Square Footage

I finally finished the port decks except for the very cabin top which I really can't get to because of the roof height.  I started working up these large bridgedeck panels in the last few days.  <BR> Around the same time I was hearing a story about how the smallest apartment legal to build in New York City is 400 square feet.  Even though this boat has a huge amount of area for 34' it will still house house us in well under 400 sq.  They are apparently trying to change this to be able to make smaller units to deal with the projected population growth of 1 million mostly single people in the next few decades.  

A few details

I've made some good recent progress and gotten the main bunk in which is nice. I was then able to FINALLY finish the beam work. Here are a few pics of finishing off the last beam end and is typical of how they were all done.

It is necessary to splice up a ton of ply to make these beams and stager the joints around. On each beam, I left one side with the ends unfinished by splicing an 8' piece right in the centerline. This allowed me to use an "L" shaped piece on each end. Also to put an additional fillet and glass joint on the center ply piece prior to closing it off. I then fitted the large 3/4" knee over the "L" shaped piece and glassed it all down front and back.

A Cookie!

The title of the last post may not have made sense unless you have seen the children's book. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. Basically you're better off not to, but that's how it's been. Wanted to complete the decks so needed to put in the forward beam. Can't do the port decks until the bunk is in, needed to finish the barrier coats on the bottom before the bunk, etc, etc.

Although you'd never want to have water standing in the hulls for a long time, it seems that most larger ply epoxy boats I've worked with suffer this at some point. I therefore wanted a good seal on all the bilge areas. I also did under the master bunk as the sleepers body heat will cause the hulls to sweat a lot in certain climates and create a lot of additional trapped moisture. Best to do as much painting at once to save on wasteage and roller covers so gotten this done in last 2 days.

Also have sole done for the galley in MDO so will get that in soon as well. The MDO is not real fancy, but with the kids dropping things, sandy feet, it didn't seem to make sense to drop $300 a sheet for teak and holly.

If you give a mouse........

Fitting the forward beam proved to be a big task, but it's in there now. I really wanted to have the foredecks closed off before late spring as it can rain hard and often, the tarps not really keeping things totally dry.

I ended up using 3/8" exterior ply for the foredecks. The 7 ply would not take the bends at the bow and I already had the stringers fitted so reducing the chamber would have been difficult.

Neemow is ready

This cat ended up adopting us before the holidays and she is one of those 6 toed Hemingway cats. (John came up with the name and spelling) They're supposed to be great boat cats. Hopefully she does a good job cleaning the decks of flying fish.

This pulpit is a different one than I just bought and plan to use on the stern, but may actually swap them around. They are off a Mumm 30 and I had to have them repaired by a welder as they were basically thrown away after a collision. I'm really using them partly for nostalgic reasons as were it not for the Mumm 30 class and my involvement with the boats for over 12 years; my life would likely be much, much different today.

More Bits

I got a great deal on these pulpits today, although I had to pay a bit more as they were "new in the package" I offered to remove the paper so they would no longer be in the package, but it ended up a good bargain. I believe they were originally made for Hunter marine as stern pulpits, but they will work really well for bow pulpits with minimal modifications. They also have tabs for mounting seats in the middle which will be a nice touch.

As part of the deal I also bought 15' of aluminum toe rail track to use on the inboard hull sides to attach the forward net to. This seems like it represents the best option for having a solid, maintenance free attachment system.

Putting a Lid On