cockpit storage

The aft bulkhead now includes a couple of storage spaces. I may eventually install hatch covers here but for now, I think I'll keep them open so I'll have a place to put things that may need to be handy at a moments notice........like maybe a large sawed off mossburg 500 pump action shotgun to discourage modern day pirates......or maybe packs of Marlboro cigarettes to make friends with them......or maybe a copy of "Bennet Carls vest pocket book of jokes for all occasions" to ease any possible conflicts.

What did they do before the days of peel ply?

forward bulkhead

In order to install the cabin top and foredeck, I needed to finish taping the forward bulkhead in place.  Unlike the mast, cabin and aft bulkheads that receive 10 layers of uni on either side, the inner bridge deck portion under the forward bulkhead receives two 8 inch wide lengths of uni directional glass with their ends lapping out onto the forward bulkhead. In this photo, you can also see the "optional" foam strip where the mast support web will be installed.  I chose to use these foam strips along all critical hull to bulkhead joints because they provide a wider base that helps distribute loads more uniformly.

rounding off the corners

The inner corners of the cockpit coaming are formed by shaping foam wedges and bonding them in place. This 8 inch radius corner will be viewed as part of the aft starboard cabin ceiling.

In this instance, I've used polyurethane glue, a few small sheet rock screws and a bit of packing tape to hold the wedges in position while the glue cures. The corners will then be sanded smooth prior to glassing the decks.

stern view

The bridge deck "transom" is now in place. This panel was vac bagged on one side with 24 oz. triaxial glass leaving the exterior foam exposed so that it can be shaped and glassed later when doing the decks. This will allow the exterior aft bridge deck portion to be glassed in one continuous lamination.

bonding the bridgedeck "transom"

Here's an inside look at the bond confirming a good squeeze out of the bonding mixture. Note the temporary screws used to pull the pre molded flanges into the back side of the panel. Obviously if I had skinny 8 ft long double jointed arms I could have taped this panel in place without resorting to all this complexity.

pre molded flanges

Here are the resulting molded flanges to which
i will bond the bridge deck "transom" panel.  Next step will be to scribe the panel, cut and fit it,  swipe a mixture of epoxy thickened with cabosil all over the flanges then bond the piece in place.

closing in the "I" beam

Here's a close up of the aft bulkhead with the two temporary foam pieces that will be used to create internal flanges.  In this case, I've used packing tape over some scrap foam so that I can then form the flanges by laying glass "tape"on the back side of this "packing tape" covered foam.

The Aft Bulkhead

The aft bulkhead get's built up as a major structural member of this ship. It is essentially an "I" beam with the shear web being the bulkhead itself and the flanges being made up of the deck and lower bridge deck sections;  both of which are sheathed with ten layers of uni directional glass. Once this "I" beam is in place, it then gets boxed in from the front by the aft portion of the cockpit and then the aft section of the boat. Since it is not possible to tape the seams of these sections from the inside, tape flanges are being formed to allow these pieces to be bonded onto the lips of flanges.  In the photograph, you can see both top and bottom horizontal foam pieces that are covered with clear packing tape as a release. I'll tape these removable flange pieces in place then once cured, I'll remove the temporary foam pieces to reveal the glass flanges.  Then, I'll rough sand the flanges, trim the bridge deck "transom" piece and bond it in place.....then I'll perform the same dance when installing the aft cockpit piece.

A view from the port side hull

Upper right is a record breaking 3/4 faired gravity bike along with my swing and bubble pop corn popper. 

uni directional glass for hull to cockpit join

It's handy to pre cut all of your glass before you begin any layup. Here are the four sets of 5 layers that will be used on the aft bulkhead joint. Not only does preparing the glass before hand prevent me from getting epoxy all over my scissors, it allows me to be more aware of the resin cure rate.

Aft bulkhead to port side hull join

Here I am preparing to apply uni directional glass along the under side of the aft deck and bulkhead. Since the join area along the under side of the deck incorporates ten layers of Uni glass, in order to insure uniform strength,  five layers are applied along the lower surface then the foam will be removed along the top deck surface so that five additional layers will sandwich the join area.

joining the bridgedeck

Once in place, scribed, trimmed and fitted, I used 1/4 in. lag bolts and squares of 3/4 in plywood to insure a good smooth join line.  After that, I ran strips of duct tape between the blocks then from the top, I filled the gaps with a mixture of epoxy and cabosil. ( the tape keeps the goo in place) After this cures, I can unbolt my blocks and fill the areas under the plywood squares in the same way. 

ladders, boards, straps and chain hoists

Lifting the 24 ft. section of the bridge deck floor single handed with one arm epoxied behind my back.....took some thinking.  I was able to use two chain hoists slung from the rafters fore and aft with a strap running down the length of a ladder while supporting the floppy forward section with a wide board and another strap.

4 parts in one

 Using my rubber pond liner vac bag table, I'm able to produce multiple parts at the same time while using just a top vac membrane.

vac bagging again....

Time to create a few more parts....here are the cockpit sides and the bow beam support bulkheads being prepped for vac bagging.

bow beam in place

Since I didn't like the idea of having to insert one end in and then cut a hole in the deck of the other hull, I elected to spread both hulls out enough to insert the bow beam in each hole that was cut in the high density insert.  I then brought the hulls back in line.

hoisting the bow beam

chain hoists come in handy when it's just one person.

inspecting the fore stay

Here I am inspecting the fore stay attachment thimbles that support a stainless steel bar all wrapped in place with unidirectional carbon.

carbon

"So who can resist black kittens sitting on rolls of unidirectional carbon?"

