Starboard Hull Ready for Topsides

The starboard hull is now ready to be lifted out of the building cradles so I can turn it to either side for installing the topside panels. All the bunks are now in and filleted, and most of the filling and fairing work in the lower hull compartments is complete. I made another trip to New Orleans last Saturday and picked up more okoume marine ply for the cabin roofs, decks, and cockpit. I should have enough to finish the project now.

As you can see the starboard hull is close to the outside lattice wall of my building shed. Last night we had several severe squall lines pass through the area, complete with hail, isolated tornadoes, and nearly horizontal rain driven by 50-70mph winds. Nothing was damaged, but this morning I had to sponge several inches of water out of each of the lower compartments in the starboard hull. Apparently the wind was so strong it blew the rain sideways right through the lattice. Everything in the hull interior was well-sealed with epoxy, so no harm done.

Here's the sequence of final tasks completed before the bunks went in. First the floor area in the main companionway was sheathed in 6 oz. fiberglass cloth. I did this in both hulls as this is the one floor panel that will be walked on and subject to having things dropped on it. In the photo you can see the blue tape used to define the perimeter of the glass. Three coats of epoxy were eventually applied.

Everything below the bunks got another clear coat of sealing epoxy after a thorough sanding and fairing. This will be the final finish below bunks, as no sunlight will get to these areas and there is no need for U.V. inhibiting varnish as there will be above bunk level.

Here you can see the bunks are in and filleted. These fillets will be sanded and faired with additional passes of thickened epoxy, but for now the hull is locked in and is a rigid structure. I can remove the temporary braces shown here and lift the hull in slings for turning.

These braces were necessary while the bunk fillets were curing, but they were hastily screwed and clamped in position and proved to be quite dangerous. I got a nasty gash just over my right eye when I bumped my head on a support post in the shed, which in turn bounced me face first into the end of one of these 1 x 2 pieces of Doug fir. I shouldn't have left the long ends sticking out like that, but I wanted to reuse them later, so I didn't cut them off. Now my right eye has been swollen for two days and I look like I've been in a bar fight!

Over on the starboard hull, I'm working on the details that have to be completed before the fore and aft decks can be installed. Much of this involves finishing up the fairing in the buoyancy compartments, and prepping the large bow compartment for paint. I decided to paint this storage hold white inside, as it is not connected to the cabin interior and will only be seen from the deck. The white interior will make it easier to find stuff inside, as well as to keep clean. I'm also going to install a small shelf at the interior stringer level in this compartment to divide the storage area somewhat and provide a place for smaller lighter items in the upper part.

In the photo below you can see the doublers I'm gluing to the inside of the sheer on the inboard sides beneath the decks. This will provide more solid wood to receive the screws that will be used to fasten the trampoline lashing rails to the inboard edges of the decks.

Other details below decks are the shelves I'm adding in the area over the bunks and just forward of the front cabin bulkhead. This is the foot area of the bunk and there is plenty of room for two narrow shelves at the level of the lower hull to topside panel joint. Adding shelves here will serve to reinforce this joint as well, as they will be filleted into position.

These shelves are narrow enough to be out of the way, but wide enough for things like flashlights or even books stood up with a bungee cord retainer across them. I made a small fiddle rail of teak for each shelf and glued it on with the industrial Superglue I've mentioned before.

The shelves with teak fiddles are coated with epoxy. A small fillet at the fiddle rail joint completes the assembly, and the shelves, made of 6mm ply, weigh next to nothing.

I'm off to Jackson again later today, where the rest of the week I'll be working on finishing up the Backwoods Drifter I'm building and hopefully getting the front fairings installed on my crossbeams.

Bunks Ready to Go In

A couple of days of good weather allowed me to finish up all the details that were holding up the installation of the starboard bunks. The final frames for the access hatches were fitted and laminated in place, and two coats of epoxy applied to all the bottom surfaces. Here you can see these parts curing in the sun curing outside the shed.

The structural and cosmetic fillets were also finished in the storage compartments below the bunks. A final clear coat of epoxy will go on over all this before the bunks are glued in place.

