Cleats, Boxes, and Box Springs

Hard to believe it's been a month since posting, and even harder to believe there's actually been progress on the boat. The last few weeks in and out of the garage have been a bit of a whirlwind. Keen readers will remember that my bosses were all fired a couple months back. I've been assigned some new stuff because of that which takes up a boatload (!) of time. I've had a couple interviews with the special investigator for the State Department with all the paperwork that follows. My wife and I also got our ASA 101 for kicks with the ultimate goal to charter a boat in the Caribbean for our friend's wedding next year. I've been lucky enough to go sailing in the interim (including Chucky B!) and then spent a weekend at a friend's cabin. When I got back, I spent an inordinate amount of time setting up, breaking down, and setting up bedroom furniture, too. And then have been dealing with some family health issues. So while I haven't made a ton of progress, as someone said elsewhere, any progress is moving forward.

Sunset in Wisconsin.

This guy put up a hell of a fight.

Tom does a flip into Lake Pepin.

Bought & built a new bed for the upstairs bedroom. Yes, it's an IKEA special.

Moved the upstairs bed to the downstairs guest room.

With the big bed gone, the panels had to move downstairs.

In terms of boatbuilding, most of the last few weeks have been working on the cleats that support the cockpit deck. As noted in the manual, this is a piece of cake. As noted on every blog, it's actually not. There's a lot of dry fitting, wet fitting, damp fitting, and just plain fits to get this just right. I figured if I glued up the footwell sides, that would give me a good start as to where and how to fit everything else.

I think that worked well, as I didn't have to deal with straight edges and guesstimates since I had the footwell basically installed and I put the cleats all around it. That part wasn't so bad. The bad part was the few times I had to remake said cleats because they kept splitting. Yes, I pre-drilled. But Menard's Finest Select Pine (MFSP) can barely support its own weight, nevermind a temporary dry wall screw.

Using the footwell sides as guides worked pretty well.

This is actually towards the end, as you can see pretty much all cleats in place.

Rather than a single cleat across Bulkhead 7, I just measured and used two so I didn't have to cut it.

The forward cleats off Bulkhead 8 through 7. These extend 24" past bulkhead 7, or about even with the centerboard trunk. The hull cleats are slightly behind on purpose. I wanted a little bit of a "curve" when viewing this from inside the cabin. I figured an inch or two here wouldn't be a disaster. All parts are rounded over and smoothed.

The manual also isn't clear as to where the notches in Bulkhead 8 go for the cleats that run forward and aft. They're in the drawings, but the dimensions aren't given. They might be in the full blown plans, but kit builders don't get the full plans. As usual, I was stuck until I wrote Chris, who said he had the same trouble at the same spot and John C. Harris himself wrote back with the specs. While he no longer had the drawings, he had the specs, and shared them with me. Fellow readers, here they are! Drum roll! 14" outboard and parallel to the footwell sides. The cleat that runs forward is 11" outboard, leaving 3" between notches. The forward cleats should end at the centerboard trunk as the side ones do (or should).

Cutting the notches in Bulkhead 8. This is where some woodworking experience came in handy. Ever had to make a boxtail joint by hand? Congrats, you can make a pretty good notch. As noted, the notches are 11" and 14", respectively, outboard from the edge of the footwell side. Also note I installed the cleats on BH8 facing the watertight compartment vs. into the cabin, the reverse of the plans.

The cleats that run aft provide the rough framing for the lazarette hatches. In reality, there is no real structural issue with 14" vs. 12" vs. 11" but moreso the risk of cutting through the cleat than not. In other words, better to err on the side of larger (more outboard) than shorter. The only thing affected might be the size of the hatch actually used, so as long as the width is less than 14" -- and nearly all of them will be -- you'll be fine.

Another handy number to remember is 15 degrees. This is the angle of the transom off vertical (therefore, the angle of the rear part of any cleat glued to the transom) and also the angle off the hull sides. So when the long cleat that runs from the transom into the cabin is cut, you should set your table saw to 15 degrees. Since there's a complex corner at the hull side to the transom, cutting both at 15 degrees will yield a really nice connection in the corners. Of course, I miscut the angle on the starboard cleat, so don't do what I did. I'll be making a small patch to fix this.

Some blogs recommend precutting the transom cleats from behind before gluing to make it easier, then notching it out later. I didn't do that. Instead, I used two separate pieces to mate with the cleat coming aft from Bulkhead 8.

