Bunk Filler Doubles as Chart Table

I'm getting close to finishing the built-in shelves and other interior parts that will make this boat workable for my intended use. With each addition, I am well aware of the added weight and am carefully trying to keep each component as lightweight and small as possible, yet still sturdy enough to perform the desired function. Some sort of chart table that can double as a work station for a laptop computer was deemed essential. I did not want something that would take a lot of time to set up and take down each time it was used, and at the same time I wanted to minimize the amount of extra parts and pieces that have to be carried in the cabins. The chart table solution I decided on utilizes one of the bunk filler boards for the foot well area in the starboard cabin as table that attaches to a small hinged shelf on the inboard side.

Below is a view looking forward from a seated position on the raised cover that fits over the head, described in a recent post. From this seat I have full headroom and the table, when hinged down, is at the right height for a work surface.

Looking at the table from the other direction, you can see that it hinges down just forward of the companionway steps, attached to small shelf on the inboard side of the hull. This location allows it to hinge up against the inboard cabin side, and the length of the table gives it just enough clearance to fit into the inner corner. When in the up position, it is completely out of the way and will not interfere with entry and exit through the companionway. (Note that the companionway drop board opening has not been cut, as this is just a temporary fitting of the inner cabin side as described in the previous post.)

The table is also quite usable from this position, facing aft with your feet in the foot well. In this photo the unsupported edge of the table is propped up from below with a piece of scrap wood. When finished, it will be supported by a short length of chain or line from a hook on the shelf above the instrument panels or from the upper cabin side.

Here is a top view of the table, looking down from the position of bulkhead No. 3. You can see the small shelf attached with a piano hinge, and the two bolts that hold the table to it. These bolts are secured with wing nuts on the bottom for quick disassembly. In reality, the table will rarely be removed as it is not in the way when folded up and the aft bunk in this hull will not likely be needed.

Here is another view of the table in the folded up position. It will be secured in the up position with some kind of latch, but will likely be kept down and ready for use while underway, except when access to the forward bunk area is needed.

Here is the small hinged shelf with the table removed. It flips back over on itself to form a narrow shelf with a built-in fiddle rail if the table is not attached.

In this last photo, you can see the table fitted into the foot well opening to form part of the aft bunk. Another, shorter section completes the bunk if needed, when the porta-pottie and wooden seat covering it are removed to the cockpit. You can also see the hinged table shelf flipped back in the upside down position, where it is out of the way.

Starboard Interior Work

There are many compromises to be made when laying out the interior of a small boat. This is especially true in the narrow V-hulls of a Tiki 26. Wharram's philosophy of "flexi-space" addresses this problem in the simplest manner - no fixed interior features at all. This is fine for many people but in some ways it is less practical for certain on-board necessities, such as the stove, navigation and other electrical equipment, and the head (if there is one at all).

I don't like portable toilets and would probably not carry one at all if not for the convenience it will afford for my girlfriend and other guests, and to meet legal requirements for a holding tank in some of the waters I intend to sail. At sea, the bucket is the way to go, and in port, one can just as easily use shoreside facilities. But since I am carrying a small, 3-gallon portable, it has to live somewhere. I know that some Tiki 26 owners simply shove it back in the aft berth area when not in use and pull it out when needed. But in my experience with these things, they sometimes leak and usually smell. It's a pain to have to move it and put it back after every use, especially if it ever gets used while underway. I would rather have it below bunk level and in a secure position where it cannot move around. My original intention for the placement of it is shown below, in the forward half of the footwell in the starboard hull. Here, it is in the deepest part of the hull and sits flat on the floor, the top even with the bunk. It takes up a lot of foot room here though, and makes it difficult to get into the main bunk forward, which will be the one most often used.

The only logical solution is to place it in the aft end of the footwell, shown here. I had originally built a fixed bunk section over this area, but the side support rails under extended all the way back to the aft bulkhead. So I was able to remove the section with the router and still leave the rails so a removable section can be dropped in if the aft bunk is ever needed.

One problem with locating the portable toilet here is that the hull begins to narrow and lift as you move aft, so the width of the floor here is insufficient to allow it to sit flat, as it does the forward part of the footwell. The other issue is that it sits higher, about 2 inches above bunk height. The good thing though, is that since the cabin roof is at its highest point aft, I can still have full sitting headroom over the toilet in this position, even with a covering box/seat over it when it is not needed. To get it up high enough so that it does not rest against the inner hullsides, I built a small rack, shown below, that straddles the opening floor panel and will solidly support the portable toilet.

