Fitting Out (Year 10):
| Date | Discussion |
|---|---|
| April 2019 | Well, here we are - yet another chapter
in the ongoing epistle describing the creation of a river boat.
Well, what did you expect? Yes, it's more of the same! No recipes,
no cartoons and no jokes. No, it's no joke, this boat building
stuff... My daughter tells me that no-one writes anything serious in Comic Sans Serif font these days, in that way that only daughters can. I find it incredible that I've been building this boat so long now, even the font I'm using to write about it has gone out of fashion. Well, too bad I say. I'm still building the same boat, so I'm going to continue writing in the same font. So there... It's a good thing that the Web Site converts the font of the original document to something else by itself! Somebody asked me recently if I had included wheel chair access in the many design features of Rhapsody and I had to confess that I had not. Still, it got me thinking - did he perhaps have a point? The history of Rhapsody In Glue to date, just in case you've lost the plot, or if you're as old as me and forgotten what you had for breakfast (or even if you had breakfast for that matter): Hull Build started July 2008, Fit-Out started April 2010. And the "beat" goes on: - (Is that chest beating perhaps)? |
| 17 April 2019 | Happy Birthday to my partner! The "cliff-hanger" at the end of the last enthralling episode was to do with creating a trench to install the track for the main saloon sliding door. (Your homework was to find out who Sisyphus was and why he might have some relevance here - but I digress). The trench has now been cut and lined with glass and flooded with lots of epoxy, using a suitably shaped mould in order to set the angle of the door to the same slope as the side wall of the coach house. It took a number of repeats to get the trench properly sealed. I haven't actually filled it with water yet to see if it leaks - I'm not sure I want to know! I agonised over whether a drain should be provided for the trench and in the end decided that it could fill with water if wanted to - no problem. Always take the easy way if you can. I may live to regret that decision... Another continuing task is the evaporative air conditioning unit. The trunking to get conditioned air to the bedroom and bathroom is finished. It is all sealed with epoxy wood preservative and I may yet paint it inside as well, before I glue the top panel on, but that seems to be overkill really. There are 25mm thick plywood pads under the attachment points for the handrail stanchions, which once the final 12mm top panel is added should be strong enough. When the stanchions are bolted on, the nuts will be accessible via the vent holes and through an access panel in the side of the trunk created for that purpose. The panel will also allow the duct to be cleaned or maintained if necessary. The vent for the bathroom A/C is slightly smaller at 95mm, than the four 115mm vents in the bedroom to proportion the relative air flow. The bathroom doesn't need as much! There is a second matching 95mm vent in the bathroom ceiling which will be piped to a solar powered vent fan mounted somewhere on the fly bridge - when I build it. The board that mounts two 8inch fans that feed the bedroom and bathroom vents is installed. One of the fans will have to be mounted on the opposite side of its panel and be run backwards, because otherwise its frame will be too close to the wall where the fly bridge will go - when I... - well, you know. The panel that holds the three 12inch fans that provide the saloon air flow has been made and glassed both sides and has had supports added to hold the actual CelDek humidifier pad in place as well. CelDek is the trade name for the pad that has water flooded along its top edge that then runs down through a myriad of tiny channels whilst the air blown across it is greatly humidified and therefore cooled. They are the same pads as are used in most of the commercial and home evaporative A/C units on the market. I purchased two pads cut to size, from the supplier who happens to be fairly local happily, one for the saloon and a separate one for the bathroom and bedroom. It's a fairly simple matter to pump water from the river up to the CelDek pads of course but providing suitable drainage to get that water away again becomes an issue. The CelDek pad essentially sits on the bathroom roof which slopes to the outside of the boat, so the runoff from the pad would naturally head that way. So, providing drainage is not the problem, however having water continually running down the outside of the coach house any time the A/C is running, would not only stain the paint, but be noisy. And, the last thing folk of our age need is a dribbling noise outside the bedroom window all night - for obvious reasons! So, whilst the CelDek pad sits on a deck that slopes to the outside of the boat, a drain or gutter has had to be made to persuade the water to flow toward the centre of the boat instead, so that it can be piped back down to the raw water reservoir behind the gearbox, where it can go back into the river noiselessly. The reverse drainage arrangement is almost finished and has turned out to be quite complicated. I won't try and describe it, have a look at the photos! I mentioned above that there are actually two CelDek pads, one for the saloon and a smaller one for the bathroom and bedroom. This was needed to provide the largest possible area of pad for each space and therefore get the maximum cooling effect. It is also useful on occasion to be able to have fresh air blowing into the boat without the cooling effect of the CelDek pads being wet. The twin pad arrangement allows for separate pumps to be used for each pad so that they can be switched on or off individually. There are also separate fan speed controls for each room. The panel that mounts the three saloon fans is positioned 200mm aft of the saloon wall to allow for the bulk of the fan motors and room for them to be replaced, should that be necessary. A happy side effect of this arrangement is that the top end of the triangular trunking behind the shower which holds plumbing and wiring and the like, is in the high-pressure area behind the fans. The result is that anytime the A/C is operating, a small proportion of the air will be forced down the trunk to the underfloor area of the bathroom and more importantly, into the gearbox and engine spaces. This will provide continuous pressurised venting of any fumes that may occur under the floors such as petrol or gas. There are two other bilge blowers already in those areas of course, and electronic "sniffers" as well, but you can never have too much underfloor ventilation in a petrol-powered boat! |
| 2 May 2019 | Last week, my grandsons discovered to their ultimate joy,
that there is one weekend a year when their Mum says it's OK
to have chocolate for breakfast and that was it - Happy Easter
Boys!! It was also ANZAC Day - "Lest We Forget" and school holidays
as well. So, all very good reasons for abandoning boat building
for a short while, none the least of which was to spend time
cleaning the gutters ready for Winter. I'm sure that I did it
last year too, but not only have weeds grown in there, but they
are so well established that they could almost be called trees!
