I worked on the layout and alignment of the cabin bunks in the port hull. Some slight adjustments in the bearer height at bulkhead number 3 were in order, but overall the alignment went well, despite my modification in raising the bunk level 3 inches as described in an earlier post. In order to see exactly how I wanted to place the access hatches to the below bunk storage, and to make this job easier when building the second hull, I made patterns out of cheap 5mm luan ply, which is stiff enough to hold it's shape with the hatches cut out. As shown below, I did have to weight it down in the corners in some places to keep it flat, but it will work good to transfer the shape of the bunk boards to the 9mm Okoume ply they will be made of.


Below is a view of two of the access hatches, looking into the bulkhead no. 4 area, in the bunk area at the forward end of the cabin. I think Thomas Nielsen had a good idea about strengthening the hulls at the bunk levels by not cutting the access hatches all the way to the hullsides as shown in the plans. Although I am not planning to use the elaborate latching system he has used on his excellent bunk hatches, I did decide to leave a continuous web of ply that can be filleted and glassed to the hullsides. The underside of these openings will be reinforced with solid wood stringers that will also serve as bearers for the hatch boards. This style of hatch is specified in the plans for the Tiki 30, but in the Tiki 21 and Tiki 26, the hatch sections are simply cut away all the way to the hullsides.

Below is a view of the bunk patterns and hatch cutouts looking aft from just ahead of bulkhead no. 4.