The story of Mahna Mahna started the moment we decided we wanted to build our own Catamaran and then sail the world on her, but the actual building started in September 2005. The initial materials for our Schionning 1230 Wilderness Catamaran arrived from ATL composites and some other suppliers, over August 2005 and work on the strongback, the frame upon which the hulls are built, started in September. The journal starts with the building of the strongback. We will endeavour to pass on what we learn in the building process as we go and we welcome any questions or advise from anyone either following us or ahead of us in the journey. There are many different methods used by builders and the methods we use and describe on our site are suggestions only. You should always consult your designer and materials supplier for the best method of construction.
September 2008 Odd jobs again
The Bows are closed (on the inside of each hull) as is the foredeck. Next I will glue the side decks on. I had intended to, as I have every month for the last 3, to make the cabin top but I think it will be put off again because 9 Lives is very close to finished and ready to move out, so if she is gone next month, making the roof can take place where it now is meaning I can work more freely than I otherwise could under the bridgedeck. In the meantime there are a bunch of jobs that need doing, like gluing in the dagger cases and starting to run conduit for wiring in the soles as well as plumbing in water-pipes. There are rudders to make, rear steps to plan and make and the duckboard enclosures to make, so there are literally months of work to go on with, without touching the endless fairing that still needs to be done.
Sept 2 Bedrooms walls glued in
Believe it or not, it is the start of another season. These 3 month slabs seem to be flying by. At the start of each season I check out the sample plate with Pureseal on hanging under the pier in front of where we live. I got quite a shock when I lifted it this time. I actually lifted it out about 3 weeks ago because I was due to meet the importer again at the Sydney boat show and I have been reporting my findings to him, so I needed to know how it was fairing. It looked quite different 3 weeks ago! Having said that, the change was not a failure. The 2nd sample (the 1st failed dismally as the picture below shows!) has now been in the water 21 months. After finding it covered in green slime I found that the slime is very superficial and not well attached and comes off quite easily leaving a more well adhered layer of algae below it. This layer also comes off with a little more rubbing with nothing more than the pad of my forefinger.
But very fine scratches are now on the surface after being rubbed each 3 months, so I find that I now have to give it a little more vigorous rub with a cloth, still no more than 30 seconds to clean it, which is all the well considering the size of the sample and the size of my hulls, but nevertheless I still consider that this is still a success. I doubt the 10 year claims but in 3 months the sample is 2 years and I would suggest that it could last 5 years at the rate of degradation so far and that would be a major triumph. Considering what is involved in slipping and de-fouling old antifoul then recoating 2 hulls with new antifoul every year to 18 months or 3 times in 5 years, and the cost and time this would take (I estimate at least $2000 to slip, clean and reapply new antifoul), and what this alternative offers, a rub once every 3 months with little more than my hand or at worst a mop or a rag, for little more cost than the time it takes to do it, for 5 years.
On the boat I removed the peel ply I attached to the glassing of the bedroom side of BH4 and glued the bedroom walls in place. I had already measured their position a few weeks ago and marked them on the bulkheads and floor in readiness for them being glued in. The peel-ply had a bubble here and there, very few and not a major problem but the pictures below show what a bubble in the peel ply does. It leaves what looks like a hole in the resin, and in some ways it is, and I suspect some filler would level it out again or I could just sand them out.
With the peel ply off I got on and glued the bedroom walls into the boat. The walls are not both centred on the bridgedeck, that is one is closer to the centreline than the other. The port bunk will run athwartships and a queen bed is 200mm long. The end of the mattress will overhang the chamfer panel but because of the extra length required, the back wall is 100mm closer to the centreline than the starboard bedroom wall. The starboard bunk runs fore and aft and a queen bed is 150mm wide meaning I don't need as much space on that side. The area inside the 2 bedroom walls is 600mm wide and will house the main anchor well in the front 600mm and behind them will be 2 300 litre water tanks, one in everyday use, the other only ever used on long passages.