And, as for the deserted pigeon's nest - poignant maybe, but
a very pointed reminder of my complete failure as a proud home
owner nonetheless. The A/C system is turning out to be "bigger than Ben Hur". The whole notion of making the cooling water flow inboard rather than simply down the slope of the roof to the outside, after its dribbly journey through the CelDek pads, has created all kinds of issues. I have just written and then deleted three paragraphs of detailed description that I now realise, is of no interest to anyone, including me. Suffice to say that it's an awkward job that has taken many hours of head scratching and tea drinking to resolve, but I think we're now on "the home run". We'll see... The next job is to make the sliding saloon door. This is the main entry point for the boat and weather permitting, will probably be open much of the time, whilst cruising. It will almost certainly be open during manoeuvres, to be able to see outside and behind - no, no cameras or beepers to assist here. Although, come to think of it... Naw, come on, stick with the plan! Since it's the main entry into the boat, (although not the only one), I decided it should be lockable. Yet another trip to the Big Green Hardware shop revealed a dizzying array of door locks, but precious few for sliding doors. Even less if you consider that they would be better if they were made of Stainless Steel. Anyway, a suitable candidate presented itself and having parted with a significant pile of dollars, came away with a very handsome unit from Delf Architectural. A sliding door that provides the best visibility should be predominantly glass, of course. However, the lock unit is actually quite large, meaning that the frame of the sliding door has to be bigger than I might have liked, just to accommodate the lock. Furthermore, it is designed for domestic doors that have a thickness of 45mm, or more. All of which becomes a design challenge. It turns out that despite the fitting instructions, the lock should be able to be fitted into a door with a thickness of just 36mm and given that three layers of 12.5mm plywood laminated together, should make 37.5mm - that's very convenient. It should be enough - I'll let you know! Laminating the door out of segments is my preferred method of construction, having done something similar with the opening hopper window in the middle of the windscreen. Such an approach uses a lot less timber and allows all the corner joints to be offset from one another in each of the three thicknesses to provide additional strength. I mentioned "Design Challenges" above and there are lots of them, each has a perceived degree of difficulty which I have always rated in terms of "Cups of Tea". You can sit down with a single cup of tea for a small problem or even a second cup for something more complex. So, I was gratified the other day, to hear someone else using a similar "tea" scale to rate the severity of their problems, except he had significantly raised the bar. Not only did he identify one and two cup problems, he described some that needed a whole Pot of Tea! And, if that's not scary enough, he detailed one issue in particular which he decided would not only need a pot of tea, but a "Tea Cosy" as well. I am now well armed with my new expanded scale of units to describe every problem. |
| 20 May 2019 | I've mentioned the sliding door for the main saloon several
times and you'll be happy to know that it is now made and dry-fitted.
Not finished maybe - but made at least! It is laminated from
three thicknesses of 12mm plywood with staggered joins on the
corners and the top layer made with a 12mm bigger hole to provide
a rebate for the glass. The middle layer was also cut-out to
suit the door lock before it was all laminated together - much
easier that way, I think. I have moved the lock to the upper forward edge of the door, to provide a more stable structure when locked and then I don't have to bend down with the key to unlock it when standing on the side-deck; that's thinking ahead! It also better protects the lock barrel from the weather, which may be relevant, since not all of its parts are made of stainless-steel. I still have to make the door jambs and arrange for them to seal properly, but more on that later. The more intrepid readers among you who have been with this journey for a while, will remember the many, many descriptive paragraphs devoted to the dreaded "Electric Couch". Having recognised that a seat has to be upright (more or less) to provide a comfortable eating position and to recline more for comfortable, err well, reclining, I built a two-seater couch that is adjustable to either position using electric linear motors to achieve the change. It went to John the Trimmer a couple of months back - job done, or so I thought. Except that now, I've had a better idea. Now, don't all groan at once! It's a funny thing when you're designing a boat, because making sure that you don't waste any of the very limited living space on-board becomes a deeply embedded and unbreakable law, almost a mantra. However, take a pace back and ask, "What am I preserving all this space for"? Answer: so that it can be allocated to providing for more comfortable living, of course. So, I made the electric couch as small as I reasonably could to save space and have ended up with a huge saloon 3 metres by 3 metres, with virtually nothing in it except the small couch in the corner. Which is bizarre and makes no sense at all. So, having rung John the Trimmer and established that he hadn't actually started trimming the couch yet, I said "Hold-on, cease and desist - I've changed my mind". (To the accompaniment of much mirth, I might add). So, the electric couch is gone - (does anyone have any use for a couple of unused linear motors?) and I've decided to buy a couple of comfortable reclining armchairs instead, because with all this space that I've saved - I've got plenty of room! I've been attracted to the "Stressless" brand of chairs from Norway, that not only look great, but have the name that spells out just what I need after all this. Naturally, they also seem to be the most expensive chairs on the market, but what price comfort? The remaining issue is of course, where does one eat? Well, since I have also decided to dispense with the wood heater (more of which in a moment), the forward corner of the saloon on the Port side adjacent to the galley stairs, is now vacant space and is I think, just big enough for a two-person dinette. I decided not to build-in a unit as they're too restrictive and fixed dinettes are usually really uncomfortable too! So, two movable dining type chairs and a table leaf that folds out from the wall as required, should provide a much better solution. I can store a larger size folding table against the wall in the saloon, behind the armchairs, which can then be erected as appropriate, to seat six or more for a meal if needed, with some folding chairs. A much better solution, I think. The decision to get rid of the Pot Belly stove as part of this general "re-think", was also quite simple in the end. I have a wood stove at home and whilst it works really well and is lovely to sit around, it is also very messy and makes a lot of work. It makes dust everywhere and you have to store kindling and briquettes or firewood, all of which consume valuable space. So, what to do instead? There are a range of caravan and RV heaters that burn diesel oil to make hot air (and hot water in some cases) to distribute around the living areas. I have some experience of those in a motor home and they are excellent. There are also a range of so-called "diesel fireplaces" that burn diesel as an open flame in a glass front firebox, so that it provides heat and a visual focus to sit around and enjoy. However, I don't have diesel fuel on-board and have no desire to have yet another tank in the boat. I'm not much of a fan of diesel anyway - rotten, smelly stuff... There are also a range of better-quality, stand-alone flueless LPG heaters around these days, that have oxygen sensors built-in to prevent asphyxiation, which is nice. And, all boats should have a carbon monoxide