Hatches!!

I've been a bit busy and distracted by life outside boatbuilding, recently, which is why I haven't had chance to blog.  Frustratingly I've also been slowed down by having done something to my (other) knee, which makes if painful to walk and excruciating to kneel on.  Ibuprofen is helping.  I've even rested it, but the psychological trauma ensuing from that is probably worse than the physical trauma from using it!!

 With the second layer of plywood on, it was time to fill and sand.

 In the photos, it looks remarkably even.  In reality less so, but I don't mind.  I've done my best and it will do what it is intended to: hold the hull together and keep out the water.

 This is meant to be a photo showing how the centreline of the deck is perfectly over the centreline of the bottom of the boat.  Of course, you can't see it and of course by moving the camera one way or the other I could have fudged it.  But anyway, it's a way of having a quiet boast.  I'm rather proud of myself (not to say more than a little startled!).

 The next step is to put the teak on.  Well, no, actually, I need to put on the hatch frames first and fix the king plank - and the covering boards.  But it's all made of teak so I guess I have started laying the deck.  One of the reasons for marking the centreline was to try to ensure that the hatch framing was parallel to it.  The laid decks would make it horribly obvious if it weren't!

 Having done a lot of measuring both on deck and below I started to cut out the opening for the hatch.  Very scary!  For those who object that it's not on the centreline:
(a) the centreline has been reinforced to take the loads from the mast (b) I like the hatch to be over my bunk (c) it won't leak any more or less off to one side.  Either it leaks, or it doesn't.

 With my natty little battery circular saw, I joined the dots (the holes made using a hole saw.  Wonderful things).

 It ended up just about where I had planned.

 I dry fitted it, but subsequently came to the conclusion that you don't want too snug a fit.  It was hard to get the edges epoxy sealed because the thickness of the epoxy meant that the hatch jammed.

I could have put framing for the hatch in when I was doing the plywood, but I wasn't sure exactly where it would end up.  It was no more difficult to do it now.

 I traded (in advance) my thicknesser for a large piece of teak that my friend, Marcus, had.  With huge trepidation - have you any idea what teak costs?? - I cut it and planed it.  Then I cut mitres and glued it all together to make a framework for the hatch.

 With the glue cleaned up, the wood sanded and a coat of epoxy on, it looked pretty smart.

 I also had a small hatch, intended to go over the galley. I bought it at a knockdown price for Fantail, but never fitted it.  Just right for Fánshì.

 Again I made a frame for it.  This time I could salvage some teak from an unwanted galley rack that I had been given.

 Fitting the forehatch.

 The galley hatch frame coated.

 I purchased a tube of grey Simsons Marine Glue and applied it lavishly to the hatch.  Supposedly, these hatches are to be level +/- 1mm.  In my wildest dreams I would never achieve this.  I relied instead on using heaps of mastic and just tightening the bolts gently.  Whether it will leak, only time will show.  Being lightproof is not necessarily the same as being waterproof.

 The little hatch was also framed up.

 As you can see, 'little' is the operative word! Still, it's only a little boat.

 I thought of a very cunning plan to line up the framing, using pieces of ply to overlap the joins to keep it even.  The screw was used as a handle to line up the final piece.

 I then used the wee router to trim the head liner and did the same at deck level.  As you can see, I still haven't fitted the trim; this is supposed to be a Sunday job, but as I am typing this at 3.50 pm and still have a way to go, you can see that Sundays tend to get rather over committed.

 Noel Barrot, a well-known and awe-inspiring boatbuilder, comes by to look at my progress on occasion.  He is very kind and never winces at my 'joints'.  He suggested that I pre-bend my covering boards by slowly forcing them into a curve and then holding them down with thumb cleats, while they get the idea.

 Ready to install the galley hatch.  The Simsons cleans up really easily.  An endearing trait.

 And there it is, finally in place.

