Hull Topside Color

I've finished the hullside fairing from the waterline up to about 3 inches below the sheer. As mentioned before, I'm holding off on finishing the sheer area. This is because the fiberglass sheathing from the decks and cabin sides will wrap around the outer sheer stringer and terminate in the joint where the angled bottom of the stringer meets the hull topside panel. A lot of work remains to be done in both hull interiors before the decks and cabins are on, but that will be the next phase of the project.

I've painted this completed area of the topsides at this stage for two reasons: to check the work so far for fairness and to eliminate the need for turning the hulls completely upside down again once the decks and cabins are on. I'll put one more coat of bottom paint along the waterline while they are inverted, and by the weekend they will be ready to turn upright.

This first photo shows the prepped topsides after a coat of high-build primer and another sanding, just before the first coat of paint.

Here is the first coat of topside paint. I'll only put on one coat at this stage while the boat is in construction and still in the shed. The final coats will be applied when the decks and all other parts are complete and ready to paint.

The first coat of glossy paint revealed a smooth surface that I'm quite satisfied with. Additional sanding between coats and a couple of minor fills in some imperfect areas will bring it up to standard. The color is a custom mix I've used in the past for a couple of small boats. The paint is Petit Easypoxy, which is available in a limited range of colors, especially greens. This color is made from two equal parts of Off White and Jade Green. The color reminds me of the clear waters of the Bahama banks and the Caribbean, where I plan to sail Element II. I wanted a color that would not get too hot in the tropical sun. Decks and cabins will be Off White.

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.

Starboard Hull Gets Topside Panels

The topside panels went on the starboard hulls yesterday. Despite the lack of recent updates here, I've been making progress on lots of projects on the boat, such as interior shelves in the port hull and getting the fairings installed on the crossbeams. Perfect weather recently has made for ideal working conditions.

The topside panels were already prepared and ready to install months ago. Once the bunk panels were filleted into place in the starboard hull, it was safe to lift it out of the building cradles and lay it over on it's side for pulling the remaining wire stitches out of the keel. I then turned it on each side and did a dry fit of the topside panels before gluing them on. The panels were fit with temporary screws. Here is a sequence of photos showing the procedure that makes it feasible for one person working alone to do this. My friend Chris Carter stopped by yesterday to see the project so I asked him to take some photos of me positioning the second panel.

With the hull in rope slings, the long topside panel was placed on the hull so that the slings hold it in place. The joint areas of both mating surfaces were sanded and cleaned with alcohol to prepare them for epoxy. I measured down 1 inch along the upper edge of the lower panel. This is the overlap area for the topside panel. A few small blocks were screwed in along this line to serve as rests for the topside panel until screws could be placed.

By grabbing in the midships area, I could easily flip up and manipulate the long panel.

Moving it in position: note the small wooden blocks I'm trying to get the bottom edge over.

The bottom edge is on the blocks, now it can be lowered in place.

The panel is in position. Now it's a matter of carefully aligning it at the bow and putting in temporary screws along the bottom edge. After everything was dry-fit to my satisfaction, I removed the panels one at a time and put them back on with epoxy in the joints.

Here's the hull flipped back the other way, after both panels have been installed with epoxy.

A view of the keel showing both topside panel joints. Like the port hull, the topside panels aligned perfectly and went on without distortion. The next step is to make the fillet joints where all the upper bulkhead sides join the insides of the topside panels. Soon I'll be ready to turn the hull upside down for shaping, glass sheathing and fairing.

Mast and Beams

I've decided to go back to my original plan of laminating the mast before I remove my 26' long workbench that is in the way of assembling the second hull. Although I am anxious to get the second hull built, it will be more efficient to make use of the workspace I have to glue up the mast. The finished stick can then be hung from the rafters out of the way until the hulls are completed. Hopefully, I won't need a long, flat bench again for any other parts of the boat. All of the stringers are made for the second hull, and I finished assembling the topside panels with their stringers installed last week. The mast is a fairly big project, because of the many components. The first step is to cut the stock to the required widths, then scarf the pieces to get the length. The rough stock shown below is 16' lengths of Doug fir, in 1x6 and 2x6. The 2x6 pieces have already been ripped to 2" widths. These will be cut on a 45-degree angle to make the interior fillets after first scarfing them to full length.


Before the mast lumber arrived I finished assembling the topside panels for the second hull. Shown below is the last one, the upper stringer being glued on by clamping it between the panel and the flat bench. These panels can also be hung out of the way while working on the lower hull assembly.

Back at the garage workshop this weekend, I'm making steady progress on assembling the crossbeam components. First the stringers that stiffen the vertical webs, and then the floor panels, to which the webs are laminated. Like the mast, these beams have many parts and just getting the all put together will take many glueing operations. It's good to be able to do this in another location so these parts are not in the way of building the hulls.

Getting in the Groove Again

I'm back at it now after my seven week interlude in Florida. It's amazing how disorganized things can become after even a short interruption of progress. It's not easy having tools and supplies as well as parts of the boat divided between two different workshops over an hour apart. I've spent much of my time since I've been back just reorganizing and planning for the next phases of the project. I've been shopping for tools and supplies, and making decisions about modifications and outfitting and equipment that will be needed for the finished boat.

The next major phases of the build will be the second (starboard) hull, which will come together in the boat shed next to the first hull, and the connecting beams, which I am building in the garage shop at my girlfriend's house. Despite the inconvenience of moving tools back and forth between two locations, the boat will be finished faster if I can work on something every day.

