Deck Install and a big ol hole...

12' wide gap in the building.  Next comes a ramp to pull
the boat out on using skids (yet to be constructed).

Installing the Deck...
(and BTW, I cut a hole in my shop)

As you can see I have a large hole in the side of my boat shop.  I'm not sure why I bring this up now, but its always worth noting when you cut away a large chunk of any structure.  I knew it wouldn't be too long before we were ready to open this up to work on the roof and, well, the reciprocating saw was just sitting there so down she went.

Cardboard pattern laid out for final marking and transferring to 1/2" AB Fir Ply

So, here's how I did it..
Again, hot glue gun and cardboard.  It really doesn't take too much explanation so I'll gloss over some of what you see in this series of photos and let the captions do the rest of the talking. The procedure was to glue together enough cardboard to cover what the limits of a 4' x 8' sheet of ply will do.  I made sure that I landed on a frame with my joints and simply marked under the ply with a pencil or Sharpie marker, flipped it and traced it out.  To my surprise the pattern for the rear deck could be flipped along the centerline and used for both the Port and Starboard.



Port side shown upside down to be undercoated with epoxy before installing.

Heavy ribbon of glue.  Probably 12oz of epoxy plus silica and 4 tablespoons of milled fiber
till its as thick as peanut butter.  Not that greasy organic crap, thick like good old Jif!

Look at the glue.  We used a lot of epoxy mixed with milled fiber and fumed silica to seal and bond the deck. Again, get those Wilton cake decorator bags that come in a tear away 50 pack from Walmart.  Works great.  Use a tall tea glass to stand it up or have a helper hold it open after you roll it down a few inches and grab the stir stick full of goo, raking it off through the bag.  Or just have your cake decorator show you how its done.  I will recommend that you snip a small hole in the tip to allow air out the bottom as you load it.  You won't loose much.

Roughed in pattern. Note that I have left the excised exterior wall
rest where she fell.  I am bad about this sort of thing.

The curved deck around the cabin will take a little scribing for a close fit.  The first picture shows rough fit cardboard with hot glued butt blocks.  The second picture shows the scribing of the cabin wall.



Deck is in and needs to be trimmed flush with the hull.  Planer was the tool of choice and
worked pretty quick.  Belt sander got it close and following the hull angle.  Transom gets flushed down to the rear
deck later.  Lots of 1-5/8" SS screws. Get an impact driver if you don't have one.

Solid pine breasthook let in and planed to curve of deck.

Ply deck installed over breasthook.

Sheer Strake

Stagger the boards back the distance you want the scarf.  The
strake will be 4" or so wide so the scarf is 8" long.

The sheerstrake is the trim board along the hull's edge that the sheer cap will attach to and will serve as the furthest outboard edge of the hull.  This is generally not what will hit a dock or submerged object first so it doesn't have to be solid rubber.  Bumpers should be deployed when docking.
To build these we need to join our 12' stock together to give us around 25 total feet of  1" x 5" once we split the 1" x 10" rough sawn stock.  We are using pine again, very dense and resinous. We join through the use of a long glue joint at a very low angle.  The power planer does a good job of hogging a lot of wood using some general guidelines.  It is pretty straightforward as you just step the stock back and let the planer run across the board's edges as it slowly creates flats.

You can see the layout guidelines penciled in and the formation of the scarf joint.

Final joint should be close enough for epoxy to work it's magic.  Remember that a little gap here works wonders with epoxy, it is actually preferable to a super tight joint.

You have an idea of the total length.  It eats up all of the shop, plus a little.  The joints are glued up using black poly plastic pieces to protect the backer blocks. The board was split then planed to 3/4".  Do this after the glue up so that the planer takes out any inconsistency in the scarf joint and they will look perfect.




































Installing them (get your clamps ready and maybe a car jack)

Prep the hull. We used epoxy to glue this in and so need to peel off the paint so we can get a good bond to the underlying glass. It was really just the last step in flushing the edge of the deck and holding the belt sander at waist height and sighting down along the hull, was pretty easy to get a good flush edge.  If there were gaps, the epoxy would fill those in as we faired the deck joints.

