2008 building logs

July 2008 Closing bows building roof

With the daggers and cases finished and the forebeam glued into the boat it is time to start closing the shell to lock up. Starting with gluing the bow panels back on and then the foredeck, leaving only the side hull to deck turns to glue on later, I will also get a start on the cabin roof. Once the bows are closed up they can be faired to highbuild stage. There is still a lot of work to do just to finish the shell so I need to start moving it along.

July 1 Sanding rough edges inside hatches

Before I glue the bow panels down for ever I want to have as much of the work inside the hatches done while I have them open and accessible because once the panels are on they are on for good and my access to the inside will be much more restricted. So I have started sanding down the glass edges to be sure there are no sharp edges or shards that might cut or prick fingers at some later time. I am not fairing them per say, just making sure they are smooth. I will then apply a thick coat of white epoxy paint that self levels so it will in a way act as a bog and fair in one go. It is more like resin with pigment that paint but has the effect of sealing, filling and fairing if I can apply it just thick enough that it self levels but not so thick that it runs.

I will apply the paint to about 200mm below the top as I will have to glass the joins over and need it to stick to the duflex directly. I will also peel ply the tape lines even though it will be difficult to get on neatly because of the angles and the tight space but it will be easier than sanding these tapes later. In the most forward area I wont bother because this section wont ever be accessed unless I have a collision and then I imagine that there will be bigger problems than rough glass edges.

I decided a while back that I would be having a sliding hatch over the helm position after seeing one on a Fusion (or a Lightwave I cant remember now) at the boat show. I went to the Lewmar stand and got a price on the hatch the boat I had seen had. The price was a massive $1400. Now I am sure it is a lovely hatch but I just couldn't see $1400. So I decided to look elsewhere and it occurred to me that the hatch is over the cockpit which is still open to the elements other than having a roof so it does not need to be absolutely watertight but that would be preferable. Then it occurred to me, a car sunroof would do just fine. Better still a manual one. I don't need it to be powered and it would be better without the moulding that goes with it to hide the motor, wiring and switching.

A quick search on EBay, and I found these for $65 delivered, a deal so good I decided to buy 2 and put one on each side. They are even better than I expected, not too big, not too small and they even have a locking clip when open so they cant slide shut by accident.  I took a bit of a chance with these sunroofs because I wasn't really sure if they would work out but I figured for that price if they did not work, I could always try and re sell them and even if I couldn't even do that, I only risked $130 and in the end it has worked out beautifully.

Only the cut-out is visible from below and from above just the cut out and the rails, the glass slides over the roof. Some sunroofs (electric) need a pan under the opened glass area meaning the cut-out is much larger and therefore making for a weaker top. I will need to build one side up a little to compensate for the curve in the roof as the sunroof wont have quite the same curve. Other than that, perfect solution for a fraction of the price.

July 4 Port hatches painted

Once I had the inside of the port hatches sanded smooth, and that includes sanding back all traces of the tape edges so that running your hand all over the hatch feels smooth with no sharp shards, I will be able to finish them by painting them. If a person puts a hand in a hatch they don't want to get their finger pricked by a razor sharp fibreglass splinter. And the best way to be sure is to run you hand all over it after sanding it smooth. This inevitably results in splinters! Better now than later. Some builders go to the effort of actually fairing the inside of their hatches including bogging the tapes out. I don't think it necessary to go to that level of effort, but the inside of the hatch should be safe and sealed. But with a thick enough coat of paint most signs of the tapes will disappear anyway.

The paint I am using inside the hatches (I will only ever use this stuff inside hatches) is actually an epoxy floor paint used for painting concrete floors. It is a high gloss 2 pack epoxy, hard wearing and perfect for what I am using it for and much cheaper than other marine paints. The boat builders are using this on the Waller under the soles to seal the ply. I applied the paint as thick as I could get it and like most paints it is self levelling so I applied it with a roller and it then smoothed itself out. I may give it a second coat in the morning if I feel it is not quite thick enough. It will still be green so like all epoxy I will be able to apply it wet on green and once fully set it will set very hard.

As I still have to tape the decks on I have stopped the paint about 200mm short of the tops so the glass goes onto raw glass (duflex). Then once I have the tapes done (and I will peel ply them to minimise having to sand inside the hatch with the deck glued on) I will paint the rest of the hatch inside. I will paint the underside of the deck to within 200mm of the edges to save more upside down painting before I glue it on. I am hoping to glue the port inside deck on tomorrow so I will paint it first up then glue it on.