I cut the angle wrong on the starboard hull cleat and lost 3/4" of an inch. Rather than recut, I lined up the forward spot with its fancy rounded edges and will add a small block here to compensate. Of course, this will be in the watertight area (not visible) so whatever. You can see the aft-facing cleat from bulkhead 8 here glued to the transom cleat, which was two parts.

Port side transom/hull cleat connection fit much better. when in doubt, cut everything at 15 degrees.

With the cleats in and me moving the large panels around, I couldn't help but drop the cockpit deck into the hull. That felt awesome! Can't wait until it drops down for good. It fits surprisingly well. There will need to be some fillet fun as some angles here and there are larger than others (maybe 1/8" - 1/4" off) but nothing that a little planing won't cure. While the size is a bit of an illusion since the outboard 1/5th or so will be taken up by the seat backs, it does give a sense of the hugeness of the cockpit and how roomy it is. I've said it earlier and I'll say again: the cockpit, proportionally, is the biggest in nature, much like the barnacle. I've been on 36' and 30' boats and they don't feel as roomy.

Cockpit deck dropped onto the framing. That was one sweet moment.

I also finally finished up the fillets of the bow compartment.  I was going to let this one sit until the floors were done, but I want to start using materials and boat parts and the lower breasthook is just begging to be installed. I used a lot of epoxy in there: 4 layers of fillets on the bottom part of the bow, 3 on the sides, and 3 running up the middle, not counting filler fillets to smooth out the bumps. (I sand less than I used to and just smooth with thickened epoxy - much faster that way.) I think in total there are 90 pumps of epoxy plus wood flour in here. Why so many? Because I'm going to be ramming into docks, logs, and jet skiers and need the added protection.

About 2 months in the making. I'd been putting this off for so long. The turned out well, finally, after a lot of epoxy, denatured alcohol, and cursing.

The bow hook will also be installed here and I need a really good grip for that, too. There will easily be 4-6 layers of 'glass in there, but that's another day. I then threw in the bilge pump box. I wasn't sure why, but since it belongs in the boat and I had to clear out the bedroom, figure I'd put it here for now.

Adding a small bilge pump between Bulkhead 7 and 6. It will dump into the footwell.

I knew I'd need to mix up a lot of epoxy and didn't want the workout I normally get. I fashioned epoxy stirrers out of cut plastic coat hangers. Sure, all of my clothes sit in a heap in the closet, but hey - they worked great. The only trick with using these is to be sure the mixing is done at slow to medium speed or else bubbles wind up in the mix, like making a meringue, but far less tasty. Care must also be taken not to muck up the drill. I'll make these longer next time.

Finely crafted epoxy stirrers from plastic coat hangers.

With the final (for now) bow fillets drying, I officially started on the sole. I liked the idea of an accent plank from Jon's boat and decided to put one here, too. It will give a nice symmetry when standing in the cockpit (tiller -> accent plank -> bowsprit) and break up the dark orange/rustic of the padauk floor. Another reason is this allows the planks to be fit straight along the centerboard trunk on either side vs. having to cut a notch 3' long. The centerboard trunk is 1 3/4" thick. Lots of small cuts to determine the pattern yielded a simple 3/8" ash x 1" padauk x 3/8" ash lamination.

Accent plank under construction. Pretty simple but took awhile to get it Just Right since this will be so highly visible.

Test fit of the accent board before glue up. I left it a little long so I could cut it back. This was a lesson learned from the boom gallows / tiller build. Gonna look nice once it's cleaned up and varnished.

After cutting the accent plank, I sized and built the battery box holder. I'm not sure what angles are needed to secure the battery box holder to the hull; probably pretty steep, so a test fit was required.

Sideways or no? This is pre-sanding of the locker. It's now sanded!

Cut strap opening with bandsaw and sanded down. This whole contraption will be epoxy'd over the next few days. Eventually, it will be painted white.

Test fit of the box. Fits great. There's hope for the companionway hatch after all.

The accent plank and battery platform got a fair share of glue and will be cleaned up tomorrow. Before dedicating a couple days to the sole, I'd also like to make the main speaker boxes, shelving units for the cabin locker, and cleats for the lazarette shelving to provide spacing between the flotation at the transom. I tested the blue LEDs I plan to use in the cockpit lockers. They look pretty sweet. I'm thinking about putting another set in the lazarette, too.

