I started the super structure interior

Because I am swamped with paying work, Ive taken a few days off of the build. Hurricane Sandy has changed that, and caused  major slow down in my work, so Im back to the important things in life... the boat build. I have to say that while we are four or five hundred miles from Sandy, we had 25 mile per hour winds sustained last night while  she came ashore.

To begin the interior, bolting lumber to the metal frames is the first order of work. To make it seem like I was getting something done, the first attachment I made was to bolt lumber to the ceiling frames. Because of the camber of the ceiling frames and not wanting to piece things together, I had to use a 2x6 for the ceilings. It seems like a lot of waste, but all the off fall was ripped again for the side wall frames.

The barn is about as full as it can get and the only place to set up my table saw is under the roof of the aft deck. I had to position the saw so I can make long rips through the door of the salon.

The basic method of getting the ceiling beams done was to clamp the 2x6 to each end of the frame. I then used a scribe set for the gap between the 2x6 and the frame at the center of the frame and scribed the top ( roof  ) side of the cut. Because the frames are so long, and the curve not that radical, I was able to use a circular saw to cut shy of the line. The cut put the saw in a bit of a bind, but it was not too hatefull, and thats what tools are for. Once the roof side was cut to shape, I re clamped the board to the frame, set the scribe for 5/16", and scribed the interior side of the cut. Once again, I used the circular saw ( vs the band saw ) and made the cut. All the boards are being held proud of the steel frame about 5/16" so foam remains on the frame flange after the foam is trimmed. With the board now cut to fit, I applied a bead of polyurethane adhesive and re clamped the board. I then use my right angle air drill, and drill through the existing holes in the steel frames. Next I use a hammer to drive the 1/4"x2" carriage bolts home, followed by a flat washer and a nylock nut, then tighten all the bolts using a 3/8" air ratchet

Gluing the lumber to the frames in addition to bolting might seem like over kill, but bolts have a funny way of working loose in lumber, and since the adhesive is not that expensive, I think it to be good insurance to prevent a squeak.

As I type this post on this rainy Tuesday, I have all the ceiling beams finished in the wheel house, salon, and aft deck. I also have the wheel house walls and windows complete, and am getting ready to start on the salon. Another full day, and I should be finished bolting all the lumber in place.

I have an insulator  showing up in the morning to give me a price on foaming the interior. Im going to foam the interior down to within a couple of inches of the weld zones.

While I still have the boat in the shop, Im going to also install the Cherry plywood at the window opening so I dont have to deal with that at the cold boat yard. Im  using a clamp ring for the window installation, so I have to have the finished wood in place in order to install the windows. The window installation is also complicated by the fact that  the maximum wall thickness at the window is 2 1/4", while the frame thickness of the boat is 3 7/8". Its kind of a strange deal to describe, but on the salon windows and the side windows of the wheel house, the windows will be set in by the difference. The front wheel house windows will be flush with the  interior as I was able to make the tabs work out to 2 1/4" wall thickness.  It will look OK as Im going to spend a righteous amount of time getting the trim right, but it does add a whole bunch of work to the window trim job. Im not quite sure how the finish window trim will look, but Im going to use each clamp ring as a template before I install and make a pattern out of paper board for future fabrication of wooden trims for the windows.

The weather had for sure turned  here, but I have plenty to keep me busy getting the super structure in a more finished state. Taking the super structure as far as installing the windows before shes landed and welded in place has entered my mind, but I think it too risky. I can install lots of the trim, some of the ceilings along with some wiring and a host of other items before I have to commit to taking her out of the barn. While Im aching to have her assembled at the boat yard, all of this work goes much faster while shes in the barn.

Cheers 

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Wrapping up the super structure metal work

Getting all the little odds and ends completed before I can paint the super structure is taking quite a bit more time than I had anticipated. Im trying to work out a few problems as once I start paint prep, I dont want to stop to do some welding. Once the boat is at the launch site, I have a feeling Ill be doing some welding I forgot on the super structure, but my hope is that I get it all figured out now.

The first thing I did on the super structure was to install a temporary floor in the wheel house to bring  things close to the finish floor level. After I had the wheel house floor back up to grade I installed all of the cleats and tabs I need to bolt the lumber to. Trying to use up what material I have on hand, I cut my longer pieces of flat bars in to tabs, and wherever possible, used the tabs welded in place to bolt lumber to. Once I have the interior painted, Ill bolt lumber to the tabs and cleats, then have the insulator spray foam the interior of the super structure.

