The long job of fibreglass sheathing of the topsides has been started.
The plywood is covered with 390 gram twill weave cloth, filled with epoxy resin and finally a layer of peel ply cloth is laid on top. Once set, the peel ply is removed leaving a smooth, amine free surface. Minor blemishes are sanded and filled. and theh a final coat of epoxy is applied using a roll and tip method. The finished surface will need a light sanding and then can be painted. I have added a white pigment to the epoxy resin. The biggest area is the main cabin roof which is about 35 square metres and is also the hardest to get to as access and working space are limited. A scaffold tower gives access to the cabin roof just below the eaves of the shed. The bow sections and forward platform have also been completed. The glass cloth overlaps the hull sides and is dressed in to create a smooth finish. There are many more weeks of work to complete the covering of the cabin walls and decks. The services for port side heads compartment have been installed. Although the smallest compartment there are a lot of services which converge here.
Both the forward and aft cabins in this hull need access to the heads so there are two doorways. The electrical services are brought together in a junction box inside the cabin wall to allow for interconnections. The basin is a small quadrant shape. The compartment is quite small so putting the basin in the corner creates a little more space. The angled back toilet is raised on a plinth which again creates a little more floor space and makes it a more convenient height. The basin waste runs down to a sump pump under the floor from where it is pumped up to the grey water tank. This is the last of the hull compartments to be fitted out. As the weather is warmer I can now get on with fibreglassing the outside of the boat. The cabin has now been lined out, the conduit for the electrical services installed and the berth base fitted.
Storage space will be in a set of lockers at the forward end of the berth and in drawers underneath. The cabin is a good sized single berth. The supports to create a level floor are installed in the port side forward cabin.
To keep the floor level through the hull, the first cabin floor section needs to be shaped to meet the inside of the hull. There is very little space below the floor at this point, just enough to run small conduit for services if required. The small step allows easy access to the berth. The gap below will give access to the sonar transducer which will be fitted through the hull. The remaining two higher stepped sections will be under the berth and are levelled to allow for the installation of equipment if required. These sections of floor will be permanently fixed so the void below them is filled with polyurethane foam. Two sections of conduit are buried in the foam to accommodate services. The rest of the heads and shower compartment has been lined out.
The toilet has an angled back and raising on plinth both makes it a more comfortable height and increases the floor space. The plinth is 150mm high and made from off cuts of ply laminated together. The cabinet for the counter top basin is built in. A cabinet door will be added later. The floor below the toilet is fixed so two lengths of 50mm conduit have been run under this section to take the waste pipes for the shower and basin to the sump pump which will be located below the aft cabin floor. The stairway has also been lined out with all the services behind the linings. The heads and shower compartment has been lined out and the shower cubicle wall built.
The conduit runs for lights and power in this area have been installed. There are a lot of conduit runs and these terminate in a junction box inside the cabin wall. This will be accessed by a panel inside the heads compartment. The location of all the equipment has to be decided to allow for mounting pads in the walls and for the service runs. The shower floor was installed previously with the correct falls for drainage. A new plate for the shower waste has been fitted to the lowest point. There is very little space below the floor so a low profile shower trap is being used. Made by Wirquin it needs only 40mm below the floor. Next jobs are to make the toilet base and cabinet for the basin. The cabin has been lined out and the bed base fitted. The conduit for the lighting and power is in place behind the lining. The void between the hull and the lining has been filled with injected expanding foam. The doorway hatch has been shaped and loose fitted. This is a very strange shape as it has to clear the angle of the windscreen and the angle of the side wall support as it hinges upwards. It will hinge through 180 degrees to lie flat when open. A short door will eventually fill the vertical gap. The floor space is small and the cabin has slightly restricted headroom but it will serve as an occasional single berth particularly for a child. The windows have arrived and have been fitted to the apertures. They will have to come out again when the the walls are ready to be fibre glassed and painted but for now this is safest place to store them.
The front four windows are 10mm toughened glass and the sides are 6mm. Thanks to my brother Roger for his help with the fitting. The cabin layout has been changed so there will now be a single berth in forward end of the starboard hull with the water maker equipment under the bed. The floors need to be leveled and heights set to accommodate the equipment. Once the equipment is installed there will be no easy access to the voids under the floors and so conduit for the service pipes and cables are installed under the floor and the voids are filled with closed cell polyurethane foam. The foam strengthens the area below the waterline and reduces the risk of any water accumulating in the void. The shower will be built in and so the floor level for this needs to be set with falls to allow the water to drain. The framing for the heads and shower roof is installed and the new stairs for access to the forward cabin are built. Finally the new bulkhead to separate the shower from the forward cabin is added.
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April 2018
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