2010 building logs

April 2011 More shower and bathroom works

I really have to throw some serious hours at this build soon as I am falling further and further behind schedule. I have only managed about 100 hours in 3 months when I really ought to be getting 100 hours a month if this boat is to be finished in 2011. I have already conceded to myself this is looking highly unlikely now but I will keep at it, perhaps as I get all the construction work finished and am down to the shining and polishing work things may accelerate. This month I hope to have the bathroom furniture finished. I have more polycore so have all the material I need to get it done except for the actual fittings, ie sink, taps, another toilet etc. As I did last month, I have updated to this month but there are also some more logs detailed for March and some pictures on mounting the black water tank, so go back to March if interested.

April 1 Late Pureseal inspection

I forgot to test the Pureseal plates at the start of Autumn so I did it mid month and am reporting it here. I continue to be impressed by this stuff but cannot get any information or an answer from the makers. 3 years and 3 months and it is still working. It is starting to get shell life attached to it now, it did in December too, but that was really small shell but a few of them, this time only one shell but a little bigger. It came off very easily though and the rest was just slime and algae. So by my reckoning it is still working. Seems to be getting patchy but still working. I would imagine that with constant motion the algae would be lessened but even so I wouldnt be complaining if this was on the boat. But unless I can get onto the manufacturer before launch, likely to be at least a year away the way things are going, it wont be going onto the boat, maybe on the dingy. I just cant risk it. I need to know how far a 3 litre can will cover and if I find 9 litres is not enough, how I can get some more. I doubt I will hear from them though so all of this testing, however encouraging it may look, will have been for nothing.

April 3 More work on shower and bathroom

The shower is almost finished, the base is in, the black tank is ready to glass in so next will be a panel made to cover over it and then the shower back with doorway through to the laundry can go in. I have all of my through hulls on the port hull in the shower sump so should one of them fail and leak the ocean into my boat, the worst that can happen is that the sump will fill with water and stop the ingress but before that the sump pump would kick in and if it can handle the amount of water coming in it would just recycle it back overboard. For when we are away from the boat there would just be one further precaution required, that is to fit a plug into the shower drain pipe inside the sump as it is the only point below the waterline that drains directly into the sump that would allow water building inside the sump to get into the boat. The easiest way to do this is to simply plug the outlet from the shower inside the sump and remove it when back on board. Very simple precaution. Otherwise as I said the worst that could possibly happen is to flood the sump with about 50 litres of water that cannot go any further into the boat.

When onboard the shower drain pipe that drains into the sump (that will be plugged when not on board), will have a stocking held over it to catch body hair that would otherwise reach the sump pump and make servicing it more regular. There will be another drain pipe into the sump but it will be from the vanity which is way above waterline so wont need to be plugged, it will however also have a stocking over it to also catch hair. There will also be a drain from the kitchen sink and dishwasher that will also drain to that pipe but will divert directly overboard and only to through the sump if we are in a place that will not allow even kitchen sink water to pass overboard. This will be tapped via a Y tap so it goes directly overboard or into the sump but I would only send it to the sump in an extreme emergency as I do not want to have to filter out foodscraps from the sump as they start to smell very fast. Having said that, the stocking would certainly do that, but would just mean that it would need to be emptied and cleaned daily. All doable but of course where I can I would much prefer to send kitchen waste water directly overboard. As far as I know it is still allowed in all but the most sensitive areas, perhaps the Great Barrier reef marine park for example.

One of the through hulls in this sump is the data transducer (triducer, speed wheel, temp and depth). As I have mentioned previously, this transducer needs to be removed from time to time to clear the wheel of any blockage or growth to ensure accurate readings. This is done when the boat is floating, by quickly removing the transducer from inside the boat, and replacing it as fast as can be done with a blank that reseals the hole now in the bottom of the boat and gushing the ocean in, until you repeat the process in reverse to replace it. There is a plastic flap that is supposed to somewhat inhibit the ingress of the ocean by flipping over to block the hole but I can imagine that the few seconds that it takes to switch the plugs around would be highly stressful and you want that job to be in as accessible a point as is possible. I forgot this small fact when cutting the original through hull. So that with the lid open of the shower sump the transducer ended up being out of sight toward the front of the sump and not directly under the opening. I thought this was a good idea at the time, keeping the wiring out of the way. Until I remembered this little job.

