Sail and Rigging Decisions

While the weather here has been consistently cold for efficient outdoor epoxy work, I've been putting together my materials and gear lists for the final push to completion and the outfitting of my boat. As always, I need more epoxy and fillers. This is endless it seems, and I don't even want to think about how much I've spent on this stuff. The last big piece of the boat to be built is the cockpit, and with a more complex design incorporating lockers under the seats, it will take a good bit of epoxy, fiberglass and fillers to build it.

Having sewn my own jib from a Sailrite kit, I'm now debating whether to order the mainsail kit or order a complete main from Rolly Tasker Sails in Thailand. Buying a complete one would save a week or more of labor. Buying the kit would save a few hundred dollars. It's more a matter of deciding which final product I would like the best. I'm impressed with the Sailrite jib and putting it together was straightforward, the greatest difficulty being the lack of an adequate large space that would have made sewing the panels simpler.

I'm also waiting on a couple of quotes on synthetic rigging components, as I will definately be rigging the boat with Dynex Dux or Amsteel synthetic standing rigging, and Precourt or Colligo terminators and chainplate distributors. I'm doing away with the plywood shroud lashing pads and replacing them with custom-fabricated SS chainplates, as this will make stepping and unstepping the mast easier and more secure.

Other things that need to be ordered now include the main watertank for the port hull, which will be connected to the pump in my built-in galley sink, along with the pump and plumbing fittings for that. I've decided on a flexible bladder tank for this as this type will allow me to fit a larger capacity tank in the limited space under the bunks, forward of bulkhead #3.

I need another piece of 1/4 inch Lexan to get out the companionway drop boards, as I sized the openings too large to cut them from the piece David Halladay gave me last time I was in the Boatsmith shop working with him.

There's still a good bit of fairing and filling to do on the cabin sides and tops, as well as the stern decks, before I can finish priming and painting. Then I can install the fixed and opening portlights and hatches, and build the companionway hatches, and at that point - at last - the hulls can be moved completely out from under the shed to free up that space for finishing the beams and cockpit. What I need most of all for that is warm, dry weather - and the free time to work on the boat.

Good Weather for Fairing

We finally had some fine weather here this past week, after a prolonged cold spell.  I took the opportunity to get back to the filling and fairing process on the cabin tops.  If you recall from my last post way back when, all fiberglass sheathing has been done on the cabin tops and sides, and except for making the companionway hatches, all that remains is to fair, prime and paint.

I use a combination of wide drywall blades to spread the epoxy fairing compound, working off of a piece of scrap plywood for a palette. 

Here, the big fillet fairing in the coamings for the Bomar ventilation hatches is touched up with another pass of the filleting tool. 

The joint between the laminated plywood companionway coamings and the surrounding cabin roof gets a small fillet.  The coamings will also be sheathed in fiberglass to prevent checking and water penetration. 

Here, you can see large areas of fresh fairing compound spread on the aft cabin bulkhead and aft part of the roof.

Work on the boat has been sporadic and at a minimum over the last three months.  The primary reason has not been the cold, but rather the huge amount of work I've had to do to complete my latest book in time for the contract deadline.  That writing has been completed.  The manuscript was finished by January 1st and as of last night I just finished the revisions and final additions.  My publisher is rushing to get this book into print by the scheduled publication date of May 1.

Readers who have been following this blog from the beginning will realize that it was exactly three years ago today that I first posted here with photos of the first load of plywood and first parts cut out for the boat.  Three years would have seemed like a long time if I had thought it would take that long or longer when I started building.  But looking back on it, the time has passed so quickly that I don't know where it went.  The bottom line is that it really doesn't matter.  A project like this takes both time and money, and life is full of other commitments and distractions.  The important thing it that I'm still enjoying every hour I get to work on the boat, and I'm closer than ever to sailing it.  I'm expecting to get the final push to completion into high gear soon.

Hatch Openings and Companionways

I've had the main hatch/companionway structures complete for awhile now, and have also built level hatch landings for installing the opening Bomar hatches on the forward ends of the cabins.

For this type of hatch to be watertight and to keep it from distorting, it is essential to have a dead flat surface to mount it on. I incorporated the longitudinal carlins under the cabin roofs (as shown in my previous post) as part of the hatch opening framework. The raised section above the cabin roof is topped with a 9 millimeter plywood ring cut to match the hatch perimeter. It was then faired to the cabin roof with a large fillet, as shown below:

These opening hatches with their screens are going to make the interior infinitely more pleasant while sleeping at anchor.

For the companionway openings and drop board arrangement, I opted for the sleeker, more modern design of the Tiki 30, rather than the Tiki 26 style. One big difference is that with this design, there is no external framing for the drop board, and the top of the drop board extends straight up to the top of the coaming, unlike the Tiki 26 style with it's horizontal section.

This requires gluing spacer blocks to the insides of the openings, to provide enough clearance for the 6 mm drop boards.

Another inner flange in line with the openings in the cabin sides retains the drop boards. Here you can see the slot between the cabin sides and this inner flange, where the drop boards fit in. At the bottom of the opening, a raised inner retaining flange prevents water draining down the drop boards from entering the cabins. At the top, the flanges fair into the adjoining hatch coamings.

