More Fridays, More Progress - Topsides

We finally caught a break in the weather last Monday night, just enough for myself and two crazy buddies to stand out on my lawn at 2 in the morning to watch the eclipse. I'm sure houses up and down the block were wondering what the nutty neighbor was doing now. Most of them already think I'm crazy - I'm the one with a half-built sailboat in the garage, after all - but no cops came and no one shushed us as we ooh'd and ahh'd over the Blood Moon. I caught a few nice pictures of the event, too.

Blood Moon with Spica photobombing.

Alas, that was about all I had the energy and time to do until today. The last stitches to hold the topsides to the hull went in.  As expected, there was a fuss at the bow and certain areas here and there.

Slightly off at the bow area. This is the closest I could get it. From the front, it looks good. Epoxy to the rescue eventually. I'm not too concerned because the bowsprit runs through here.

For areas where I couldn't get things lined up quite right, I figured I'd use the techniques from the hull. This is where you drill a hole, put some blocking on the other side, and draw the two together. I couldn't get that to work because the relatively sharp angles kept breaking the wood, so I resorted to cannibalizing my table saw and co-opting the stainless steel clamps. This actually worked really well. In fact, it worked so well that if these ever go on sale for a few bucks, I'd recommend people go out and buy a dozen or so to use as stitch and glue clamps.

Cabin view of the clamp screw.

Hull view of the clamp screw. This allowed the joint to close perfectly.

Once the clamps secured the alignment, I mixed up some thickened epoxy and applied the tack welds. I learned from earlier that you don't need a lot of epoxy here, just enough to cover the joint and a little bit on each side. More importantly, you need to be sure you set an alarm or some other reminder to get in there with the gloved finger. It goes much easier when the tack welds are thin and out of the way for the proper fillet later.

Tack welds running along the cockpit decking. These will harden up a little bit and I'll finger them down.

I'm a little concerned that parts of the topsides 'bulge' out a little bit. For a fair curve, I'll have to grind it down. With epoxy (what else) and some paint, it'll be little noticed, but I don't want to slough off more wood than absolutely necessary. These are somewhat structural and will certainly take some abuse, so I'll have to figure out a balance.

I also picked up a couple clam thru-hulls. These will sit between the standard seat back support and the dashboard one. It's a nice set up. You drill a hole through the middle of the plastic, puck-like piece, then cut "outboard", insert the wires, and screw it all shut. The result is a waterproof, safe way to run wires from one area of a boat to another.

Cable Clam - sounds like something Godzilla would fight.

Sizing before topsides went on.

As mentioned elsewhere, I'll lose about 4" from the cockpit locker. I spent so much time prepping the laz area electronics for these there's no turning back now.

One downside to progress is that it's hard to get in and out of the boat now. My step stool is too low so unless I want to build a swing rope that hangs from the garage ceiling to get in there, I'll need to get a taller one.

The long planks on the bottom are the 16' select pine boards for the mast. I cleaned up a bit after this picture. It's embarrassing, really.

The Opposite of Congress

Old joke, I know, but relevant. I'm making slow progress on the build and can actually see a very small, very dim light at the end of the 'glassing tunnel. Slowly, I'm pulling out the wires as I go, the very wires that I took so much care installing not that long ago. I'm working aft-forward, one bay at a time, and each bay is taking about a day. Even though the upcoming bays are smaller, they're not necessarily easier, as they have tricky corners and need a full fatty fillet before they can be 'glassed.

To make things easier, I cut away part of the craziness that is bulkhead 7 to apply the fillet, then cut the rest of it away once that fillet cured. This fillet, by the way, is highly visible in the cabin, and is the one I'll literally be resting my head against, so I wanted it to be as perfect as I could make it. Once that fillet cured, I cut the rest of bulkhead 7 away. Otherwise, there wasn't going to be an easy way to 'glass between bulkheads 7 and 8. I then measured out and cut the 'glass for this area. It turns out to be about 40x36.

Cutting away part of bulkhead 7 to make room for the side / bilge panel fillet.

