Cabin sole...

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Two cabin sole panels are being fitted here.

The cabin sole panels need to be supported from below.

 

The cabin sole panel supports are finished and the panels are ready to be skinned.

More progress on the motor well.

There are three web frames that support the upper hull and deck panels.  Here the two forward frames are being dry fitted.

The next pieces to be added will be the #3 hull strakes.

More Motor Well & Longitudinals...

More views of motor well parts being fitted.

The longitudinals have been trimmed to fit.  They are "skinned" on both sides with fiberglass cloth and epoxy on the table.

After sanding, the longitudinals are glued in place.

Fillets are made from epoxy thickened to the consistency of peanut butter with fillers.  The thickened epoxy is placed inside a quart sized plastic ziploc bag with one corner cut off and squeezed into the corners where the panels intersect.  A rounded stick smoothes the fillets.

Motor Well.

I have been working on the motor well while it is still easily accessible.  Soon it will be surrounded by other parts of the boat making it more difficult to work on.

The sides of the motor well plug have been fitted into the motor well.  Shims separate the plug sides from the well so that the plug will not fit too tightly in the well.

Plastic has been inserted into the saw cuts in the hull to isolate the epoxy gluing of the hull cutout to the sides making up the well plug.  After the glue cures, the remaining portions of the hull cutout were cut leaving this hole in the bottom of the boat.  

The hull piece that was cut out now forms the bottom of the motor well plug.

The plug will be filled with pour foam and will be capped by the motor well hatch in the cockpit sole.

Dry fitting of longitudinals...

Vacuum bagging a foam floor.

I was fortunate to find a used carbon fiber mast from a J/90, light and strong.  It turns out to have quite a history.  It is from Eye-Eye which was previously Surfinn.  Ryan Finn completed the Single Handed TransPac in 2004 in Surfinn with a corrected time of 11:06:11:30.

The longitudinals make up the fronts of the cockpit seats as well as the bunk fronts.  Here they are being dry-fitted against the hull and over the floors prior to gluing the puzzle joints.

The outboard motor goes through a well a few feet forward of the transom.  The cut out in the hull forms the bottom of a plug which goes into the motor well when the motor is stowed in a cockpit locker

There are watertight voids at both ends of the boat which can be accessed via 10" inspection plates.  The plates screw into their frames with a watertight o-ring seal.  Doubler  rings reinforce the bulkheads.

Floors 2...

This is the grounding floor, designed to take the load from the keel when I run aground (not if, but when).  It is laminated spruce and will be reinforced with 4 layers of 300 g fiberglass cloth.  The side pieces are vertical grain fir.

The foam floor in the foreground has been reinforced with fiberglass and carbon cloth using a vacuum bag.

Fillets, Foam Floors 1...

A fillet is necessary on both sides of the bulkheads where they intersect the hull strakes and everywhere else where plywood panels meet.  I am using a mix of fillers recommended by Russell Brown which results in a medium hard fillet that is still sandable.  The area of the fillet is primed with straight epoxy + hardener, then fillers are added to the remaining epoxy mix until a peanut butter consistency is reached.  The mix is applied to the primed joint and smoothed with a stick cut to the proper radius.

Now I am working aft of the keel trunk installing the floors.  There are three floors that are built up from layers of foam and a spruce floor that will be immediately aft of the trunk.

Each layer of foam was cut using a full-sized pattern furnished by Bieker Boats.  Six layers of 1/2" foam are glued together.

This floor has been shaped to fit and is ready to be glued to the hull strakes.  The 1" PVC limber on the center line will allow spilled water to flow to a collection area lower in the boat.

Floors A and B have been glued and fillets have been started.  Floor C is being glued, held down by lead bars.

The three foam floors are almost ready for reinforcement.  They will each get 8 layers of 2" wide carbon tape interspersed with 4 layers of 300g cloth.  The two floors in the foreground will be extended up after #3 and #4 hull strakes have been installed.

Hull Stringers and #2 Hull Strakes...

Composite stringers will be used to add stiffness to the hull and deck.  A groove is cut in the 7/8 inch square spruce stringers to accept a 1/8 inch by 1/2 inch carbon fiber rod.  The carbon strip forms a flange on the stringer which allows the stringer to have a relatively small section but provide a lot of stiffness to the panel.  A wood only stiffener with the same stiffness would be about 1 1/2 times as wide and deep.  Here a carbon rod is being glued into a spruce stringer.

The # 2 strakes have a bit of curvature up forward to conform to the shape defined by the bulkheads.  Kerfs cut in the forward section of these strakes make it easier to bend them.  The kerfs are cut with a Skil saw using a batten as a guide.

Here are the # 2 strake sections ready to be glued together.  Fiberglass cloth will be applied to both sides except on the inside of the forward section.  After the final shape is attained the kerfs will be filled with thickened epoxy and covered with fiberglass cloth.

Moving the completed panels from the table to the jig is a multi-person job.  The panels are floppy but strong.  Grant and Russ gave me a hand.

Looking aft, all these strakes will assume quite a different shape with the aft bulkheads and transom in place.

Starting to wire the #1 and #2 strakes together.  The Spanish windlass helps to pull the strake against the bulkhead.  One of the carbon fiber/spruce stringers loosely in place.

Minte is helping with the tie wires.