sensor in the living spaces anyway, so perhaps non-flued LPG heaters could be a workable choice? However safe they are, they still consume the oxygen in the room and emit carbon monoxide, so no, I don't think so. Then I discovered LPG fireplaces. They have a stainless-steel firebox with a glass door, that burns LPG with a visible flame. It is in a sealed combustion chamber, which is flued to the outside, so no carbon monoxide is released internally. What's more, it also draws its fresh air for combustion, from the outside as well, so that it doesn't deplete the oxygen level in the vessel either. The way that is achieved is very tricky! The flue is actually two pipes, one inside the other. The inner tube is the exhaust and the outer tube that surrounds it, is the air intake drawing air from the outside which then gets burnt. Clever stuff! A side benefit of the double flue arrangement is that both the flue pipe and the body of the heater remain cool to the touch, because they are "air-cooled" by the fresh air being drawn in from outside. The unit has a fan inside that circulates air within the cabin to heat the boat and it has an open flame to provide for the "sit-around" comfort factor. It can be mounted on a timber bulkhead, without any special heatproofing and it's all very safe. The unit I have selected is the Dickinson Newport P12000 made in Canada. They should know all about surviving cold winters - don't you think? Rhapsody is built entirely with BoteCote Epoxy from Queensland. It is mixed in the proportions of 2 parts epoxy to 1 part hardener. I use the appropriate dispensing pumps from BoteCote themselves and I'm always very careful about getting the mixture right - or, am I? I'm on what is probably my tenth 30 litre kit (at $800-$900 a pop - you work it out!) and I find I have 10 litres of hardener leftover - how can that happen? More to the point, what can I do to avoid wasting $300s worth of hardener? Happily, after a casual conversation at the South Australian Wooden Boat Show with Robert Ayliffe from Stray Dog Boats, I was able to buy 20 litres of epoxy without the hardener. Very helpful Robert - thank you! Problem solved. And, another scary thought has occurred to me - is that the last tub of epoxy I will need to buy for Rhapsody? It could be... |
| 23 June 2019 | My new Dickinson Newport P12000 LPG heater arrived and is
a very impressive unit. One of the downsides of living in Australia
is, as we all know, our sheer distance from anywhere else. The
additional costs of freight, duty and GST almost doubled the
price of the heater in the end, which makes it quite an expensive
option. My "new best friend" Rebecca in Vancouver, did kindly
investigate alternative freight methods for me, but to no avail.
The only upside is that the exchange rate for the Canadian dollar
vs $AU is much better than the US rate. Anyway, I'm sure it
will pay for itself in terms of comfort over time. The reorganisation or re-thinking at least, of the saloon layout also left me with another small issue. I was so sure that the couch would be on the aft wall of the saloon with a table in front of it, that I put a wire in the roof when I built it, ready to power a light fitting that would have hung directly over the table. All good - except that now there's not going to be a table there, what do I do with the wire hanging out of the roof? I know - cut it off, bog the hole and put it down to experience? Yes - maybe, but another solution occurred to me. I had always intended to have two sets of LEDs in the hanging light fitting, one normal warm daylight and the other a plain red light. No, I'm not proposing a house of ill repute, but if I'm driving at night, you still need to be able to see to move around the cabin and a red light will do that whilst not wrecking your night vision. So, I located a small LED light fitting from Jag Trading (www.jagtrading.com.au) that will provide enough red light (I think) and because it fits almost flush to the roof beam, won't represent a head banging hazard either. It looks pretty handsome too. I might have it lit all the time as conversation starter... On the subject of wiring, if all the fans in the A/C were turned on at the same time, they will draw considerable current. Each fan has an 80watt motor and there are five of them. So, 400watts altogether or about 30amps. To provide a tidy wiring harness, I have bought some seven-core 15A tinned copper cable and have decided to wire it via the bedroom A/C trunking down into the corner of the wardrobe. The original intention had been to use the bathroom trunk behind the shower taps, but that's getting a bit crowded. The bedroom and saloon fans will each have their own speed controllers and getting PWM - DC controllers that will cope with 20Amps is not as easy as you might think. However, there is an electronics kit company in Thailand that has a huge range of modules that you can build yourself or for just a few dollars more, will supply them fully built and tested. I have had some items from them before to control the bilge blower timers for example, and their products are excellent. (www.thaikits.com). In order to cater for a different route for the fan wiring cable through the fan mounting frames, a couple of extra holes have been required and of course, they have had to have PVC pipe linings so that they don't get damp and rot. Nothing much to see, but it all takes time. The last big component of the A/C system is the mounting board to go under the CelDek panels. This has been cut out and is ready for painting. It won't be permanently glued in with epoxy because access underneath it may just be required in the future, so it will be just sealed in place with silicon. However, I decided that since it will have used water from the panels "slopping" around, it might be prudent for it to have some small walls or dams around the edges to stop water escaping on to the roof as the boat moves and rolls. This has been done too. Delivering water to the top edge of the CelDek pads so that it can then spread evenly across the honeycomb material to provide biggest possible area for cooling for incoming air, is also a challenge. I have considered a number of alternatives, but there is not a lot of height to play with, because any plumbing above the pads means that the pads themselves have to be made smaller, which reduces their effective area. I've bought some 12mm copper pipe and a selection of fittings to make up a water distribution manifold that I think should work. A little experimentation is in order here. The pipes themselves can be embedded in the top of the CelDek material, which is quite soft and will hold the pipes easily. We will see... The sliding door for the saloon is complete, but I had to make a jamb for the leading edge of course, both to carry the striker plate for the door lock and to provide a seal against the weather. The seal could have been simply a foam strip, but I decided that it should be somewhat more substantial. So, I cut two 15mm deep slots, one in the leading edge of the door and a matching one in the door jamb. A 32mm wide piece of flat aluminium bar was then glued permanently into the door slot so that when it's closed the flat bar inserts itself in the slot in the jamb - a pretty good seal, I think. It would also make a fine guillotine for careless fingers too - ah, well. The door jamb has also become the home for the courtesy light switch. In the top face of the jamb is a 12mm hole about 110mm deep, that not only houses the switch but allows the wiring to hide out of sight as well. The switch itself is sealed and has no moving parts because it's a Hall Effect magnetic switch. There will be a magnet in the edge of the hatch so that when it is lifted, the courtesy lights will come on in greeting. The only remaining job is where the top edge of the door meets and hopefully seals, against the roof hatch. I think I'll end up with a "pelmet" or valance arrangement there to keep the rain and wind out, but that's still the subject of another cuppa's worth of thought. However, you will be happy to know that the door does now actually slide "to and fro" quite easily - and closes properly. Amazing... One of the odd side issues of having a door for the boat with a lock, is that I now have a set of keys hanging in the house and written on the fob is "Rhapsody in Glue". I appreciate that there's not actually any glass in the door yet, but "it's a small step" for an amateur boatbuilder - or maybe "a giant leap" even... |