The coamings themselves are made of two layers of 9mm ply, laminated together for a total thickness of 18mm. Triangular blocks of solid teak reinforce the corners. After these were glued in and the tops of the coaming were leveled off, I used a router to radius the edges so that a layer of 6 oz. fiberglass can be laminated over them.

Here's view of the coamings looking from the outboard side of the port hull. The glass sheathing has not been done yet, but the structure is all finished and shaped.

Here is a view of the port companionway with a temporary drop board of plywood in place. The final drop boards will be made of 6mm Lexan. As it turned out, the Lexan panel I had for this was about an inch too short to get these out, so I have to order some more. These ply drop boards will be carried on board as spares. One disadvantage of the straight drop board design like this is that it can be lost overboard if gets dropped through the slot between the cockpit seat and the cabin side. David Halladay found this out the hard way on his Tiki 30, Abaco. After that incident the drop boards are always placed below on a bunk when not in use.

At this point, all that remains to be done on the hull exteriors, other than building the main hatches is more fairing and then priming and painting. It's been unusually cold here for the last couple of weeks, and today the forward decks are covered with about two inches of snow. But there will be some warm days here and there where bit by bit I can finish these details.

Closing in the Hulls

It was a good feeling earlier this week when I permanently installed both cabin roofs - at last completely closing in the hulls and marking the last big pieces to go into the construction of them. They had been cut and test-fitted as I wrote about in a previous post a few weeks ago, but now they are glued on, trimmed and edge-shaped, and awaiting fiberglass sheathing.

Here's a view of the completed undersides of the roof panels taken earlier this week. The longitudinal carlins were glued and filleted in place to provide the necessary stiffness and to define the sides of the front opening hatches and the outboard side of the companionway hatches.

The carlins, combined with the slight camber I've addd to the tops, has made them incredibly stiff even before fiberglassing. The next step, other than sheathing these, is to begin building the landings for the forward hatches and the framing for the companionway hatches and dropboards.

Fiberglassing the Mast

It's been an unbelievably long time since I finished building the mast and last posted about it here in (October 2007). Things do get in the way, despite best intentions when undertaking a project like this! Anyway, the mast has been hanging from the rafters all this time, covered in the dust of building and fairing the hulls. I lowered it down last week and pulled it out enough to get to the masthead end and begin the tedious task of sheathing it in fiberglass:

Round objects are not the easiest things to fiberglass, but it's not as bad as it would seem if you plan in advance and use the masking tape method to avoid epoxy runs and ragged fiberglass cloth overlaps. As seen above, the masthead section has the additional complication of the shroud hounds to go around, as well as the mast cap and crane.

The other sections, as shown below, are simply round and are best done in by going around half of the circumference at time. After the epoxy cures, the tape is cut away, a weave-filling second coat is applied, and the mast is rotated 180 degrees to complete the other side. I'm working in 4-foot sections, as the roll of 6-oz. glass cloth I have on hand is 48 inches wide.

There are specially-made fiberglass sleeves that fit on like a sock that some people use for processes like sheathing round masts, but with the hounds and mast step protruding from each end of the spar, it seemed to me like this might be difficult to get on. In addition, these sleeves are much more expensive than ordinary glass cloth. At any rate, by using the taping method, this is a straightforward operation and will result in neatly-sheathed spar when it's all complete and the cloth has been filled, faired and sanded. The mast will be painted the same Off-White as the decks.

Below, the top 12 feet or so is now sheathed. The short PVC pipes protruding from the masthead are the wiring conduits, which will be cut shorter and capped off with PVC elbows to keep rain out once the wiring is run.

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.

Fitting the Cabin Roofs

Sorry for another long break between posts. I have been working on the boat some during this time, although nothing major. In July, I signed a publishing contract for another book, and this one is due to be completed in just six months. It will be my top priority until then, but there will be time to work on the boat here and there, and the best weather for building here is between now and December.

Most of what I've been doing on the boat is not worth photographing, as it has been the seemingly endless little tasks of filling and fairing, sanding and priming of the foredecks and cabin sides. I put the first coat of paint on the foredecks so I could see the last of the tiny imperfections and fill them. Now, I'm ready to make a trip to the coast this weekend to buy more paint and non-skid additive so I can complete them.

Below is a photo of the port hull with the cabin roof temporarily fitted with screws and the forward deck hatch sitting in it's approximate location. I fitted internal carlins that will support the hatch from below, the outboard one also defining the outboard edge of the companionway opening. Notice too the camber of the coachroof. I like the way this came out, and it will actually make the roof stiffer than it would be if it were flat, as in the plans. The edges are untrimmed here. After installation, they will be cut flush with the router and rounded over like the deck edges.

Here's a view from inside the port companionway, showing the carlin that supports the outer edge of the opening. This will aid in building the hatch coaming as well. Again, you can see the camber in the roof. The companionway opening is 26 inches long by 24 inches wide - small enough to be strong and seaworthy, but large enough for easy entrance and exit.

It will still be awhile before I permanently install the cabin roofs. I want to complete as much as possible in the interior while it is is still open, especially the final sanding and and the installation of the fixed portlights.