Wednesday, October 6, 2010

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 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.