We Have A Floor!

Yesterday, I cut the other floor panel and glued them down.  It is one solid floor!  I think I've succeeded in building a floor/grid structure that will be able to absorb the mast and keel loads while remaining lightweight.  I also ran the vent lines for the water tanks and added another coat of epoxy in the tanks and then sealed them up by adding the floor panels above.  I used 3/8 ply for this because putting down this floor creates the top to a box beam that holds the keel box.  These pics also show the port sitting bench getting prepped for it's top as well.  As the grids get covered with floor panels, I'm starting to see that I have quite a bit of room inside.  Not exactly a luxurious cruiser, but still lots of room for gear and for camping. (especially for a sportboat)  The quarter berths are nearly 6.5' long.  I also measured and I found I have 4'2" of headroom.  Can't walk around, but with the open floor plan and benches, it will have plenty of room to get out of the weather, change clothes, take a nap, or cook some ramen.

Back from Hawaii!

Aloha!  Back from a wonderful family vacation on Maui.  I've had a bit of time to dedicate to the boat project again.  I know these pics are kind of looking the same..but look closer and you can see progress is being made.  The work has been a bit tedious but productive non the less.  I have been reinforcing the floor grid, turning it into a system of i-beams, adding glass, and preparing it to receive the floor panels. It's involved a lot of gluing and clamping small pieces of ply, and a lot of filleting in weird little tucked away corners.  I also decided to do some plumbing.  Around here in the northwest, for some of our distance racing, we have to comply with PIYA regulations.  One of the regs is to have permanent water tanks installed in the boat.  I've decided to make the tanks in the area on either side of the keel.  This keeps the water's weight down low and near the center of the boat.  Also, with this setup, I'll have two independent tanks so that if one leaks out, I still have another one.  I ran 3/8" pex piping from the tanks under the floor area to the galley area where I will later hook them to a tank selector and a hand pump.

She's Got Some Sole!

 

 I've been busy with work lately but this week I did manage to reinforce and glass in the floor and keel area.  I added some stringers and also the vertical faces of the benches.  With this added structure, the bottom of the boat is totally stiff and strong.  I was also able to cut out and losely fit part of the floor sole.  I will need to do a bit more reinforcing before I'm ready to put down the sole.  I will be taking a small break from the boat project for a couple weeks as I'm taking the family to Hawaii!

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year everyone!!  Hopefully 2011 will be the year Vertigo get's to go sailing!  Christmas time is always busy for our family but I still managed to squeeze in some time here and there to keep the boat project moving forward.  These are some pictures of the grid structure I've been working on.  These structures will support the keel loads as well as the load from the mast.  I'm really happy with how everything is coming together and how stiff the floor area is getting.  This first picture is looking forward.  The floor area around the aft part of the keel box will be at the level of the aft berths.  Then forward of this

area the floor drops about 6 inches.  Along each side of this lower area there will be benches that run from the aft berths to the v berth area.  Although you can't stand in this boat, the benches will allow for very comfortable sitting headroom.  Also along the starboard bench up at the v-berth will be a small sink and a place to hang my new jet-boil camping stove I got for Christmas!

A Place to Hang My Keel

   

So after all my floating, and recalculating, I ended up locating the keel box right where I had originally calculated it would be.  Which was great since I had already installed the main cross beam which now intersects the keel box perfectly!  I was still a bit nervous cutting that hole in the hull though...mainly because yesterday it floated so well, it just seemed a shame to put a hole in it!  The tricky part today was getting the boat leveled in all directions so I could be sure the keel box is installed straight on centerline, and plumb all around.  I think I was able to meet most of those criteria so I epoxied it in position.

Whatever Floats My Boat

Well, since it's now time to install my keel box, I started to worry about where to locate the thing.  I had calculated a center of buoyancy...but how accurate was my calculation.  I really didn't want to attach the keel only to find the boat sits way off it's lines.  So I figured the best thing to do was to go float my boat.  Sounds simple, but the problem was I didn't have an easy way to get the boat to the marina.  Also, it's been nasty windy, rainy weather here in the Northwest.  So even if we could use the boat lift, it would be tough getting any useful data with the boat bouncing around in the waves.  So yesterday, I decided the best thing to do was to bring  the water to the boat!  So I built myself a 28'x8'x1' test tank in the shop and filled it up with water.  Once word got out about what I was doing, I had no shortage of people show up to help me move the boat into the tank. (I found out later it was because they figured some sort of disaster would likely be part of the evening's activities and it was not to be misses!)  The floating of the boat went off without a hitch.  With no keel, it floats a bit nose high.  So I had the three guys go inside and simulate the weight of the keel.  By moving just over a foot forward of the center of the buoyancy, the boat floats level.  So with this info and a few more calculations, I will now be able to mount the keel with confidence!

Thanks to Chad, Dan, Dave, Erik, Kris, Michael, and Mitch for the use of your muscles and ballast.  Sorry there wasn't a flood or any other disasters to entertain you guys!  (and thanks to my wife Denise for taking the pictures so that people would actually believe I went sailing in the garage)

The toughest part of this little adventure was keeping my boys out of the tank today as I was filling it up.  They kept trying to convince me we need to leave this thing in the garage all winter long.  After we were done with Vertigo, they launched their El Toro dingy and paddle around for a while.  Too much fun!

Getting ready to build a mold

I've nearly finished fairing the keel bulb plug.  I think I may add a layer of glass just as reinforcement so the bondo "egg shell" doesn't crack when I push it into the concrete/mortar mix.  My plan is to make a 2 part mold divided into upper and lower parts.  The upper part will have the filling ports.  My goal is to make this a one piece bulb rather than having to bolt 2 halves together.

I am really fortunate to have the i550 blogs to look at.  Even though it's a different boat, it is still kind of similar and I am able to pick up a lot of little tips from seeing what those guys are doing.

Today I also got completely caught up on all my interior joint taping.  I also set the keel box on the floor of my boat and daydreamed about what kind of grid system I will use to integrate it into the boat structure. Not having a plan means ultimate freedom..but it also means lots of time just staring at stuff!