Interiors

Robbie and Trevor are at work on the interior of the first hull. We see dramatic progress daily, but since the dramatic progress involves gluing small bits of wood in and painting things white, it might not look as dramatic for spectators. Here are some photos, anyway. Soon we'll burst up out of the interior and on to the deck and cabin top, and there will be lots of more visual progress.

Trevor beginning his life's work. Four coats... yikes.

After coat two.

Fillets. And more fillets.

Chart table mockup

Painting is a slow process -- two coats primer, two coats top-coat, all while poised on the verticals and stringers. We're using one-part polyurethane and it looks amazingly white. In the bilge and the stern and bow compartments we've chosen bright white. The rest of the interior (above berth level) will be Hatteras Off-White. It's -- well -- off-white. No decision yet on the hull colour.

First hull turned!

Almost there! Photo by Carol Martin

The first hull is turned!


We had a wonderful afternoon. At 1:30 people began arriving for our two o'clock start. They kept streaming up the drive way until we had a total of about 80.

Over it goes! Photo by Aileen Adam

Watching the hull turn was amazing. Trevor gave clear instructions to the teams on either side of the boat, there was a brief pause, and the hull seemed to float up from the floor. Trevor, Robbie and John Carlson positioned the pre-made cradles, and the team gently settled the hull down on to them.

After the success, people stayed around for coffee, lemonade and apple turnovers -- the event-appropriate snack promised in the invitation. We made 120 of them, and they were gone, to the crumb.

Thanks to the following... and to those who came, turned, and left without writing their names down.

The hull, ready to turn

Part of the crew ready to go -- Photo by Carol Martin

Trevor Henderson, John Carlson, Naomi Melnyk, Shelagh H., David S., Grace D., Alisa P., Helen C., Stewart L., Christine W., Dave B., Patsy T., Regina, Matthew, Richard H., Claire H., Don T., Neil, Aileen, Carol M., Hiromi B., Richard B., Miriam C., Gwen S., Joke M., Kimm N., Barbara H., Raymond T., Heide B., Q. Goldman, Judy S.,  Zephyr, Frid, Leif, Lisa, Pollen, Kyron, Luke, Jim D., Linda P., Kyla S., Frank Stevens, Elisa B., Shawn G., Victor A., Bev, Paul T., Patrick R., Phil H., Judith R., Nancy, Steff, Claire, Jackie, Kevin, Hayden, Kristin, Christine, Ken D., Rick S., Raymond, Susan Y, Randy, Richard A., Jan E. Phyllis F., Cathy H., Lynne & Randy Y., Vic F., Frank B. Ursula M., Jackie D., Rick M., Mitch B, Allister M., D. Davenport, Trish N., Al B., Louise A., Iain L.

Off the floor!

Almost too high -- touching the next hull's bulkheads, hanging in the shop rafters.

Over it comes

Ta dah! Carol Martin photo

Braced and waiting for cradles Carol Martin photo

Ready for the next step! Photo by Carol Martin

Time to turn the first hull

We're inviting our Gabriola friends, family and neighbours to come and help us turn the first hull. Here's the invitation.

Our first hull is complete! And now we’re asking for your help. Please join 49 of your friends and neighbours and help us turn it right way up.

Monday, May 23 at 1:30 p.m.

1725 Petkau Road

(last right-hand turn off Whalebone Drive)

The order of events:

1:30 -- Gather and take positions

2:00 -- Turn the hull

2:15 -- Admire the results! Have a coffee, chat with friends and enjoy an event-appropriate snack

Please RSVP to Robbie or Mary, 247-0242, or mary.gabriola@gmail.com

The Centre Deck Crisis

It started when we were working on the beams. One of the steps is to glue in blocks for attaching various structures to the deck: the boarding ramp, deck pod, and engine boxes. I (Robbie) was laying out the locations for the engine box blocks, and everything felt wrong.

We are using the design improvements package based on the Tiki 38. On the Tiki 38, the engine boxes sit on the deck like big deck lockers, giving easy access to the two engines and storage for fuel, but they, along with the deck pod, also frame in a portion of the centre deck, making a cockpit-like space. The open deck between them is not huge, but it's enough for people to move around, and there's a much larger open space forward, so the deck space still feels generous. 

On the Narai, the beam locations are different. The centre deck portion is significantly longer, and the foredeck shorter, than on the Tiki 38. Also, the Narai beams are a little shorter and the hulls are wider, which results in the centre deck being narrower than the Tiki's. These differences didn’t seem significant when we were first looking at the plans. But when I laid out the engine box locations on the beams, the space left between them was obviously going to be very small, less than two feet, nothing more than a foot well between the engine boxes. 

