out in the sun

After weeks of dusty garage.... Finally getting an early morning sun ray... The se a is only 2 km away...

Coamings !

Coamings are on.  I went for a slightly different shape than the one drawn in the plans.  The shape evolved by iteration between sighting,  tracing and planing.

All along I worried whether it'd be too low to keep water out or too high and have a bulky look.  I'm happy with the result,  only experience will say whether they work as they should.
I will add a mahogany capping profile to protect the upper edge.


In this photo the inboard arrangement is also visible.

  Tested the motor and it works ok.  I need to finalise the belt driven water cooling pump....  That's on tonight's to-do list!!

Bow to the king..... plank!

After days of slow progress today I finally
fitted the teak king plank to the foredeck.  What slowed down the progress was the required in situ bending and glueing of the teak strips along the deck.  The curved shape meant I could only glue two strips per day,  one each side, as clamps were needed to help hold the strips in place and keep the bend as the Epoxy cured.  The presence of the clamps prevented in most cases the next neighbouring strip to be glued at the same time.

Anyhow a milestone has been reached today as the king plank was finally laid down onto the deck.  Bow to the king....  As the focus now shifts to the coamings....

Teak side decks

The side decks have been successfully dressed with teak strips.... lots of bend and elastic energy but ... in epoxy we trust!

Teak deck....episode 1

Work has started today on covering the deck with teak strips.
They will be glued down with Epoxy after a rub down and a cleanup with acetone.  I'm not too worried by the tricky adhesion of Epoxy to teak: I've glued similar strips in the past with positive results.  I think what helps is the low thickness of the strips (6mm) that limits the amount of wood that would work with temperature and moisture change.

I expected the strips to be harder to get hold of. I've purchased 60 linear meters of 35 mm wide strips : they should just about suffice however I fear another visit at the wood shop may be required to finish off the whole deck.
I've fitted today the first strip all around the deck.  The first one is probably the most fiddly to fit as it has to be placed flush with the gunwhale and there's no possibility to use a screws at the outer edge (the gunwhale end) as the holes will remain forever visible.  It was a matter therefore to dig out all the clamps in my possession and use them to grab hold of the task!

Deck and gunwhales are on

Progress on the boat has gone slightly undocumented recently.  Over the past weeks the deck has been fitted to the hull. 

 It is made of 6mm ply in the fore part and 9mm ply on the side decks and aft.  The aft deck also received a 10mm mahogany reinforcement beam underneath to improve stepping on firmness.  

The outer gunwhales are 40x20 mm mahogany scarfed to the length,  glued and screwed in place.  I've positioned them 6mm proud of the deck surface in preparation for the next phase: teak strip laying the deck.  

The strips will be 6mm thick an will therefore end up flush with the gunwhale... Lots of fun ahead! 

Foredeck planking

Here's the only photo I have of the Foredeck assembly process.  The Foredeck is composed of a 6mm ply sheet glued to the deck grounds underneath.  The teak strips decking is already glued to a thin ply sheet.  This is glued with slightly thickened epoxy to the 6mm sheet mentioned above (see picture). 

That makes a sandwich construction with Epoxy throughout which I hope will provide a tough and durable support. 

I yet do not know what product to apply to the teak strips. I've read of deks oliye n°1 saturation oil.  Any suggestion welcome!