A shop is never big enough. I'm accumulating piles of useful scrap as well as completed sub assemblies. The shop has taken on the character of a hoarder's lair. Materials and equipment define narrow trails leading from one remote shop location to another. The chaos level is higher than I like to tolerate. A focus on installing the sub assemblies would reduce the chaos levels. Plan A was to go full steam on completing interior fitments under the decked areas. This plan would realize near term deck installations, thereby reducing the hoarding content and chaos.
Most interior fitments use 1/4 inch plywood material and it is critical to know if there is enough material on hand. The remaining full 1/4 inch sheets and scraps were inventoried and identified with tape for future applications. There are some large 1/4 inch plywood parts to cut that could provide useful interior scraps. Plan A morphs into Plan B ....
The above image shows green fishing lines tensioned between the cabin corners. By sighting across these lines it is possible to judge if the lines lie on the same plane and the adjustments needed to create a sloping, flat, single plane cabin top surface. In practice, the fishing line elevations are adjusted on the aft bulkhead to determine the plane formed by the corners of the two forward bulkheads.
The eagle eyed will notice the left fishing line does not touch the outboard middle bulkhead. A tapered shim was later glued to the bulkhead edge to assure the side panel would sit fair against the three bulkheads.
The aft bulkhead height is adjusted to the co-planer fishing line/bulkhead intersections. A clamped on straight edge and the oscillating saw make quick work of it.
A straight edge with hot glued pointed sticks form a cabin side template. The template straight edge and stick points are transferred to the 1/4" sheet stock. A batten is sprung between the transferred points define side panel cut only requiring minor fit up adjustments.
With all the side panels cut and inplace; I Hollywooded on the decks (fake installed) to gain my first good look at what I've been building. It is difficult to appreciate and photograph the boat's shape in the close shop confines, but it is gratifying to view the boat in a more completed state.
I like the pronounced upward sweep of the bows and sterns. The cabin sides seem a little slab sided at this point, but portlights and wash boards will lighten the appearance in time. The diversion to Plan B has revealed that I should have enough 1/4 inch marine plywood to complete the boat providing I make NO mistakes. The addition of the cabin side panels has added to shop chaos as I return to Plan A.
The port side forward locker lid latch linkage is shown above. The linkage pivots on 1/4" bolts epoxied into the 3/4" thick mahogany components. The linkage is pulled/pushed through an inspection port in the forward bunk. Pull the link to extend the latches into lid mounted dogs, push to retract and release the dogs. An operator's handle was later added to the link adjacent to the inspection port.
Above is a view forward into the foremost bunk compartment. This compartment, in both hulls, received coats of primer, paint and surprisingly sturdy shelves made of 1/4" plywood. I hope not to launch an embarrassment. To that end I have added some ginger bread to the shelving to spark things up, this includes a varnished lip rail and decorative slots cut along the fiddle's (raised lip along a shelf edge) length. All of this sold through an artsy image taken through the round bulkhead opening.
The deck panels above enclose the forward bunk compartments. Preparations are being made to paint the panel undersides. One panel has been masked off in the areas where it will later be epoxied to the hull. The remaining panel needs to be scribed off while installed on the hull to mark the masked areas. I managed to get one coat of primer on these panels when I realized I have a large hole to put in these panels. I'm excited for the hole's purpose, but that purpose will not arrive until the next shipment; a month and another episode away.
This shows the foremost bunk compartment with the painted hatch mount in place. This compartment will be covered with a deck panel shown masked in the previous image.
Gingerbread Gone Wrong
My ginger breading could use some bent wood. The table sports version 2.0 of my wood steam bending apparatus. Version 1.0 had a 1000 watt electric hot plate that was too wimpy for the job and a PVC pipe for a steam box that went limp with the heat. Version 2.0 features a powerful butane hot plate and a plastic sleeve steam box. This arrangement delivers plenty of steam and heat to the wood contained within the sleeve.
My steam bending attempt was not successful. Blocks were screwed to a scrap sheet at intervals along the bulkhead opening edge to force the steamed wood against the opening's shape. The wood was not compliant enough to form to the shape and it snapped. I later learned that my kiln dried lumber is the worst thing to steam bend. I'm soaking the wood in water for a while in hopes of better results in a future episode.
As you see, I have sprinkled this episode with some cliff hangers; what are the deck holes for?, will the steam bending efforts be successful? For some, this harkens back to the days of the kid's Saturday matinee when you had to return for the next week's episode to see how Flash Gordon got out of that jam.