I cant screw the wall panels in from below (I cant make holes in the underwing as this ruins the integrity of the panel, you can fill and patch but I don't want to ruin an otherwise sealed panel) or from the front because of where the D section bulkheads are inside the foredeck, (if I could even get to them because the foredeck hatches wont be cut in until the foredeck is faired) so I could only secure the walls from the other side of BH4 in the saloon and one screw on an angle through the top on the front. So because of this I have to wait until the glue is set before I can cove and glass the walls in. I held the walls in place along the bottom with large blocks of heavy hardwood either side as stays, just sitting there not screwed into the deck because again, I cant risk piercing the deck.
Doing 1 wall at a time, I buttered each end of each wall and by placing the front edge in place after glue is on the edge and I pushed forward as hard as I could and pushed back on BH4 to create a gap so that the back edge glue would not be all scraped off, which worked to a degree, then I raised the walls off the floor about 100mm and held them there with chocks while I butter the underside of the walls before removing the chocks to lower the glued walls onto the floor. I then screwed the walls in place through BH4 and BH3 at the top while pushing down hard to push the walls against the floor. I then pushed more glue into the joins where needed and scraped excess glue that had squeezed out off with a scraper and made a cove with my finger. I repeated this on each wall and left them to set in place after checking they were square to the floor and to each bulkhead.
With little holding them in place I will need the glue set in order to cove and glass them, there is no way I could do it until they are set. The glue should be set enough that I could start on them tomorrow. Once they are coved and glassed they are in for good and another task is ticked off as the floor plan takes final shape.
Sept 6 Bedrooms walls coved and taped
Another week where I got little done, I had a trip to Melbourne on Monday, and meetings in Sydney all day Thursday, and another body part starting to show wear and tear. I must have slept in a strange position on Monday night, exhausted after a really long day in Melbourne, a 9am meeting meant I was up at 3am and when I woke Tuesday I had a sore neck. I thought nothing of it expecting it would go away after a couple of days. But on Thursday not only did I have the sore neck but now I had pain running down my arm and numbness in my arm and tingling in my thumb. I saw a physio on Friday who told me the inflammation in my neck was likely pinching a nerve causing the numbness and tingling and it could take another week or so to to away. So not much done during the week, the most I got done was to have all of the glass tapes cut to size for the bedroom wall tapes, and to strip off some peel ply.
Today I coved and taped the 2 bedroom walls. I had already cut the tapes so I started with the coving. I coved all 4 sides before starting on the taping, that way they will have had a chance to go off a little before going back to the first one and taping it. I moved the resin and hardener to the boat to save having to constantly climb up and down off the boat. I wet out the tapes on a length of ply on the foredeck that has about 20 layers of resin on it as it is my usual wet out table. Once each sides tapes were on I put peel ply on to finish them. It took me half the day to do the 24 tapes (4 panel side, 3 edges, 2 tapes each). I used to attempt one long tape around the 90 degree corners, now I use 3 tapes instead. Much easier, same amount of glass and resin and just as effective. Once done I stopped for lunch.
After lunch I started work on the port side deck. I marked the position of bulkhead 6 and after measuring the distance from hull centreline to dagger case centreline I was able to mark the dagger case centreline on the side deck (very easy as the edge of the sidedeck is the hull centreline). From that centreline I was able to draw the dagger case outline in the correct place on the deck. I then cut it out with a jigsaw. I wont know for sure that it is exactly right until I put the side deck back onto the boat over the dagger case but I am confident it is right. I checked the piece I cut out against the dagger case and it is the correct size so it is just a matter of the cut-out being in the correct place and the sidedeck should slide over the protruding case and against the bulkheads in exactly the right position. Next I sanded the inside of the entire side deck. Once back on the boat it needs to be keyed so that the glass to each bulkhead and to the hull panels along the edge will adhere properly. There are also a number of bubbles under the glass on the port side as I had trouble lifting the panel back onto the boat to set when the inside glass was wet and it flexed causing a number of bubbles. I ground the raised glass off the top of the bubbles and will now need to glass over them again. I will use tapes, the whole surface does not need to be re-glassed just where the glass is ground away. I am not concerned about the raised glass of the tape as I wont be fairing inside the sidedeck, it will be covered with foam backed vinyl lining everywhere except in the bathroom.
