Scrapes A'hoy - Cockpit Decking

Another busy day at the boatyard. Fantasies started again of getting this thing in the water by June 30, my original sort of deadline. The sailing club has a large gathering over July 4th weekend and it would be something special to be able to bring PocketShip to that event. If not, I'll still have the MacGregor, but I want to bring PocketShip. And to that end, I made some progress towards that goal.

I finished stuffing foam under the laz decks in the transom. I'd been calling these things "lazarette floors" but they're really "lazarette decks."  Same purpose, different nautical terminology. It's nice and firm back there, with very little give on the decking. The wires remain protected and the added foam brings a little more peace of mind. I fully expect this area to be submerged, but hopefully with the planning, it won't be as bad as it could've been. One minor task was to ensure that the wires I still need to connect later were accessible. These include the three from the bilge pump, the RAM cable, and the lights/electronics wiring that'll run to the locker.

Now you see the foam...

Now you don't...

I then cut a few pieces for the bow compartment but got bored of that so put that away for now. I'd like to get a decorative deck plate here since it's so visible. We'll see. Next steps will likely be to paint the forward locker so I can get the bow deck down. 

Cut a couple pieces for the bow area.

Done with that area for now, I pulled out the long-built cleats that will support the cockpit deck (I'd been calling this a "cockpit sole"). Hard to believe I built these, I don't know, maybe 8 months ago at this point. I tried to cover up the exposed areas with green frogtape, and for the most part it worked, but not nearly as well as the effort would've implied.

The manual makes a big deal of the decking to be exactly on the centerline. This took a little finagling but nothing too bad. I put a random piece of frogtape across the centerboard trunk, marked the middle, and ensured that the decking lined up on the line. I found I got some overhang on the footwell which I'll need to trim just before that area gets 'glassed.

Line marks the middle where the two halves should meet. Good view of the clear tape that protects the hollow area of the centerboard trunk. Removed the frog tape right after this photo.

Alignment of the two decking halves.

As described, I ran a pencil underneath where I could reach and marked the support lines. Once marked, I drilled holes through this to pop up the other side. The purpose of that is to re-drill into the cleats and then secure it with drywall screws. It was a little frightening; images of having to redo all the cleats because of drywall screw destruction ran through my head. In the end, not a single screw went awry. Believe me, I'm surprised as anyone.

Marking the cleats on the underside. The decking was fiberglassed underneath long ago, waiting for this moment.

Taped and ready for epoxy.

The meeting of the decks screwed down.

As an aside, it was neat to this part come together. The mainsheet block sits right there. This would be called the "bridge deck" on the finished boat. Long passages will be spent staring at this spot. And it's a pretty comfy place to sit, too.

 

All screwed down. I neglected to mark the port side cleat which would be bulkhead 7, so I set about 50 pounds on it to get a good contact. The amount of squeeze out I scraped from here let me know this technique worked just fine.

After screwing it all down, I set my timer for 30 minutes for squeeze out duty. This was one time I could absolutely, positively, not forget about cleaning up. Luckily, the alarm went off in between homework chapters, so I wormed my way under the decking and scraped off what I could, best I could.

With the temperature hitting 62 degrees today, the garage was plenty warm, accelerating curing. By the time I was at the back of the other side of the boat, things were beginning to set. I got there in time, though. I'll sand these areas down after the flip and paint. I'm glad I didn't put deck plates back there. By the time I crawled back, I could've been out of the cockpit and into the laz area. I am, however, thrilled that I have speakers there as well as a plan to run some LED's along the outboard cleats. I found a neat remote control for the LED and can't wait to see that go in. As an aside, some people kept the decking bright under here. Kudos to them - no way I could keep the finish to do that.

Squeeze out clean out. One of the more interesting contortions.

A couple major projects need to be done before I can make anymore transformational progress. The first is epoxy on the aft cabin wall. I don't see this called for in the manual but I'm sure it's gotta be done, so better get on with it. The second is 'glassing the underside of the cabin decking. These large, unusual pieces take a pounding. Having been on Chris' boat, this is where you stand to raise the main, hand lines to people, find your anchor, and get your butt in the bow seat. Just like the cockpit decking, it'll take a beating over time. A little extra work goes a long way.