There was going to be one extra through hull further back in the boat as a pickup point for saltwater, for the watermaker, the deckwash and as an option for the toilet to use salt water if fresh water is light on. I wanted it some way away from the combined black and grey outlet through hull. You dont want any dirty water anywhere near the clean salt water intake when making drinking water. But as I now had a through hull in the sump I didnt want to use for the transducer, having decided it would be much better relocated to directly under the middle of the sump lid, I have no choice but to use that through hull as my salt water intake point. There will just be a firm rule that whenever the water maker is switched on, the black water seacock must be shut. Its no biggie and does offer the piece of mind of once again having all the port side through hulls back in the sump. And now the transducer is in the middle of the opening so as to make cleaning it as easy a task as opening a hole in your boat, however short-lived, can be.

While on the subject of black water overboard, the block of flats next door had an issue with their plumbing at the time I checked on the pureseal plates last month. They must have an emergency outfall for their septic tank because this is what was floating under the pier along the shoreline (see picture above). I find it ironic that emergency or not, some 20 houses can have their sewerage fall into our bay, and in many places along our coast the public works sends sewerage into the ocean via pipes that until as recent as 20 years ago were only meters off the beaches but are at least now 1000's of meters offshore, but nevertheless the point is still valid, that when millions of people need sewerage pumped into the ocean that is fine, but when a liveaboard boater whats to do so it is highly offensive to all and sundry.

April 8 Grey tank glassed behind daggercase

The next job off the list was to finally glass the grey water holding tank into the boat, behind the port daggerboard case. The tank is already made, all that was left to finish it was to fit a final panel which includes the inlet point and a breather, the outlet at the bottom is already in the tank. So with the last panel and skin fittings fitted to the tank I glassed it into the boat. It is already a very tight fit, it cannot move forward as it is hard up against the bulkhead, it cannot fall any further because it is wedged in between the hull side and the dagger case so the only way it could move was up. So besides glassing it along the underside to the hull and dagger case, I did the same along the top of the tank to stop it ever being able to move upwards effectively locking it permanently in place in the boat. It wont ever come out now. It would need to be cut out and destroyed in the process if it was ever needed to be moved.

One issue I had to solve was how to attached the inlet hose to the tank once it was glassed into place. One way would be to attach it prior to fitting the tank but this proved to be very difficult and much skin was grazed from knuckles trying to fit the tank in with the hose already attached to the tank. There is a small gap between the tank side and the daggercase side, created by the daggercase side having a rope slot inside the case, it makes the cover for that slot protrude leaving a 25mm wide gap behind it to the bulkhead by about 100mm deep and of course it runs the entire height of the tank. The hose into the tank comes up from below the tank through this gap and over the tank to the inlet skin fitting. Getting the hose to stay in that tiny gap whilst refitting the wedge shaped tank into its slot was just not happening. I tried for at least half an hour. You cannot have the hose pinched or squashed in any way. It must be clear and free in that slot and I need to be sure it is before proceeding. It may need to be removed and replaced even if the tank cannot be, and must not be blocked in anyway, even partially, as I am already concerned about the sump pump lifting the water the 1.8 meters to the top of the tank (gravity out the bottom via a stop cock to the through hull in the sump under the bathroom floor on the other side of the bathroom wall).