I also cut the pieces to fill the gaps under the beam that needed to be cut out to fit the deck over the beam. I used the piece I cut out and trimmed the shapes I needed to fill the gaps. Once this is all glued down it will be glassed inside and out to finish the securing of the beam and then bogged and faired back out again.

All is pretty much ready to glue the first of the deck panels on.

July 5 Port bow panel glued on.

I got in to the shed today and the paint had not fully cured. I toyed with the idea of giving it a second coat, but decided against it. I also decided against painting the underside of the top before gluing it on, it would have been slightly easier but in the end I decided that with the hull to deck panel off there was still plenty of room to get in and paint the top after I glue and glass it on. I will paint the rest of the area while the tapes are still green tomorrow and give the base a second coat.

Gluing the inside bow panel on was easy enough. I lifted the panel off about 300mm and buttered the tops of the bulkheads with glue. I had marks on the panel to easily relocate it in the correct position without sliding it which disturbs the glue. Once back in position on the bulkheads I pulled it down tight to the bulkheads with some ratchet straps and then put some screws into the top and bottom of the panels into each bulkhead to hold it down tight. You cant drill through the middle of the panel as that would ruin the integrity of the glass over the panel but top and bottom will be taped to the next panel so it wont matter. With the gloves back on and using my finger I made a glue cove with the excess glue that had squeezed out inside against the bulkheads.

Then I screwed some tabs into the long panel to panel join to flush each panel to the other and filled the gap with a mixture of fill and glue. I then filled the spaces under the beam and just above it where the beam exits the panel with offcuts from the panel itself (from when the beam hole was cut into the panel) and glue.

  

I let it all set a while and had some lunch, wanting the glue to harden a little so it would not push out of the join when I coved and glassed it from inside. It is important to cove and glass the inside of these difficult to get to joins such as around the beam wet on wet. Otherwise you will have to sand off the sharp lumps of glue before you can glass as they will create air bubbles in the glass. Wet on wet and any glue flattens out under the glass and makes for much better adhesion and less work. The coving and glassing takes a little while as you need to ensure that the joins are good  with no bubble or lifting glass around the many angles and turns.

I would have liked to glass the outside wet on wet as well but because I need tabs to pull the panels flush I am not able to. This is not such a concern as sanding outside is not difficult. So tomorrow I will start with painting the rest of inside to give the glue a little more time to set, remove the tabs, sand the join and glue (just as I did on the hulls when they were glued) and tape the outside of the join. I will also need to glue conduit in this area for the tramps but not sure if I will do that now or later.

July 6 Port bow panel glassed in.

Today, after helping an Easy builder move his first hull (there were 20 guys on hand so it was an easy half hour - pun intended!) I got onto taping the outside of the port inside bow panel shut and glassing the beam outside. The plans call for 2 layers of glass overlapping 150mm and 300mm in a circle from the centre of the beam at the hull panel edge (I also taped it all around with a 200mm tape). Just a side note here, unless I am reading the plans wrongly, Schionning's call for 2 layers of tape on most of the taping jobs, 150mm and 200mm with the 200mm on first then the 150mm over the top of it. The builders in my shed have both commented on this independently of each other, that this is an incorrect method and that the correct method is that the thinner tape goes on first then the wider layer overlaps it. This has 2 benefits, firstly both tapes are in contact with the glass skin you are taping (in the other method only the bottom layer is in contact) and the second benefit is that you inevitably get frayed edges on the tape and with the wider tape completely covering the narrower one you only get 2 frayed edges instead of 4 to sand. So since James taught me this I have been taping the thinner layer first then the overlapping layers next. The only caution to this is that you must make sure you get all air bubbles out from the edge of the glass below the top layer and ensure proper contact all over.

The first task was to remove the tabs, sand back the glue line and back fill under the tabs. I also had to sand back the bog so the glass goes onto bare glass. I then coved the beam (after removing the bog from the beam also). Some might suggest that perhaps it would have been better if I had not bogged and faired the beam and I guess they are right but with the bog sanded off again to reveal the glass I am back to where I would have been only when the glass has set I can re-bog to the faired area and fair to it. Easy.

I let the coving go off a while as it is a larger cove so the chance of getting the glass on without disturbing the cove is increased by letting it go off, but being winter, it takes all day (and I am impatient) and when I taped onto it I did get a few dimples in the bottom rear part of the port beam cove. No matter, bog will fill them and it will fair out but also it is below the tramp at the back of the beam so basically invisible even if I left it the way it is (which of course I wont).