| 19 July 2019 | This month is the eleventh anniversary of the start of the
building of Rhapsody. Planning started a good deal earlier of
course, but the first actual piece of timber was laid in July
2008. Incidentally, that very first piece was wrong! Not the
shape, but I had bought in both 12mm and 10mm thick plywood
and of course - I cut the first keel piece from the wrong thickness
plywood. An inauspicious start I think you'll agree. Anyway,
the hull took a leisurely eighteen months to build - it was
still just a pleasant diversion at that time. Now, on a good
day I can almost sense the end of the project, some nine plus
years later and there seems to be some sense of urgency now. I smoked as a young man (and as a school student for that matter), and although I gave it up forty years ago, I'm still vulnerable to chest infections when they come around. I have two grandchildren who've just started school and I have spent most of this month coughing and trying to breath (Winter here of course). Still, things seem to have finally improved after three weeks sitting by a log fire and reading. Precious little boat building to report, however. The front face of the A/C unit is to have a domestic style removable flyscreen. In fact, I have purchased some aluminium channel and fly-wire and all the other bits you need to make one to suit. It will attach with Velcro buttons to allow for easy removal. That highlighted the fact that the top edge of the frame needed some reinforcement and the sides needed some ledges for the Velcro. This has all been done. I have an aphorism written on the shed wall that says, "Nothing on a boat is flat, square or level - it's OK", and I was reminded of that when I tried to re-fit the drip tray once the extra frame bracing had been added. The tray was still the correct size and shape of course but could not be squeezed into the right spot because of the tapering nature of some of the new support bits. Very frustrating. So, I had to take my previously well-fitting and finished drip tray and cut it in half - just so that it could be actually fitted. Then of course, it had to have some additional support under the point of the cut, just to make sure that it was dimensionally stable and allow for water proofing. Grrr. Another five-minute job that took a couple of days! Most of the A/C unit is now finished ready for painting. Its joints have been filleted and glassed where necessary and all the screw holes filled as well. Now the whole thing has been sanded and flooded with epoxy wood preservative. The sliding saloon door has been soaked in preservative as well, which makes it feel as though it is more or less finished, which is nice. However, the door frame in the saloon wall still needs some work to tidy it up and to solve the sealing issues along its top edge. Many years ago, I spent a lot of time making stained glass windows and I have always intended the ones in the back wall of the bedroom over the transom to be made in that style. Partly a safety consideration as well, since stained glass windows can be "kicked out" fairly easily in an emergency. However, being at home sick for three weeks has been a good opportunity to start drawing up a provisional design for the first one, but no clues will be given here - you'll just have to wait and see... |
| 30 Aug 2019 | Winter has brought its usual share of coughs and sniffles,
but this year it seems to be carrying out a personal vendetta
against would-be boatbuilders. It is also true that I have two
grandchildren who have both started school this year and quite
naturally have shared everything with their new classmates,
including every contagion known to mankind. Anyway, I've been
on the sick list and boat production has taken a very poor second
place to staying alive. Still, hope springs eternal, which is
appropriate given that Spring starts on Tuesday, so perhaps
things will return to normal. The current focus is to ready the outside of the boat for fairing and painting, which involves finishing a myriad of details that are better done before rather than after. The back door of the saloon will be a trifold design, with stained glass in its upper half. The door jambs are done, which leaves the top and bottom edges. The bottom step is finished, aside from making some permanent arrangement to drain away rain that will undoubtedly cascade down the sundeck stairs on occasion. The original plan was to make a sump under the bottom step and have the water drain out through a hull fitting. That was fine except that the hull fitting would then have ended up much too near the waterline. The next version was to abandon the idea of a separate sump and just use the step itself. Small raised tread pieces across the step will be needed to stop water flowing into the saloon as there is no "fall" on the step to run the rain off to the skin fitting. Still, it's the best available alternative. I have selected a fitting that has a non-return valve built in, so although it's some 600mm above the water line and should be fine, any wave action that does get that high, should stay largely out rather than in. Some little funnelling arrangement still has to be provided to allow the bottom step to remain removable for access below. The top of the door closes against a roof beam, which is fine except that the top edge of the door is straight and horizontal, and the roof beam is neither of those things. So, a shaped lintel was required to attach to the roof beam and follow the roof curve along its top edge and provide a straight and horizontal face on its bottom edge against which the door can close. A triangular "rain ledge" was provided as well, to stop rain running down the outside face of the door - hopefully! One small oversight was that the lintel was supposed to have an aluminium channel let into its lower side to form a guide rail for the middle panel of the trifold door when closing. Ah well, too late and too hard to retrofit! Grrr... As part of finishing off the roof ready for painting, several jobs are outstanding. The main saloon roof was glassed soon after it was installed. However, some very hot weather at the time made working up to within inches of the steel roof of the shed most difficult and unpleasant, so one metre wide glass was applied down both sides of the new roof down to the top edges of the windows and the 800mm wide strip where the two lengths of glass wouldn't reach in the middle left for another day. The brow at the front and some of the starboard side, was left as well because there was to be a lifting hatch installed and the whole thing to be glassed after that. The hatch is in now and that day has come. Although, another delay has occurred since I now realise that I've run out of 200gsm glass cloth. I had bought some cloth via the Internet, but it turned out to have such a dense weave that it was difficult to squeeze the air out from underneath when putting it on, which is not so good. I have bought more cloth today, so now I'm running out of excuses not to finish the saloon roof and brow, very soon. The sundeck is finished and glassed and since the air-conditioner is finished too, its outside surfaces have been glassed as well. With the completion of the backdoor lintel and the glassing of the sloping passage top as well, the whole sundeck area is ready for painting. There will need to be some support for the upright sides of the sundeck in due course, but that will be part of the flybridge construction to be undertaken once the boat is moved out of the shed because of the height restrictions. Whilst on the subject of the flybridge, although it can't be built now, it did become the subject of some intense planning this week for a couple of obscure reasons. The first was the realisation that provision had to be made for