Here is a view of the portable head in the new location. In the rare event that I ever need the aft bunk in this hull to accommodate an extra guest, the toilet can be simply lifted out and placed in the cockpit for the night. A drop in bunk board will complete the bunk.

Since this aft part of the cabin will be used for seating while doing such things as chartwork, it was necessary to come up with a solid cover for the portable toilet that is strong enough to sit on or step on when going down below. It was also necessary that this cover could be easily removed but would lock in place and not slip or slide around when on. To this end, I built it like a box lid, using 9mm ply with side rails that rest on either side of the opening on the bunk edges. Teak locating blocks on either side are fitted with 1/4" through bolts that drop down through locating holes drilled in the bunk support rails on either side. The bolts lock it solidly in place. The front edge of the box also drops far enough down over the portable toilet to prevent it from sliding forward. An bungie cord will be used for additional security when sailing offshore.

Here is a view looking aft into the main cabin with the portable toilet in its new location and the covering lid/seat in place. I can sit full upright on this seat without touching the cabin roof. Note also the beginning of the companionway step assembly for this hull. Parts for the steps were cut and fit in place, assembled with Super Glue, then removed for epoxy fillets and coating.

Below are all these parts in various stages of epoxy coating and assembly. From left: the companionway steps with hardwood stiffeners being glued onto the inboard edges; the toilet seat cover; and the rack that it sits on.

Here is the completed companionway step assembly. It's virtually identical to the one I installed in the port hull. The hardwood trim is all teak.

Below is a view of the installed step assembly. Temporary screws through the top step into the sheer stringer, and a weight on the second step hold it in place while the fillets to the hullsides cure. The area forward of the steps will have a lower shelf that extends to the middle bulkhead. This shelf will be hinged on the outboard side and will use the bunk filler board as a drop-down chart table that will span across the cabin and be usable from a seated position over the toilet or facing aft from the end of the forward bunk. I finished working out all the details for this yesterday and made all the parts, which are being coated with epoxy before installation.

Stern Decks and Starboard Cabin

The current priority in the construction is to get the stern sections of both hulls decked so that I can focus on finishing the cabin interiors. As with the forward decks, the compartments beneath them will be completely finished before the decks go on, so that once these sections are covered with decks they will be out of sight and out of mind. Completing entire sections like this is always a good feeling as I can then move on to other areas without having to think about this again.

Stringers of Doug fir were first cut to length and fitted in the deckbeam notches. These stringers all have radiused corners on the bottom edges where they will be exposed. They were held in place by temporary screws while I marked and cut the deck panels, which are made of 6mm plywood.

There are only three stringers supporting the deck in these stern sections, but their stiffness will be enhanced by large fillets bonding them to the underside of the deck panels. Combined with the sheathing of 6-oz. fiberglass on the top surfaces, this will make the decks plenty strong while keeping them lightweight.

Here you can see the assembled deck panels with the stringers glued and filleted in place.

Below are the completed stern decks ready for installation. All the parts have been sanded and second coated with epoxy. They will be installed later this week after I get the final coats of paint in the stern buoyancy compartments and varnish in the aft bunk areas.

The outer cabin side for the starboard hull has also been installed and filleted to the shelves and bulkheads.

There will not be as many built-in fixtures as in the port hull. In addition to the panels for the electrical switches and the VHF radio and other instruments, there will be a removable chart table that will span across the navigation station and a hinged seat back that will allow comfortable seating at the chart table. Companionway steps identical to the ones in the port hull will be built on the inboard side.

More Deck and Interior Progress

Work is ongoing on the port and starboard cabin interiors, as both forward decks have now been on for several weeks and the plan is to work my way aft with completing the main interior areas and then making and installing stern decks. The port hull is still a bit ahead of the starboard, as can be seen below. Here the galley sink and shelves have been installed and the outboard cabin side is filleted in place. Only a small amount of cosmetic filleting remains to be done in this area.

Here's a view looking into the port galley hull from the area where the companionway will be. Another small shelf will be added on top of the middle stringer on either side of the sink, to utilize an otherwise wasted space. The companionway steps are also installed but not visible from this angle.

Here's an exterior view of the port hull with the outer cabin side installed.

From this angle you can see the plywood portlight trim rings and how they have been filleted to the cabin side. These will be fiberglassed over right along with the surrounding surfaces. The Lexan will be fitted from the inside with matching trim rings to hold it in place.

Below is a view of the port foredeck just after installation. The temporary screws have been removed and the holes filled with epoxy.

Here's the starboard foredeck after fairing and pre-coating with epoxy. The decks will be fiberglassed next and then the hatch coamings will be built.