 Im limited to the wall thickness around the windows to 2.25" due to using the clamp rings. The clamp rings will make for a nice neat finish, but I wish I would have been able to get the rings for a 3.5" wall thickness. Im able to make the wall thickness on the front of the wheel house 2.25", but the rest of the boat is going to be thicker due to the framing, so Ill have to build some custom wood trim rings to tie everything together.

Once I had all the cleats welded in place I turned my  focus to the welding needed to be done on the super structure roof. The roof work has turned out to taking a little more time than I had thought it would. I am planning for using a LP fired stove in the galley, and I needed a place to store propane. I framed a propane locker on the roof that will be large enough to store two bottles. Even though Im not going to be doing any fairing work on the roof, I used pipe to make the corners of the propane locker. The pipe corners will paint up nicely, and will require little fairing to make them look good and cut down on future maintenance. The locker has two drains to let wasps in and water and any propane that could spring a leak out. I welded a 1/2" stainless nipple in the bottom of the locker to allow me to plumb the propane supply line in to the galley. The lid for the propane locker will be a simple lid with two pins for hinges and a simple latch.

In the center of the super structure sits the exhaust stack funnel. Im using a keel cooled main engine and a dry exhaust system. The exhaust system is basically like a truck, and uses a pipe to bring the exhaust up and out of the boat. Along with the exhaust from the engine, Im using the exhaust funnel to vent the hot air out of the engine room. I also am using the exhaust funnel to bring cool air in to the engine room. In order to do this, I partitioned the exhaust funnel in half, with one half dedicated to getting hot air and exhaust out of the engine room, and the other half for bringing cool intake air into the engine room. The largest hole I could cut in to the exhaust funnel at what I would consider an elevation where the hole would actually do something was 12"x16". So I have a 12"x16" hole for the intake, and the same for the hot air exhaust. I purchased a cheap coil stock louver from Lowes to see how it would work out, and Im going to buy some better quality louvers for the final install. Ill probably use the cheap louvers over the winter just to keep the weather out. Removing the louvers is also how Ill gain access to clamping the exhaust pipe to the 4" stainless pipe I welded in to the exhaust funnel top.

I like the way the exhaust funnel looks and in order to keep things looking good I had the metal formed on a press brake. The fab shop owners is one of my neighbors and it was fun helping him do this small job for me. The exhaust funnel is tapered so there are two different radiuss on the piece. In order to get the different radiuss Mark set the machine to hit harder on one side than it did on the other. His machine is a Cincinnati 300 ton press brake, and was built in 1942. Cincinnati is a good brand, and this machine was built in a era in this country that has faded fast. We need our manufacturing jobs. Mark laid the pieces out for 20 hits per piece, and in this picture, you can see him lining the die up to hit on his punch marks.

I welded a four inch stainless pipe in to the exhaust funnel. Im thinking about running the exhaust stack up the mast, and if I do that, Ill probably either do that in chrome or stainless. If I dont run it up the mast, Ill clamp a stainless or chrome 45 on the the nipple and call it done. I have room for a silencer on the exhaust piping, but for right now, Im not going to install one. If I run the exhaust pipe up the mast, the outlet will be so high and with the wind blowing the sound away from the boat, I doubt youll hear it. You might hear the whistle from the turbo, but I think that sounds good. I can always add a silencer if I need to, I just would rather not as they get hot and its just one more thing to buy and maintain.

The inside of the exhaust side of the funnel will be  insulated to help keep the heat headed up and out. Ill post more on this later down the road, but Ill be using some fans in the engine room to help air get in and force warm air out.

The salon roof is where well be storing our skiff, bikes, and kayaks. Because of having to work up there, I decide to install a hand rail around the salon roof. Im not ready to install the hand rail, and really dont want to do that job just yet, so I decided to cut some 1.5" discs to act as a doubler for welding the 1"  handrail stanchions to. By using the doubler discs, all Ill have to do is sand the paint off the disc and weld the stanchion to the disc. The disc will act as a heat sink and not burn the paint from the outside or inside of the roof. Ill be TIG welding ( Norm F. @ Kevin M ) the hand rail together, so splatter will not be an issue. I cut the disc on my mill using a hole saw and cooling the bit with water. The disc will also look decent with the hand rail stanchion, will not look like an afterthought, and allows me to keep things moving as doing this work is a hell of a lot easier with the hand rail not installed.  As per my locating the hand rail stanchions over a frame, I have kept in line with over building everything. The hand rail stanchions ended up being 30" on center.

