Upright and Moving Forward

Now that the drudgery of fairing and sanding the hulls is behind me, I've been having so much fun boatbuilding that I haven't wanted to take the time to blog about it. Since my last post I've turned the hulls upright and with several days available to work lots of progress has been made on various interior parts and the decks. The port hull, which I built first, is still a bit further along than the newer starboard hull, but I've cut and fit the foredeck and I'm working on finishing out everything below this deck area so it can be installed. Below is the starboard foredeck during initial dry fitting.

After aligning and fastening the deck stringers with temporary screws, the deck was removed for gluing on the stringers and filleting them to the deck undersides. All these surfaces were then coated with two coats of epoxy.

In the hull itself I began making and fitting the removable shelves in the hold compartment, like the ones I designed for the port hull. This division of space will make this huge storage area much more usable.

Back in the port hull, I finished the fitting of the custom-made galley sink and drilled it for the drain fitting, and then cut another shelf to continue the line of the sink counter forward into the front half of the cabin.

You can see this shelf with its fiddle rail fitted, below on top of the starboard deck. The smaller shelf in the foreground fits below it, on the interior hull stringer. The other assembly in the background will become the companionway steps for the port hull.

Here are the above parts installed. The galley sink and adjoining shelf forward, and the small shelf below it (just above the cordless drill in the photo). The clamps around bulkhead 3 are holding on a narrow trim strip of teak that is being laminated to the inside cutout of the bulkhead. A second laminate on top of this one will build it up to sufficient thickness. In the foreground below the bulkhead 3 cutout, you can see that the counter assembly for the stove has also been installed.

Moving forward in the port hull, here is a view of all the sections below the foredeck. The aft section is the foot of the bunk, and is varnished because it is part of the cabin interior. All areas above the bunks in the cabins will get 2-3 coats of marine spar varnish to protect the epoxy from U.V. light. Next is the bow hold compartment, with shelves removed in this photo. It is painted the same off-white that will be used on the decks. In the bow the sealed buoyancy compartment is painted white to allow easy inspection.

I finished today by installing the port fordeck Here it has been glued down and held in place with temporary screws. No fasteners will be left in as there is plenty of gluing surface for the epoxy along the sheer clamps and deck beams, and the edges will be reinforced with fiberglass wrapping to the bottom of the sheer clamps.

The foredeck hatch has been cut-out and a watertight double-coaming style wooden hatch will be fitted on each foredeck.

Portlight Frames

Back in February, I wrote a post describing the custom portlight frames I was making with the router. Here is the original post: http://tiki26element2.blogspot.com/2008/02/frames-for-portlights.html

While working on the hull fairing and prepping for paint recently, I had some drying time here and there allowing for other projects. Finishing up these portlight frames was one of those. Below you can see all of the frames: A set of inner and outer ones for the small forward and larger rear portlight. The solid pieces to the left are the templates for the actual Lexan portlights.

Both outer cabin sides have already been cut and pre-fitted when the hulls were upright, so I could now go ahead and glue on the outer portlight frames. Putting them on first before installing the cabin sides on the boat will make it easy to create a nice fairing fillet around the outer edges of the frames. The frames will be sheathed with the same fiberglass covering the cabin side, and the fillets will make a nice transition possible. When the cabins are done and these sides are faired and painted, the Lexan will be installed from the inside with a silicon sealant. The inner frames will then be screwed into place to secure the Lexan.

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.

First Coat of Bottom Paint

I rolled on the first coat of bottom paint on both hulls yesterday, after sanding the final barrier coat of clear epoxy to 80 grit and washing with soap and water to remove any trace of blushing. I was quite pleased with how the hulls below the waterline turned out. They are fair and smooth, and the Petit Vivid bottom paint was pleasure to work with, much better than any other anti-fouling paint I've tried. I took it to my local hardware store and had a friend who works there put the gallon can in their automatic paint shaker, and when I opened it I found it just the right consistency for rolling. The color coverage was good, as you can see in the photos. This is just one coat.

One coat took less than a quart of paint. I guess I bought too much, buying a whole gallon, but it's cheaper to buy a gallon than three quarts, and I was afraid two would not be enough. At any rate, I'll have more than enough to do three coats before launching and if the shelf life is any good at all, enough for the first bottom job a couple years later.

The plan now is to finish fairing the hull topsides from the waterline to the sheer, and then to get primer and a first coat of topside paint up to at least the topside chine overlap. When this is done, I'll put a second coat of bottom paint on before turning the hulls right side up. The third coat will be put on when everything is finished, shortly before launching.

Beam and Shroud Lashing Cleats

With both hulls turned back upside down, my goal now is to finish everything from the sheer down so that I can paint the bottoms with anti-fouling and prime and first-coat the topsides with paint. The reasoning behind this is that all the details that are easier to do upside down will be completed, eliminating the need to invert the hulls again, so that once I turn them right side up, I can focus on the cabin interiors and deck structures.

The beam and shroud lashing cleats, or pads, are part of those details that are easier to complete with the hulls upside down. The reason for this is that it is essential to completely seal the undersides of the lashing surfaces created behind the cleats. This is a common source of rot in the smaller Tiki designs.