2 inch strips...

Since my carbon uni came in a 2 ft. wide roll, I used a couple of pieces of scrap foam and a blade from a utility knife to create a guide tool that allowed me to cut my carbon down into 2 in. strips that will be used to create the bow brace.

adjustable spreader

Here's the brace support hardware that will become the apex of the spreader. I created a mold and cast this piece using epoxy and microballons.  Since I couldn't figure out a way to lay the 8 layers of unidirectional glass under this piece, I made a profile mold that should mirror the flow of the carbon over this piece, then I can place straight timber formers under the edges so that I can lay in the 20 layers of 2 in. wide carbon spreader material.

Bonded in place

The center section of the bow beam is comprised of multi layers of glass with the primary feature being 14 layers of unidirectional carbon wrapped over the two stainless forestay thimbles.

figuring out how it all goes together....

So here I am test fitting all my parts in preparation for assembly.  They say that building a large catamaran can keep you young.

forstay components

Per fabricated parts book, here's a pile of 316 stainless that will be used to create the forestay anchor point and seagull striker.  A local fabrication show " Versatile Supply" http://www.vsisurplus.com/
did a masterful job. It nice to have friends with a CNC water jet, mill and lathe.

While I wait for my stainless steel forestay thimbles......

http://dsc.discovery.com/survival/games/life-death-sea/life-death-sea.html

beware seagulls

Here's the roughed out core foam for the "seagull striker"

bow beam end

Not so pretty..... but here's a bunch of duct tape being used to pull peel ply snug against the end of the bow beam. the bow beam ends are closed off by bonding the 3/16 in glass gussets in place by covering over with two layers of tri axial glass and epoxy. Peel ply helps to create a nice neat finish that does not require additional sanding effort.

bow pole hole

Looking in through the bow pole hole you can see one of the 3/8 inch bow pole gussets that has been installed and glassed in with 2 in tape.

bow beam gussets

seen here are the internal bow beam gussets. I created these by vac bagging multiple layers of glass to create the four 3/16 thick gussets and two 3/8 inch gussets.

bow beam

As Ian Farrier suggests, it's best not to skip around the plans book. In my case, just when I'd rather be inserting the bow beams into the bows and getting on with bonding this boat together, I realized I needed to completely finish my bow beam ( including the carbon seagull striker )

Seen here is my shop monkey reminding me to follow the plans as I should.

fitting the center bridge deck stringer

Here's another shot from above. This will eventually be a shot from "below" as this is the center stringer that runs lengthwise under the center cabin along the bottom of the boat .

center bridge deck stringer

Here's inspector Tang perched on the center bridge deck stringer. I've bonded 10 guide tubes along the underside of the bridge deck floor so that I can eventually run lines under the cabin and back up into the cockpit. I marked the locations of my tubes so that I will know where to cut into the floor section from above and mount the 90 deg. pulley blocks that will direct the lines into and out of the tubes.

Center Bridge deck stringer

Any variations involving structural aspects of the design must be approved by the Designer Ian Farrier. Here is a representation of how I have interpreted the center section is to be built. I e-mailed the designer for clarification and received a quick response and approval.

shaping the bridge deck stringers

The under side of the center bridge deck floor gets some really strong fore and aft support stringers. Your looking at what will become the under side of the cabin bridge deck floor section. That chunk of foam will become the core of one of three stringers that support this section. The center stringer will incorporate line guides that will allow halyards to be led back into the cock pit.

the basics

After a couple of years of laying glass, I've settled in on a very effective method of performing a surface lamination over core cell foam. Here are the simple steps that I use:

1. build mold
2. fasten foam to mold
3. skim coat the surface of the foam w0 micro and epoxy
4. let cure to the touch and rough sand any slight imperfections
5. roll out a good wet coat of epoxy using 3/8 Knapp half roller
6. roll out glass
7. roll top coat of epoxy and let soak down into the epoxy that is soaking upwards
9. roll on the peel ply
10. use bondo spreaders to smooth out excess resin in the direction of lamination.......do 3 to 4 ft sections at a time moving in one continuous direction.

works for me........

glassing the bridge deck

rolling out 32 oz. triaxial glass onto the bridge deck.

Bridgedeck floor

I've added curved mold forms to the side of my vac bag table to form a mold for the bridge deck. This will allow me to create the forward portion of the bridge deck.

Aft bridge deck

Here is the center reinforcing rib that provides rigidity to the aft bridge deck floor. It's ready to pop out of the bag.

1500 Watts of power

The cold waters of the Columbia river turn huge hydroelectric turbines and the wind flowing across the ridges out east are spinning 300 ft. blades that combine to create electricity to cure my layup.

plastic pup tent

Since it's sort of cool tonight, I used a board turned on edge as a ridge pole to create an enclosure over my vac bag table.

about to close the bag on the aft bridge deck floor

Here's another shot of the bridge deck floor. I'm about to seal the top bag together down the middle to form an air tight bag.

A sample vac bag layup

Here's an example of my vacuum bag process. I'm using my 8ft. by 12ft. rubber sheathed vac platform to create the flat aft portion of the bridge deck. This particular section has an angled portion that transitions into the floor of the interior bridge deck so I've used a filler block to create a solid lower surface to vac bag against.

centerboard case sides

Finally.......all four centerboard case sides out basking in the yard.

The wide ones become the inboard case sides. Notice all the reinforcing ribs and high density top edging. I decided to use Luann Mahogany for the high density core edging along the top portion of the case sides.