Inside the starboard hull I'm working on the layout of the shelves and panel faces that will house the 12-volt switch panels, battery voltage monitoring meter, VHF radio, SSB receiver, stereo and an AC inverter.

Most of these items will be mounted under the shelf in the companionway area of the hull, where you can see the open vertical framing here.

Removable panels of teak-faced 6mm ply will be screwed to the outside of this vertical frame. The instruments will be fitted in the removable panels, and all wiring organized inside under the shelf and accessible by removing the panels. Now that these sheer-level shelves have been fitted in the starboard hull, in the next couple of work sessions I can finish and install the outer cabin side.

Starboard Deckbeams

The hull bottoms were finished last week up through the final fairing and sanding, and then barrier coated with a clear coat of epoxy to ready them for bottom paint. Next week I will pick up the bottom paint, a relatively new product from Petit, called "Vivid." This is a bottom paint that can be applied at any time during the construction, as it is formulated for boats that are sometimes stored out of the water and does not lose its effectiveness when dried out like most bottom paints.

In the meantime, with nothing left to do to the bottoms until I get the paint, I turned the starboard hull back upright to begin the process of fitting out components like deckbeams and other parts needed to get it to the same stage as the port hull. This is going much faster than on the first hull, as all these parts were either already cut or at least marked out on the wood they would be cut from when I made the first set for the port hull. Below you can see the five deckbeams; cut, sanded, and epoxy coated prior to installation:

The beams were epoxied in place leaving the un-trimmed bulkheads protruding above.

When the epoxy cured and the clamps were removed, the excess bulkhead plywood was trimmed with a router, using a flush cutting bit to follow the curves and notches of the deckbeams.

Another project on the starboard hull was gluing on all the sheer stringer doublers at the beam landing locations. These are made of teak and were also cut out while making the set for the port hull.

Many other tasks are also underway as the epoxy cures on these parts, mostly filling and fairing inside, cleaning up the fillets and prepping the forward storage and buoyancy compartments for primer and paint.

Reinforcing the Keel

I'd been pondering for quite sometime the various options for building up the keels of my Tiki 26 to reinforce them for occasional intentional beachings and inevitable unintentional groundings. Most Tiki 26 builders add some kind of keel reinforcing strip, sacrificial wooden shoe, or strip of metal or PVC plastic. The problem with some of these add-on materials is they often requires screws penetrating into the glassed-over keel to hold them, or they are glued on with epoxy or bedding compound but can eventually work loose. The other problem is that it would be difficult to keep bottom paint on a metal or plastic surface, and difficult to fair it in to the rest of the hull for a smooth entry through the water.

To keep it simple, I decided to use 1708 fiberglass tape, a heavy biaxial fabric with a mat on the inner side. This thick tape, in the 6-inch width, holds a lot of resin and will add a very strong layer of protection to the keel. It may eventually wear down from abrasion, but that will take a long time, and it can be easily replaced. I don't plan on much beaching and when I do nose the boat up to the shore it will only be for brief visit as I always anchor off for any extended stay or if there is a sea running.

This tape is so thick it is necessary to first wet it out completely from the inside before applying it to the hull. I did this on some scrap plywood panels shown below. I also sanded, cleaned, and coated the keel area of the hull with wet epoxy before laying the tape on.

Here, you can see the 1708 tape in place on the keel. Since it reaches 3 inches up on either side of the keel, it provides additional strength all along the bottom, which could help if I ever find myself aground on a reef or rocks.

Fairing this stuff into the hull is quite a job. After laying down the tape strip and making sure it was completely wetted out with pure epoxy, I went back over it with a first layer of epoxy thickened with microballoons and silica. This was applied with a drywall knife, but is still thin enough to fill the weave well. As you can see, more epoxy putty will be needed. The next round will be thicker to build up a deep enough coating to sand it smooth.

I plan to go ahead and turn the port hull over again as well, to give it this same treatment. I will then fair and prime both hulls before proceeding with the decks and cabins.

Sheathing the Starboard Hull

My plans for attending the Florida Wharram rendezvous changed when I decided that my truck would likely not be capable of trailering home the trimaran I was going to Florida to bring back here for a repainting job. I decided to pass that job on to my friend, David, and his crew at Boatsmith. So, with the cost of fuel being what is is, driving almost 2,000 miles to Islamorada was less appealing. Instead, if they have a summer rendezvous there this time next year, I plan to sail there on Element II.

