Decks and beam supports

July is great weather for glueing, and that is an excellent thing when there is much glueing to be done.

(Or possibly gluing. "Gluing" appears to be American spelling, while "glueing" seems to be the British. Like a good Canadian, I will proceed with the uncomfortable sensation that whichever I choose, it will look wrong.)

The first big project this week was glueing on what we think of as pads -- pieces of wood that support the beam, and other pieces on the side of the hull that stop the pressure of the lashings from prying up on the lashing strake. 

The masks are to protect against the additives, not because of the epoxy. Silica adds strength to the glue, but it's a fine, white powder that plays havoc with lung tissue if inhaled. (Never breath anything that has a disease named after it, I say.)

With the pads in place, it was time to mark and cut the plywood deck, then glue and screw it into position.

As you can imagine, the stack of plywood we began with is almost gone.

Here is the aft deck cut to fit, with the forward deck visible beyond the cabin-top mockup. The mockup is a bit the worse for wear, but it has been tremendously helpful in planning the interior. With the decks on, the boat shape appears. It's a wonderful point in the process.

Really? Not since May?

Oh dear.

What with One Thing (the garden) and Another (work, mostly, and vacation. And haymaking.) I am really behind on updating this blog. 

There's been a bit of time away from Tiger, too, as Robbie and Trevor do a few things for Penna. Here are a couple of images from today:

The oiled cockpit -- much lower than the one it replaced. On the right you can see a winch, installed on a new winch-base -- there's another one on the other side. The whole boat looks terrific and now, with no engine, doesn't smell like old diesel. 

Here we are looking intrepid and seaworthy this morning. I am not sure I should tell you that we lounged about and went out for lunch. 

There has been lots of progress on Tiger. A lot of it -- things like the beam chocks -- are exciting for us to see but don't make such lively blog images. Nonetheless, here's a few images of what has been happening on the boat.

Here you can see the cutouts for the beams.

And here the line of sanding where the lashing strake will go. (Well, "has gone" by now.)

Here's our terrific neighbour Russ, who came over to help with the sanding.

Here's Take 2 on the galley table, made to fold down and allow access to the berth. Note that the wonderful glow of natural light apparent in the berth is only there because there is as yet no deck. It will be, sadly, dimmer in the future -- no skylights. And no deadlights. We're thinking cozy.

A stove! And another stove! Here's the cooktop and a little wood-burner in the galley mockup. We likely won't use this exact wood-burning heater, since it's from Penna the folkboat, but the cooktop is the one we plan to use. They're side by side on the side opposite the companionway.

Aft hold access and shelving

Another clamping extravaganza!

Clamping...

... and more clamping...

And scraping....

And glued!

The galley mockup!

Trevor mocked up the galley last week.

I say this in a plain, bare sentence, just as if we haven't been talking about doing this for well over a year. And just as if it was a perfectly ordinary thing to do, which for me at least it certainly was not. I was finding it very hard to think about the space, and had spent considerable time sitting on the companionway steps staring about and trying to imagine things as they should be.

You may remember that a few weeks back I suggested that we go with a diet entirely composed of Cliff bars -- hence simplifying galley construction.

The complete food storage system

Can't say Trevor doesn't listen!

There's a bit more of a mockup than that, though.

The mockup includes cabin top (complete with deadlights) and hatch cover, since envisioning the space without closing it in is really difficult.

Since we're currently thinking of installing a wood stove for heat sailing around the Salish Sea, there has to be a chimney.

And of course, if there is a chimney, it has to be clearly labelled.

This is the wood stove usually installed on Penna, but removed for last summer's refit. To the left of the stove is a cabinet base for either a sink or a cooktop stove.

We're thrilled with the height of the table. Following the suggestion of our friends David and Neila, formerly of the SV Wind Chime (also a Narai Mk IV), we're experimenting with raising the floor in the seating/table area. This gives more storage space beneath, but more to the point raises the seats to the point at which the hull is wider. This means that four people can sit at the table, and also that when they are sitting there, they can see out.

The table is really spacious. At this point it's a trestle table, and we're just sliding it back and forth. We're thinking about options for folding up, taking down entirely, hanging from the ceiling -- any one of a number of possible ways to get it out of the way to create access to the aft berth. (The entry to the forward berth is under the table from this angle.)

Looking aft, you can see the companionway steps on the left. The counters facing each other will hold stovetop and sink. We don't plan to include refrigeration so there's no space built in for that.

Next steps? Living with the galley for a while. We've had coffee in it repeatedly, eaten lunch there, and will soon be entertaining dinner guests. Once we're sure how it works, the building-in process can happen -- much more easily before the cabin top is built.

How many clamps does it take to build a Wharram?

How many do you have?

Moving on up

Deck structure began appearing in late April, the week after my April 19 post.

Canadian readers will be aware of something else that happens at the end of April. April 30, to be precise -- the Canadian deadline for filing income tax. It is a wonderful thing to know that this coming year is the year that I will be organized, and that the whole process will only take moments. Note the future tense and please do not look back on last year's April entries -- I fear I may have had this idea before.

Over the forward berth

Clamps: Study # 452 on this blog!

Adding the deck beams is a transformative moment. There's a sense of a boat emerging, instead of just a large open shape. 

How many clamps does it take to clamp a sheer strake?

Lots. Here they are in action.

The sheer strake is glued and clamped.

Last week began with ripping. Robbie and Trevor planed all the 1x6
from Westwind, and then Robbie ripped it all into 1x3s.

Last week began with ripping. First Robbie and Trevor planed all the 1x6 from Westwind. Then Robbie ripped it into 1x3s. 

He used his Festool guides and skill saw on the long workbench (in the right in this picture) to do the ripping, and it worked beautifully. 

I'll add a picture later -- it's an interesting system.






Next step is decking, and the sheer strake goes in first. 

You may be wondering, "What happened to the galley?" We have been threatening to mock up the galley for over a year! 

Well, so far nothing has happened to it. We do need to do a mockup, but to do a mockup we need to figure out exactly what we want it to include. We've been thinking a lot about the things we do not want. We don't want refrigeration, we don't want a sink with a through-hull, we don't want an oven at this point anyway... and while it's helpful to eliminate the things we don't want, we aren't quite there on what we do want yet.

I did suggest that we wouldn't need a galley if all we eat are Cliff bars, and while there was enthusiasm for that suggestion it has not yet won the day.

While we dither, construction on the deck is underway. Fortunately dithering can happen mostly during coffee breaks.

Clamps and more clamps. 

The weather has been consistently reasonable for gluing recently -- so different from struggling to build when the temperature is lower. 

Clamp foot missing? There's always something
that will work!

With the sheer strake in place, Trevor began work on the deck. You can see the decking dry fit over the forward berth in the picture below.

Next up? More decking, more gluing, then likely the cabin top. 

It's an interesting time in the project. With the other hull complete, it feels like we are moving closer to completion with every step. This is the last sheer strake. The last deck over the last forward berth. Of course it was always true that any successful step forward moves the project closer to launch, but with a catamaran there was a sense of going uphill on the first hull. Now we're over the hump and on the downhill side.

And yes, I haven't forgotten the deck. And the masts. And the rigging. And the sails. And the galley mockup!

Trevor installed the shelving at the end of the berth this week, too. And I (Mary) made a singular contribution to the project, finding the book on the shelf at GIRO for less than a buck.