the possible replacement of the fan units in the A/C unit, should that ever become necessary and the second reason was to do with the funnel. Well not actually a funnel, more of a chimney really. The LPG heater for the saloon arrived a few weeks back and having read the installation instructions, (I do sometimes, although it dulls the thrill of discovery a bit), I learned that the chimney should not be anywhere near a vertical surface. This is apparently due to the possibility of wind turbulence messing up the proper "breathing" of the chimney and we can't have that. Whilst pondering the placement of the heater on the aft wall of the saloon and the resultant position of the chimney coming through the saloon roof, I realised that when viewed from above, the chimney would actually be fairly close to the nearly vertical (22.5 degrees actually), front face of the flybridge. So, I decided to move the position of the flybridge aft by 200mm and the flexible chimney stack forward by almost 100mm to reduce the problem. The triangular fillets that will make up the supporting structure for the flybridge now need to have a slightly shallower angle but should still work well. Two of those fillets on the Port side will be attached to the top of the A/C frame and what was going to be a cover made of a single piece will now actually be in three removable pieces. Those cover pieces just happen to also give access to the fan units below, to allow for their replacement should that be required, which solves the other problem as well. Support for the centre and a portion of the Starboard side of the flybridge will then be provided by the second helm and dashboard structure, which leaves only the last 600mm on the Starboard side. That area is above the sundeck stairs and cannot be properly triangulated because it would intrude on the necessary headroom above the stairs. As a result, a reinforcing panel will be required with an arched cut-out, to fit between the side of the helm frame and the very outside of the coach house - not too difficult. An elegant solution in the end, I think. In line with the plan to finish the outside for painting mentioned above, some of the other remaining hull fittings have to be installed as well. There is a filler in the side deck for the main petrol tank and one for each side of the hull for the freshwater tank. There are two polished aluminium exhaust tailpipes to be fitted on the lower edge of the transom. (One is a "fake" in that it will actually be the outlet for grey water system). The only remaining fittings then are related to the blackwater pump-out connectors, which have been a problem. The original plan was to have a flush fitting in the side deck and to screw in an adaptor when needing to connect to the shore-based Waste Disposal Station (WDS), but there's a couple of problems with that. Since it has to be an airtight connection, there can be no retaining chain inside the fitting for the cap, nor can there be one outside because it becomes a trip hazard. And, without a retainer, any such cap would very soon be lost over the side. Also, screwing in any kind of adaptor so close to the side of the coach-house wouldn't allow enough space to attach the WDS's hose fittings, some of which are inordinately bulky. The adaptor could have a bend in it perhaps, but whilst it would work well, it couldn't be screwed in in the first place, because it wouldn't clear the coach-house wall. The blackwater connector is not the only one required of course; the flush-water inlet needs a connector as well and it too uses the bulky 40mm Camlock fitting. There was a paper published by the EPA some years back saying that all the Camlock fittings on the WDSs were going to be changed from 40mm to 50mm and whilst there's no sign of them actually doing any such thing, it is probably prudent to at least allow for the possibility. It would seem logical to equip the suction pipe with a 50mm fitting and let the high-pressure flush water hose stay with the 40mm. I know of at least one case where the hoses were reversed, and the resulting explosion caused catastrophic and very smelly damage. The solution to the placement of the black and flush water connector has been the subject of many cups of tea, nay even a pot or two perhaps and I think a solution is becoming clear, but more of that later. Today, I had been playing with the Camlock fittings and testing out different locations for possible fit and I noticed that one was marked 1-1/2 inches and the other 40mm. Now 1-1/2 inches isn't really 40mm, it's 38.1mm, although in general practice they are considered to be the same. However, it led me to wonder what the actual WDSs really use and the only way to be certain was to go and have a look. The nearest WDS to the boat building shed is at Goolwa, so after lunch I took my handful of Camlock fittings for a trip to the river. Well, joy of joys, my fittings marked 40mm fitted into theirs marked 1-1/2inches without problem - but one very definite problem remained! I had always assumed that Rhapsody should have "male" fittings to properly plug into the "female" fittings on the WDS, I'm not sure why, but no! It's the other way around! It turns out that the boat has to have "female" fittings in order to accept those oh so masculine hoses from shore. So, whilst same sex relationships are generally acceptable these days in so many spheres of life - discrimination is absolutely rampant at our Waste Disposal Stations... |
| 29 Sep 2019 | I had always assumed that deck fillers, such the black tank
connectors (OK, one of those is a deck sucker I suppose - but
who's being pedantic now?) should, well, be in the deck, but
is that necessarily the case. Over many cups of tea, I arrived
at the conclusion that there would be a number of benefits from
having the black tank connectors mounted horizontally, in the
sheer plank on the upper side of the hull, instead of vertically
on the side decks. Camlock hose fittings are quite bulky and need considerable space around them to allow the various adaptors to be fitted and for the cam levers themselves that seal the fittings, to be operated without potential knuckle damage. There is much more room for those fittings when you consider the horizontal option. Naturally, some aesthetics have to be preserved and hose connectors sticking out of the side of the hull would not be a good look. Never mind the vulnerability of such an arrangement the first time the boat was brought "alongside" a dock, quay or even a WDS for that matter. So no, the connectors can't stick out and for preference should be hidden behind a hatch of some sort anyway, to preserve the aesthetics mentioned above. The space between the inside of the hull and the trim panels that make up the sides of the saloon, is limited to about 200mm. So, a completely horizontal outlet option was not possible, at which point the notion of setting the connectors behind the hatches at an angle of forty-five degrees was born. This solution is rather more complicated to build than the earlier options, but it does solve all the major problems. The 50mm PVC suction plumbing under the floor only has three bends, one of which is only 45 degrees and is, therefore, very direct. The angled outlets from the hull are simply 40mm & 50mm BSP fittings that carry sealing caps when not being used, all of which fit behind a hatch that hides everything from view, most of the time. The Camlock fittings are very bulky but with this approach, need only to be fitted to the pipes when a pump-out is actually required. The rest of the time, a simple gas-tight cap is all that's necessary. A further advantage of having the Camlock fittings removable is that when the EPA does get around to changing the suction fittings to 50mm instead of 40mm, only a new $4 adaptor will be required, without any changes needed to the internal plumbing. Having decided on a workable solution, the only remaining issue is to build it and the idea of attacking my sheer plank with a jigsaw and cutting a 400mm by 200mm hole in it seemed like absolute sacrilege. And, the job was made much more difficult because of the bulk of the