The final photos don't say much about what it took to get these suckers in.  We started in the middle, gluing our way back about six feet each way as we neared the ends.  That is where it got tough. We used a combination of clamps, jacks and brute force to follow that sweeping sheer. It was tough but the results are worth it.  The sheer strake really accentuates the sweep of the hull that gives this hull such grace for a hard chined vessel.

Sweep shows elegantly...

Nice joint.  Hard to tell but the epoxy is clear and filling what looks to be a dip along the face.

The final step to finish this out is to plane and sand the sheer strake flush with the deck.  Then a round over bit so that the Xynole fabric can round the deck and tuck neatly behind a future sheer cap.

Circling back to the hole in the wall...

It was time to make this thing mobile and I'll end this post with this project.  We need to finish the roof and there is no room.  The only way is to skid it out past the wall. 
So two things needed to be done: 1) build skids and get the old cradle out from under the boat and 2) build a ramp to get the boat out 16 or so feet. 
The skids were cut to fit the rocker from doubled up 2" x 12"s nailed together and carpeted on top.  I also used some old 1/4" cutting board material HDPE from a leather cut table and heated the bends on the bottom and nailed them in place.  We jacked up the boat and slid them under without a hitch. 

Just a pretty simple deck to skid out on.  I'll use the tractor to do it.



Foam Install

120 Cubic Feet of Insurance...

Foam, pillowed up out of the hull and cured.

Another hot topic out in the boatbuilding community is whether or not to use 2 part expanding polyurethane flotation foam. This is really only an issue among the amateur boatbuilding folks because USCG rules require professional boat builders to provide positive flotation or the ability for the vessel to float if swamped.  The counter-argument to this practice is that some installation practices provided water intrusion into the foam that is naturally water resistant and with continual immersion can begin to hold water. 
Now, basically, water weighs between 62 to 64 lbs. per cubic foot dependent on salinity (additional weight of dissolved salts and mineral). So every cu ft. of foam we add will give us that much flotation less the actual weight of the foam itself.  Typically 2lb. flotation foam is used in these applications.  It is not considered structural but can serve to stiffen floors and insulate as well.  We calculated that to fill the floor and space between the frames we would need 80 cu ft.  That's around 500lbs of flotation. The plywood itself is around 36 lbs. per cu ft. so there is a difference of 26 pounds so the hull itself is providing some buoyancy. She would still sink if holed and its a risk I will not take with love ones aboard.  Heck, I don't have a death wish if it were just me.  So, an 80 cu. ft. foam kit was ordered shipped in 10, 1 gallon part B cans and 2, 5 gallon part A drums.

Bow chamber with bag liner - View from up top

Interior view

We started at the bow.  There were three chambers starting at Station 2 through 6.  On the rest of the boat, the chambers were lined with plywood, the hull serving as one side and the pilot house's interior and coaming as the other side with the frames themselves boxing the chamber in. The bow was different because the chambers were open to the under berth area around the tanks.  In order to provide some containment, we used large plastic bag drum liners that were stapled in at the deck and foam poured in around the water tanks and water heater set in place.  Once done, relief will be cut away and sealed with epoxy resin.  All of these pours were mixed in 24 oz. batches. Leave plenty of time between pours so that the subsequent pour doesn't melt the last pour.  Also, mix with precision and the hotter the better.  Those two factors are the most important to get the maximum amount of expansion, approximately 25 to 30 times the volume.  The interior  view shows how this bag worked as it molded around the tanks.  The plastic bag peels easily from the foam.
With this part completed we moved on to the floor and worked our way back toward the stern.





Foaming Sequence in pictures...



Port side pours.  cups can be reused

The following sequence shows how we get the foam in the floor and walls.  The floor was hole sawed in various places and pours were made as we watched for foam-out to know that it was completely filled.  Once the foam had progressed up the wall cavity we continued to make pours until we reached the bottom edge of the pilot house wall where we then stapled heavy plastic sheeting with battens to bring the foam to the top of the deck.  One thing to remember is that all of the foamed out cups can be removed and thrown back in the "to be foamed" chambers.  Once there, we used a combination of saws and sanding boards to flush the foam with the deck. 
Around the fuel tank, we bagged the tank and plugged any of the conduit turning up for control, steering cable, and wiring.  We also built dams where space needed to be left for the fuel fill, tank sending unit and vent out of scrap pink board.
The following sequence of pictures should be self explanatory.  Note that the fuel tank requires room to expand.  I cut about and inch of relief where foam touched the rear quarters of the tank.