While I was waiting for the coving to go off a little I painted the rest of the inside of the 2 hatches. It is still green so the paint which is basically epoxy with pigment in it, will adhere well. I still have some sharp glass ends that I will need to sand down but I will touch the paint up after I sand them.

Believe it or not, just this glassing work took 6 hours. It does not look like much but I didn't stop for lunch and before I knew it it was 5.00. I took the other (starboard) panel off and started sanding the inside of the hatches on that side but I did not get far into it. I still have a bit of work to do on the area directly in front of the ensuite. I did not glue the floor in on that side, as I have an idea to extend the ensuite by putting the toilet in on the other side of the bulkhead and cut a door into the bulkhead to separate the toilet from the bathroom (so the toilet does not get wet if you have a shower in there). I am still working on the details so I will start to explain it as I do it. I don't want to cut too deeply into the reserve buoyancy of the bows so I have to figure it out so as to keep most of it like I did on the port side with the floors in the hatch areas.

Tomorrow I will start to measure up and cut the parts needed for the ensuite extension. And I will probably bog the glass around the beam ready to fair it back out. The glass will still be green. It is taking 48 hours or more to fully go off at the moment.

July 11 Not much work on the boat this week.

Unfortunately I have not had a chance all week to work on the boat. I have been busy getting a new business up and running. As a result of starting this build I have needed to buy a lot of boat related products, and what I have discovered is that pricing for a lot of these products in Australia is way more than the same products in other markets, specifically the USA. There is no good reason for it, other than our geographic isolation. But the internet is changing that. For example, electronics, a decent chart plotter in Australia is almost double what the same unit costs in the USA. I found a friend of mine a branded windless AU$800 cheaper than the recommended retail here by buying it on EBay. It was delivered from Canada $800 cheaper, still with full international warranty.

Why would anyone not take advantage of that? About the only reasons we can think of is the high cost of freighting heavy things in singles (making the difference in price reduce in a lot of cases) and also peoples fear of being ripped off by someone in another country on the internet. So, I have started to import boat related products to remove some of that fear and allow locals to buy from a local at a much reduced price. I am also importing in bulk so much of the freight costs are reduced by bringing in container loads. And of course my overhead is very low and as a result so is my mark up. So because of my freight savings I am as cheap as if they bought it themselves overseas without the risk. I have 2 qualified shipwrights checking everything I propose to import to let me know if they approve of the quality and because they buy at wholesale from a lot of suppliers they also let me know if the saving is enough to make it worthwhile.

So if you are after cheaper boating products check out the link below. To start I have boat hatches but more items will follow. As my motto goes, imported by boat builders for boat builders.

July 13 Slow but steady going.

I may have written this before but it bears repeating because it is a recurring theme. There are 2 kinds of work on any large project especially boats, there is what is know as HVI or High Visual Impact work and the opposite, LVI or Low Visual Impact work. Self explanatory. The frustrating thing about LVI is that they are often extremely mundane and time consuming tasks that must be done but have very low satisfaction levels. You just want them to be over so you can move on to the exciting stuff.

The sort of things I am talking about are sanding or fairing or grinding tape edges inside hatches. I have been doing that this weekend. Grinding that sends super fine glass into the air and covers you in itch dust. You have to wear a mask. Ideally full overalls to keep the dust off you but you get so hot in them that the temptation to work without them is too great. There is both good news and bad news in that. The bad news is no matter how small the task it will create heaps of dust and get you itchy even if you only have one 100mm tape to smooth. The good news is once you are itchy you wont get any itchier, or put another way, once you are covered in dust you cant get any more covered. So you may as well line up a heap of the work and do it all at once. So I ground out all of the forward hatches in the foredeck and the starboard hull ready for paint and then that hulls deck to go on next weekend followed by the foredeck lid. (I had already done this to the Port hull before painting the hatches before gluing the lid on).

My tip for this kind of annoying task is to try to get as much done as you can in one hit, but also to schedule some interesting work right after it or punctuate it with fun work so that your enthusiasm can be kept high. That is what I did today. All yesterday while I was doing the mindless grinding work I thought about the work I would do today.

