Friday, September 04, 2009

Emerging from the Shed

Well, part of the way at least. Today I moved the hulls out approximately 10 feet. This was made possible because of finishing the foredecks this week - not the final coat of paint, but enough to protect them and allow mounting of the forward hatch covers and inspection plates.

I've been wanting to move the hulls out this far for awhile now, to make it easier to finish the cabin interiors and fair and paint the cabins and stern decks. Controlling dust in the back part of the shed has been a continuous issue.

Before proceeding further with painting the decks, I first had to lay out the non-skid patterns for the walk surfaces. Most of the foredeck area got non-skid, except for where the crossbeams go and a 1-inch margin around the toe rails, hatches, inspection plates, etc.

The non-skid I used was the Petit non-skid additive - really just fine, uniformly sized grains of sand. I mix it thoroughly into the paint and apply two coats with a foam roller, allowing to dry overnight between coats.

Additional fill coats over the non-skid that are applied when painting the rest of the deck surfaces help to fill it in some and take the edge off, while still leaving it very effective. The decks will get a couple more coats in the final finishing stage. It's a bit hard to discern the non-skid areas in these photos, but they are quite visible despite the fact that everything is the same color. For ease of maintenance and to keep the decks cooler, I chose to paint all deck areas the same off white.

Below you can see the forward hatch covers and the horizontal partitions that fit in the forward holds after a final coat of paint was applied to these.

After painting the foredecks, I also had to bring the topside paint up to the cut line at the bottom edge of the sheer stringer. I had left the top 3-4 inches bare while working on fiberglassing the decks, to allow bonding the deck glass to the layer already on the stringers. I like the way the green contrasts with the off white. The topsides will also get additional paint coats when the hulls are completely finished.

Today I finished the assembly of the two-wheeled carts I had started early in the build.

The V-cradle of the cart fit to the mid-section of the hull perfectly. With the carts strapped in place just slightly aft of the balance point, the hull was easy to move single-handed. I raised it up with my webbing straps hung from the rafters to lift it out of the stern cradle.

Since I had the hulls on wheels and could move them easily, I pulled the port hull out farther to take this photo. It's hard to photograph a 26-foot boat in a 28-foot shed!

Now that the bows at least can see the light of day, I feel like I'm getting closer to moving the hulls all the way out. The next step is to get the cabin interiors finished so I can install portlights, the cabin roofs and hatches, and build the companionways.

6 comments:

Neil said...

Hey Scott. Great to see her in the light of day. Love the colour, works a treat. The day that Gleda gets out seems a long way off just now so it's great motivation to se Element coming along.

Scott B. Williams said...

Hi Neil,

Thanks, and good to hear from you. I've missed your posts lately, but at the rate you've been coming along when you are building, sometimes I think you may launch Gleda before Element II sees the water! I should have been done long ago, but you know how life stuff gets in the way.

Enter Miles said...

She is looking really great, Scott. Congratulations!

Unknown said...

Beautiful work! It was nice chatting with you last year at the St Pete Strictly Sail. I'm still trying to getting started on my own Wharram Melenesia. A bit smaller, but life and a couple of 12' cedar strip canoes keeps getting in the way. :)

Unknown said...

Bonjour,

Very good job ! I am begining the building of the Tiki 26 number 381.
I don't find here any 6mm ply, but only 8mm. Do you thing that i will have some problems with the hulls?
Thank you for your nice blog.

Fair winds.

Georges
Ile de la RĂ©union

Scott B. Williams said...

8mm ply could be used, I suppose, but it would add a considerable weight to the overall boat, as 6mm is specified for the hull sides, cabin sides, bulkheads, and fore and aft decks. If you are using a thicker ply like that, be sure to get the lightest weight wood you can find. It would be better to try and order 6mm even if the cost is significantly higher.