A Year's Progress

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.

Before any deck stringers are fitted, the stern fillet needs to be finished.  Above is shown the fillet lacking about three more inches of epoxy. The finished fillet will be about nine inches deep.  It can not be applied in one go as the epoxy heats up as it cures and large masses can heat up to the point of setting things on fire.  The epoxy must be applied in layers and allowed to partly cure before the next layer is applied and only a limited number of layers can be completed in a day.  When allowed to cure, the epoxy must be sanded, to assure good adhesion, before adding more layers.

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.

Transformation

All the bunk panels are installed.  Fillets were made between the panels and the hull to fill the gap and to further strengthen the structure.  The lockers and flloation chambers are painted a bright white as visable in the background hull with the locker covers removed.  The bright white was too intense and sterile for the normally exposed interior.  The interior will be coated with a warmer off white as seen in the companionway compartment.

 The unpainted locker, second from the bow, will require additional work. I intend to install a composting head in one of these exterior lockers and possibly shelving in the other.  I have not yet heard from the head vendor regarding my order, so a Plan B may be needed.

I managed to score a large ice chest that slips neatly into the aft bunk compartment.  The chest lid is hinged parallel to the end so that only a portion of the lid is opened to access the contents.  The chest is shown in the position necessary to open the lid.

The long bench greatly facilitates this second stage in the upper hull panel assembly.  Above the mahogany shear stringer is epoxied to the upper hull panel under the pressure of clamps.  A boat’s shear is the “line” at the hull/deck intersection.

Previously; the plywood hull panels and a short bow panel were joined together with butt blocks on the interior side.  All three butt joins are visible above as the darken areas crossing the shorter dimension. This sub assembly’s overall length measured precisely as the plans indicated.   

It was a bit shocking to fit the upper panel to the lower panel and find it was ¾” too short.  I was further surprised to learn, in my eagerness to get started, I made an assumption that compounded into this condition.  I assumed that my 8’ by 4’ plywood would be 8 feet long, but recent measurements revealed a length of 8 feet, ¼ inch. The three plywood lengths, forming the lower hull are ¾ of an inch too long as a result.  

Above are two hull panels screwed to the bench in preparation for glueing to a butt block.  A ¾ inch wide insert lengthens the second upper hull panel assembly.

The butt block will be screwed in place over the butted insert and panel ends as the epoxy sets.

Both hull panels are fitted to one hull.  This has really transformed the project from a canoe like stage into a boat no doubt stage.  I like the pronounced sheer upward sweeps.

The upper hull panels fit amazing well against the previously established bulkhead marks.  The bulkheads fore and aft of the cabin project above the sheer line as expected. These bulkheads individually project identical amounts from one sheer to the other.  This is beyond what I would ordinarily expect and suggests this hull is straight and true as confirmed by tighten fish lines spanning the length.

The installed upper panels give a better feel for what the interior space will be like.  I give a long pause in using the word spacious, but that is what first came to mind when tainted by previous visualizations of a four foot wide hull.

A Dream Revisited and Revised

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.

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.

Improving Outlook - May 21, 2018

Above was the view across the street from my house.  The mounds of dirt were left by an operation to install a new neighborhood water supply line.  Oddly, no one is connected to this new water supply and the existing one works fine.  I've been meaning to talk to the water utility about this dirt pile, but I've been focused on other distractions.  

The nasty pine trees provided a constant litter of needles and produce a spreading forest of shoots.  I have always longed for these trees to be removed.

Oh Happy Day, the trees are gone!  I now enjoy this bay view.  I designed my house to take advantage of the breeze, but the trees proved to be a too effective wind block.   A wonderful cooling breeze now fills the house as intended.  Somehow the dirt piles have gotten smaller.

Across the bay and visible between a gap in the shoreline palm trees is an artificial mound.  This is the Cerros Maya site shown in the image below.  It is one of the few Belize sites where a pyramid's ornamentation survives.  I've been to the top of the mound (now mostly a rubble pile) for a commanding view of the bay and surrounding forest.  My experience is that the mosquitos are sure to find you at this site.