The sanding took most of the rest of the day. With the little time that was left I lifted the dash panels into place to get a rough idea of how they will fit and how the space through the cabin side wrap around will allow me to have some of the wrap around window through into the bedrooms, a result of the raised dash height. The front of the wrap around in the bedrooms now has room for a full size hatch through to the deck and the wrap around window can go past the dashboard so as to cover both the saloon and the bedroom. The dash wont get glued on until after the saloon wrap around is on as the raised dash changes the shape of the dash so it will need to be trimmed to the correct shape once the saloon wrap around is on. I will probably make a cardboard template from the inside shape and then transfer that to the dash and cut it.
The reason I put the dash on was to ensure the side decks are in the correct place and prepare to glue them on. It also creates another great work space. With the side decks in place and the dash sitting in place, the size of the bunks starts to fully emerge, headroom also.
Tomorrow I will continue with a variety of smaller jobs. I was not able to work as fast as usual today due to the numbness in my thumb and I am sure tomorrow will be similar. Not to worry, any progress is better than none, hopefully my body wont completely fall apart until I finish!
Sept 7 Side decks glued on
Yesterday was the perfect day for boatbuilding, pouring down outside and not hot, today not so good, the sun out shining and a bit warmer. My thumb is still numb so as a result, I really didn't get much done today. I did work for 4 hours and stared at various parts of the boat for another hour. I will count that as 5 hours today because the hours spent in contemplation of where things should be and how things can be done is all part of the building process.
What I did do today is HVI (high visual impact) work. I glued the side decks on. These go from the centreline to the base of the wrap around cabin sides. On the port side I had to use the hull centreline as my guide (the planked hull to deck go up and around to the centreline) on the starboard side the hull to deck panel is still sitting in place so I simply butt up to it.
I did have to cut small fill in parts to fill in the front of the deck to the foredeck. I did this by measuring the end width, 300mm and traced the curve from the existing part of the panel out until the panel was 10mm, the curve of the fill piece finishing the curve of the entire deck.
The sidedeck was glued to the foredeck and to BH5. Another deck plank glues to the end of this panel and to BH6 but for now that is just sitting in place. It would also be glued to the hull to deck panels if they were glued on but I am leaving them unglued until near the end. On the starboard side this panel is still sitting on the boat so the effect of it being there is to close the hull in as it will be when it is all glued and glassed. This has a very high visual impact. The unmistakable Schionning shape immediately shows itself.
Besides the hidden work that needs to be done to finish this section, such as glassing the panels in but the next big visual work is to make the cabin roof. Once it is made and on the boat the cabin sides go on and that will just leave the steps and cockpit seats to close the entire boat to lock up stage. The roof will probably take me a month so I am keen to get a start on it.
Sept 13 Side decks glassed
I have had a very frustrating week. I did not get to the shed all week until Friday afternoon, where I managed a couple of hours of prep work for glassing the foredeck to sidedeck that I had glued on Sunday. I ground down the glue smooth ready for glass tapes. I also still have a pinched nerve in my neck effecting my right arm and thumb, I have a loss of sensation and pins and needles in my thumb. I have had physio twice and a ct scan and it appears I have a bulging disc in my neck which is pressing the nerve. I am not sure what the long term holds with this. I am still able to work so it could be worse, but it is uncomfortable at times.
Today I got stuck into some very unpleasant work grinding inside of the section where the curved strip planked foredeck meets the curved strip planked inside bow top. The join where they meet has an overhanging section that needs to be cut or ground down and the join rounded so that it can be glassed. It will also require some filling to smooth the inside planking so that glass can smoothly apply. It is in a cramped section of the boat where I will need to work upside down so I will get covered in dust. And just on cue, today was the hottest day since January!