Here the finished bunk panels are in place, but not yet glued in. I had to be away for a couple of days and will glue them in when I return after the weekend. On Saturday I'm going to New Orleans to pick up what I hope will be all the plywood to finish the rest of the boat. This includes material for the cabin sides and decks, and the cockpit. Everything else requiring plywood is done.

Other details besides the under bunk areas included finishing up the fillets in the bow and stern buoyancy compartments and installing the plywood web brace, shown below, in the bow. In these areas that will be sealed off and out of sight, I'm using a filleting mix consisting of wood flour, silica, and phenolic microballoons. That's why you see the reddish tint. These fillets are easier to sand and smooth than the wood and silica blend I'm using in the parts of the boat that will be left unfinished or varnished. I'll also use this phenolic/silica mix for exerior fillets and fairing where everything will be painted, as it is much easier to sand to a feather edge.

Back at the Starboard Bunks

With renewed inspiration from helping David on his Tiki 30, I was back at work on my starboard hull today, after first waiting for it to warm up a bit outside from a low of 35F. Working in south Florida this time of year was nice, with highs in the 80s every day I was there. If I had those conditions and some helpers like David's guys I would be done in no time. Now I'm back to mixing my own epoxy and and doing eveything that has to be done, from reading the plans to sharpening tools and ordering supplies - a true one man operation.

Today I worked on fitting all the bunk stringers that support the access hatches and made the final decision on the size of the opening in the main companionway area of the starboard hull and the placement of the portable head. The bunks are almost ready to go in after I finish detailing the floor and bulkhead fillets under them and getting a second coat of epoxy on all the surfaces below them.

In the photo below you can see the forward end of the stringers for the bunk section in the companionway area. I borrowed the technique used in the Tiki 30 plans for letting in the supports by cutting a 45-degree notch in the supporting bearers to receive a matching angle at the ends of the stringers - simple and strong.

Here the bunk section is temporarily laid in place over the stringers, with the portable toilet in postition against bulkhead 3. This is the only placement that will allow it to fit under the bunks and still be usable without moving it. A sliding wooden lid will fit over it when not in use, serving as a seating area facing aft, where there will be a chart table and navigation instruments.

A view of the bunk sections through the inspection plate opening in bulkhead 1, with stringers epoxied and clamped into position.

Starboard Floors Installed

I've had some limited spells of good weather coinciding with time to work on the boat, so more progress has been made on the starboard hull. The floor panels were completed last week and are now installed and filleted into place. Additional work on the fillets and on the keel in the bow and stern areas will soon be completed, and the bunk panels will soon be ready to go in. The floors are shown below, the undersides drying in the sun after a second coat of epoxy on a warm January day.



Below is a view into the starboard hull after the floors have been filleted in place. Note too the horizontal bunk stringers. As I mentioned back when building the port hull, I used the Tiki 30 method of installing the bunks on these stringers rather than wiring the bunk edges to the hull and then trying to make epoxy fillets on the underside joints. The stringer method is quicker and the wood used is just as strong but lighter in weight than an equal epoxy fillet.

Below is a view into the main companionway area. The floor here has a removable panel for easy access to the bilge.

By raising the floor and bunk level three inches higher than shown in the plans, I have gained enough additonal width to accomodate a portable head in the main companionway area just aft of the starboard bunk. Shown below is the head with the bunk panels laid temporarily in place. The panel in the companionway area will be cut out to allow use of the head and provide a footwell and seating. I will likely use a hinged wooden cover to completely conceal the head when not in use and allow this area to also double as the chart room/nav station, where the radio and other instruments will be installed.

