Let There Be Portlights

Heavy rains have expanded the across the street and recently mowed swamp to record size.  This is the source of frog serenades and an abundance of mosquitoes.  I suspect the five white egrets are seeking the frogs.  Possibly a dozen of these large egrets are roosting in the trees behind the house next door.  This is the first time this has happened in the nearly three years I've lived in my house.  The egrets have many vocalizations.  At dawn and dusk they get riled up and I'm treated with background sounds from old Tarzan movies.

The bow and stern cleats received 1/8" thick backing pads secured by screws to the deck undersides.  The 1/8" stainless steel flat bar material arrived on the last once a month shipment.  The decks are now one process away from installation.  The shipment arriving at months end will provide the primer/paint to apply before installation.  I look forward to an upcoming sudden assembly event!

Solar Charging System

The beginnings of the solar charging system is shown mounted on the starboard hull.  All of these components required wooden standoffs so the equipment mounting screws don't penetrate the hull.  A 100 amp hour battery will reside below the bunk in the painted compartment to the left.  The battery leads will pass through the bulkhead and then up through a hole (lower left in unpainted compartment) to connect to the charging system.  My estimated electrical loads are small.  The battery positive terminal is fused at 30 amps.  Smaller diameter and more flexible #6 battery leads are suitable in this low amperage arrangement.

A shunt is mounted in the upper left.  The battery negative lead attaches to the shunt's lower brass stud.  A lead from the shunt's upper brass stud will pass over the blue box tops and connect to the negative distribution buss mounted upper right.  The shunt measures all the current flowing into and out of the battery.  This is tracked by a battery monitor that displays the state of charge as well as other parameters.

The three blue boxes are MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracker) charge controllers and said to be the most efficient type.  These receive input directly from the solar panels and adjust the voltage and current to match the battery's state of charge requirements.  Why three charge controllers you might ask?  The output of solar panels wired together is markedly reduced if any of the panels are shaded.  A boat with lines and sails is likely to be shading any one of the panels at any time.  At least one of the three panels should be able to do its' best when others are shaded. 

 To the right, below the negative distribution buss is a fuse block.  The battery positive attaches here with fused connections only to the charge controller's positive outputs.  The charging system is always energized, there is no on/off switch.  These charging components lay the groundwork for a disconnect and switched/fused circuits to come.    I await a future shipment of wire, lugs and other items to begin making connections.

Best of all, the battery monitor and charge controllers are equipped with bluetooth and an app.  I'm destined for a future of nerding out as partly demonstrated above.  Enough with nerding and on to things more visually stimulating ....

The outboard cabin sides are prepared for flush mounted portlights on internal mounting flanges.  Portlight sizes and shapes can do much to affect a boat's visual appeal.  I like the upward sweeping line of the shear.  The portlights' bottom cutout "mirrors" the shear sweep while the top cutouts follow the straight roof.  I think this has a pleasing aesthetic while blending the transition from curving to straight.  It is difficult to judge what is really aesthetically pleasing within the shop confines, Hopefully, shock and dismay will not be experienced when viewed at an all encompassing distance in the light of day.

There must be compliance in the portlight mounting method to accommodate the differences in plywood and acrylic thermal expansion rates.  This is accomplished by cutting the acrylic 1/8" smaller in dimension than the flush mount opening all around as well as using a 1/4" thick bedding adhesive.  The mounting flange face is positioned 1/4" away from the inside cabin face by plywood spacers to provide the bedding depth.  These spacers are cut to match the flush mount opening and the mounting flange's outside perimeter.  

The image above shows one set of mounting flanges screwed to the spacers as the epoxy sets.  Clear plastic tape covers the cabin side so the mounting flange/spacer assembly does not adhere to the cabin sides.  The cured epoxy assembly is unscrewed from the cabin side to machine round overs on  the outside and inside edges producing the finished result in the background. 

Regular readers may have noticed the cut outs for the aft opening portlights are made.  I think it is traditional to hinge opening portlights from the top.  There may be good reason for this, but I value my headroom so hinge on the bottom it is.   Plywood rings the portlight opening to stiffen things up.  This extra thickness flushes out the aluminum retaining ring giving the portlight less of a tacked on flavor, 

The port hull galley is mostly complete, but awaiting paint for the sink interior.  The goosenecked lamp is mounted to a box on the right bulkhead.  The box contains a 12 volt DC outlet as well as two USB outlets.  This is the only electrical service to the port hull,  The starboard hull will have a similar lamp and outlet arrangement.