A Year In

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Just about a year tomorrow and around 8 months of full-ish time work. Have all the port hull bulkhead cut outs done and the outboard cabinside fitted. Was thinking of moving the other hull inside this week, but think I'll wait till after the holiday. I've written up a new schedule which has me moving a one piece structure outside sometime in April. Looking at a very vague launch time of early next fall.

Messing About

John had been showing some renewed interest in getting "in" the boat the last few days and there was no epoxy work to mind today. Of course, Lily was not far behind. Put John to work for a good while vacuuming up all the dust from fitting the cabin sides and cutting the bulkheads.

Fun with Geometry

Lots of angles in a boat, but most on the Vardo happen to be 15 degrees. The problem with fitting the cabin sides is you create a sill that will trap water if you just but a flat piece against the gunwales. I played around with some scrap for a while on the table saw to sort out the best way to get a shape that would have 5 degrees of positive drainage off the gunwale as well as waste the least amount of wood.
I had found this super nice treated Cypress at home depot a few months ago in with the pine decking. I guess the wrong trees went thru the mill that day, but I could only find 2 in the whole stack. Anyway, have enough for both sills and hatch framing. I used the other piece to make the outer gunwale piece in this hull.

Again with the clamps

New Direction

It's a bit of a hassle when out cruising, constantly having to follow the weather. How ironic it is to have to find "weather windows" to complete fiberglass projects. I did get the last of the hull glass done, but none of the fairing. I decided today was the day to more on and began cleaning up the gunwales and cutting the deck curves in the forward bulkheads. My current plan is to putter away for another week on the decks and bulkheads; then move the other hull inside.

Demo

Things are on hold a bit as the weather has turned warm, but with frequent showers and high humidity.  Don't want to glass the inner hull side in this weather.  Things are looking better over the weekend.  Took part of today to begin the demo work of the masonry planter box in front of the wall section where the starboard hull will re-enter the shop.  Not sure who is going to put this all back together when the boat is done? Maybe I can sell the house to someone looking to build a catamaran?

These Are The Days

Actually this was Sunday or so, but just got around to posting it.  It's days like this when you can see some real progress is being made! A close look will reveal a small amount of planking is missing on the outboard side near the bow.  This is the are where the forward netting beam will slid thru during assembly and I thought it easiest to glass it all up later as well as cover the and reinforce the end of the glass pocket the alloy tube will fit into.

Glass

Haven't I done this already?  The weather had been quite cool for the first part of November and I was getting quite worried about getting the second hull glassed before "winter".  The last few days have been rather warm and it looks good for the next week and the other side! In talking with another builder about cool weather glass work, he said "I preglassed my panels"  Sure (I said), I glassed the INSIDE of my panels, but what about all those screw holes (on the outside)?  I happened to know he used screws on 4" centres.  He said "no problem" I just glassed over the butt joints and filled the screw holes with filler.  Yikes!!!  I have done this and seen it done when removing teak decks on fiberglass boats and you always end up with the screw heads showing and eventually bleeding thru as the materials expand and contract.  You HAVE!!! to glass over all screw holes to tie it all together.

Keystone

I dry fitted the FINAL hull piece today.  Richard promises that the second hull goes faster than the first one.  In my case; I think this one has gone a bit slower, but there has been a lot going on lately.  Still looking to be on track with my original guestimate time frame of finishing this hull by around Thanksgiving.

A Few Details

On the first hull I laid out the stringers to lie under the forward forward bunk edges.  This worked OK, but not great.  I decided to glass in this ledge to hold the bunk top as this will also be the owners cabin bunk and supporting 2 people.  One pic shows a finished, but not trimmed down flange.  The other pic shows the piece of MDO plywood cover in packing tape I used as the "mold"  I may make the keels from solid fiberglass so experimenting with this type of thing some more is helpful.

Another Day

Started the bilge panels today.  I precut the bottom prior to fitting this time which seemed to work a bit better.  The back half of the bottom panel doesn't seem to quite fair up right on the stations and had a real difficult time with this working up against the ceiling on the last hull.