Interior Fixtures

As I've been working on the keel and bulkhead fillets of the second hull, as well as cutting out and fitting the bunk and floor panels, I've been giving more thought to the interior layout of each hull and how the spaces will be used. In his design book Wharram describes the "flexi-space" concept and suggests that in the smaller designs especially that this idea should be used as there is not a lot of room for the built-in "furniture" seen in most yacht interiors. Flexi-space basically means empty hull interiors, where cooking and sleeping gear is stowed below bunks or in bags and then unpacked to be used when needed, just as in camping. On the Tiki 26 this would work well for larger crews of up to four people, using the boat for weekend or vacation trips. All of the berth flats would be available, making it possible to sleep two to a hull when anchored, and cooking could be done on deck under a tent or on the bunk floors just inside one of the companionways. There's nothing wrong with this camping type arrangement, but having done thousands of miles of sea kayaking and plenty of backpacking and other camping, I don't want to have to unpack and set-up "camp" when on board my boat if there is a way around it. Part of the appeal of cruising on a sailboat instead of out of a kayak is that everything can be set-up pretty much permanently and wherever you drop anchor your "camp" looks and feels the same.

Since I'm planning on doing most of my sailing singlehanded, especially on longer trips, I have a clear idea of how I will use each space inside the two cabins and have specific requirements I want to allow for. I still want the option of two dedicated bunks below decks, in the larger forward ends of each cabin, as well as one of the aft bunks to use in the rare case of a third crew member aboard for a short trip. But for the times when I am alone, I plan to use the starboard hull for sleeping and the port hull for cooking. Since I like to be able to brew coffee and cook meals while underway, either on long coastal trips or offshore passages, it is essential to have some sort of built in galley, however minimal. This means a fixed place to secure a stove that can be used underway, and a galley sink to make it easier to fill kettles and pots and to wash up dishes and utensils when it's not feasible to do so on deck with a bucket. To maximize the size of this sink without taking up any more interior space than necessary, I knew I would have to build it in, out of ply and epoxy, rather than buy a stainless sink off the shelf. I spent several hours inside the port hull with pieces of plywood, a tape measure, and components such as the Whale Flipper galley pump I want to use and an old stove I salvaged off my monohull, Intensity. Mocking up the galley like this insured that everything would work and still leave room to move around. I determined that the sink would fit in nicely along the outboard sheer, just under the portlights, and the shelf for the stove would go along the inboard side, below the sheer and just forward of the companionway. The aft bunk in this hull will be used only for storage. Smaller shelves will be fitted under and around the sink and stove fixtures. All this leaves space to sit comfortably either facing aft or forward, and access to the forward bunk is still easy.

After figuring out the placement of these built-in fixtures, I began cutting parts out of 6mm ply. Because of the design, this will be plenty strong without adding any significant weight to the boat. To get a nice fit on interior components like this, it is necessary to measure and cut each piece in the hull, then fit the next piece and glue it on, before moving to the next, etc. This could take days using epoxy, as each stage would have to be wired, screwed, nailed or clamped until the epoxy cured before moving to the next stage. There is a much faster way to do this that I learned from David Halladay of Boatsmith, while working with him in Florida. He and his crew build lots of yacht interiors, many for newly-manufactured vessels. These are completely finished before they are installed in the hulls. Assembly in the design phase as well as in construction is often done with quick drying cyanoacrylate glue -or Superglue. Not the ordinary Superglue found in your local department store, but a superior gap-filling type of Superglue sold in hobby shops, along with a spray-on accelerator that cures it instantly (see photo below). This glue is much more expensive than epoxy, but for certain applications like building these galley parts, it is indispensable. This galley sink and counter in the photos below was completed in about two hours, up to the shaping and coating with epoxy stage. Once it was all assembled and checked for fit, it was removed from the boat for the epoxy work, which included making strong fillets to reinforce all the temporary joints held together with the Superglue.

Below is the first stage, gluing the side panels onto the bottom of the sink counter, which is upside down on the bench. These side panels are cut to fit alongside the outside of the hull, which will form one side of the sink. Using the Superglue along the edge of the panels, it took mere seconds to put them together at right angles to the counter panel. This glue is plenty strong too. As with epoxy, if you smacked these panels with a hammer, wood fibers would tear out before the joint failed. The difference is that the strength is obtained in about 2-3 minutes. The splotches on the wood are simply areas wet with accelerator. This drys in minutes, leaving the wood unstained.

