Beam Blocks and Cockpit

This photo shows the mounting cradles we have made to hold the aft tramp beam. This block will be attached to the deck with epoxy and then finished off with gelcoat to match the deck. You can also see the beam lashing pad glued to the deck flange. The bolts are just clamps for now. we will permanently install the bolts when we bond the decks to the hulls.The raw spot at the very end of the deck is where we have ground off a bit for rudder clearance. This will get a bit of gelcoat as well. Also visible are the rudder lashing holes.

 Here is the cockpit. This view is from the starboard side. We have changed the cockpit this time by making the seat "wings" removable. This will keep the width to 7' 6" and will facilitate easier storage in a shipping container. This owner plans to ship the boat to different locations with a dedicated container. The flanges that the seat wings will attach to are visible at each side of the cockpit.

 

 

 Here are the two companionway ladders.

 These boats will have the standard Wharram sliding companionway hatches.Here we have drilled the holes for the slide tube.

 A picture of the interior ceiling staving.

 These are the rudder heads. We again went with the kick-up rudders. The reasons are much easier tacking and much easier to un-ground. When you drive the boat up on a sand bar the skegs and rudder tend to dig in and make it much more difficult to back off. The rudder load is also minimized. These aren't quite as bulletproof  or as simple as the stock design but everything is a compromise.

 Here are the rudder blades. They are made of foam core and fiberglass and have lead weights in the bottom of the blade to make for easier operation.

Beam Blocks & Other Parts

This is the floor of the compartment where the black water tank will be installed.

The fwd compartments also get a floor . This creates flotation compartments below the floors at each end of the hull. We paint these areas with white elastomeric paint. This paint is tough and provides a good non-slip surface as well as not showing scratches. It is also easy to recoat in the future when required.

Here are the knees which are mounted below the mast beam. They reinforce the hull deck connection in this area.

We add a filler below the bunks to provide a smooth bottom instead of a vee shape.This area is also painted with the elastomeric paint,

The ends of the beams will receive cleats. These cleats will keep the beam lashings from sliding off the end of the beam and provide cleats for fenders and spring lines. We overbore for the mounting screws and back fill with thickened epoxy with chopped fiber.Sorry about the fuzzy photo.

We build our beam blocks out of Coosa board and cover them with glass fiber. Then we bond these to the deck. We bond these with epoxy for stronger secondary bonds and then fillet them in with polyester putty, paint them with gelcoat and sand and polish them out.

Next we take the blocks that will be glued to the bottom of the beams and fit them so that they are a little lees than flush with the deck blocks.

Next we align the hulls. We make sure they are parallel, square, and in the same plane. Then we strap the beams to the decks and hulls with the blocks in between coated with epoxy.

We space the blocks for just enough clearance allowing for mor gelcoat and paint.

Again after gluing with epoxy we fillet the blocks with poly putty and then fair and sand.

With the beam blocks installed we start the final fairing and prime for paint. We still have to pot for some rigging attachments.

These are the lashing cleats. They will be bonded and bolted through the hull to deck joint.

These strips with the holes are the hinge strips for the four deck hatches.They have been gelcoated and will get sanded and polished.

The companionway hatches have also been faired and gelcoated on the inside surface.

This is the start of the cockpit. It is built of Divinycell foam and fiberglass fabric.

Beams, Bulkheads, and Pans

The beams get flanges to support the cockpit as well as the aft end of the fwd deck. The client has decided to go with a slatted teak deck in lieu of the fwd trampoline on this boat. We are adding a flange to the fwd side of the mast beam for the deck here. The aft beam can be seen with some fairing putty on it to fill the weave and get it ready for paint.

The notch shown here is where we will glass in a fiberglass tube to receive the trampoline bolt rope. Once the beam is all faired off and ready for paint we will mill a slot through the glass and edge of the tube.

More fairing and sanding

More of the same. Here you can see the end of the tramp tube

In the hulls we are fitting the bulkheads and the pans. The pans are the fiberglass molding that becomes the cabin sole and the bunk top. They are foam cored as well to provide the required stiffness at a light weight.

  

The boards that you see across the top of the hull is to maintain the correct width of the hull while we install the bulkheads and the pans. The bulkheads are also of foam cored glass.

Both decks have now been fit to the hulls as well as the bulkheads. We won't attach them until we have completed the work on the interior of the hulls.

When we pull the decks out of the molds the windows and hatches all have to be cut out and the edges finished off with gelcoat. Her e we have done the cutting and sanding and have sprayed a coat of gelcoat on.

The same has been done here. The black paint is to aid in sanding the coamings fair.

Here is one companionway after the sanding and polishing.

One of the fwd hatch coamings completed.

On Deck

We completed the fairing and gel-coating of the inside of the deck parts and popped them from the molds.

Next is to cut out the hatch and companionway and portlight openings.

 The beams on these boats are laminated up from Divinycell foam and then sheathed with unidirectional glass, carbon and csm.

 On the bottom surface of the beams is a flange to support the cockpit.

This flange will get prettied up and the beam will get a coat of putty and be sanded fair.

Two Hulls Today

This week we finished the second hull.

the decks are actually more work than the hulls. Lots more pieces and corners.

 Here we have glued in some foam and some fairing putty between the beam block area.This makes for a cleaner surface when we glue down the core foam below.

Below we have sanded the core foam and filleted the corners at the flange.

Next we fit the foam into the sides and top of the main cabin .

 Here the foam pieces are cut and we are ready  to glue the foam into place.

 Below the foam has been glued in. Next we will fill and fair the foam. prior to glassing the interior.

 Here we are laminating on the inner skin.

 

Here we have completed the inner skin and have started to fair tie inside of the deck mold. The ends are storage compartments and get only minor fairing . The center section is the cabin area and is faired off nicely .

Next week we will finish the fairing on these decks and coat them with white gelcoat.

On to the Second Hull

Monday morning we pulled the first hull out of the mold and started to build the second hull.

 Here is a close look at the vacuum bag pulling down the foam to a hull part.At the lower left of the photo is the "frog" where the hose from the  vacuum pump connects to the bag. You can see the putty oozing through the bleeder holes and the bag sucking down tight.

 Here is the  gauge on the vacuum pump, which shows we are doing very well.

After we skin the part with mat we go over the part very carefully and look for any small air pockets between the gelcoat and the mat. When we find one we sand it off and apply a little more resin or gelcoat. You can see some of these areas here.

 The next step is to fit and laminate on a layer of 108 biaxial fabric to the deck part. This is harder to laminate on and is done in smaller pieces to ensure good bonding.First we apply fabric around the hatch coamings.You can see these in the photo above. These places are more difficult to get the fabric to lay down smoothly. Then we do the bigger, flatter pieces as shown below.

.After the outer layer of fabric is laminated on we then start applying the foam. We fill the coamings with foam and also build up the areas under where the beam blocks will go to provide for a smooth surface to apply the foam coring to.Below is one of the hatches and the beam block filling..

Below we have filled in the companionway coaming.

 Here we have glued in some foam in the area of the fwd beam blocks. These will get sanded fair like the area two photos back. Cheers