Almost

The kids have this funny Rafi song called "Who Built the Ark?"  The Chorus sings, Noah, Noah; Abby sings "no one" "no one" and John has pretty much decided that he's over it.  Unfortunately, the "new" car has a broken CD player so the current edition of Rafi is a 1979 cassette I found in a resale shop in Harbor Springs and no longer able to skip that track. Should be OK for this year, but the water did get pretty high when Sandy passed offshore.  Will be ready for the 2 by 2 next year.

Closing In

Just about have all the side planking fitted. Glassed up a second forestay thimble today and have gotten both motors running. Turns out the Maine Cat was put into charter towards the end of these engines use and the former owner tells me the higher use engine only had around 1500 hours which in in-line with how the powerhead appears when going over it. Anyhow, have now sold the whaler and am very happy to have these engine.

MO?

Lily is very vocal for her age and here favorite word seems more which she pronounces "MO!" Her middle name is Moana and we joke that MO! Is here middle name.

So it ended up being a day well spent going out in the whaler last Friday instead of working on the boat. There are several larger cats here, but only 3 cats with outboards and the Maine Cat 30 is the only one similar to the Vardo engine mounting wise. The owner was washing it when I stopped by to look at the engine mounting. Turns out he had just bought new Yamaha 9.9s. As you can see, later that afternoon after a few glasses of wine his old Yamaha 8s found there way into my car! He does some charters with the boat so they are well used, but one has a newer gearbox and the other a new powerhead. With a bit of work they should be fine for a few years and will likely make themselves into one newer motor with the additional of a newer 9.9 later on. The new 9.9 is based on this vintage 8. So another problem solved.

Stuff!

The store room is getting a bit full! Have also (mostly) decided on a tiller only boat and purchased 2 6' sections of 1.5" pipe schedule 160. Also happened upon this nice rudder head. A very common style that seems to be very hard to find now. There may be one more new one at a store in Jacksonville and will check next week. otherwise I'm sure one will turn up. Otherwise can get one machined up near the launch if need be. could make one myself if I had a lathe. Maybe a project for NZ if the first tuesday in November indicates an additional trip is necessary. Also note the 2" tube material tht just fits over the 1 7/8" OD pipe. Quite easy to find a set of 2" delrin bushing for 2" rudders,but very hard to find 2" heavy wall tube? Anyway, makes for a perfect fit in the rudder head.

Progress

Some good work has been completed in the last few weeks. Weather has been getting more pleasant, but still really humid. Have 3 hull panels on and will try to preglass 2 more tommorow. May try to due inside the house as glass is a very fine weave and temp changes seem to cause a problem with air bubbles under the glass. Did not have such a problem last winter but this higher temps seems to be problematic.

More Bulkheads!

Been working on the stringers this week. Decided to add the bulkhead 1A in this hull as will have one less stringer than the starboard hull due to all the bulkheads in the aft part of the hull. The starboard hull has one extra than designed due to the (I felt) wide bulkhead spacing. Also did all the sail locker floor framing as it was a hassle to do after the planking was on.

Got my 22 sheets of Joubert yesterday and it even didn't rain yesterday afternoon so I could get it all inside dry. I ended up putting it inside the house with some of my other ply to keep the moisture content down. We have been getting tons of rain the last several weeks, but things should be drying out in the next month or so.

Square 2

Look familiar? The second hull actually has 2 more bulkheads to help partition off the head and shower. I've yet to have a truly proper shower in a boat yet so I was willing to put the extra effort in the hopes that a truly great shower can be created.
It really makes a big difference when living aboard at anchor whilst also needing to conduct business ashore and a cockpit shower isn't a great option in cold weather or a crowded area.



Also ordered 22 more sheets of plywood today. Decided to go with 1088 Joubert this time as the Noahs "1088" was not fantastic although did pass boil tests on the cutoffs from various sheets I tested. This brings my total ply buy to 82 sheets which should be within 10 sheets of what I need. There's no materials list for the Vardo as yet as well as deck, cabin, rig plans, etc.