Below are all the lashing cleats - a total of 12 for the beams, inboard and outboard sides, and 4 for the shroud lanyards. I had planned to install chainplates instead of these lanyard pads for the shrouds, as is shown on the Tiki 30 plans and as the previous owner of my Tiki 21 had done. In the end I decided to stick with the simpler and practically free way of attaching the shrouds that is shown on the plans. Four chainplates of adequate size and strength plus the four shackles required to attach them would have been close to $300. That cash can best be spent elsewhere on the boat. Wharram's methods of eliminating such expensive hardware are brilliant.

Yesterday I installed all the beam and shroud cleats, gluing them well with epoxy and using temporary screws to hold them until the epoxy cures. The screws will be removed and replaced with 1/4" stainless carriage bolts after the cleats are faired and ready to paint. The thru-bolts pass through the extra layer of plywood backing already glued on the inside of the hull at each lashing point. They will be secured with large fender washers and self-locking nuts.

Here is a close-up of one of the lashing cleats, taken this morning after an initial coating of epoxy. Each plywood pad is made of 18mm ply and all corners are rounded and the edges are radiused to 3/8" so there are no hard edges exposed. The next step is to round over the bottom edges of the teak sheer doublers on either side of each pad. Small fillets of epoxy with wood flour and silica will be made on each side where the pad meets the doublers and sheer stringer, and a small fillet will be carefully made and smoothed on the inside edge of the pad. This is why it is easier to complete this job with the hull upside down. All surfaces in contact with the lashing lines must be as smooth as possible, as well as completely sealed from water intrusion. Sheer doublers made from solid teak will help greatly in preventing rot in this vulnerable area.

When all these lashing areas are completely faired, sanded smooth, and sealed with epoxy and primer, I'm going to thoroughly wash the hull exteriors and apply the bottom paint below the waterline. The first coat of topside paint can also be applied up to the bottom edge of the sheer stringer. The stringer itself will remain bare until after the decks and cabin sides go on, as I plan to wrap the fiberglass sheathing from the deck surfaces around the stringer to give a double layer of protection to the sheer and reinforce the deck to hull joint.

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.

Marking the Waterlines

I spent most of yesterday morning setting up a water level and marking the waterlines on both hulls. This is a project I wanted to get done while in the fairing process, as the hull surfaces below the waterline will be covered with a thicker anti-fouling paint and therefore to not have to be sanded to perfection like the topsides that will be painted a high gloss.

A simple, jury-rigged water level is the most accurate means of establishing a true waterline on a boat hull. I bought 35 feet of clear plastic tubing with and I.D. of 3/8." Total cost: 8 dollars and change. This is better than an expensive laser level that can't "see" through the hulls. A water level allows you to mark all sides of the hulls all the way around in one set up. Wharram's plans for the Tiki 26 include a sheet with waterline measurements, showing the height of the bow and the height of the stern (both at the sheer) above the waterline. These measurements are vertical distances above the water, however, and cannot be measured on the hull. Since my hulls are currently upside down, what I had to do is establish an arbitrary waterline at a level within the range I could hoist or lower them with slings. I marked this line on a clean piece of wood taped to one of my shed support posts, as shown below. I then marked the distance from the waterline to the bow and to the stern by measuring vertically from the arbitrary waterline mark. Since the hulls were upside down, this meant measure down from the line - 31 5/8" for the bow, and 25 3/4" for the stern. I then adjusted this for the maximum load waterline by subtracting 3 inches from these numbers.

The water level consists of nothing more than a bucket of water and the clear hose. The bucket is filled, then lifted up with the hose on the ground and one end secured inside the bucket below the waterline. The hose is filled by starting a siphon until the water flows freely from the open end. Then the open end is picked up and held higher than the bucket to prevent air bubbles in the line. The water level is now operational, and the water in the hose will match the waterline in the bucket.

I started by taping the hose to the side of my marked pole. Then I lowered the bucket until the water level in the hose matched exactly the mark for the bow. The open end of the hose was then moved to the first hull, and using my webbing slings I lifted the bow until it matched the waterline in the hose, and of course, the marked line on the pole. This was repeated for the stern, adjusting the bucket to the mark for the stern. It took a couple of back and forth operations to get the hull exact, bow and stern, then I leveled it athwartships by crawling under it with a spirit level and blocking it in position with scrap wood. With the bow and stern now the correct height above true waterline, I then readjusted the bucket until the waterline in it matched the marked waterline on my pole. When this was done, all I had to do was take the free end of the hose to the hull and make marks all the way around both sides about every foot or so. The marks were then connected by carefully pulling a line of masking tape through them. I masked above the marks, so I could paint a swath of dark gray primer above the actual waterline, then remove the tape and still be able to see it clearly.

In the first photo below, the bucket is set at the height of the waterline and the clear hose standing vertically against the hull in the background is being used to transfer the marks (already painted in this photo).

Here's a view from the bow showing the port hull with waterline marked with primer. You can also see the side of the starboard hull to the left. The other hull in the top right of the photo is a 19-foot woodstrip canoe I built years ago and have no where else to store. It's somewhat in the way, but hopefully it won't be long before I'm pulling the Tiki 26 hulls out in the open for assembly with the beams.

Another view of the starboard hull shows the straight waterline, with gray primer above. This line is 3 inches high to accommodate a fully loaded boat. Waterlines are always optically deceiving viewed like this and do not usually look straight when the boat is upside down. But using a water level is fool proof and the boat will sit on it lines when launched if the numbers given in James Wharram's plans are correct.