When Tomorrow Never Comes - Footwell Fillets

Last week, I'd drilled the footwells in place and thought that by 'tomorrow' I'd have the cockpit sole down. Well, tomorrow came and went and there's still no cockpit sole. Time is really tough to come by these days. I started an MBA program at the State University here. I have a class that's on the main campus, 90 minutes each way, meaning I work all day, go to class for 3 hours, then drive home. Two other days I have class at their satellite campus just 15 minutes away, but they're still 3 hour classes. With the homework, my day job, and whatever socializing I can muster, there's not a ton of room for boatie stuff. I did spend 10 minutes pulling the drywall screws out the other night, but that was the extent of it.  The worst part is I'm exhausted and asleep by 11 most nights. Sacrilege!

Alas, it's Friday evening. Rather than go to wallyball with friends and family, I was determined to make progress tonight. I started by drilling out the pendant hole. As others have noted, the manual isn't quite right here, as the diameter of the drilled hole is the same as the bushing that goes in it. What has to really happen is the hole must be about 1" across, filled with epoxy, and then redrilled at 5/8" to fit the bushing. Instead, the manual calls for 5/8" then something smaller, which doesn't fit the bushing.

I didn't feel like drilling out a 1" hole then refilling it with the risk of mucking up the centerboard trunk. So I drilled all the way through with a small diameter bore, yet large enough for the pendant itself, then redrilled with the 5/8" bit only about an inch deep to fit the bushing. I'll lather on a bit of epoxy when I install the bushing. None of the wood will be exposed, the pendant can still fit through, and I'll have a nice finish to the bushing. Problem solved.

The next step in the build was to fillet the footwell fast.

Down the length. Spoons make great fillet tools.

Full length of epoxy. Took about .. 20 pumps?

Transom area. Little mucky here but it'll look better once shaped.

These photos may not look like much but it's about 3 hours of work here. Between prepping the transom, sanding the nubs down on the footwell, evening stuff out, and mixing/applying fillets, time flies. I'm waiting for this to set a little bit and I'll go over it with a fine toothed alcohol finger to smooth out the rough spots. I'd like to cut some more flotation foam for either side of the laz floors, but maybe I'll do that tomorrow. Or not.

Happy Anniversary - Flotation and Footwell

Today marks the one year anniversary of the kit getting dropped off at my house. I didn't know how far along I'd be a year from then. I knew that some people had boats in the water after 6 months. Others, after a year, barely had their keel assemblies done. In the end, it didn't really matter, as long as we eventually finish. I will share, though, that if not for the (self-inflicted) complicated electronics and the agony of the sole, I'd be much, much farther along.

My wife compared the PocketShip build to running a marathon the other day. I agree. The first and only marathon I ran was New York in 2006. The most I'd run before that was about 3 miles. Training took up too much time and heck, thousands of people run marathons every day. How hard can it be?

Turns out really hard. It was the dumbest thing I've ever done, and I've done some dumb things. I couldn't walk for a week and the accomplishment - 6 hours, 15 minutes - earned me a letter from the marathon organizers congratulating my finish as a special needs runner. I'm not kidding. Now, 26 miles over 6 hours averages to a little over 4 miles an hour, a slow jog, but still a jog over 6 hours, something I'd wager few people can wake up and do. I finished, though barely, and now have a good story to tell.

Same with PocketShip. The most impressive thing I'd built before this was a shaker table. It's a nice table, but it won't take me to the Isles. I also made a very nice cutting board. Fast forward a couple years and I just installed the footwell of my 16' foot sailboat. By this time tomorrow, I'll have the cockpit decking down, too. Suddenly, I won't have a bathtub in the garage anymore, but a boat, with a top, bottom, inside, and outside. It will truly be a three dimensional object, and a cozy one at that.

It took awhile to prep the transom for this day, something like six weeks. In between was getting the electronics ready and testing them fully since I won't see the bus bars again until I cut out the laz hatch sometime by 2018.  I laid out the protective paper and hiked down to the Big Box store for a couple 4x8's of the purple foam. It's 1.5" thick so just the right size. Of the three main types, it was also the most "water resistant". It's almost like this was made for a boat.