After returning from the boat show I started thinking about a modification to the boat. The reason is I saw the masts that Sean has for his bi rig boat and that they will most likely sit forward of bulkhead 4 inside the walk in robe on the port side and inside the ensuite on the starboard side. The ensuite is small enough as it is without the mast bearing sockets intrusion so I decided to make a little more room in them by using some of the space forward of bulkhead 3. I started with the extra hanging space I created with the false floor in the port hull, then this weekend I started work on extending the ensuite in the starboard hull by putting the toilet on the other side of bulkhead 3 and having a curved canopy over it and a back on it to seal it from the rest of the reserve buoyancy in that hatch space that will be forever sealed.

After grinding for most of the day yesterday I stopped and measured up for the panels I would need to make this toilet space and once I had cut the pieces I would need I kerfed the curved roof and glued it so it would set over night. I also glued a conduit strip to the port hull for the tramp rod so it too would set overnight.

So first thing today, whilst the gluing from last night was still rubbery and green I removed the screws holding the conduit whilst it set and filled the hull to conduit coves ready to glass. I then left it for a while to set a little before glassing it. I went onto the toilet space to set that work up.

Yesterday using the inside panel of a doorway cut-out as my frame I cut a piece of 13mm duflex to size and cut kerfs in it and glued it into shape. I curved it around the frame but left it out at an angle as it approached 90 degrees either side as I want it to splay out into a triangular shape at the base. It starts out like the top of all of the doors then widens to angle out to the hull sides. This curved panel forms the roof of the toilet hutch, it will have 600mm side walls that will join the hulls at the hull chine on each side (so it will sit on these wall panels), that next panel down under the chine is the actual hull side and will form another of the walls down to the toilet base so it is angling back in with the narrowing hull. The hutch will be 500mm deep and start 400mm from the sole in the ensuite, the height of a normal toilet so it will be like sitting through the bulkhead to the head! It will be wider at the base, about 700mm across at the toilet height (it narrows down into the hull from there) and below the toilet top height will be where the toilet is attached and its plumbing, at the toilet top only the seat top will show through the panel that covers the space below to hide the plumbing.

So first step on building this is the base on which the toilet will sit. I cut a piece of ply to make a level false floor for the toilet to sit on. I then made a base for it to sit on level (you can just see it below the floor in the pic above). I resin coated the underside of the panel then glued it down and using the glue as the cove I glassed it completely into the hull. Then with this base glassed I went back to the tramp conduit on the port hull and glassed it on.

So next will come the top of the toilet, kind of a lid panel. The bowl will protrude through this panel by just 10mm or so and have a seal around the hole that the toilet comes through to seal all of the plumbing in below it but will need to be removable to get to the plumbing for servicing. Then the walls and curved roof will be glassed onto the bulkhead and hull sides then finally the back panel (another semi bulkhead) will go on so that when I cut the hole in bulkhead 3 for the doorway (I haven't decided yet although I think I will actually have doors so that when the ensuite is used as a shower the toilet is behind these doors and does not get wet) it opens into the completely sealed toilet cavity. Then the inside bow panel can be glued on.

I trimmed the excess of the port inside bow panel today and the end of it is interesting, it shows the difficult angles that flat panels have to fill to make a curve and how the glue and glass fill them out to form the curve from a series of flats. So after not much work during last week, I managed to make some progress this weekend and although Saturday was mostly grunt work it was a lot of fun to be making things again. As I have said, making a part not from the plans is always a little more challenging but also more rewarding.

Once the starboard inside bow panel is on and the tramp conduit goes on, the foredeck panel goes on, then another really interesting own design fabrication starts, the catwalk.

July 18 Port bow bogged.

During the week I sanded the last of the tapes and rough edges inside hatches on the starboard hull in preparation for gluing the inside bow panel on that hull and glass the forebeam in. I still have some work inside the starboard hull before I can start gluing though. I need to paint the inside of the bow locker. I will also need to glue and glass the toilet cubicle in. I have the sides and roof made. I still need to glass the kerfs and joins on the inside. Once it is glued and glassed in I can cut the opening through the bulkhead.

I decided that my notched trowel (an off the shelf model) had too many notches meaning that I have more bog to sand to get the surface fair. It does not affect the amount of bog on the end result but the more bog lines to sand the harder it is to sand, and this sanding is all manual torture boarding. Once sanded it is a little trickier to back fill as the wider the bog area the harder it is to backfill without the bog pulling (a friction thing with the trowel and fluid) out as you fill but otherwise the end result is the same with a little less effort. I settled on one notch every 25mm and I just got a normal cheap trowel and cut the notches in with an angle grinder. It took about 2 minutes!