reinforcements, fibre glass and epoxy that had been already installed behind the sheer panel at that position. Some of the epoxy that had to be cut and removed had been in place for five years or more and is unbelievably tough. Still, that's really quite reassuring, I suppose! The angled back boards have been made and the 40 and 50mm BSP adaptors epoxied into trenched holes, never to be removed! Hatches have been cut in both sides of the hull, because you may need to access the WDS from either the Port or Starboard side of the vessel, of course, and both back boards are installed. The surrounding box structures have been made and installed and it all looks as though it will work very well. After a black tank is pumped out, it is usual to flush it with fresh water. One of the things that has always bothered me is that if the flush water were left running too long, it would be possible to refill the tank completely and, in the end, the tank contents would start to flow backwards out of the toilet. I do know of one instance where this occurred on a hire houseboat and the toilet pan was literally "blown" completely off its mountings, which was a very expensive, messy and smelly event. So, adjacent to the flush water connection, I have placed a warning light to show if the tank is full. I hope to never see it operate in anger, but it is there - just in case. Actually, the switch and associated circuitry is already in the boat, so it is a very simple facility to add. The "Tank Full" switch was installed so that if the black tank becomes full, a warning light in the bathroom is activated and the toilet's flush pump disabled. The toilet can then no longer be used, which seems like a sensible arrangement in the circumstances... Enough of black water, lets fade a bit down to Grey Water. There are three sources of grey water on board, the vanity, shower and galley. The shower and vanity wastes are combined and are connected to a sump conveniently located outside the bathroom door for cleaning. Given that the shower floor is below the water line, the wastewater has to be pumped out of the vessel. The underfloor sump is equipped with a simple mesh filter and an automatically operated pump. The waste grey water leaves the vessel via the Port side exhaust pipe in the transom, which looks like an exhaust pipe, but it's a fake - it's there just to balance the real exhaust pipe which is on the Starboard side. The fact that it makes the boat look as though it has a V8 engine and could be much more powerful than it really is - is, well, just unfortunate really... It wouldn't be deliberate, would it? The galley waste is another whole can of worms because it can contain food scraps and (cue scary music)... grease!! The EPA is very concerned about oil and grease being released into the river environment and I have no issue with that. However, their attempts to set standards and enforce them have been less than edifying. It turns out that the original standards legislated for filtering and cleaning grey water, despite the best efforts of industry and many, many thousands of dollars in research, were simply not feasible. Since then, there have followed some years of chaos, with the requirements still part of the legislation, but not being enforced because everyone knows that they are simply unachievable. Tricky! A more recent solution-sort-of has been a particulate filter and grease trap unit that nearly meets the requirements, but has been accepted by most people, including the EPA happily, as the best we can do for now. I have recently purchased such a unit from Storm Plastics in Edwardstown, whom I can thoroughly recommend, particularly the owner, Marco Elbe. A very helpful chap! The grease trap unit will fit under the forward Port corner of the saloon floor. This allows simple access for cleaning and for easy connection to the galley sink, whilst keeping the unit high enough in the hull so that the whole thing will still operate entirely by gravity. The outlet through the hull is closer to the waterline than I would have liked, but I have installed a non-return skin fitting just to keep out any errant waves. There are two fillers for the freshwater tank for convenience, and they are positioned at the rear of the side decks, on either side of the hull. They are cast stainless steel fillers that have captive threaded caps. There is no switch in the freshwater tank to indicate when it is full (only when it is empty!), and given that at least one breather pipe had to be provided as well, it seemed useful to put two breathers in, one each side of the hull, near the filler points so that they could also operate as overflows. Now, when you're filling the tank, the overflow positioned just below the fill point will indicate clearly when the tank is full. Easy! |
| 24 Oct 2019 | This month has been busy for all the wrong reasons. Since the boat shed is 86km from my home, the round trip is 172km and if I do that two or three times every week, that's an awful lot of Kilometres. I have a Honda CR-V that has now travelled close to 350,000 Km and is not unexpectedly, starting to show signs of old age. It now blows a little smoke every once in a while, and that suggests that having a replacement strategy in place would be prudent. As a result, I have purchased a Suzuki which is much less widely travelled and aside from being thirteen years younger as well, distinguishes itself by having both four-wheel drive and a dual range gearbox. It should be able to go anywhere including slippery boat ramps and continue doing so for many years. However, the Honda being now worth practically nothing, is still the ideal boat shed transport - let's see if we can get it up to 400,000kms! The other intrusion has been caused by the half-built deck on the back of my house that has seen little attention in the last twelve months or so. And since the timber is now starting to warp from being in storage, it needed to be finished! The engine exhaust leaves the boat via a fitting in the lower starboard corner of the transom. In common with almost all of the other through-hull fittings it is set in a "doughnut" shaped casting of solid epoxy. The hole in the timber is cut much bigger than is required and it then has its edges chamfered to stop the eventual casting pulling out. A round mould is used on a piece of flat plywood to cast the actual hole in the size required. This approach is not only very strong, but it seals the edges of timber around the hole from any contact with water. Epoxy starts to soften at about 65 degrees (C) and for an engine exhaust fitting, that may have been a problem. However, in this case it is a "wet exhaust", meaning that the engine cooling water is mixed with the exhaust gasses at the engine, which significantly lowers the exhaust temperature. Whilst I was test-running the engine, it only ever reached 55 degrees (which maybe a bit lower than ideal actually) at the engine. So, the final temperature of the exhaust gas/water mixture leaving the vessel after its long journey through six metres of hose to the transom, should not be a problem. The exhaust fitting itself is made of turned aluminium and is slightly trumpet shaped, which I really like. I bought a pair second-hand, at a market, although I have since seen them for sale on the "Glen-L" website. Since I had two fittings, I simply couldn't resist fitting the other unit in the matching spot on the Port side of the transom like twin exhausts! The Port fitting will actually be the outlet for the grey water from the shower, vanity and couple of bilge pumps. They do look very handsome! The two exhaust fittings have been installed at the very outer edges of the hull to leave room for a "Swim Deck" to be mounted in between them. The swim deck is just that - as its name suggests but it is also the boarding deck for the tender boat - when I get around to building it! The swim deck needs to be able to be folded up to allow for stern-on or Mediterranean mooring and will be made thick enough so that in its folded position it will protect the exhaust pipe extensions. Although I am trying to concentrate on preparing the outside of the hull for