Here's a close-up of the Superglue and accelerator. This glue is Instacure +. The bottles are labeled with the name of the hobby store that carries them, but it is sold by many outlets and more information can be found on the manufacturer's website, at: http://www.bsiadhesives.com/

After gluing the side panels on, I put the counter back in position along the outboard edge of the hull and then measured and cut a bottom panel, which was then glued in place as shown below. To complete the sink I measured and cut a front panel, then removed the whole thing again.

Outside the hull, I fitted a small fiddle rail along the curved surfaces to prevent things placed on the counter from falling in a seaway, and to keep splashed water from the sink contained. The fiddle rail was made of two layers of one-inch by 3/16" teak. Again using the Superglue, I pressed them in place by hand, as these curves would be difficult to clamp. This only took a few minutes, pressing and gluing one piece at a time, then sanding the glued on piece with a belt sander before fitting the next on. (This glue is also sandable, just like epoxy.) The result was a fiddle rail of laminated teak, about 3/8" thick. A nice epoxy fillet was made along the inside of the rail, and wide fillets were made in the inside joints of the sink panels. Below is the result after the first coat of epoxy and the initial fillets. More sanding and smoothing of fillets will be required, as well as 2 more coats of clear epoxy. The sink measures 14" long by 9 1/2" wide and more than 10" deep. This whole counter and sink assembly is extremely light weight, hardly weighing much more than a bucket of similar size.

Here is how it fits inside the galley section of the port hull. A drain will be fitted in the bottom, with a hose connecting it to a thru-hull. No worries about hull integrity on a catamaran like this, as any failure of a fitting below the waterline would be contained by the semented design of the hulls with their watertight bulkheads below the waterline. The sink is also high enough that the drain could be fitted above the waterline, which is an option I might take. Another catamaran advantage is the lack of heeling, so there are also no worries about an off-centerline sink like this back siphoning when the boat is heeled over, as in a monohull.

The middle passageway in the hull is still unobstructed. Opposite the sink and just aft of the middle bulkhead (#3) is the shelf for the stove - which will be a two-burner Origo non-pressurized alcohol unit. I'm using this type of stove because it is self-contained, can be easily moved up on deck for cooking in fair weather at anchor, and it has a well-designed potholder system available. Alcohol stoves are a little slower than propane, but I've used these Origo models extensively and they are extremely reliable and safe.

Using the Superglue made it possible to design and fabricate all these galley parts in one day. Finishing the epoxy work will be another matter, of course, and will be done over time as I fit additional small shelves and other parts in the port hull in preparation for installing the decks and cabin sides.

Below is a photo of the starboard hull with the bunk patterns I made for the port hull fitted in place. The patterns fit perfectly, so I know I have two identical hulls. In the starboard hull I have all the keel and bulkhead fillets done. These are only lacking fiberglass reinforcement before I can begin installing the floor and bunk panels. That will happen in the coming weeks, but for now I'm off to south Florida again for two weeks, leaving tomorrow. I had not planned on going back to work there this year, but David asked for my help on another smaller teak job, so it's back to Palm Beach, where I'm sure I'll learn some more neat tricks working with Boatsmith.

Installing Bunks

I'm now in the process of installing the bunk sections in the port hull. These have taken quite a bit of time to prepare, due to the need to finish the lift-out hatch sections and the bearers they rest on before installation, as well as applying two coats of epoxy to the underside of all these parts before installation. I now have the two forward sections in the main sleeping area forward of bulkhead three glued down and the preliminary fillets made. The section in the area of the companionway, between bulkheads 2 and 3 is also glued in, and the aft section is ready to go in as soon as I finish detailing the fillets below bunk level in this area. The photos below show the bunk sections, and the access hatch openings and covers.

This is the area between bulkheads 3 and 4, with the added floor section visible below.

The same section, looking aft, at this point the companionway area bunk section is not fitted.

Here are the two forward bunk access hatch covers. They simply drop in place on the bearers that are glued under the opening edges. A 1-inch diameter finger hole in each cover allows easy removal.

Looking forward at the two forward bunk sections, from the companionway area.