So in the end, the most effective solution was to fit a garden hose fitting that can rotate within itself to be screwed onto the skin fitting thread. Besides the tank fitting problem of fitting the hose before fitting the tank, the other issue is that once in place there is no way to unscrew the fitting from the skin fitting if the entire hose has to rotate to get it undone. It would be possible to undo the hose clamp from the space left above the tank but behind the daggercase but it would be difficult in that confined space. So with a rotating fitting that pulls the body of the fitting down onto a rubber seal ring as it screws onto the skin fitting thread I have solved all but one problem. I am concerned that it may be possible, although unlikely, for the hose fitting to work its way loose. Vibrations from the daggercase perhaps? So one solution will be to locktite it shut, but that would make removing it should I ever want to switch out the hose very difficult. As I will have an inspection port behind the upholstered lining I will just have to keep an eye on it.

With the port grey tank glassed the next step to finish this section is to make the curved cupboard furniture (non opening) to fill the space between the bathroom wall and the back of the daggercase. As with the starboard hull the steps have protruded into the companionway a little more than I otherwise would have liked so to maintain an adequate companionway width I will curve the cupboard to match the profile of the bottom step. But the steps in each hull are at a different angle and as a result are a slightly different shape, that is the curve is different. So I must make new templates and a different shape panel to match the steps. I take the shape by tracing the shape of the bottom step onto cardboard and fitting that shape into the space to see that it all works.

After making the template my next step is to make a top and bottom shelf using the cardboard template as my shape guide. The top is double thickness the bottom is single thickness. And then, using the top and bottom shelf as a guide I made mdf mold panels in order to shape the curved cupboard front panel by glassing it on the mold and having it set to shape, rather than make a flat panel then kerf and glue it to shape. Either way requires fairing but for a panel this small I would rather get close to the shape needed on the mold. I also cut the mdf so I already have both the front and back mold or male and female from the one cutting. Although the shape of the panel is slightly different back and front because of the thickness (16mm) of the panel it is close enough that both molds are close enough. The panel after glassing is still flexible enough to be bent into shape in the fitting process so all I want is a fair surface to minimize the fairing after it is glassed in. There is always going to be some fairing because you will need to fair out the tapes or in this case the bog is removed and when tapes are applied re bogged and re faired. I made the mistake last time of insisting the panel conform to the shape of the mold and ended up with much more fairing work, this time I let it take its own fair line from the natural curve it took so here and there it sat higher than the molds but when forced it would show a distinct angle, so letting it be was much better and in the end the panel faired up much easier. Or maybe because it had been a while since I had faired I again built it up to be harder than it was. Curved panels and furniture is definitely much harder to make than angles and corners, but it looks so good in the boat that I believe it is worth the longer hours they take to build. But I am a bit biased. Would I do it this way again? Yeah, on balance it is worth the extra work.

While that was setting (in the end, as with most fairing, you rarely get it fair first time) each day I got on with other jobs. I bogged the panel wet on wet to the tacking off glass (I only needed to wait about an hour after glassing for it to be touch dry) for a chemical bond, then faired it first time the next day. In winter you cannot start sanding for 2 days, in summer you can sand next day. Its still summer! You are reminded of that when the hand sanding starts. Then once you reach the point where the glass is showing through you run another light bog screed and sand again, then finally a minor hole fill and that just about has it fair.

I cut the door into the panel in the normal way, having decided on the standard door shape and size. I had toyed with having a different shape door in the back shower wall because it is not a normal door like the rest in the boat. But in the end the fact I am going to be making a mold to pump out door jams with gelcoat already on them to the shape of all the door (they are all the same) made me decide that this would be best for the shower too. The pre-made door jams/trims will clean up the rough edges of the doorways and fill the gaps so that I can use the cut-outs as the doors (the kit cut routed panels make the doors about 15mm smaller than the doorway, the jam will take up about half of this, a trim edge around the edge of the doors also about half and a gap of about 2mm around the door). The reason I mention cleaning up the rough edges is because I did a pretty poor job on the uni rope edge treatment because I didnt have enough elastic bands, in fact I didnt have any new ones, just already used ones and more than half of them broke as I attached them. The end result of this is that the mdf strips I use to keep it pulled tightly into the slot was not so tight and I had bulges everywhere. Not a big problem because I just grind it back to flat and straight and then the door trim will go over it and cover any blemishes. The uni rope on these panels is not so critical in fact is very much optional on non structural non bulkhead walls. The uni rope gives the doorway some additional strength but is not crucial. I just like to be consistent with all the openings. I will repeat this for all of the hatches and ports too.