Holes cut in floor and foam poured.  Note the foam out in the bilge sump.

Trimmed and flush sanded foam deck.

Foam scrap everywhere.

 Fuel Tank and Blocking for Cleats...

Carved with 4" grinder and sanding disk.

One last piece to handle before the decks are added is to block under the cleats for additional reinforcement and to provide access to those cleats.  The front cleats will have 6" inspection ports in the cabin wall to access the cleat studs.  The amidships cleats will be accessed through the cabinets to be installed via a notch between the pilothouse wall and hull liner in the PH.  The stern cleats will have wells carved out, epoxy coated and painted with 6" deck mounted inspection ports.  The following pictures show this...

Cleat installed and ring in basic position.  Location is noted on hull exterior.

Amidships Cleat before 1" pine blocking is added and sealed with thickened epoxy resin.

The fuel tank was mentioned previously.  The back wall of the coaming is installed and will be opened up with two long hatches after the deck is installed. There will be an emergency 500GPH Bilge pump installed in the fuel tank compartment along with a blower to vent.

Tank installed.  Foam was sealed with epoxy and painted with 100% acrylic as further protection.
Neoprene pads under tank hold down straps (Moeller).

Coaming installed.  Glued and screwed.

 At this point we are ready for the deck.  Cleats are in, foam is removed from the wood surfaces for proper bonding of the deck.


By the way... It took another 40 cu ft to fill it all. That's 7400 lbs. of flotation in a fully loaded #5000 lb boat. Over 150 24 ounce batches mixed and poured.

Cabin Roof and Bathroom

Composite Roof Experiment...

1/2" Ply edge buildup

 No guts no glory right? The original plan called for a tripled 1/4" plywood buildup for the roof.  Problem for us is that we want some insulation in that roof and we have some swanky little recessed LED lights that we want to install in the roof of both cabin and pilothouse.
So to accomplish this we need to build it up like a sandwich with edges that can be shaped.
We ripped 2" strips out of 1/2" marine ply and simple epoxied and screwed them along the edges with plenty of overhang so that they could later be "flushed" with the cabin sides.

First layer glued and stapled down with 5/8" narrow crown staples.
Note the epoxy poured out ready for the second layer.  Stagger the seams.

The next decision was what kind of insulation? I knew that one source of information may be the surfboard community and I spent a little time on a few forums where builders expounded on the virtues and pitfalls of the two main types of ridged board insulation, Polyisocyanate and Polystyrene.  Polyiso for starters can be though of as what is commonly used in spray foam for home walls or the canned foam used to fill cracks and voids around doors and windows.  This isn't entirely accurate but they are all pretty similar.  Polystyrene, and specifically extruded polystyrene, is the product used in building construction usually referred to as "pink" or "blue" board.  I opted for polystyrene as I am gluing all of this together with epoxy and it is locally available.  Polyiso carves better but is harder to find un-faced (typically comes with foil face locally) and I am not carving this.  It will live between two plywood skins and only serves as an insulating core.
The Owens Corning product came with a plastic skin that had to be peeled off before gluing.
Two layers of sheet insulation went down easy.  I used a narrow crown stapler to secure each layer starting with 5/8" for layer one and 1" for layer two that I bounced hard off of the foam so that it recessed enough to grab the ply below.

2-1/8" recessed light holes bored from the inside

Now, all was allowed to setup good and hard.  The lights needed a 2-1/8" hole to mount and we crawled into the berth and measured from the walls to layout a pattern of lights that would avoid the future hatch and Dorade vents.  Once bored with a hole saw it was back to the outer foam surface to route channels to fish wire, daisy chain fashion, from light to light.