So now I can get on with the decks.  My stock is in two widths, due to having come from thicker material that had a rebate and that was split in two.  So I laid out all the teak that is required to cover the centre deck.  I have just enough of the wider material.  I used narrower stock on the foredeck and what's left will be used up in the cockpit until I run out!!

 The camber makes the bending of wood nearly impossible - 230 mm of deflection is a lot.  Anyway, I scavenged through the pile of bits that I've been given and acquired and glued lengths together to get approximately the required shape for the after bulkhead.

It cleaned up quite nicely and I temporarily screwed it in place, out of harm's way.  The forward end is much shorter and I will probably laminate the wood for that in situ, possibly facing it so that the laminates don't show.  Lack of finances does mean that some jobs take longer than they might.  No worries, it's all good fun!

Once the covering boards/margins are in place, it will be time for cutting and laying the deck, proper.

Wiring! I must be getting on

Does the boat look any different that it did last week?  Not to me it doesn't, so it's always reassuring when people come in a exclaim how much I've done.  However, my mantra of 'only another couple of years' is working really well.  It has taken away any sense of urgency and I carry on each day, enjoying what I'm doing.  Every now and then I sit back and look at what I've done and feel rather startled at the whole:

Of course, the fact that the photo is taken from the stern and I'm working from the bow back, rather spoils the effect.

Back in the saloon, having sorted out the height of the back rest, I've started work on the locker lids.  These also require a ridiculous amount of thought to ensure that you can open them without having to remove the cushion, which then entails just how I'm going to fit the cushions, which in turn entails my deciding how thick the cushions are going to be, which entails my contacting the foam rubber suppliers to see what size the foam comes in (and discovering that, within the meaning of the act, it's impossible to buy latex nowadays.  Bummer) and then marking everything out.

And then cutting it to shape.  How I love my wonderful, new cordless circular saw - it is perfect for this sort of job.  I then went and priced hinges - I need quite a few - and nearly fainted.  How can they be so expensive?  But my good friend Paul at All Marine, suggested buying piano hinge and cutting it to length.  This turned out to be a much less expensive option; and I used to think piano hinge was dear.  And no, I don't want to use leather instead.  Or plastic hinges.

 (I'm not sure if this is quite how I took the photo, or whether it's been turned around by the computer, but whatever way up it goes, it looks odd!)  This shows some of the reinforcement around the tabernacle.

 And I've been fitting the deck lining in the heads. This is not one of may favourite jobs.  I could do with about five very long arms to hold it in place and another one so that I can mark it. As my mother used to say, 'it fits where it touches', but epoxy and some nice trim tidies it all up.  I'm getting the paint to go on a bit better.  I reckon I'll have the technique just about perfected by the time I finish the boat.

 The port deckliner being glued into place.  Unfortunately, of course, the clamps couldn't be used for the starboard side.  Oddly enough, in spite of that, it went up better.

Forward of the clamps you can see the first layer of the final reinforcing for the tabernacle ready to be glued down.  A bit of the insulation can also be seen.

How I wished I could use more screws to hold this in place!  But the plywood squashed up against the frames and stringers to create a satisfactory 'squodge' of epoxy.  The curve may be less than perfect, but it looks fine, without any obvious flat.

And yes, some wiring.  I am so impressed with myself.  I know it's simplicity itself, but for years I have been unable to get my head around wiring.  Everyone will insist on drawing me diagrams to explain it, and they mean nothing to me.  However, kind Richard at All Marine, patiently (with the aid of diagrams!) spelt it all out to me.  Ignoring the diagrams and concentrating on the words, I finally got it into my head in a 'story' that I can follow.  As soon as I got back, I wrote it down and now I wonder what all the fuss was about.  I am keeping it as clear and as simple as possible.  I fully expect four of the ten switches to be redundant, but - hey - I can join the Real World if I have to!  I have some lights on order, but am wondering how I can check to see if I will have sufficient or require more.  I don't want to buy the battery until I am nearly ready to launch, so I can't test them to see, short of borrowing one.