The third bog layer, which was really only a fill of holes here and there, set and I faired it, using my usual method for fairing the concave surfaces, sandpaper wrapped around half a pool noodle and a crisscross sanding motion including some strokes parallel to the direction of the curve, like a union jack minus the square to the panel direction as this would only cut narrow trenches in the face. These motions are crucial to ensuring you maintain fairness and dont dig new holes, the idea is to knock the tops off the highs until you meet the lows, which should be the cloth showing so that you have the absolute minimum of bog left on. With it as fair as I am happy with (you can never get these things as fair as you would like, otherwise you would be fairing for years) and also because these fronts wont be painted they are going to be laminated so whilst fairing is important, not as important as if I were painting them.

I make these panels slightly oversize so I can trim them back to the correct size and because the edges of glass are easier to trim than get exactly to the edges of the polycore. But I cannot trim much because the panel is a particular shape, and trimming too much one way or another changes the curve points and in effect changes the shape of the panel. Anyway, it fits and this is another moment I find I can stare at the work for some time admiring it. I really like the look of curved panels. They make the boat uniquely my design and to me the curves are what make it beautiful. It is one of the reasons I like the Schionning design, the curves. Anyway, the panel is dry fitted to the space between the back edge of the daggercase and the bathroom wall. I needed to know that there was room behind it to accommodate the plumbing. There is. My only concern now is whether to glue and glass the top down or to have the top removable so that I can get to the plumbing in there at some future time should I ever need to change the hose. I doubt I would ever need to, it is seriously heavy duty washing machine hose, 3mm walled. But you never know. As it is just dry fitted for now I will think about it a while.

Once I have glassed this all in I can move on to finishing the bathroom and laundry (the shower is almost done, only the back wall to be glassed in and then a side panel glassed on as I glass the black tank in and fix the plumbing in place). There is also some other plumbing and wiring to go in, about a months work in all should see the laundry furniture and shower done, and a few more weeks to get the bathroom furniture in. And when that is done, there is only some furniture in each of the bedrooms to complete, waiting on the mast posts, before all of the internal furniture work is pretty much done. Then I can move to the rear of each hull and start getting the outboard wells done, then the rudder boxes and then the finally the rear steps can go in.

There are 3 very good reasons why the rear steps going on will be an especially rewarding time for me. First of course is the satisfaction of them finally being glassed in, after all, I made them more than 2 years ago and have anticipated them going in for all that time. Anticipated for more than just the satisfaction of completing something unfinished. I am getting older and climbing into the boat or more appropriately out of the boat is getting harder and harder. I have slipped off the steps twice in the past week, the first time hanging like a monkey one handed as my body fell off the side of the steps. If not for the screw protruding from the side of the steps that dug into my thigh I would have escaped uninjured, but shaken up nonetheless. So the sooner I get the rear steps into at least one of the hulls the better my access and chances of surviving this build will be. And then of course the final satisfaction is that it is only the rear steps going in now that is stopping the guys from starting to fair the boat. I am particularly looking forward to seeing it fair. I know where every mistake and blemish is. Their job will be to hide them all forever!

April 20 Shower just about finished.

I have made some excellent progress this past week or so. I needed to, I am going away for Easter. I am just waiting on a plumber to fit my kitchen gas pipe now before I can finally glass the black tank in behind the bathroom side wall and then the side wall on. So the port shower is pretty much done.

I have glassed the back shower wall doorway into the boat. I have also glassed the curved stairwell cabinet into the boat. I did not glass the lid on though. I have decided that I may one day need to access the plumbing of the grey tank, not so much the gravity out pipe-work but more likely the rubber hose that pumps the water into the tank. So in order to get to it I would rather not have to rip the top out and make a new one so I am going to hinge it into the boat so it can be opened. The back and sides where the join would be visible will be under or behind the wall lining on 2 of the 3 sides which will stop it opening (so in order to get in I will have to remove the wall linings but they are removable anyway) so only one edge will be visible. So with that cabinet finished its back onto the bathroom.