Port side

 The grooves were just simple routed with a 1/2" straight bit about 1/2" deep.  Nothing special in guiding it or jigs.  It routes without any resistance except for the occasional staple that get struck and mangled.  Startling but uneventful.  We just picked them out.  We used 3/8" pex pipe for the conduit.  Channels alone would get filled with epoxy as the outer skin was laminated.



Starboard. Note the Pex sticking up around the pilothouse.
Had to be heated and bent to the groove.  The opposite end
is drilled through the pilothouse behind the future location of the
instrument panel (and DC supply panel) at the helm.

Scribed to the windshield and clamped to be marked along the cabin sides.

Now comes the outer skin and it was a learning experience. First it is a curved surface laying against an angled windshield panel.  I have seen other builds that basically started the windshield panel above the cabin roof but I thought it left hard angles that looked strange. Definitely gave the impression to the viewer that intersecting curves were scary to the builder. The answer is simple, use a compass.  Mine is one of those Lee Valley multi jointed affairs but just about any kind will do.  Run your plywood hard against the windshield, set your compass to the widest gap and run it from one side to the other. Cut this and take it back.  Clamp back down and mark along the outside edges.  Now piece number one is ready, number two is easy. But it to the first and mark.

Every ratchet strap I own... Need more for the pilothouse...

The assembly was the sort of frantic, "Oh hell!" part of the build that my wife walked in on. I ran spastically around the boat, cutting clamping cauls to spread the pressure and constantly readjusting.  I thought that I would simply pull it down and screw the edges, nope... It left the center of the 1/4" marine ply panel with little to no contact with the adhesive.  So, I energetically sprinted around the boat as clamps slipped their hold and visions of solidifying epoxy raised blood pressure.  The wife walked in with a question and I immediately responded with a God d*** that let her know I was struggling.  She immediately grabbed the strap ends and held them as I built pressure on the panel and adjusted pressure.  Advise to all, if you do this sort of thing, line up some help.  Everything is slick and at some sort of angle that ratchet strap hooks don't like.

The end result seems solid.  It allows for the lights to be installed that seem unobtrusive and should add a real custom touch.  I intend to install a dimmer for both the pilothouse and cabin so that light can be adjusted to provide just enough for getting around without making us night blind.  The pilothouse roof will be an even larger challenge due to size and height.  We went ahead and installed the first layer to get it along as far as possible before moving this outside to be finished.  Not permanently, so we will devise a method of rolling or skidding it in and out.

The only noteworthy mention regarding the first layer of beadboard on the PH roof is the mahogany beam cut and installed.  Not structurally necessary, it nonetheless serves as a way to hold the proper shape for future layers to come.
Of course, some of this build is out of sequence as I post it and I am trying to lump similar portions together.  In reality we have moved around and prior to attaching the roof panel we had to install the bathroom walls as the roof panel joins to the wall.

 

Ship's Head and Shower

Hot glue and cardboard pattern

One layer installed.

You'll remember our plumbing the shower sump a few posts back.  Now we frame that in and make ready for the foam fill that will follow in a subsequent post.  We start with a paper pattern of the two additional layers of ply laid on the floor.  This is to gives us enough thickness to install a proper drain grating 1-1/2" thick.  Once the pattern is cut we epoxy and screw these down and begin layout of the long wall.

Doubled Beadboard glued and cut.

The long wall incorporates a door and will have a "show" face on both sides so will need to be laminated from two
beadboard panels.  The door is cut and this wall panel was taken to the pilothouse to be scribed to match the subtle differences in angles inherent in boat construction.  We shoot for a tight fit.

Toilet will fit into recess.

The remainders of the walls were a "try and fit" situation (better known as boat building) as subtle differences in floor to wall angles caused us to adjust and scribe.  They weren't enough to worry about and aren't noticeable until you mate two right angles together.
I did opt to create a shelf in the bath that is basically the largest dimension I could hold on the width below the hull's sheer line. 
The entire room will be coated in multiple layers of resin before painting with marine poly tinted white.  All corners and joints will be filleted and smoothed to completely seal.  Now that this is done, its time to foam the hull or as I think of it... 30 gallons of life insurance.

View looking into the bath and shower.

 



More design changes... Most of them set in stone (or wood)

Changes...