It got to 29 degrees today and guess how much hotter it was inside the cramped section I was working in. Once I had the excess of planking hacked away I started grinding it smooth. I started by cutting it using a diamond tipped blade on a grinder belonging to the builders, but what I didn't know is that whilst the blade is capable of cutting glass, it cannot cut balsa! Apparently it makes the blade get hot and burns it, ruining it. Go figure! So after being told that I could only cut the top layer of glass with it I did that then hacked with a hammer and chisel to remove as much overhang as I could before attacking the rest with the grinder to get it as smooth as I could. I didn't do too good a job but fortunately this side is a closet so will get a vinyl lining. The other side is the ensuite so the practice may mean I do a better job and I will need to as it is a wet area so will need to be faired and painted, I can however use bog to smooth out the job further.
Once I had it as smooth as I thought would be acceptable to get a clean glass layer I mixed up some glue with filler in it to spread over the join to fill all of the unevenness then wet out some tapes and glassed the join. While working in this area I have ground out all of the glue dags in the areas that need coving and taping and will do them next.
The guys working on Nine Lives had to go so before they left I got them to lift the hull to deck turn onto the boat so that I could finish the side deck work which needs this panel in place to set the levels near the cockpit as the boat curves down to the stern. I had cut the dagger case into this panel last weekend but I was not sure it was exactly right. When the boys lifted the panel up it was a little tight on the up-haul slots so a quick hit with the grinder and over she slid. A really nice fit too, with the only big gap being a 10mm gap at the back of it where I cut the hole just that amount too long. This is a really easy fix as I simply fill the gap with filler. This gap is small compared to some of the hull plank gaps! The dagger case is not glued in yet, I am yet to de-core the hull or make and fit the grey tank that is going in behind the case. I will have to remove this panel again but for now it was in my way so on the boat is the best place to store it out of the way.
With the glassing inside done I set about glassing the top of the deck joins where the foredeck meets the side deck that I had prepared for glassing by sanding smooth the night before. This was a pretty easy job, in fact so easy I wet the larger tape out then the smaller tape out over it which is my usual practice, this soaks up some resin into the dry tape so ensures you use a little less resin and as the join is flat I simply picked the 2 tapes up together without taking the second tape off first and repositioned them on the job (I wet out on a length of ply sitting just behind the join) and rolled out any air bubbles. I should have put some peel ply on but I was tired by this stage having worked a pretty hard day. I will sand them then bog the tapes.
During the day, Jo dropped by as I had planned a clean up under the bridgedeck to get started on the roof but the boys were spraying 9 Lives with primer which meant we had to wear masks, we stopped for a while to watch them and got this fashion shot while doing so. With the shed full of paint mist we decided against working for a while and Jo went home. I needed to wear a mask in what I am doing anyway so I just got back on with it. Tomorrow I will post some Nine Lives pics. It is only a few weeks (probably 6) from launch now.
Tomorrow is forecast to be cooler so I will hopefully get some more of the unpleasant work done but the warm weather is coming and we have a very hot shed so the pace will slow. Hopefully the work will be exciting as the boat gets closer to lock up and will keep me working hard.
Sept 14 Clean up day
Little to show for my work today. I only spent 5 hours, 4 hours cleaning and hour measuring and sorting panels and planning the next stage of the build. I have a new plan. I have ummed and ahhed about whether I should build the cabin top under the bridgedeck or wait for the other boat to move out of the shed. Although it is very close to moving now I have decided to get a start under the boat then move out when the other boat is moved if I have not yet finished the top.
Every now and then it is important to have a clean up. I have not had a serious clean up for a few months so I was long overdue. There was a lot of dust from the fairing of the other boat and I also had offcuts and peelply all over the place. I rearranged the panels that are still left over and got to the 3 big panels that form the wrap around cabin side and front and put them in an accessible place, they will be required once the cabin roof is in place on the boat.
I decided to go ahead with the cabin top yesterday. I have a lot of low gratification work to do and it is getting hot again, so in order to not lose motivation I will intersperse the hard grunt work with exciting high visual work like making the cabin top. Also in the heat it is much hotter up on the boat as I am 2 meters closer to the roof where the hot air has risen to and under the bridgedeck it is about 10 degrees cooler. The only drawback is I have to work bent over, but I will probably do most work on my knees so it wont be too bad.