I also will need a cradle for our yet to be designed skiff ( Kevin M), so instead of figuring out a cradle for a skiff I dont own yet, I just welded some 12" long x 3" wide doubler plates where I plan on building the skiff cradle. A 12 long skiff will fit nicely, but a 13 would also fit albeit tight. Im going to build the skiff in aluminum, but that wont be for another two years. Getting a little off subject, I sure would like to weld part of the cradle to act as a fuel tank for storing gasoline for the skiff. Again, the doubler plates will allow me to build the cradle later without destroying the paint outside or inside under the finished ceiling. The plans Im looking at for a skiff is 12 long, 5 beam, powered by 20 hp, and can carry 1000 lbs. It will weight about 300 lbs when completed.

The last roof job I need to complete is welding the tabernacle for the mast along with the pad eyes for the mast fore stay and shrouds, and brackets for flopper stopper poles. Flopper stopper poles are poles that extend away from the boat when at anchor and allow you to hang a device that helps mitigate rolling of the boat. I accepted some advice from an engineer I know and am reinforcing all of these parts to be robust enough to accept a more demanding paravane system to help with rolling while were under way. Because Im building a lot of these parts out of 1/2" stainless, I had to develop a cut list and have a local shop cut all the parts for me on a band saw. I just got all the parts back from the shop the other day, and Ill start putting it all together this week.

By the end of the week, Ill be able to move the welder off of the roof and finish a few simpler jobs on the aft wall of the salon. Primarily, the fill and vent points for the fuel tanks, the outdoor shower brackets, cutting the starboard side of the salon  so the boarding door works, and a few other smaller brackets. I feel pretty good that Ill be prepping for paint in a week or ten days, and should be done painting by mid September.. I might sneak away from work a few days to make sure I can get all this done, but early October looks to be about when Ill be moving her out.  

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Super structure metal work is finished

Tomorrow morning, before I take off for work, Im going to spend an hour or two so I can clean and organize the shop now that the metal work is completed. Im ready to prep the super structure for paint so I need to put away all the tools Ive been using to do battle.

Im a little blown away with how long it took to get the metal work completed. I did have a major set back in that the rough openings for the windows were cut for a four inch radius, and the windows are built using a six inch radius. There are 17 windows in the super structure and the repair consisted of me using my plasma cutter to cut out the 68 corners out of the existing rough openings. I then cut 68 new radius corners and welded them back in to the openings. The windows in the salon were easy as they were all square. The windows in the pilot house were a bit more of a challenges as they are all parallelograms, and required a little bit of noggin work to get the angles along with the radiuss correct. But, the window openings are now correct and all the widows fit the way theyre supposed to. Along with repairing the window openings, I added 60 or 70 more tabs to the window openings to bolt framing lumber to. 

 

 

 

 

 

Another job I got finished was fabricating the Tabernacle for the mast. After some indecision and talking with some other builders, I decided to go with a six inch mast. The primary function of the mast is going to be used to hoist my skiff to the roof of the salon. I am also going to have my radar mounted on the mast, and some lights and antennas. My long term plan regarding the mast is to be able to use it for a future para vane rig, and at a minimum, a flopper stopper rig. The Tabernacle is built out of 1/2" stainless steel. The pins used to hold the mast to the tabernacle are 1.25". The tabernacle is centered on frame #13. The tabernacle also has a doubler plate that it sits on and by doing some additional framing and reinforcing, I am spreading the load of the tabernacle to two additional frames, #14 @ # 12 . The bracket that will hold the para vane pole is also connected to frame #13 with solid 1/2" plates. I increased the flange thickness on # 13 to 5/16, and all is a continuous weld  were the reinforcing occurs. Two frames aft of the main para vane bracket, sits another bracket for another pole that will act as a brace for the main pole. The bracket for the brace is also connected to the frame with 1/2" plates. To connect the stays and shrouds, I welded 1/2" stainless pad eyes to frames.  I have two shrouds on each side, and one fore stay. I dont know if Ill ever use a para vane rig, but I do know Ill use flopper stoppers while at anchor. I had an engineering friend of mine give me some advice with beefing up the structure, and I feel good that I have things beefy enough. A fair amount of time and fabricating went in to this part of the boat. Because I will have electric winches for the mast/boom, radar, and some lights, I welded a 1.5" stainless nipple next to the tabernacle to run the mechanicals. I positioned the nipple so that  I can bolt a 6"x6" splice box to the tabernacle gusset, and use a grommet to make a water tight seal to the nipple. Ill use good quality cord grips to bring the various feeds out of the splice box.