My method for getting bog lines on is to use the flat edge of the trowel to apply a level layer of bog on the entire surface a little area at a time, then once down, pull the notched side through removing all but the bog lines through the notches. You get a build up of bog on the trowel that you use a scraper to remove back into the pot and then onto the job again in the next section as you go.

Getting the bog the right consistency is important at this stage, too wet (not enough bog powder) and the bog will run or the bog lines will self level like paint, to dry (too much powder) and the bog will pull off the job as you pull the notched trowel through. (Remember the resin/hardener is always 5:1 but you can add as little or as much powder as you need for the job.)

I have bogged around the forebeam where I ground it off to glass it in and around the conduit. There is a dip where I coved the conduit onto the bow panel. The bog strips should level that out but I am not sure yet if I want to retain the slight cove or fair it out completely. I think it will probably look better faired out and will probably be easier to fair that way.

It is most unlikely that the bog will be set sufficiently to start fairing tomorrow. That's a shame because I am so looking forward to sanding again! Tomorrow I will complete the inside of the starboard bow so that I can get on and glue that panel on.

July 19 Catwalk started.

I had a mixed day today. I didn't get as much done on what I set out to do but I did get started on the catwalk, which was to come next. Impatience got the better of me and caused me a minor setback as a result. I fell as I was getting down off a 44 gallon drum causing me to bang my thumb and a dilemma over what I wanted caused me another delay.

So the details. I got to the shed and as I anticipated, the bog has not fully hardened so no sanding today! A good start so far. Then I decided I wanted to see how the toilet enclosure would fit. I have glued the sides to the curved top (I made them out of separate pieces rather than one long piece because I need to glass the kerfs anyway and by using smaller panels rather than cutting up a full sheet to make a single length I used off cuts). but I have not yet glassed it. So moving it was risky enough but cajoling it into place inside the hull was asking for trouble. As I squeezed it into the correct place I heard a crack and knew instantly what it was, one of the glue joins had cracked. I took the picture then took it out and glued it back together. In the afternoon, while the glue was still green I carefully glassed it so that tomorrow or Monday I can re position it in the hull and glue it in. Then I can cove and glass it.

After I glued the toilet enclosure back together I painted the inside of the bow locker while it set. Then I had lunch.

After lunch I was at a bit of a loose end because I had planned to be gluing the toilet in. And then it occurred to me. I could start on the catwalk. And that was the start of a fun afternoon. But first I had the dilemma to get past. And it cost me nearly an hour. The boat is a long time built, so you want to make it how you want it now rather than re make it later. The forebeam and the foredeck run exactly parallel to each other but bows taper so the tramps are angled from the 2 parallels one each side of the boat. So the dilemma was whether to have the catwalk run exactly square to the foredeck/forebeam or to be angled at all. This decision took almost an hour. I tried a number of options using offcuts to try to visualise it finished. In the end I decided on a slight taper from foredeck to forebeam. 800mm wide at the foredeck 600mm at the forebeam. The angle does not match the angle on the hulls but to match that angle the catwalk would have to start at about 2 meters wide!

The catwalk does not need to taper, in fact it would be easier if it didn't. I have some plans for the catwalk that would make it much easier if it did not taper. But in the end this is what looked and worked the best for me. The anchor locker is 800mm wide so the catwalk starts at that size. And 600mm is about what I need at the front. The Bi Rig has unstayed masts, so I don't have a forestay in the middle of the forebeam or the striker that would counter balance it. The front is totally open. So my plan is to have a lid on the catwalk and under it will be a ladder hinged on the front of the forebeam that will lift out of the catwalk and swing over the forebeam onto the beach or into the water below. Under the ladder will be a panel also hinged to the same axle on the front of the forebeam that can swing over into the ladder to create a gang plank that can swing up to or down to any jetty if ever I nose into a berth. Being hinged it raises and lowers with the tide. I will make a box inside the tapering catwalk 600mm wide down the entire length and will figure out what to do with the 100mm each side at the foredeck. Alongside the ladder box will be a 100mm wide box (a half rectangle down pipe like those I used as the bridgedeck stiffeners) as the anchor chain hawse pipe open at the top when the catwalk lid is open (although I may split the lid so that the hawse pipe can be open with the catwalk lid shut) with holes in the bottom of it so that I can spray the chain with a salt water high pressure hose if the chain is covered in mud.