The crossbeams for the Tiki 26 consist of numerous Doug fir stringers that are laminated to the vertical webs and floor panels of the beams. It takes a lot of clamps to glue up these assemblies, and though I'm always adding more to my collection, I don't have enough to do all these at once, so like everything else in the project, it is a process.

In the boat shed I have the two complete hull panels for the starboard hull assembled and fitted with the lower stringers. These need sanding again and a second coat of epoxy and then they will be ready for assembly. Before I can put the hull together though, I need to tear out the 26' long work bench that is in the way. I don't want to get rid of it before I finish all the long hull parts, so today I cut the scarfs and joined the upper topside stringers. Next, I will assemble the topside panels for the second hull and glue on these stringers so that they will be ready to install when the lower hull is complete.

The port hull was sheathed with 6oz. fiberglass before I left to work in Florida, but there were areas where the weave was still not completely filled. I sanded the entire hull again today and applied another coat of epoxy to one side. It's really starting to look even and smooth now. Tomorrow I will flip it in the slings and coat the other side again. After this epoxy coat and more sanding, the first hull will be ready for the fairing and filling process.

Topside Panels Installed

In between all the sailing trips on the Tiki 21 and getting it hauled out onto the trailer, I've managed to complete both topside panels and got them installed Saturday. The following photos show the sequence of making them up and the finished result.

The plans call for a 3/4 by 1 and 3/4 stringer on the top outside edge of the topside panels. This stringer becomes the sheer clamp that the decks are nailed and glued down to later. One potential problem that has plagued many Tiki 21 and 26 owners is rot in this stringer. This is because if it is installed with right angle to the hull side on the bottom edge, rain water and dew will hang on the edge, which is also impossible to glass over adequately because of this angle. In an attempt to prevent this, I decided to cut the bottom edge of the stringer to an angle of 30 degrees. This is enough to allow the fiberglass cloth to make the transition from the hullside on the bottom edge, and the glass cloth on the deck will overlap the outside surface, joining the hull cloth and leaving no part of this stringer without an adequate sheathing. To cut this angle I first cut square edged pieces 2 1/4 by 3/4, then joined them with scarf joints, and set the table saw to cut the 30 degree angle, leaving 1 5/8 on the flat outer surface, so the outward appearance of the sheer will remain basically unchanged. Then angle will hardly be noticed on the finished boat because of the flare of the hullsides.

One complete topside panel with stringer installed and the other stringer joined and cut to the 30 degree angle.

Working on a Tiki 26 is so much easier when you can freely manipulate the hulls around and turn them to convenient angles. I borrowed Thomas Nielsen's idea of suspending the hull in slings, which makes it easy enough for one man to turn the hull. Installing the long, flexible topside panel is a whole lot easier if the hull is laying on its side so that gravity is working with you. At this point with bunks, floors, and bulkheads filleted in place, the hull is a rigid structure and there is no danger of distortion in turning it like this.

The port side topside panel installed. Temporary screws are used to hold it in place along the bottom edge until the epoxy sets.

The hull with both topside panels installed. These panels make a huge difference in the appearance of the boat, and the hull feels much bigger now. At this point, after finishing the fillets between the topside panels and the upper sides of the bulkheads, I can flip the hull all the way over and begin working on the bottom, shaping the keel and skeg and filling and fairing in preparation for fiberglass sheathing.

Preparing the Topside Panels

All the bunk panels are now installed and the fillets made. I still have some sanding and final passes to make to tidy up the fillets and prepare them for a clear coat of epoxy, but I decided today that I should start glueing up the topside panels, which have to be joined with butt blocks like the lower hull panels. I will also have to scarf the solid Doug fir stringers that go on the upper outside surface of the topside panels and glue these on, so while waiting on epoxy to cure on each of these steps I can be finishing up the bunk and inside hull coatings below the topside level. I've decided to go ahead and continue work on the port hull before starting the starboard one. At this point, I plan to continue through installing the topsides, then turn it over and fair and glass the outside. It will then be a solid and protected unit that I won't have to worry about while building the second hull.

The photo below shows the first of the two topside panels in assembly. I'm short on workspace right now because of the green boat you can see in the background at the end of my workbench. This is a stitch and glue ply epoxy John boat I designed and built for my father several years ago for fishing in local lakes and streams. It's twelve feet long, and has its own trailer, but I've been storing it in the shed to keep it out of the weather until I have time to do some badly needed maintenance. It has bright finished rubrails and deck pieces of mahogany and ash, and these have suffered water intrusion after the sun broke down the epoxy and varnish coatings, and will need a quite a bit of work. Another reason why I don't intend to have any exterior brightwork on my Tiki 26.

I'm hoping my father will use it again for fishing after I've repaired it. Before starting the second hull of the Tiki I will move it to the other workshop in my girlfriend's garage, where I also plan to work on the crossbeams, rudders and other small parts.



Another big item in my way is the Honda 9.9 hp outboard that you can see clamped to another workbench. This is the outboard I salvaged off Intensity, my Grampian 26 monohull that was destroyed in Hurricane Katrina. The engine was not submerged, but it does have a broken tiller handle. I need to sell it to clear it out of my way. I think it's too big and heavy for a Tiki 26 and plan to use either a 5, 6 or 8hp 4-stroke. Anybody need a repairable Honda engine for cheap?