Behind the shower is the laundry, and there are a number of water and power requirements to this area so there was a need to plumb and power that section via conduits. I could have run them behind the black tank but that would have had them entering and exiting inside the kitchen cupboard, in a difficult spot to get to easily. Ideally you want conduits to be dead straight so you can remove and replace or add new power cables or water pipes easily. That ruled out behind the black tank, there is some room in front of the black tank (but behind the shower side wall) but that would have them exiting above the bathroom vanity top and another feature you want is the wiring and pipes hidden and not obtrusive or intrusive.

So the solution was to run some conduit across the shower. And to hide them it occurred to me that in a moving boat standing on one leg to clean your feet or shave your legs is fraught with danger and the solution of hiding the conduit provided a solution to the danger of standing on one foot in the shower. A small step down the shower side that we can rest our foot on to make life safer and easier, especially for Jo.

And today I cut the side wall panel to size and dry fitted it. With the door in the doorway and the side wall on, the dimensions of the shower are able to be appreciated. The shower we have at home is 800mm x 800mm. The floor of the shower in the boat is 800mm wide (across the hull) x 1000mm deep. I made the shower 1000mm deep because the shower is actually 1000mm wide at the top of the chamfer panel and chine panels on each side of the hull so making it 1000mm deep made sense. So except for the base the shower is 1000mm x 1000mm. Its great to be able to build better into our boat than we have at home.

When making the side wall of the shower step (cover of the conduits) I debated whether to make it angled to match the hull side angle and keep the existing shape of the shower or to make it upright (plumb) 90 degrees to the floor. In the end I decided on plumb because I didnt want to eat into the shower floor real estate that would have been necessary to maintain the mirror image angle of the hull sides. And with the plumb shower side wall in, which sits directly atop the footrest top it does not look out of shape. It does not match the outer side of the hull so is no longer mirror image, but it looks ok even though it is not the same angles. Jo is also happy that she will be able to put shampoo and soaps on that shelf and being a cat, they should stay there!

I have ordered the water pipes. I am going with the Whale clip together system. I have read good reports on it being a very good system. I will have blue pipes for cold water, red pipes for hot water and green pipes for water from the watermaker to the water tanks. Those 4 conduits, 2 are for water into the laundry to the washing machine, laundry sink and hot water heater and water out of the watermaker to the tanks and hot water from the laundry to the kitchen, shower and bathroom. The other 2 are power (I used grey conduit for power, white conduit for water but it doesnt really matter they are all the same size), one for 12v for the watermaker, the underwater light, the rear step lights and the deck wash pump. The other is for 240v into the boat from the shore power in to the inverter charger, and 240v coming back from the inverter for the washing machine. I will also have 12v into the inverter charger coming from the wind gen that will sit atop the mini mast that will be mounted in the aft of this hull (there will be a matching mini mast with the radar dome and aerials (vhf and gps) in the other hull). I have been told that for safety and insurance reasons, 240v must be in separate conduit to 12v, so I have done that, and in these separate conduits, some wiring will be sending power (or water in the water pipe conduits) in each direction. So there is a lot of traffic through these conduits.

Behind the shower side wall will also be 3 copper conduits that will carry the sail halyards from the mast post to the rearmost bulkhead along the chamfer panel. If not for these halyard conduits I would have mounted the shower side wall from the top of the chamfer panel, adding about 50mm to the width of the shower but in the end hiding these conduits is paramount and the shower is already bigger than the one we have at home now so I cant complain. And also  behind this wall is the black water in and out of the black tank (from toilet and to through hull exit skin fitting in sump) and a salt water in hose also from a skin fitting in the sump to the water maker. So in all there are 11 items passing through the bulkhead in this area, the 11th being the copper gas pipe for the cook top. Its busy! But all hidden.