So with the catwalk size set I started to make it. I cut out the base 800mm at one end, 600mm at the other 2400mm long (the length of a sheet of duflex) and put it in place. The sides will be about 120mm but the box for the ladder only needs to be 70mm deep. I will shape the outsides of the catwalk with foam to mirror the forebeam profile so that it all matches. The conduit will be formed into the foam and all glassed down.

I got an anchor out (I have them lying around!) and set it on the end of my new catwalk. I need to be sure that I can still swing the ladder over the beam with the anchor up. I will be able to push the anchor over to one side (I have one that hinges at the front) to make room for the ladder so it should all work. I still have some details to work out with how it will all hinge, bow roller etc and how to fix it to the beam. Whilst measuring and setting out the catwalk I fell off a 20 litre drum I was using as a step up onto a 44 gallon drum. As I was stepping down from the 44 to the 20litre it moved and I fell banging my thumb against the 44 as I slipped. It slowed me down for the rest of the afternoon and I always feel a bit sore at the end of a day working on the boat especially days of up and down stepping but after a fall I feel all of my age! These things happen, and so far I have fallen about 3 times and hit my head under the bridgedeck about 10 times. I have also been quite lucky that I have not had any serious injuries. I do however have to have my other knee operated on soon.

A couple of things I have been meaning to mention for a while. If you notice some of the photos have blotches on them. This is quite common in boatbuilding photos and is dust illuminated by the flash, shots without flash don't show the dust in the air but it is there, it is always there. The other thing I wanted to mention is regarding the post earlier this month on taping. Schionning's recommend the thicker tape first then the narrow tape, but the boat builders in the shed told me this is not what they were taught at Warren's. After trying both methods and after some discussion with other amateur builders I understand the reasons for both methods. It is very difficult to not get air bubbles here and there along the edges of the narrower tape and the other reason is that it is also very easy to sand through the top tape when it has a tape edge under it when fairing. A pro might not encounter these issues but us one timers do and it is better to err on the side of safety as most of the structural strength of the boat relies on those tapes. So I will decide on a case by case basis which way I will tape, the ones inside compartments that wont ever be faired I will tape the new way, the others I will tape the old way.

Tomorrow I should get to the toilet enclosure and glue that in. I will also make the sides of my catwalk and maybe even start on the fairing although, and I am not saying this just to put off the fairing, but it would probably be better to fair once all of the front sections are glued down.

July 20 Ensuite toilet enclosure glassed in.

After my mixed day yesterday, I only managed 4 hours today. I forgot to wear my knee brace so getting into and out of the hull about 10 times took its toll, and on top of that my thumb is quite sore from yesterdays fall and just to round it out to 3 my calves are a bit sore from climbing up and down the ladder all weekend. So 4 hours was enough for me today. Oh, and Carlton were playing Sydney so it was televised here from 3pm so almost live. That pretty much clinched it.

But I did manage to make some progress. The glass on the toilet enclosure had set enough for me to move it safely so I managed to get it glued coved and glassed into the hull. With the enclosure glassed in I can safely cut out the doorway into it, so I can glass it from the inside. I did a fairly good job on the cove and glass considering how tight the space is to work in and that I had to work left handed on one side. I had to work left handed to cove the side next to the outside hull. I would give my right arm to be ambidextrous (sorry!). I will cut the bulkhead door out tomorrow and start making the back and toilet rim level base. I can glue the the rim base in but I wont glue the back in until after the hull to deck turn on as I need to get inside to cove and glass it to the bulkheads. The toilet back can be glued in and only coved and glassed on the inside as it is not structural but the deck turn must be coved and glassed to the the bulkheads and the centre join glassed on the inside. I may even angle the back wall as you don't need the room in the roof area, you only ever sit in there so don't need the head room (no pun intended).

I have been asked why I am bothering to make the toilet enclosure and why I don't just cut a doorway in the bulkhead and putting the toilet against the next bulkhead like a proper toilet room. I have 2 reasons. The space I am intruding into is ideally set aside for reserve buoyancy, but many builders put single bunks in and use up a lot of it. Everything is a compromise. So I want to use as little of this space as I can get. But perhaps more importantly, the extra duflex and glass weight is minimal compared to the effect of having the heavy ceramic toilet bowl another meter forward in the hulls. You need to keep weight out of the bows as much as possible. With this compromise idea the toilet bowl is only 500mm further forward (and anchored to the same bulkhead) than it was designed to be instead of 1500mm and against the next bulkhead.