I thought that since a lot of the design modifications that are taking shape right now haven't been posted, it would be a good idea to stop for a second and post updated plans and pictures.  I am currently working off of a CAD file named "Rev 18" and that was only after 6 months of continual changes that I didn't track.  To say the least, this project has gone through a metamorphosis that has changed as I learned more through reading (thanks Brad for the boat building library loan), through lengthy discussion with my Dad on our long commute into Atlanta, and through a thought process that tried to keep focus on our eventual use of this vessel.
Some of these changes have been driven by a copy of the ABYC (American Boat and Yacht Council) standards that are the standard code used in the industry for boat manufacturers (A thanks to my buddy Sanford who worked in the luxury yacht business in Taiwan).  As I am building this for myself, I don't necessarily have to follow these guidelines but, would be a fool not to.  Seeking insurance coverage and registering the vessel will require an inspection and safety factors must be met.


Note offset pilothouse door to accommodate shower width.  Also sink behind helm and room for small butane stove
which can be packed on and off the beach (shown as a small rectangle on the bottom countertop). Red rectangle in forepeak is the
water heater and blue ones are water tanks.

From an aesthetic (or practical) viewpoint, there have also been some changes based on choices of our eventual use of the boat.  Like I stated before, we plan on this being a coastal cruiser for short stints (week or less) with routine access to facilities.  We aren't packing for weeks at sea.  I'll go through some of the major points and detail our decisions...

Plenty of room for thoughtful reflection...

Propulsion...

The last posting showed an outboard mounted on a motor bracket.  There were real practical considerations to do this and those are still valid, however, in this design I began to think that it may detract from the overall look and function (vessel trim). I have moved the outboard back to the transom.  A much more traditional look and not nearly as much stress on the transom itself.  To accommodate the outboard tilting/pivoting and improve the seaworthiness in the event of a following wave, I followed the ABYC standard for the motorwell construction.  Now, if that following wave decides to crash over, our cockpit is much better protected. I also plan to go with an outboard in the 20hp to 25hp range.  I want that extra power in bad conditions although a 9.9hp would push us to hull speed in ideal conditions.


Cooking...

This is one that kept running out of control for me on the drawing board.  I had planned for a drop in LP oven or stove.  I had also, for a time, considered an LP converted inverter generator like a Yamaha 2400 or Honda 2000 for axillary power for AC, hot water and battery charging.  I thought it would pull double duty and I wouldn't have to carry gas cans.  I lost sight of the fact that we weren't doing extended cruising on this boat and were giving up a lot of storage (and deck space), and adding a lot of complexity, to this design by trying to incorporate this LP stove.  Didn't make sense.  My final solution was to modify our onboard meals (like camping) to suit our cooking capability.  We will use a grill in the cockpit for most of our meat and use a small butane portable stove that can be stored in a drawer for whatever needs boiling.  We will stay away from frying because of the mess and smell.  This frees up work space on the countertops and there is no need for a propane locker on the already small cockpit.  The real point to stress is that LP gas can be installed safely; however, it adds complexity and cost.

Refrigeration...

Even comes in Seafoam Green

Refrigeration was also a consideration that kept eating up a lot of cabinet space in the pilothouse. Not much bang for the buck.  Again, a practical examination of this boat's intended purpose helped us to decide that all we truly need is a good cooler with possible dry ice use and pre-freezing our perishables.  The other consideration in planning meals requiring less perishable food than one may normally use. We can also incorporate the use of canned or foil packed protein for our meals. Again, think camping. 
So our plan is to forego the tiny, expensive refrigerators that are prone to breakdown and reserve a small area of the cockpit for a YETI cooler with a pad on top to serve double duty as a seat.  When I spent several seasons as a guide wrangling folks in and out of remote wilderness in southern Colorado, we carried neoprene insulated panniers packed full of frozen meat and dry ice.  Our meals were planned accordingly so there was no digging through the panniers and we kept things frozen for a solid week easily.  I truly believe that good planning is the answer, not appliances in this application. My wife is the planning queen and I'll let her handle this.






Hygiene and Sanitation...