The other job I  did was increase the width of the door at the salon to 32". Ill be fabricating the aluminum door, so I feel OK with the increased size. I plan on  having at least two dogs in the door to help hold it fast. Along with being weather tight, I want a door that will keep the thieves out.

Im using composting toilets on board and each one of those requires an 1.5" vent. I made those vents out of sch. 40 stainless. One is welded in to the soffit above the salon, and the below deck vent is welded in to the front of the wheel house.  Ill use PVC to connect the toilets to the stainless stubs I welded in the hull.

We have a shower for the cabins below deck, but due to the size of my posse, I felt it best if we had another shower on board. The easiest place to do this was on the aft deck in the port side corner of deck on the salon bulkhead. This will be a hot/cold shower. I fabricated a stainless shelf with a lip on it to retain soap, and a bar for wash rags and to hold back shampoo bottles.

I installed a 4" stainless vent for our 230volt clothes dryer.

On the aft salon bulkhead on the aft deck the fuel fills and vents reside. There is a two inch fill on both the port and starboard side. Next to each fill are the vents for the two port side tanks and two starboard tanks. The fill and vent pipes are welded in place. I really need a box around each set of pipes, similar to what Peter did on Koala ( now Kame Hele... not sure of the spelling). I have a little bit of time left where I can fabricated these boxs, and I might try braking them over the work bench. If not, my neighbor will do it on his press brake.

Outboard of the fill and vents are the two three inch vents for the lazzarette. These are weld in place.

I welded the six inch vent intakes for the master cabin. These vents are in the foreword wall of the wheel house.

To get up on the the roof of the salon, Im going to gain access via the wheel house side deck. Because of the raised pilot house, a five foot tall ladder is all that is needed to get on to the roof. I fabricated and welded some brackets to the salon wall to pin the removable ladder to. Its hard to describe it now, but because of the bulwark, and how I plan on working the salon roof hand rail, this will be a safe, secure way to get up on to the roof. I was going to get fancy and use a torsion spring to have the ladder self stow up on the roof, but my short time frame killed that idea and I decide to stow the ladder on  stainless post welded to the front of the wheel house. The forward  rake of the wheel house windows along with the almost 5 distance to the Portuguese bridge will allow all to pass by this area without bumping the ladder. It will make more sense once the super structure is welded to the hull.

Because I moved the aft salon wall, I had to cut the panel that extends down the salon line towards the aft deck. One of the boarding doors conflicts with this panel, so I cut it to fit. I gave this cut a nice looking radius where it meets the aft deck roof. It was important to me to keep some protection of the aft salon wall at this area, so we still have an inside corner where I cut the panel to accommodate the boarding door. Because both the port and starboard side panel are 3/16 material, I decided to treat each edge with a 1/2" stainless round bar. The round bar treatment should come in handy on the side where the boarding door is as this area will get some abuse. Hopefully, the stainless round bar helps with decreasing my  maintenance painting. Every exposed, exterior edge on board, has a 1/2" stainless round bar welded to it.  

I used 70 lbs of .035 welding wire to build the super structure. Im not for sure, but I think I drilled darn near 500 5/16 holes for bolting framing lumber to the steel frames. I might have drilled more holes, but Im going to order 500 2"x1/4" carriage bolts, nylock nuts and washers and see how that works out. 

As of today, my paint schedule is going to be blast the metal followed by two coats of epoxy primer. The inside of the super structure will get two more coats of Alkyd Enamel, then the framing lumber gets bolted on followed by spray foam. The roof of the super structure will get blasted followed by two coats of epoxy primer then three or four coats of Acrylic Urethane. Ill probably put a non skid on the roof, but that wont happen until after launch. The outside of the super structure will get blasted, two coats of primer, two coats of high build primer, fair ed, more primer to seal the high build, then top coat with three or four coats of Acrylic Urethane.

The last job I did to get the super structure ready to begin paint prep was to have my daughter and her friend Olivia walk around on the roof so I could fix the six or seven areas that were "oil canning". All that was required of that job was to find the offending areas, then weld a 1.5" flat bar between the longs and pull the roof sheathing down and weld it to the flat bar. Pretty easy job, but it still took us about three hours to wrap it up.

As anyone can imagine, Im glad to have this part of the job behind me. Paint and paint prep is going to be nasty, but I can now see the bitter end. Maybe by early October, Ill be able to post some sort of smiley face as I should be starting to take the front of the barn off.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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