Coming Out

It's been over 2 weeks ago we moved the first hull outside. All went pretty smoothly, but will need something stronger than PVC to roll the completed hull on.

On a Roll

I was really surprised how easily the hull rolls on some PVC pipe.

Just for fun I poked the bow out. Getting outside will be no problem. Just need to work on shifting over the 4.4m need to reach the driveway for storage. Then also roughly lined up to roll back inside when the other wall is cut away in a few months. Need to sort out my cover framework in the next few days before taking all the way out.

"Keep Up With the Joneses"

I'd been planning a post in this regard for some time, but the prospect of moving the first hull outside has me a bit concerned about the neighbors. As I plan to finish the cabin outside in the driveway, I figure having one hull outside for 3 months will be a good test of how things go over.

My neighbor, Mr Jones has a pretty nice house

It had been on the market for $2,500,000 but I guess they've now decided to keep it a while longer. He specifically told me "You won't have a problem with me" when I started the boat, but I didn't really mention the full scope of the project.

I was also in the city office the other day checking what rules might pertain to having a 34' catamaran parked up in your yard for several months. When I said I had a few boats and just want to "make sure I was OK" they said they were surprised I hadn't had any complaints from my neighbors already.

And I only have a 13' Whaler and a Trac 14 at the moment. The Vardo will take up all the space from the house walls to the back of the cars in this picture.

Make Way

Got lucky here and the wall was not really connected to the slap. After finishing the side cuts, I was able to knock down the cutout onto the cleared area outside. Plan to roll the hull out on 1.5" PVC pipe using a variety of tackles, etc. May do a potluck deal with some friends to lend a hand, but honestly probably easier to do it nice and slow with John and Abby lending a hand.
Naturally, the screen framework did not come out completely cleanly, but was able to get it out without too much damage. Eventually all the uprights will need to come out if I proceed with the plan of assembling the two hulls inside.

Here is a pic on the outside where I cleared away the shrubs to reveal the area to be opened up. The downside of all this is how much it exposes what I'm up to.

July

Abby's birthday was the 3rd and I'm not so good with presents. Most who know me say it's because I'm cheap and that may well be true and the reason in the past. Over the last 6-8 years, however I have been seeing less and less value of all the "stuff" that clutters our lives. I just checked and I still have a $200 gift card from LL Bean from my birthday in 2006. I check their catalog every once in a while, but never find anything I fancy. Perhaps if they begin selling epoxy?

As luck would have it, I found a reasonably good deal on a pair of Harken 32 Self Tailing Winches. These are new "old stock" Italian made Harkens with all metal internals. With new manufacturing "techniques"/chinese plastic parts the price of new winches has come down quite a bit in the last 5 years. They're still pricey and most people don't seem to realize that the prices have dropped as I often see 10-20 year old winches selling on Ebay for close to what new ones can be had for. In my opinion, used (especially tatty chrome) winches really make a home built boat look cheap. Also, the older winches have a larger diameter base which means that a future upgrade would result in much hole filling and new backing plates, etc.

I could have bought some used non self tailers for around $100 each that would have worked; but hey, it's my wifes birthday.

The best birthday present?? Abby did protest somewhat, but then I reminded her how long our friend Carolyn Goodlander had to wait for Fatty to buy her a nice pair of self tailers. (Correct answer is around 50 years) So, that logic won the day and Lily had a great time inspecting them with Dad to make sure all the bits were included in the "good deal" She even got a good bit of grease on her after this picture was taken.
See you in August. Need to demo the concrete apron around the patio to move the first hull outside!

