Late in August 2017 I paid for shipping marine plywood and epoxy from the U.S. to Belize. As I recall this shipment was delivered to my address early in September 2017. This episode marks my first year of progress in the construction of a Tiki 26 catamaran. Progress for the last two months has been hampered by a hernia and recovery from corrective surgery. My enthusiasm for the project has not waned, but I’m presently limited by what I can do.
This is a view forward from the port hull stern. In the foreground is the aft floatation compartment followed by the aft bunk compartment with a tall bulkhead providing sitting headroom beyond. Progress has been made in a number areas here.
A semi-rectangular opening is cut through the tall bulkhead to allow a large ice chest to slide into the aft bunk compartment. The plans call for a circular opening that is far better in terms of load distribution. Below each end of the deck beam are plywood doublers strengthening the upper areas of the rectangular opening. These doublers increase the plywood thickness from ¼” to 1\2” and will be joined to the hull/deck beams by a fiberglassed epoxy fillets.
I’ve ordered an opening portlight with fly screens for each hull. These portlights feature an extruded aluminum frame and smoked acrylic glass. A full sized paper cut out is taped to the tall bulkhead to judge the best portlight placement. I think it needs to go a little left of the current position.
The aft most bullhead and the two foremost bulkheads (not visible) were trimmed in height to match deck beams flushed with the hull top edges. The bulk of this work was accomplished using a router and a patterning bit to follow the deck beam curve. The aft most bulkhead posed the greatest challenge as when the aft deck beam edge is flush with the hull edges, the forward deck beam edge is 1/16” high of the hull due to the shear (line formed at the hull/deck intersection) sweep. The bulkhead was initially flushed up to the high deck beam edge then a line was drawn down 1/16” down from the newly flushed edge. A block plane was used bring the bulkhead down to the line and then to flatten the area from the new bulkhead edge to the opposite unmolested deck beam edge. The deck beam to deck face now follows the sheer sweep (or rocker).
The router was also used to open up the deck stringer landings in the aft most bulkhead. Before long I’ll be fitting the deck stringers and decks. I intend to cut out most ¼” plywood parts before fitting the interiors with some of the scraps. These parts would include the decks and the cabin sides. I have two extra ¼” plywood sheets in the event of errors.
I’ve purchased a two burner alcohol stove as a gally center piece. Above I have mocked up a table arrangement utilizing a bunk locker cover. This compartment will receive shelving and a sink for its’ gally function. A similar table arrangement in the starboard hull will serve for navigation purposes.
The hulls are suspended, fore and aft, from above. On the right is the original suspension method with the hull resting in straps fixed above. To rotate the hull, the strap has to slip across the keel and hull surface. This was fine until the weight and added dimensions of the upper hull panels were added and hull rotation became too difficult.
On the left is the new arrangement with the hulls still resting in slings, but the sling ends are attached to a rope passing through the green overhead sheaves. The slings no longer work against the boat surfaces as the hull is rotated. A midships come along, suspended from above, is attached to a strap leading under the boat and anchored to the opposite hull edge. Operating the come along lifts the hull as well as inducing hull rotation for those who are hernia tender.