After fitting the enclosure the fairing beckoned. I did about 20 minutes of it. I just wanted to get a start on it, I wont go at it until the whole front of the boat is on but the pic above perfectly illustrates how bog lines fair out when sanded the dips below on the panel surface. Where the dip is from the conduit cove you can see the now level tops of the beads (from being sanded level with a medium length torture board).

I made a little more progress on the catwalk. I need 150mm sides so I cut them out today and attached them to the catwalk base. There is a 30mm lip under the catwalk where a stiffening and supporting frame will be glassed on, probably ply on edge. Then the width of the base (15mm) uses up 45mm of the 150mm deep. The lid will sit inside the sides taking another 15mm leaving me 90mm inside. I figure a ladder to be about 70mm or so to sit inside the catwalk. Ignore the fact that the catwalk looks rectangular, that is distortion from the camera. The second picture shows its true shape.

I will glue foam to the sides and shape the sides to match the forebeam profile then glue the conduit to the point and glass it all. The front of the catwalk sides will be cut out to the forebeam profile shape and the back will be curved to match the foredeck shape and glued and glassed on. I haven't decided yet whether to glass the catwalk in first and then to foredeck or the foredeck first and then the catwalk to it. I suspect the former is probably stronger, I am not sure.

I am hoping to have the other hull closed up next weekend. I will probably do a little more fairing. A bit at a time it doesn't seem so bad.

July 22 Starboard bow inside deck glued on

The starboard bow inside deck is glue on. To be able to do this I first had to cut the doorway through to the toilet cubicle so that I could get inside that section to fill the gaps with glue. I will of course need to be in there to cove and glass the panel on also. The hull to deck panel is still sitting on the boat. I will need to remove it to get to the front 2 sections to cove and glass that area. I need help to lift it down as it is just too long for 1 person to handle.

I am particularly pleased with "The Alter". It is a good compromise and solution to the space problems in the ensuite. Ironically I think the mast will not be in the ensuite (and robe in the port hull) but behind bulkhead 4 not in front of it. So the mast tubes are at the front corner of the bedrooms. With doors on (and closed), the alter will stay dry when people want to use the ensuite as a shower. The further forward in the hull the more movement there is on the boat so being a small space will help with staying on the toilet in rougher conditions. I am yet to decide if I will angle the back (most likely) and how I will work the doors. I had considered roller doors to save space but they bring with them mounting issues. Hinged doors will work well enough.

So to keep moving on the build I decided to glue the bow top on even though I have not taken the hull to deck panel off yet. It is getting very cold in the shed in the late afternoons so the open time on the glue is quite long. Because the hull deck panel is still in place I used it to to act as a stop and I just lifted the inside edge of the panel straight up and put a plank under it to hold it open while I buttered glue onto all of the bulkheads. Once all the bulkheads and hull panel had glue on them I simply lowered the inside of the panel down again so that it is glued into place without moving from side to side and smearing the glue off the bulkheads.

I then ran the 2 ratchet straps around the bow either side of the forebeam then screwed tabs into the hull joins to flush the panels to each other. Then screws into the bulkheads along the centreline. Once the panel was pulled down into place well I squeezed glue into any gaps both inside and outside and I then used my finger to create a cove of glue wherever I could reach inside the boat. Finally to finish I filled glue into the joins around the forebeam. I still have a section on the top to do but I need to get inside the hull to fill that from the inside as well as the outside.

Hopefully tomorrow I will catch the guys at the shed (I have been getting there after they have left for the day the last few weeknights I have worked and they were not in this weekend) and have them help me lift the hull deck panel off so I can glass it all in.

Next (after the glassing to finish the starboard bow panel) is the foredeck and catwalk. (I am not sure which is first yet! Catwalk first then foredeck around it or foredeck first then catwalk glassed to the outside of it).

July 23 Starboard inside deck fully glued.

The glue from attaching the starboard bow panel was still very green and rubbery today so I could not sand it to clean it up for glassing. Whilst it might be ready tomorrow the back filling I did today wont be so it is better to leave it all to set properly and I will sand it on Friday ready for glassing on the weekend.

The backfilling involved removing the tabs holding the panels flush, whilst the glue is rubbery the panels are set in place, and filling the gaps behind them. I also had a gap over the beam where the panel didn't exactly meet the beam so I filled that with an offcut from the piece cut out for the beam, and there was also a gap under the beam that needed to be filled with glue. This is all filling of the core (and the glue becomes part of the core) as all of these joins and glue areas will be glassed over.

It took me a couple of days to glass inside and out on the port hull and then to glue the conduit on and then to bog the outside. I am hoping to do all of this on the weekend.