I had to cut it in half to get it home so the Big Box guy cut it for me. He asked what I was going to do with it since it obviously wasn't going to go behind any sheetrock. I said it's for flotation for my boat. He said, oh, I have a runner with a 100hp engine I'm fixing up. There's something about boats that connects people. Granted, I wouldn't take a runner with a 100hp engine if someone paid me but at least he was trying to make conversation as he cut up my insulation. I thanked him and secretly wished I never run into him in the water.

I got home and started carving. Keen readers will note I've got more-than-the-average stuff going on in my transom, so had to be careful about placement. My garage, too, is now littered with bits of purple insulation everywhere.

Flotation goes in. First of many.

Careful finagling to avoid the conduits and other things. This is starboard.

After about 30 minutes, I had the flotation sized and placed. One row is made up of offcuts as I had to really jam some flotation in there. It worked out well. I'm a little concerned about all the squeaking this stuff does. Only time will tell.

Flotation done in this area. The row second from left is made of offcuts. Couldn't quite get a full piece in there but managed to stuff it mostly full. I'll lay down more flotation left and right of this under the laz floors.

Once sufficiently stuffed, I took a break for dinner, came back, and formally installed the footwell sides and bottom. These have been sitting prepped for awhile now. Getting them onto the boat was exhausting due to the contortionist requirements, but one of the highlights thus far.

I then checked on the laz floors. These were cut from the pallet. I didn't want to use good plywood here as they will take a beating (I realize that's a bit of a contradiction....) but with some epoxy and paint they'll look decent enough and be able to support all the assorted crap I'll throw in the laz. I'll probably need to cut these away every couple years to access the transom bilge area, so again, didn't want to do too much of an awesome job here.

Laz floors cut from pallet plywood. 2nd layer of epoxy curing.

Test fit of laz floor. I like it! Keeps stuff off the conduits and foam, protects the hull, and looks good.

Doesn't go all the way across so I can still access stuff if I need to.

I haven't decided how permanent I want to make the laz floor. They're there to keep water off the bilge and to protect the conduit, pump, etc. But I'll need to remove them some day and don't want to muck up everything to do so. I'll probably loosely secure these with silicon to form a barrier between the floor and the footwell side (including a small 'weep hole' to drain water from here) and screw it down with a couple short stainless steel screws on the cleats. That'll be structurally sound yet still give maintenance flexibility if needed.

Other accomplishments include getting the 16' select pine from Menard's (6 planks for $140) and starting to order hull hardware. It's really, really coming together!

Went on Vacation and All I Got Was This Lousy iPhone

It's hard to believe that a little more than a week ago, we were anchored off Palomino Island in the Fajardo Bay off Puerto Rico. It was 80 degrees with a steady 10 knot trade wind from the east. Idyllic is an understatement. Fast forward some time, and it's 27 degrees with "ice showers" coming down on the heads of St. Paddy's Day revelers. I doubt anyone feels anything. The two people I know in the parade have been drinking since Friday night (it's Monday as I write this).

View over the starboard lifelines. Anchored at Palomino Island.

Cabin of the 42 Beneteau.

View of Palomino.

Skippers pose underway.

Skippers pose docked.

Reading by cabin light.

Little feller...

Isleta Marina from the Conquistador. We stayed as liveaboards at this marina.

Stand up paddling off Esperanza.

How not to dock a sailboat.

The blog has been quiet as I waited for a new phone to arrive. Anchored off Icacos Island last week, my wife and I decided to swim to shore with a couple sandwiches and my phone. I put the phone in a zip lock bag and that was pretty much the end of that. I received my new iPhone (!) the other day and spent the last couple days putting my electronic life back together. I've never had an iPhone before (the soaked phone was a Note 3) so it's going to take some getting used to it.

Anyway, regarding the build, I'm just about done with the electronics. I have the wiring pretty much done back there except for the side cabin lights and the speakers that will come down from the cockpit lockers. It was a real kick to hear the rear cabin speakers fire up and fill the garage. The amusing thing is the first channel that came up on the scanner was a Christian rock station, which I didn't know was a Christian rock station. I actually kinda liked the music. And then I listened to the lyrics. It was like taking confession in my half-built hull: PocketShip progress and a cleansed soul! Two-fer!

I'll post some pictures of both when I get the pics off the the other camera.