painting, one item which may have a significant manufacturing lead-time and is therefore worth addressing now, is the pintle or lower support/hinge pin, for the rudder. The actual pintle itself is already made and is a water lubricated Tufnol bearing, set in a piece of stainless-steel flat bar 75x12. It has to have an extension piece to mount it on the back of the hull, made of solid stainless "U" channel, which is bolted to the back of the hull and protrudes aft, under the propeller, to support the rudder. It will be 1670mm long. Since the actual dimensions of the pintle extension could not be finalised until after the hull was actually completed, it has been left on the "Do it Later" pile of outstanding jobs - which is dangerous territory! It also involves wriggling around under the back of the boat with a ruler in the huge drifts of wood dust and families of long-legged spiders that dwell there having been otherwise undisturbed for a lengthy period. So, it has not been high on my "jobs I would love to do" list. Anyway, I now have all the measurements and more importantly the bolt hole spacings and they can now be properly drawn up. I will pass the details on to my friend Phillip at C A & E and I'm sure he will prioritise the job for "Rhapsody" appropriately when he's not busy building those Collins Class submarines for the government. The pintle extension bar bolts to the hull through the bottom of the aft ballast tank. The hull there is 25mm thick, but it will still need spreaders or butt plates for it to be mounted securely. And, since the hull at that point is only 75mm above the concrete floor, drilling the holes will be a challenge too! The other major distraction this month has been the intrusion of some personal health issues that find me having to make an appointment with a Cardiologist, which is disappointing. |
| 2 Dec 2019 | These reports seem to be appearing at more or less monthly
intervals. That's is not really a plan, it just seems to be
happening that way - anyway, here is November's Report. I have finally finished glassing the saloon roof. It is the highest point of the boat and therefore nearest the underside of the roof of the shed. Not only does that mean that the whole job has to be done lying flat on one's stomach, but that the imminent approach of Summer temperatures becomes very relevant to personal comfort as well. Dividing the job into one metre square lots seemed to be a good idea to avoid the need to lay in wet glue and although time consuming, has worked out well. The front portion of the saloon roof includes the brow and main hatch as well and these are both now fully glassed and sanded ready for painting. Now the area around the hatch combing is finished, the hatch itself could be finally fitted. The hatch was made many months ago and was complete on three sides except for the edge that sits over the sliding door. This area obviously needs to be sealed against wind and rain with a fitted pelmet type arrangement and this couldn't be done until the final position was known. The hatch has had to be mounted temporarily with an external hinge because it cannot be opened widely enough whilst still inside the shed, to fit the proper hinge in its final position. The pelmet piece has been made and installed with some finishing and glassing still required. A switch has also been installed in the edge of the combing frame to allow some of the interior lighting to come on when the hatch is opened, as courtesy lights. This is a Hall Effect magnetic proximity switch which is completely sealed and has no moving parts. A powerful Neodymium magnet left over from another project, will be fitted in the hatch material in due course, to operate the switch. There had always been a plan to fit an exhaust fan over the stove and although the original unit was changed for reasons discussed elsewhere, the new style fan still had to be fitted. This involved cutting and lining a 150mm hole in the galley roof and trenching the wiring into the roof allowing it to be hidden. The new fan is a 240v unit and instead of using the main 3Kw on-board inverter, I've bought another of the small 150w units. These are a great idea. They are really small, efficient and cheap. I already have others for the electric towel rail and both electric blankets! The original range hood wiring was hidden in the nearest roof beam and although it's not going to be used for that purpose any more, I will try and find a suitable light fitting to not only make use of the wire, but to see inside the odd pot of goodies whilst cooking. I'm still trying to finalise all the hull fittings that will be required before preparations for painting can start and I've been looking at bilge pumps. The forward ballast tank, which is under the galley floor, now has an outlet for its drain pump through the hull behind the stove. The bilge drains for the engine, gearbox, main petrol tank, rear ballast tank and stuffing box areas will all exit through the Port exhaust pipe fitting with a non-return valve on each to stop blow-back. This should simplify matters a bit and require quite a few less holes in the hull! The filler for the main fuel tank, which is under the saloon floor alongside the engine, has now been installed in the Port side deck. A breather for the tank has also been fitted just below it. Not only is it a breather but will provide warning of any over-filling problems as well - not desirable, but obvious at least. The A/C unit on the sundeck has now been painted with two-pack polyurethane and given that it will be an almost continuously wet area, it has had three coats to try and make sure that it is well sealed. The trunking that takes cool air down to the bathroom and bedroom has also been sealed and painted. The painting inside the trunk wasn't strictly necessary given that no one will ever see it, but at least it is done. The top panel for the trunk has been glued on and it is now sealed for ever - I Hope! Reinforcing blocks have been provided underneath for the rail stanchions that will be needed there eventually. The shiny round stainless vents are also fitted into the bedroom and bathroom ceilings and look terrific. There are three fans to provide the airflow for the saloon and another two, slightly smaller, to provide for the bedroom. The wiring was originally intended to go down the triangular trunk behind the shower head, but that's starting to get a bit crowded with other plumbing. So, another route was found by simply taking the wires along the bedroom A/C trunk and down through a conduit elbow into the top left of the back of the wardrobe area. Given that the five fans can draw up to seven amps each, the wiring is a little heavier and thicker than usual too. The sundeck has been sanded all over and liberally sealed with timber preservative in readiness for a couple of coats of two-pack polyurethane. Six freeing ports have been installed to deal with rain run off from the roof and they have all been faired into the coach house timber. The main requirement for the paint is to simply seal the timber rather than look fabulous, because the whole area will ultimately be covered in artificial grass. We are down to some ridiculously small things now - I spent a little time this week fitting the windscreen wiper motor into the top edge of the windscreen. Not that there is any glass in that window yet, but you have to be prepared... And, as for the cardiologist, he somewhat facetiously and without any real conviction, suggested that I should become a "Fish Eating Vegan" - "you won't actually live any longer", he said, "it will just seem that way"... |
| 19 Dec 2019 | The daytime temperature forecast for the next three days
is 43, 44 and 45 degrees respectively. All of which means that
there will be precious little boatbuilding happening! So, perhaps
we'll just update the "blog" to perpetuate the illusion of progress