Staying home had it's benefits, as the weather was perfect for fiberglassing. I got one side of the starboard hull sheathed yesterday and will do the other side today. As with the port hull, I found it easier to do this with the hull suspended and laid over on one side, so that I'm not fighting epoxy runs as I work alone wetting out this fairly large area.

Lots of sanding was required first, smoothing out the fairing compound I used at the transition of the keel and stem and skeg where I added extra layers of fiberglass a few days ago.

Here the dry cloth is draped on the hull in one piece. I bought 18 yards of this 50-inch wide cloth just for this purpose when I visited the Raka Epoxy warehouse in Florida last month.

Wetting out the cloth went smoothly and was easy to keep in control, as I worked from the bow back, pushing out trapped air and smoothing the cloth with a rubber squee-gee. I used slow hardener for this, again since I'm working alone and need the extra time.

After the cloth was saturated, I waited a couple hours and applied a second coat of epoxy (not shown) using a mix of phenolic microballoons and silica to slightly thicken it and fill the weave. This coat was done with a medium fast hardener, and by evening yesterday it was cured. Today I'll trim the excess cloth on the edges and sand the transitions, then roll the hull over in the slings and do the same for the other side. Other work that has been going on while waiting on epoxy to cure includes gluing on teak sheer doublers at the beam locations on the port hull and making the lashing pads. I've also applied another coat of paint in the forward hold of the port hull and a coat of varnish in the forward part of the cabin under the foredeck.

Keel and Skeg Reinforcements

The first task I'm facing this morning is a dusty one - sanding the entire starboard hull that is now almost ready for fiberglass sheathing. Yesterday I completed the keel, stem and skeg reinforcements. I did this by taping off a few inches above the keel on either side and laminating 2 layers of fiberglass cloth over it. This was carried out to the aft edge of the skeg as well to strengthen the joint where the skeg exits the hull panels.

The keel reinforcements were done in two steps, with the second layer over lapping the first by a good 2 inches.

After the epoxy cured enough for the edges of the fiberglass to be cut and the masking tape removed, I applied a layer of filling compound made by mixing epoxy with silica and phenolic microballoons.

This first filling layer is now ready to sand this morning. I've also used the same mix to make small fillets at the topside chine joint and the bottom edge of the topside stringer. After sanding completely, there will likely be additional filling needed in places to get a smooth enough surface for wetting out the fiberglass on the entire hull.

Here's a view from the bow showing the filling around the stem. If the sanding goes well and the second layer of epoxy cures fast enough, I may get one side of the hull sheathed today.

Painting Begins at Last

When you're building a boat it's always a good feeling when you start applying finish coats of paint for the first time. On the Tiki 26, painting the interior of the port bow hold and forward buoyancy compartment is only a small step in painting the whole boat, but at least this is one area that is closer to being finished. This is actually not the final coat of paint in these areas, they will get at least one more, but the high gloss white is really brightening things up in here and I'm one step closer to getting the deck on this section.

In these photos you can see the new location for the inspection port opening that I moved as described in a previous post. The ring for the plate is not installed here, just temporarily stuck in place. Aft of the plate you can see the large bow hold and the permanently mounted shelf section I installed. Forward of that shelf, there are two removable shelves not shown that rest on the stringers and form a solid horizontal divider to make the compartment more usable. The two forward shelves are sized so that they can be taken out through the deck hatch for access to the larger area below.

Aft of these two painted compartments, you can see the natural wood surface on the other side of bulkhead 4. From here back, in the living quarters of the cabin, the wood will all be finished bright with varnish.

While working on these below deck areas of the port hull, I've also been filling and fairing the inverted starboard hull, and it is almost ready for fiberglass sheathing, after I do a bit more shaping and sanding.

Turning the Starboard Hull

Today I turned the starboard hull upside down for the first time, in preparation for shaping and then fiberglassing and fairing the hull exterior.

These first two photos are from last week, the day after I installed the topside panels. Once the panels were glued on at the bottom edges and held in place with temporary screws, I used a series of Spanish windlasses and adjustable straps to pull the upper edges of the topsides, at the sheer, in tight against the upper bulkhead edges. With everything locked in place, fillets were then made at the topside to bulkhead joints, and the cavities at the stem and sternpost were filled with thickened epoxy.

Note the bar clamps along the sheer used as anchor points for attaching the windlass lines. This worked really well and avoided the need for drilling holes for eye screws as I did on the port hull.

This is where I am today, with the hull upside down on the sturdy low saw horses I built for the purpose. The hull has been sanded and precoated with epoxy. The next step before glassing will be to fill and fair all the joints at the keel, stem and sternpost, and topside lap joints.