In my middle thirties I purchased a beat up old house that had a balloon payment in five years. The plan was to fix the place up so that I could sell it for the cash to buy a blue water sailing vessel. I was overly optimistic about what I would accomplish in five years and ended up paying to get out of the house. Home ownership was abandoned for some years, but the dream of a blue water sailing vessel persisted.
The decades pass and, BAM, retirement is on my horizon! I formed a plan for a Belize retirement. English speaking Belize, with three of the four Caribbean atolls off the coast, the second largest barrier reef on earth, hundreds of cayes behind the reef and interesting places to visit along the coast. As my plan evolved, I encountered Scott Willams' excellent blog of his Tiki 26 (image link), Element II (blog link), build. This blog inspired me to build my own 26 foot catamaran to enjoy and explore the world around me during the retirement years. The prevailing East winds will provide swift reaching passsages along the North to South coastline and as a former Hobie 16 racer, I know how to get the speed out of a catamaran. The catamaran's 16 inch draft is excellent for these shallow waters where keel boats may suffer difficulties.
Boat construction started in September 2017 with the arrival of marine plywood, 20 gallons of epoxy and fiberglass cloth ordered from the U.S. Some readers have received email progress updates at earlier stages in the build, but some could not receive the associated images. I expect my updates by blog will cure this issue. Due to computer issues I may not be able to recover early build images so I'm starting at the present state of build June 2018. Both lower hulls are in an identical state of construction.
Above is the floor marked with tape to find the crossmember locations on the hull. The floor has two inspection ports for the area below.
The floor panel has been removed to expose the rails the floor is glued onto and three of the four cross members. Also shown is a jig using clamps and hot glued sticks to determine the compound angles and length for the remaining cross member.
The underside of the floor is shown with all the members installed. The cross members have received a radius so that all members form a lip around the floor’s inspection ports. Plugs will rest on theses lips to cover the inspection ports.
The bench is covered with the various lip/support members for the two floors and eight bunk panels. These parts receive two epoxy coats followed by sanding before glueing to the panels.
With the panel lip/support members glued together, the panels are almost ready for installation. In order to better see and locate things in the below bunk lockers a gloss white paint was applied to the lockers as well as the panel undersides. The lockers receive one primer coat and two paint coats with sanding in between coats. The panel undersides received one coat of primer and one paint coat. The lockers really could use a third coat, but I was not real concerned about the finish in these hidden areas and the marine paint sells for $75 USD per quart. The primer is one third the paint price, is very nice to sand and corrects minor flaws. In the future I will apply two primer coats to get better paint coverage.
Above are two bunk panels clamped to the rails as the epoxy cures.
Special clamping fixtures were required to press the panels against the rails. The slopeing rail surface made the fixtures slip off the rails until sandpaper was added to the ends of the lower fingers. One hull has all bunk and floor panels glued in place. The epoxy will be allowed to cure a few days before removing the hull from the alinement maintaining cradle. The cradle will then support the second hull for the panel glueing operation. The installed panels will greatly stiffen up the structure.
Above is the floor marked with tape to find the crossmember locations on the hull. The floor has two inspection ports for the area below.
The floor panel has been removed to expose the rails the floor is glued onto and three of the four cross members. Also shown is a jig using clamps and hot glued sticks to determine the compound angles and length for the remaining cross member.
The underside of the floor is shown with all the members installed. The cross members have received a radius so that all members form a lip around the floor’s inspection ports. Plugs will rest on theses lips to cover the inspection ports.
The bench is covered with the various lip/support members for the two floors and eight bunk panels. These parts receive two epoxy coats followed by sanding before glueing to the panels.
The two bunk panels above show the lip surriounding the opening. Note how the left panel has a squared off lip corners where the right panel has a nice radius lip in the corners. The radius lip gives things a much more finished appearance. A week and one half was spent adding the fiddlely radius lip to all the panels.
With the panel lip/support members glued together, the panels are almost ready for installation. In order to better see and locate things in the below bunk lockers a gloss white paint was applied to the lockers as well as the panel undersides. The lockers receive one primer coat and two paint coats with sanding in between coats. The panel undersides received one coat of primer and one paint coat. The lockers really could use a third coat, but I was not real concerned about the finish in these hidden areas and the marine paint sells for $75 USD per quart. The primer is one third the paint price, is very nice to sand and corrects minor flaws. In the future I will apply two primer coats to get better paint coverage.
Above are two bunk panels clamped to the rails as the epoxy cures.
Special clamping fixtures were required to press the panels against the rails. The slopeing rail surface made the fixtures slip off the rails until sandpaper was added to the ends of the lower fingers. One hull has all bunk and floor panels glued in place. The epoxy will be allowed to cure a few days before removing the hull from the alinement maintaining cradle. The cradle will then support the second hull for the panel glueing operation. The installed panels will greatly stiffen up the structure.