Long way to go but the pages keep turning.

One Tack at a Time

Since back from Okoumefest, I was able to get the bow nice and pointy and the panels aligned. At the suggestion of Chris, I drilled a 2 inch screw through a small wood block and used that as a clamping surface to draw the panels together. Lots of creaking and groaning - the larger Irwin says it has 600 pounds of torque - to get those panels to play nice together.

First clamp goes on. You can see the gap in the panel.

Second clamp goes on and closes the gap for stitching.

Other side. Ideally you'd want some blocks here, too, but it worked without them.

One extra thing I did which worked well was to be sure that the blocks were relatively long. This was so I could spin them in the direction that needed alignment. If the top panel was too far inside the hull, for example, I could spin the top block until it met up with the bottom panel and straightened out. Then I clamped them together and stitched.

The bow was a little more tricky. At first, I had blocks on both sides but the Irwin just wouldn't grip very well and I still had a gap of maybe 1/4" at the bottom where the side panel meets. So I removed the port block and squeezed and behold! 600 pounds of torque brought the the bow together to a point where I could stitch at my leisure. The separation at the bottom part of the side panel is less than 1/8" for about an inch. I say good enough.

First attempt at the clamp. Didn't work well. It worked better when I removed the port side block.

Bow clamp. No block on the port side, just the starboard side. This worked better than expected and drew the bow panel together.

Inside view of the bow stitched together. This looked much worse before the clamps.

I then went about the boat and checked all the stitches, perfectly ready to drill more holes into the hull for the clamp assembly, but alas that wasn't needed. Just good, old fashioned knees, elbows, and foreheads to draw the panels together. I also (finally) added the sanded bulkhead 8 to the hull assembly, officially installing all the components of this part of the build.

The next day, I started the tack welds. I figured I'd start with an area that no one would really see if I really mucked it up, which is the watertight compartment in the bow. I laid down the tape and resolved to do the best job I could. Sure enough, I kinda mucked it up, but as most things, got better with practice. Eventually, I got pretty good at laying these down to the point I felt confident not to use the tape anymore, though I'll put tape down when I do the full fillets.

Few things to note. I was doing maybe 20 pumps of epoxy at a time (fyi: by pumps, I mean 20 pumps each of the resin and the hardener for 40 total). Mixing in some wood flour to just under peanut butter, then adding a bit of cell o fil to round it out. I wasn't concerned with precision here. With practice, it's easy to tell when it's ready because it won't run off the mixing stick yet is still smooth to apply.

This concoction got poured into a zip loc bag as the "pastry bag" which was then squeezed carefully into the area needing the tack weld. The first few came gushing out as I was squeezing too hard. The second few were too light. And some of them were really good but I had to lean into the bow and so was afraid to fall in so weren't as good as they should've been. By the time I was done with the bow compartment, I was exhausted, so I finished out the zip loc bag and meant to call it a day.

I left the typical "beads" that are in the manual and in other blogs. However, as I stepped back a bit, it didn't make a ton of sense to leave the tacks like that because only the area in contact with the weld and the wood would actually be useful. The rest of it would be sanded away as waste at best and in the way at worst. I figured it'd be much easier to apply the fillet when the tack weld itself somewhat conformed to the final shape. So that's exactly what I did. I broke out the trusty teaspoon and flattened out the beads into smooth mini-fillets between the stitches.

There was a lot of "leftover" epoxy after flattening them out. With the extra, I laid down a thin fillet at the transom. This was pretty good work without a net (also known as tape) though the other side didn't come out as well. I was going to do the outside seams but didn't have enough and didn't feel like mixing more epoxy. One tack at a time is my mantra. At this point, I'm about 2/3 done with the tack welds and should be in full fillet mode over the weekend.

Transom fillet among others.

On other news, the new battery box arrived today. This thing is pretty cool. For only a few bucks more than the "blank" one from the Marine store, it has a voltage light (red, green, yellow), two 12v cigarette adaptors, and a space for external battery connector. The 12v adapters alone are worth the upgrade.

I feel momentum coming on and I can easily see working on the electronics and cabin sole in about a month. Early fitting out will also come into play soon with things such as speaker boxes, battery box holders, internal shelves, and running wires. The customization of the boat is what I'm really looking forward to doing. So, again, just taking my time with it and trying to squeeze the build in between everything else.

Battery box and 2 crazy puppies.