Big deal for us as a couple. Heck, big deal for anyone if you gotta go!  I think that this subject gets glossed over a lot since we (as boaters) are on the water and most people just dismiss this as an after though.  Gotta crap?  Do it in a bucket and throw it over... Need a shower?  Right outside your cabin is the world's largest bathtub.  This is all doable of course. 
Again, when outfitting, a shower wasn't a daily ritual, hell, could be a few days before it got so bad that we braved those liquid ice creeks to take one. But...
I have a wife and I'm not twenty something any more.  We would like to have the opportunity to wash the salt off and not turn my berth into a high school locker room smell-fest.  So, with that said I sought ways to squeeze a shower in.  Just couldn't do it in the pilot house as designed so I stretched it just a little fore and aft.  I also slide the Traveler Toilet in a niche inside the shower. This gives us a self contained chemical toilet that can be pumped out like a traditional marine head and holding tank system.  We will limit our number ones to the deep blue (or to a bucket then the blue), when duty calls, if at all possible.
This isn't to say that the occasional number two couldn't be performed on deck, then dragged behind the boat by a rope tied to the handle till sparkly clean.  Not a snob, just need the option.
Shower... In the forepeak of the boat, under the berth, sits a 6 gallon electric water heater.  This is an AC electrical device and will be powered up either by the dockside connection or by a generator run in the evening when bath time nears. We'll use a water saver shower wand which will serve double duty for rinsing the toilet.  The fresh water is for showers and washing only.  Bottled water will be for cooking and drinking. For dish washing and tooth brushing, a small sink sits behind the helm.

Creature Comforts...

This was another teeth gnashing decision that has worked itself out through a lot of reading and practical consideration regarding costs vs. function.  I grew up in the south and as a kid, we didn't have air.  We had box fans and slept on the sheets, flipping the pillow over to the "cool "side until exhaustion took over. Somewhere in my early teens we got central air and it's never been the same.  I have to admit that summer camping has never appealed to me because of waking up in a full out, malarial sweat.  I knew very early on that ventilation and air conditioning was a must if I would ever get my wife back on the boat for trip #2. For ventilation I have tried to incorporate opening side windows, Nicro vents in the shower and Dorade vents in the cabin.  I'll also wire for fans in the berth and one at each helm seat. Most importantly, we need AC!
Initially, I had decided on a Marine Air AC unit to help cool us off and make sleeping bearable.  This would require ducting and the installation of a pump to circulate sea water.  They would work better if the supply duct could be installed high in the pilot house and cabin and the return low and unobstructed.  It also seemed to occupy a great deal of room and was not cheap.  There is the old "window unit" option.  Not for this build.  I am opting for a low inrush current, low profile rooftop RV unit, probably a Coleman Penguin II. It may not last forever but trawler cruisers use rooftop AC units all the time. 
It will require AC, so I will be relegated to running a generator on the hook or plugged in at the dock. 
If running a "genny", I will try to make my anchorage remote and not piss off the neighbors.

General Notes on wall treatment and finishing...

So you have noticed a lot of Yellow Pine Ply bead used in the construction on the interior surfaces of the boat.  I purchased this through 84 Lumber locally and decided that painted white and trimmed out in clear finished Mahogany, I would end up with a great interior finish that looked traditional.  All wood is covered in a coat or two of epoxy. We have used 26 gallons so far and we still have the exterior to cover with Xynole fabric. 
Back to the Ply bead... I worried about the durability (even epoxy covered) so I did my own test to make sure that the glue was exterior grade.  I soaked a 4" strip in a bucket of water for two days, tried to peel it off wet... No good.  I let it dry completely and tried again...  No go.  Soaked then tried, then dried, then tried.  I finally snapped a piece off and the wood fibers failed.  The glue did not separate.  Seems to be a good phenolic glue and the pine didn't look worse for wear. 
I actually believe the species is a western pine species called Radiata Pine.  It looks a lot like yellow pine but I'll make sure to soak it in epoxy before marine paint is applied.  The paneling is listed for both exterior and interior use. Its a clear faced panel that seems absent of core voids although I don't rely on its strength alone and back it up in laminations that are rated structural.