Testing

Haven't gotten much real work done since the sole bearers. Got real hot here and everywhere else it seems and got back finishing the Searunner painting.
That got me in the mindset of thinking about paint (again) and wasting lots of time looking at various paint options. The marine surplus got in several 5 gallons buckets of Hempel 55210 which is like an Awlgrip, but intended for large ships and barges. Not quite as high a gloss and easier to apply. They only hitch was that the hardener they had was a different number than spec'd by Hempel. Not much Hempel is sold in the US and Hempel US told another purchaser this hardener would "unofficially" work fine. I talked with this guy a bit and gave it some thought and decided to go for it. For $40 a gallon hard to go wrong unless it all peels off of course.
I decided to do a few samples this afternoon on the bow of my Trac 14 catamaran and the side of my old Boston Whaler. The stuff is amazing! Specs are thinning no more than 5% with special thinner which I didn't have. So in 90 degree weather and spotty overhead sun, I rolled some on with a 4" foam roller. Here are the results:

Hard to photograph well, but laid out totally smooth with a slight roller stipple. I'm sure would tip out fine, but the slight texture is OK with me and will help distract from the 100s of hours of fairing I'm not planning to do. This section was tinted with RAKA gray epoxy pigment to see how it holds up. The other bow deck is the plain white. These will be outside for the next year or so prior to me painting the VARDO. The vertical sections on the Whaler hulls turned out real well also and will be good do see how it wears against the slipway docks.

The Sole of a Cat

For some reason, I didn't get around to glassing the bottom plank to bilge panels in the middle of the boat here. As we're under flash flood and tornado warnings at the moment, the weather is not the best for it now! Can't paint the Searunner's deck either so trying to make some progress on the cabin sole and galley build out.

Quite inconveniently, the distance between bulkhead 3 and 5 is just over 8 feet. I madeup these large endcap pieces to fill some of the space between the sheet of ply and the bulkheads. Would have been much easier to have fit this prior to cutting in the stringers and putting on the bilges panels, but hadn't worked out the exact sole height. It ends up being a few inches higher than originally designed due to the addition of the stringer along the bilge panel. Anyhow, all sorted now and the top of the sole will be exactly 12" below the designed waterline.

These fore and aft runners will glue to the bottom of the sole. I had originally not decided whether to glass the sole in or make it removable. There seems to be no good way to make it strong, but solid without glassing it in. My current plan is to glass the inboard side of the sole to the hull side and then stop short of the hull on the outboard side, but attach to galley cabinet face. I put the stove up in the attic, but may need to get it back done to get this all laid out.
I got the endcap/ bearers epoxied in this afternoon and will pattern and cut the sole plywood tomorrow if it doesn't all float or blow away overnight!

Painted sail locker

Hatch cutout for forward bunk

Forward bunk glassed in place

Work Continues

The Searunner project is mostly complete so I should have a bit of time to putter on the Vardo prior to joining the family in Michigan for the second part of July.  I have managed to get a few photos up off my camera as the Ipad did a pretty poor job with that galley pic and Abby has it with her.

I coated the inside of the hull with a heavy coat of primer in the area below the sail locker floor over the weekend.  I also got most of the bottom to bilge planks glassed.  The sail locker floor is now fitted and will receive some paint and then a 6" access port to inspect and dry out any moisture that accumulates over time.  My plan is to keep that port off most the time and only close when heading offshore.  I've also drilled small 1/16" holes in these when used in dinghy to help with a small amount of air exchange.  Never had moisture in the dinghys that were done like this. 

Next comes the forward bunk base and the cabin sole in the galley area.  Still deciding whether to glass the sole in permanent or make removable?

Sail Locker

A Tight Fit

There was some concern over the cooker actually fitting in the galley. Richard designs his boats to have a separate stove top and oven usually installed above the galley counter. Whilst these are common in Euro cats, they are rarely seen in the US. This would also require a split LPG hose which would just add additional fittings and cost.

As I got a deal to good to refuse on this nice Force 10, I\'m trying to make it work. We\'re used to the tight Waiquiez galleys and based on my mockup we still have 500mm from the oven door to the cabinet on the inboard side. The oven door also slides under when open so I think it will work out ok. Just enough space in front for an angle pot locker and the deep double sink will go just aft.