Beams Meet Hulls!

Hey, check it out, this thing I've been building all this time really is a catamaran!

Yesterday, I brought the crossbeams from the garage where I built them down to the shed where the hulls were built.

Today the hulls were rolled out into the open and aligned in the middle of the space between the shed and the house, where I have enough room to work and to step the mast later when it's time for that.  I leveled them and blocked them up using the two-wheel carts I made and a hydraulic floor jack. 

  

All this went surprisingly well, even single-handed, again making me glad I went with the Tiki 26 instead of a larger design.  I can easily manipulate these hulls for maintenance in the future.

These beams are still unfinished, of course.  I have a bit of glassing and lots of fairing to do before painting them, as well as the completion of the extra bits for the mast beam, such as the mast step reinforcement and the dolphin striker.

At this point, the beams are just strapped onto the inside lashing cleats to keep everything level and secure.  I will use rope lashings as in the plans for the final assembly.  The beam blocks on the decks will have to be shaped to fit the underside of the beams for a secure contact surface.  This could not be done until I reached this stage where the hulls are aligned and leveled with each other.  Before the final fitting, I'll fine tune everything with a water level to be sure they are exactly level at all four ends. 

Another project will be finishing the paint job on the stern decks, which have non-skid and primer, but no finish coats.  Then I'll hang the rudders and paint them in line with the bottom paint and topside paint.  And then build the tillers and the tiller bar.

And, there's the small matter of the cockpit and cockpit seats with storage under, and the motor well.  Then forward decks, aft boarding ladder, tramps, etc....  But it's starting to look like a boat, and that's inspiring.