Bulkhead 7 fully cut away and port 'glass gets sized up. Note the overlap on the keel and between floors 7 and 6 (forward).

Starboard side goes down after a couple hours break. It was still tacky to touch so went on nicely. Once again, overlapped the keelson and a few inches forward. I also threw down a strip of extra 'glass on the keelson for good measure for 3 layers on the keelson.

While the 'glass here went on without much of a problem, I found two problems at this stage of the build. The first is the cleats that were installed on the workbench a couple months ago are now completely in the way of a proper 'glassing job. Fiberglass needs to come up off the bilge panel (the lowest panel of the hull) and up a couple inches along the face of the floor board for strength. But with the cleat in the way, this isn't really possible. Chris mentioned this to me way back when but I didn't really fully appreciate the problem until my arms and legs were dangling in the hull trying to get that last half inch of 'glass to stick to the floor board side under the cleat.
 

'glass riding up the aft face of floor 7.

After epoxy at bulkhead 7. There's actually almost two full layers of 'glass here so while there's some bubbles, it should be pretty strong.

The second issue is that the floor boards themselves block easy access to the keelson/centerboard trunk joint. The manual doesn't call for the keelson to be epoxy'd, but this is in fact the base of the bilge. Meaning, it's going to be one of the wettest spots on the boat as water will collect down there. Another wet scenario is me spilling a can of coke or glass of wine. Or a beer, or maybe some scotch. I prefer McCallan 12; that's a good draw. Not a lot of peat and just the right amount of smoke... where was I... oh yeah, PocketShip doesn't have a bilge drain so water gets out of there either through evaporation, a bilge pump, or,  in the case of scotch, a straw. I'm not sure why the manual doesn't call for epoxy here but it sure could've used it.

Un-epoxied, un-filletted area between centerboard trunk and keelson. This could be bad news!

So, instead of applying and sanding epoxy to the keelson on a nice flat surface like a garage floor, I need to apply epoxy with my fingertips just to be sure water gremlins don't sneak between the keelson and the centerboard trunk. I haven't seen this problem mentioned in other blogs so I'm guessing I did something wrong.

Epoxy'd the area above. Will add a second layer after this cures a bit, then a small fillet on top.

For new builders out there, here's what I'd recommend: First, apply two coats of epoxy to the keelson before screwing it down onto the centerboard trunk. Sand this smooth like always. After screwing the keelson down, apply thin tack welds at the centerboard trunk/keelson joint. What you've done here is waterproof the keelson and the joint ahead of time vs. trying to do it once everything's already installed. Once that's cured, go ahead and wire as normal. I have to admit I'm a little concerned about the water down there so I plan to epoxy the whole keelson before continuing with the 'glass in the bays.

If one is feeling particularly industrious, apply the cleats after the floors get installed and 'glassed. It will take some measuring and beveling but it will save a lot of fiberglass headache later. More importantly, it will make a stronger joint. An easy way to make it, well, easier, would be to craft cardboard patterns from the actual floors so you can build the cleats to spec on the workbench for later installation. The larger bulkheads don't need full patterns, just the bottom 1/3 or so to make the cleat. Top side cleats like those found on bulkheads 1 and 2 can go on as instructed in the manual. It's really the cleats that serve as the support for the cabin sole that are trouble.

Once my grumbling was over, the 'glass here turned out OK. I'm a little worried about the way it's interacting with bulkhead 7 but not much I can do. Some of the issue is due to the limber holes that need to be drilled back out, so that will be fixed. Otherwise, I'm hoping that since the 'glass basically rides up the entire face twice, it'll retain some strength, but I'm aware of the bubbles at the base of it. The keelson itself and aft to bulkhead 8 are good, as is the rise up the side panels. It'll be plenty strong, just not perfect, and that's what I'm aiming for. It is cool, though, to see the keelson puzzle joint shine through here. I glued the keelson together at my front door and then it sat in the sun room for a couple weeks waiting for the right moment. It's now a permanent part of the boat.

Finished bay #2 (between bulkheads 7 and 8). Needs second coat, though.

So, two bays down and what feels like a million to go.

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.