The big open centre deck of a catamaran is one of the most attractive things about it. It's the natural place for groups of people to gather. It's a place to sleep in fine weather. It should have a hatch so you can easily haul up a bucket of water. It's the place to take a shower. And, as on the Tiki 38 and the Pahi 63, it can have a fire pit. The fire pit is part of the Pahi 63 plans, and it’s an option on the Tiki 38. The versatility of a fire pit on a cruising boat is appealing, especially for cruising in our chilly climate, but we certainly weren't going to put a fire pit in a foot well between our gasoline lockers! 

This caused us to look more closely at the deck pod as well. Here, too, it wasn't going to work as neatly as it did on the Tiki. The cabin hatches don't line up with the pod on the Narai, and the narrower deck means that there's no space to walk past the pod on either side, or else you have to make it so narrow that the watch bunk is too short to stretch out on.

So we rejected both the deck pod and the engine boxes. We're going to steer from a cockpit as was done on the original Narai design. So far, so good, but what about engines? 

On the original Narai there was an engine in a deck locker on, you guessed it, the centre deck. We didn't like that idea, but what else could be done? What, we asked ourselves, did we want an engine for? Our answer turned out to be, manoeuvring in a crowded harbour and getting out of trouble, not for getting somewhere when there's no wind. Other people have managed these things without engines. On James Wharram's own video of his Tehini, there's a clip of it being rowed. The Ariki "Piggy" circumnavigated without engines, propelling herself at times by pushing with the outboard-powered dinghy. People have been moving huge, heavy junks around harbours with a single sculling oar for thousands of years. Couldn't we be that resourceful? Yes, we could. We took a deep breath, and rejected engines altogether.

We're still not one hundred percent confident in that decision, but we're sure we want to keep our centre decks clear and open, whatever else we decide.

Glassing Hull #1

Glassing was easier than we thought it would be.

We did a single layer of glass on each side. The plans for the Narai Mk IV call for glass just up to the waterline, or up to the gunwale if desired. We decided to glass up to the gunwale, and to add five layers of glass to the keel, stem and stern post.

For the first side, we experimented a bit. After the first layer of glass, we applied a coat of fairing compound -- micro-balloons. We had read that the micro-balloons could fill the cloth with a single coat. We were not overly impressed with the results. It was quick to apply (approximately two hours for the side), but hard to get even. We ended up with quite a few drips and patches where the cloth clearly wasn't filled.

We roll-coated the second side in the usual manner, putting on two coats so far after the glass.

We intend to roll-coat the whole hull, keel, etc. once the final fairing is done.

Hours for glassing so far:
- six hours per side for the actual application of glass (three people -- one to mix, two to spread)
- two hours for fairing compound on the first side (three people -- one mixer, two spreaders)
- five hours total for roll-coating on the second side (two people -- one mixer, one roller)
- keel, stem and stern post -- approximately five hours per layer (two people -- both mixing and spreading)

Sanding took a total of nineteen person-hours, and now we are ready for fairing compound. For sanding, we used electric orbital sanders, both connected to independent dust collection vacuums.

It's stunning to look inside the vacuums at the end of the day. The filter on one of them (a shop-vac type) was coated with approximately a two-centimetre layer of white, powdery dust. The canister had at least two or three litres of the same powder. The shop itself is amazingly non-dusty after this process. Robbie and Trevor did the sanding, and wore full-face double canister respirators throughout the process. The air in the shop, though, stayed reasonably clear throughout.

Glass taped in place with painters' masking tape

Wetting out the glass

Onward!

The weather still isn't warm exactly, but it is warm enough to get back to work on the hull. Today Trevor and Robbie sanded a bit more than half of the hull, shaped the leading edge of the skeg, plugged the screw holes in the rudder post, completed a fillet joint on the stern, did a bit more filling and generally accomplished most of the steps required before we glass the hull.

Fingers crossed for continued warming weather!

Spring 2011 -- The project thus far

The first week of spring finds us with:

• A hull, upside down, awaiting fairing, filling and glassing
• Four beams, completely assembled, mostly sanded, and on their way to faired
• A second backbone and bulkhead collection, tied up and hanging in the roof of...
• Our lovely boat shop, which (touch wood) stayed standing through rain, sleet, snow and wind over the winter

Although we had dreamed of turning the first hull in late fall and working on the cabin over the winter, our timing and the weather did not cooperate. Instead, we moved to Trevor's heated boat shop and built beams -- something we had planned to do in the winter of 2012-2013.

Now it's spring, and today the temperature was 17 degrees (C) in our boat shop. Soon we'll be returning to our own place, fairing the hull and getting ready to glass.