The cabin top is the last major boat part that I have to make, or at least it is the last big part, I still have the furniture to fabricate and the rudders (and rudder boxes), the rear steps and cockpit seating, the targa bar and all the plumbing and wiring. Once made and the wrap around are on, the boat is practically at lock up (the side hull to deck panels still have to be glued on) but I will have the shell pretty much done save for fairing so most of next year will be spent inside the boat and maybe dust and rubbish can be kept a little better under control.
Sept 21 Cockpit (very) rough in
I am ready to start working on the cabin top whenever I decide I am too impatient to wait any longer to get started and am willing to put up with making it under the bridgedeck. I have the underwing area clean and I have the strongback ready to put in place as a platform to work on. In the meantime I have decided to seal the cockpit so that when the roof is made and fitted and the cabin sides go on the boat is effectively closed (except that the side decks are not yet glued on) and I can get on with the internals. When an area of furniture or any other section of a job is set out it is called a rough in. What I did this weekend was a very rough in!
Yesterday was the hottest day of the year so far, (remember how I lost motivation in January because it was so hot!) so to combat the heat I decided to work off the boat as much as I could, so finding pieces that will fit and cutting them to size meant I stayed a bit cooler. It did mean climbing up and down the steps a lot and up on the boat is 10 degrees warmer than on the floor, but it was not hard work so I did get some done but even so I started around 10 and found by 3pm I was too hot and tired, so today I started at 7am and finished at noon. So only 10 hours this weekend, and 2 during the week so not a great week for progress but it all helps.
I got a kit with walk through transoms and I decided long ago (but after I got the kit!) that I would not be having the walkthroughs, they can only be used with inboards, which I wont be having and they also take a lot of internal head room, too much sacrifice for me. So I have to create my own cockpit. I had already set out and glued in the shape of the cockpit some time ago but now that I have glued the side decks in I can make the rest of the parts from the kits parts I do have, none of which are much good, and create the parts that will work for my design. Because there are no full size parts I have to glue and patch parts together. No big problem once you know what you need, just a lot of cutting a gluing but once finished the end result will be exactly the same as if I had a kit to start with. I hope!
There were some parts I could adapt, such as the curved rear seat top which still need a lot of modification and because of that it wont stretch to the entire rear seat span, well it was never going to be able to once I decided there would be seat where otherwise there would be walk through. Another part I am able to use is the seat back of the front of the port side of the cockpit as this is the only part that has mirrored the original. Just as well because it has a curve in it and I just cant get my head around making these angles, but with one made I will be able to make the other 2 (there are only 3 corners on my cockpit). Whilst I could not figure the angles out before hand, where a boomerang shaped panel becomes flat along the bottom (and top if shaped that way) once curved. I first saw these when making the dingy. If Warren had not shown me first I would have been lost. That experience though, made it understandable now, so that when I saw the panel I immediately know how it would be kerfed and the shape emerge. It also taught me how to create a kerf that would work. I roughly round the centre of each radius, top and bottom and marked it in, then I marked an equal number of marks either side along the bottom to the ends of the radius (where it becomes straight again) then an equal number along the top, this radius being larger means the spacing is wider so you have a fan shape of kerfs. Then once cut it will bend perfectly to shape. In this case the kerfs are on the outside of the seat but as usual the inside of the curve. With this curve as a template I have the mold for the other 2, although James told me of another easy way to create curved seat backs, butt join 2 flats then run strips in the corner until I have the curve I want. I will probably still go with kerfs but I can see how that would be a fairly easy method also.
I have all of the parts cut except for a couple of parts on each hull where the cockpit meets the hull sides. The seat backs are higher than the hull sides so that I have a lip about 100mm around the cockpit so that if any water sweeps down the decks when it reaches the cockpit it cant spill into the cockpit, it will continue along the deck and down the stairs back into the water. I cant make those sides until I have the seats in place and the decks in place, the decks need to be curved in place so for that I need temporary bulkheads back in and as it is over a short area maybe some kerfs to help the panel bend.