This is the section in the companionway area, which is mainly used as a sitting area with a wet locker/footwell below. The floor access panel I mentioned before is also visible here, allowing storage of small items right down into the V of the hull. Note that I did not cut this sitting section out in an oval, as shown in the plans, but instead made an opening with parallel sides and bearers under the edges, similar to the bunk access hatch openings. The reason is to allow for a removable, sliding section that can be used to fill part of this opening, depending on the sitting position needed, or to extend the length of the aft or forward bunk, if needed.

Here is the sliding section. The corners are rounded to match the opening, so it can be used at either end of the hatch cutout. This is another idea borrowed from the Tiki 30.

Bunk Access Hatches

I'm making the bunk access hatches a bit smaller than is suggested in the plans, mainly because I wanted a continuous web of bunk ply attached to the hullsides, rather than having entire sections lift out. As Thomas Nielsen has said on his blog, these bunks are a great opportunity to strengthen the hull in this area. I'm not using quite the elaborate latching access hatches Thomas has divised, but the bunks will be one continuous web, and each opening is reinforced with an athwartship bearer that goes from hullside to hullside, and longitudinal supports between these for the hatch lids to rest on. The hatch lids themselves will simply drop into position on these bearers, with a fingerhole in each for easy removal.

I should be ready to install the two forwardmost bunk sections in my next work session later this week.

The First 100 Hours

Bunk and floor panels for the port hull, coated on the underside with epoxy.

I just reached the 100 hour mark in the construction of the boat yesterday. It's been 12 weeks since I bought the first materials, so this puts the average at only 8.3 hours of boat work per week. Although this is far less time than I would have liked to devote to the project, I'm pleased with the amount of progress and feel that most of this time has been used efficiently in order to get this far. With summer approaching I will soon have much more time to put into the boat and hopefully some full time weeks here and there. I've been working out of town a lot so that prevents getting in even an hour or so in the evening after work.

I just finished cutting out all the bunk and floor panels and getting the first coat of epoxy on those in preparation for installation. While working on these panels, I'm also finishing up the keel and bulkhead fillets so that everything below bunk level will be complete before they go in. I've also coated and installed all the longitudinal bunk bearers I mentioned in the previous post. These will make the actual installation of bunks go faster.

I'm sure the building of the second (starboard) hull up to this point will be much faster with all the patterns already made for the bunks and floor panels. And, of course, all the hull panels, bulkheads, and the stem and sternpost are completely finished, coated, and ready to go. I'm still trying to decide at which point exactly I want to begin assembly of the second hull. I know I want to at least finish all the bunk fillets on the first one, because after this point the hull will be stable and a solid unit that cannot get out of alignment. I may continue on to the installation of the topside hull panels, and possibly even turn the hull and fair and glass the bottom. But I don't want to get too far ahead on the first one so that it feels like I'm starting all over again when I build the second hull.

Bunk Bearer Installation

To aid in alignment and to eliminate the need for large epoxy fillets below the bunks where they join to the hullsides, I decided to make lightweight longitudinal bunk bearers to support the edges of the bunk sections. I cut these to the same dimensions as the diagonal stiffeners that are also epoxied to the hullsides, and then cut the top surface upon which the bunks will be glued to a bevel to match the tops of the athwartships bunk bearers that are glued to the bulkheads. Again, this is a method used in the construction of the Tiki 30, but is not suggested in the Tiki 26 plans. The main advantage is the ease of keeping the bunks level, but eliminating the large underside fillets is also a time saver and the joint will be just as strong with the large fillets on the top side where the bunks meet the hull. Shown below is one of these bearers in the main cabin area between bulkheads 2 and 3. The bunk section is moved aside for clarity.


Here is a view of these longitudinal bearers from aft of bulkhead no. 2. The rough pattern for the floor section between no. 2 and no. 3 is also shown.

All these bunk bearers are cut and dry fitted. In my next work session I will radius the bottom edges, coat them with epoxy, and glue them into place using temporary screws. In the meantime, there is still much finish work to do on the bulkhead and keel fillets, but these will be done by the time the bunks are cut, reinforced and coated for installation.

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.