July 23 Checkout on BoatEbiz not working yet

I have just noticed that the checkout link on www.boatebiz.com.au is not currently working. I am trying to get it fixed so if you have attempted to buy something from my website please contact me directly.

July 26 Starboard inside deck glassed on

During the week I got the glue and join sanded on the starboard bow inside hull to deck panel on both the inside and outside ready for glass. The joins need to be free from sharp glue dags that would cause bubbles in the glass and also to remove any sharp corners so the transition is smooth. The inside is difficult to sand as the corners are tight and you cant get the grinder blade into them and also you have to be extremely careful not to let the edge of the grinder touch the glass, only the face of the grinder because even the slightest touch will cut through the glass. It is also a tight cramped space to work in after I glued the toilet surround in. The other area that requires care is under and around the beam although under is a much tighter angle.

So with the panels all sanded all that was required was coving where needed. So I started with them as you want them to go off a bit before glassing to them. I coved the underside of the beam first, the top didn't need coving as I just sanded and shaped the glue into a cove.

I had all of the glass pieces pre cut ready for today so I wet them all out and started applying them. 2 layers of glass over all of the panel joins and 4 layers in all over the deck to beam joins. 3 layers in a circular pattern at 150, 300 and 450mm from centre of the deck beam join out in all directions and a 200mm tape around the entire join. These pieces of glass require some slots in them to get around the very sharp corner at the leading edge and trailing edge of the beam as the glass moves from over to under. It is just too sharp a corner to get the glass down without a slot cut in it. I do this at the very last moment, once I have the rest of it in place, down with all bubbles out and I just cant get any more down with cutting, then I run the scissors in to where needed and lay the rest of the wet glass on, overlapping if needed or onto the beam and under the beam where it needs to go.

Once I had the outside glassed I moved onto glassing the inside. I can only get to half of the joins at this stage because I still have the hull to deck panel on the starboard hull. I can get into the middle void because of the toilet cut out and the one behind it, the actual ensuite but I cant get into the front void or the one over the beam with the bow locker. I will get to those once the hull deck panel is off the boat. There is no necessity for it to be done before I can proceed but it must be done before the hull deck can be glued on forever sealing the front crash void.

Tomorrow I will glue the conduit onto the starboard hull and do some more work on the catwalk preparing for it to be glued onto the boat. The usual method is to glue the foredeck panel on first then glue the catwalk to it, but I figure that because the catwalk is exactly the same width as the D section bulkheads under the foredeck I can glue and glass the catwalk sides to the bulkheads then glue the deck to the boat around the catwalk in the same way I glued the side bow panels around the forebeam, then glass that all in as well for a second point of attachment.

July 28 Starboard conduit glassed on

I have glassed the conduit onto the Starboard inside hull bow after having glued and bogged it earlier in the day. I carefully removed the screws holding the conduit in place as the glue and bog was still wet so whilst it was held in place ok the glue was green and only a few hours old (and in this weather not set at all) so a decent push or pull would have moved it. In fact I already had the first glass tape on and removed the screws by lifting the first tape up near the screws then smoothing it back down.

I coved in the usual way, applying it on with a flat edge trowel in a straight flat edge from panel to end of conduit as neatly as I could but being wet and fairly wide it pulls a wave behind the trowel that creates a bit of a trough. This wont effect the glass but will need to be faired out with the bog. I then make a corner as best I can with some filler that has gone off a little (so I wait to do this until just before glassing) so it is more like plasticine.

While I waited for the coving to go off I glued the catwalk together. Once that is set (tomorrow) I will glass it, then start on the stiffening frame underneath.

Then I glassed the conduit wet on wet after giving the coving a while to harden. I use the detail roller to ensure good contact between the glass and the conduit and cove and then again with the second layer of glass. After smoothing the fill under the glass with the detail roller the corner starts to look ok and any irregularities will be fixed with bog.

July 31 Catwalk glassed, sides glued

Not much work time this week. Just 3 hours. I have glued and glassed the catwalk base and sides. I have cut the foam to make the shaped sides (the catwalk sides are have conduit for the trampolines but these sides are the only horizontal flat surface so I have decided to glue foam to the sides and shape it to match the forebeam) and glued them into a pyramid ready to shape before gluing the conduit in.

I have not put in as many hours this month as I would have liked. I have been achieving 80 hour months for the last few months so 62 is a bit below par. Hopefully I can make some of that up next month. Tomorrow I am going to the Sydney boat show.