In the meantime I will have to trim all of the parts to the exact size and glue all of them together. The cutting is easy, I just overlap them and trace the top panel to the bottom one and cut along that line. I will glue the parts to each other before gluing the full size panels onto the boat. Before I glue the full panels down I may need to run some conduit in place for the various wiring, much easier to do now while it is all open than later when all sealed. Once the panels are glued on I will fair it all before cutting the hatches back out again. Most voids along the back and front of the cockpit seating ends up as lockers, only the sides of the cockpit are not, they are the bathroom on the port side and the rear bunk on the starboard side.
Considering how hot it was this weekend I am pleased to have got the cockpit parts all sorted. I think the cooler weather is over and I have 6 months of this heat to come. Knocking off early today I also got to go on a lovely afternoon drive with Jo. I still have to make the steps in each transom and then I have completed everything that comes in the kit. I think I have enough duflex left to do that, I am a little short of duracore but I think I have enough duflex to cover that also. I may even have enough to build the raised duckboard.
Sept 24 Cockpit seat tops forming
Because I am making the cockpit seating from parts and offcuts I have formed a number of smaller pieces into 3 larger panels, one piece curves around the port side of the boat around where the breakfast table will be, the other side (starboard side) also has a number of parts formed into a single panel that covers the helm seat base and around to the back of the boat to the third panel that curves around to form the rear seat all the way along the rear bulkhead from one side to the other.
Once this is set I will glass the joins then back on the boat one final cut on each side to match the joins of these panels to the rear spanning seat top panel to each other then I can start to glue and glass the panel onto the seats and then finally the seat backs can be glue and glassed on to seal the cockpit. A lot of the rear spanning seat will become hatches so I wont glue this section down initially but the side seating is directly above the accommodations below (bathroom on port side, bedroom on starboard side) so the seat tops wont have any hatches through them so they can be glued straight in.
I also have to glue another layer of duflex to the front lip of the seat overhangs so that the lip becomes 25mm or so, so that it can be rounded and glassed, but this will be done on the boat once the seat tops are glued on. I have started stripping some offcuts to glue on.
Sept 28 Cockpit taking shape
The heat is restricting the productive work time. And there are 6 months of this to look forward to. Whilst building the boat I much prefer winter to summer (of course once it is done I will be chasing an endless summer!). I have a plan for when the boat is closed in and the work moves inside the boat. I intend to run an air conditioner into the saloon through a panel I will use to close the door up and keep the cold in and hot out. But in the meantime I am not getting the hours in I should because after about 1pm the heat in the shed on a sunny hot day is stifling.
I have managed to glue all of the scraps and offcuts and panels made for the walk through transoms into the finished cockpit shape I had envisaged. I have made my cockpit as wide as I could by making the seat uprights right on the chamfer so the cockpit is the entire width of the bridgedeck. I figure this is an area of the boat we will spend a lot of time on and with guests we wanted to feel as large as we could make it.
With the seat tops made I have started to glue the side seat backs onto the boat, from these the seat bottoms will be glued and glassed and once they are in the shape forms a girder like structure and should become very rigid, so that they can be sat on or walked on without direct support below.
Under the helm I glued a partition so as to create an area that can be open to the cockpit with a lid that will have a drain plug in the bottom (straight out under the bridgedeck) and will be used as an ice trough for drinks when we have people on board to save going inside for cold drinks from the fridge, the rest of the time is can be used to store anything really. Behind that the cupboard formed will be open to the aft bunk for clothing. It is quite a large area more than a meter wide and deep but about 500mm high. I may put a partition inside, but it will have double doors on it. There will also be a smaller cavity area inside the aft bedroom under the seat top but this will only be large enough for a few books, or a cup of drink, more like a bedside drawer. Inside the port side mirrors that of the starboard side but because the port side will be the bathroom there is no need for the entire width room (as needed by the bed on the starboard side) so I will put a blackwater tank in the rear section and a wall will close off the sides, into which a cupboard will be built for the water maker. There isn't the wide cupboard formed by the helm seat on the port side.
The starboard side is also taking shape. I have decided that instead of gluing all of the wrap around seat back together into one long section then kerfing them in the correct place, it will be easier (and perhaps a little stronger) to just join the corners in 2 panels then to cove the curve in or glue a small kerfed shaped panel in to form the curve. What is behind it is hidden and not a space that can be used anyway so it wont make any difference to the end result.
In the last photo you can see the gap I am leaving in the rear seat back. The seat back will be formed by stainless steel tubes (2) with round padding around them and a small gate in the middle, then entire stainless fence area about 2 meters wide. You can also see the start of the step I will make so that the step down from the walk through which is at seat top height from the duckboard (which will be raised to the same height with cupboards below once made). Once the middle section is glued and glassed the ends can be tortured around the the seat again to form the symmetrical curved step. This will complete the cockpit fit in.
After all of this is glued and glassed in on the outside, the next step is to cut the lids into the seat tops so that the inside glassing can be completed.
Sept 30 Cockpit step glued in
I decided that the cockpit step was too wide and too deep, it was 2500mm wide across the cockpit and 300mm deep into it. I tried only 1500mm wide at only 150mm but the step was not deep enough and I figured if being too narrow there was a risk of slipping or tripping off it then it defeated the purpose of having a step, so I tried 250mm but at this depth but 1500mm wide I could not torture the board into place without kerfs, so I settled on 2 meters wide and 250mm deep which is the same as it is high, the seat height is 500mm and the step is at half way. This presented the best compromise of lack of protrusion into the cockpit space but deep enough to step on (most stair risers are about this depth and height) and the step curves 2 meters wide and starts each side at about the same point as the seat ends on the forward seats.
I ground the end of the step front to about 45 degrees so that it would sit against the front of the seat and I marked the centreline on the step front and lined it up with the boat centreline marked on the bridgedeck and seat. I placed 2 spacers (offcuts of duflex) under the step front to keep it up off the deck whilst I buttered it with glue. I then placed planks of wood to wedge one side into place with the 250mm spacer at the middle (not glued or screwed in place) I bent the step front around under pressure to the seat front on the other side creating the curve and wedged that side into place also.
I buttered the bottom edge with glue and removed the spacers and pushed the step front down onto the deck. I let one of the braces off slightly so I could get some glue on the side edge and re wedged it in place and repeated that on the other side so that now the step front was glued on all edges and wedged in place. I tried to spread the wedge plank load out but using duflex offcuts so that it did not create a flat spot when glued. I then coved the ends with filler and glassed the front on (and peel ply to ensure a nice finish), so that when the glue is set and with the help of the glass the step front will stay in place without the braces whilst I cove and glass inside and out.
I will remove the centre spacer once the glue is set and I wish to use the space under the step to store my fishing rods, it is 2 meters wide so my rods (about 4) and reels should fit in there in 1 piece. I will create a top for the space which will be the step. The seat front is curved as is the step front (the other way) so I will need to cut the curved lid with a straight line so I can hinge the lid as you cannot hinge a curved lid, it must be straight. This will reduce the size of the lid but I think it will be big enough to get the fishing rods in and out.
I only managed 60 hours this month due to losing work time in the heat of the last 2 weekends. Ironically the weather seemed to cool during the week and heat up again on the weekends which is Murphy's law as you seem to get the opposite when you want it! Anyway I have a plan to beat the heat this summer once the cabin top and sides are on. I have an old air-conditioner I will place in the doorway with a ply door in plugging the doorway with a cut-out for the aircon to keep the cool air in the boat. That plan may not work if I decide I need to cut the windows out of the wrap around to let light in. I am sure I can resist that temptation until the end of summer. I have plenty of lighting I can use, I would rather work by candlelight in a cool environment than in bright light in stifling heat!!
Perhaps next month I might finally get that roof started.