instead. The main hatch has had its "pelmet" on the outer edge above the sliding door completed with little side "wings" finished as well, which is an attempt to make the hatch weathertight when closed. It's probably a forlorn hope, but you have to try these things. The combing around the hatch is 50mm deep and across the sliding door is the same. Whilst there's a sporting chance of keeping most of the rain out, wind might be something else altogether. In any event, my best efforts are all finished, glassed, sanded and painted with preservative. Ultimately, a thick strip of foam rubber will be needed to complete the job. I have been buying paint from Seahorse Paints in Alberton since that start of the project, but the principle, Des, who is an industrial chemist and knows all there is to know about paint, has had the temerity to retire. So, whilst I probably have enough Gloss and Epoxy Undercoat, I will need to find another supplier for the remainder. Particularly, Des used to make up an especially thickened two-pack polyurethane brew that was ideal for using over bare timber or new glass work that would completely seal the job and also hide all the, umm, "blemishes" (read - lousy woodwork). After many hours of Internet research, I had to conclude that a two-pack polyurethane undercoat with a non-slip additive included, might do the job. I visited Topline Paints and was dissuaded from adding the non-slip filler because it apparently shortens the life of the paint - who knew? Actually, the sales assistant was wholly pessimistic about the idea of having undercoat exposed to UV - albeit polyurethane which is supposedly UV stable. However, he may yet be proven right or simply unimaginative, we'll see. Anyway, I bought four litres and will try it on the recently finished saloon hatch cover as an experiment. I do have about six litres of Des' original brew left, but I think I will save that for inside cupboards and other hidden spots, where I know it works and won't have to keep checking it. The saloon hatch cover is quite heavy to lift, so I "liberated" two gas struts from the bonnet of an 1993 EB Falcon, to help with the job. Now, measuring up to install the struts is a simple exercise in "school-boy" geometry - right? Well, err, no. Principally because the struts change their effective length as the apex angle of opening decreases. In this case, the strut is 485mm long when it's open and 290mm when closed. The hatch is actually just an Isosceles Triangle (on its side) with sides of 1200mm set at an angle of 70 degrees, and a base of 800mm. All of which sounds quite simple until you try and draw it in both its open and closed positions! Remembering of course, that the sides are actually curved! I have spent some hours with this and I'm certain that the solution is quite simple and obvious, but not to me as it turns out... So, the next best solution is to build a full-sized test jig and try it. In fairness, my calculated solution wasn't far out, but far enough... The added complication is that if you arrange the pivot points of the struts correctly, not only will they take the weight and help push the hatch open during the majority of their travel, but as you move the hatch back towards the closed position, eventually, the strut pivots go "over-centre" and they actually start trying to "snap" the hatch shut. This is particularly useful to stop it rattling when it's in the closed position. I now have two pieces of aluminium angle hinged in one corner, with "quite a lot" of holes around the right position that were needed to find the final measurements that actually work. It is called " an empirical solution" - it sounds fancy but "trying it until it works" is more accurate... The top panel of the A/C trunking that pipes air into the bedroom, is now glued down making it a closed and finished section. It has been sanded and has its edges rounded over ready for painting. Inside the trunk turned out to be a useful alternate route for the A/C fan and saloon light wiring via the back of the wardrobe as mentioned earlier. The job this week has been to manufacture a wiring harness to suit, with all the appropriate plugs and sockets. The fans each consume 80 Watts or a bit over 6.5 Amps at full power. There are three for the saloon side of the A/C and two for the bedroom side and they are to be switched separately. The three saloon fans together therefore draw upwards of 20 Amps and the wire used is only rated at 15 Amps, so a couple of extra wires were required. These then had to be made up into a wiring harness to be able to correctly connect everything. My background is electronics engineering and making custom wiring harnesses was always a job given to juniors and apprentices. So, I haven't made up such a harness for many, many years - but standing on the side-deck of the boat with a soldering iron, was actually quite therapeutic and ultimately, very satisfying. Each of the fans has been fitted with a two-pin waterproof plug/socket and obviously, the wiring harness has been made to match. Other wiring passes thorough the A/C unit just for convenience too, such as the Port side set of the saloon LED lighting, together with the connection for the red "night-light" in the saloon roof. There are wires for the four LED strips that light the passage outside the bathroom, passing through as well. Originally, I was planning to have two separate switches for the four passage lights, one for the pair nearest the saloon and another for the two nearest the bedroom. However, it now seems simpler to just have the passage lights connected via the main saloon and bedroom switches directly - remembering that they are both "dimmer " type controls and that there will be floor level courtesy lights as well. So, whilst making up the wiring harness inside the A/C, the passage lights have been wired in as well. I mentioned much earlier that I have abandoned the idea of a fixed couch (you perhaps remember my building of the "All singing, All dancing" unit complete with the electric recliner mechanisms)? Anyway, that's all gone now in favour of free-standing easy chairs. As part of that re-think, I also decided that having a folding dining table stored in the saloon for the occasional dinner party would be nice. OK, so stored where exactly? Well, first get your dining table! So, another trip to the big green hardware store to select a folding table. The best size seemed to be a 150cm x 70cm unit, that folds in half and is on wheels, which will fit against the wall where the couch was intended to be, when it's not being used. In fact, being only 70cm wide means that there is more space against that wall for something else and given that I now have a table, what else could I need - oh, OK, some chairs would be good. Folding chairs are often uncomfortable, but are perhaps worthy of some more research, but the storage spot is good. Building anything is a war of competing requirements which are often mutually exclusive. So, compromises have to be made. Having decided that storing a table and chairs against the back wall of the saloon was a good idea, I then realised that the proposed spot chosen for my LPG room heater was no longer available. If I moved the heater up the wall 50cm however all would be well - except! Yep, that's where I had wanted to put the room's light switches and A/C controls - grr! OK, move the LPG heater to Port slightly and that made room for the switches and incidentally made the chimney straight too. It's not a completely ideal position for the LPG heater - lower down would be more efficient for circulating warm air, but as compromises go, it's not too bad. The light switches and controls are OK, you won't have to reach behind the chimney to find them. The chimney itself will able to reach the roof without partially obscuring one of the A/C diffusers either, which will look much better too. I lifted the engine hatch the other day to show someone what was under the floor and was appalled to see several mice running around. They seemed unhappy and confused at being disturbed with the sudden influx of light, perhaps understandably, but it does raise the question "How are they getting in and out"? The boat is 100mm off the shed floor on blocks and should be more or less watertight by now, but obviously not "mouse-tight", which is a worry... |
| 30 Jan 2020 | Another Adelaide Summer's day and it's 43 degrees outside,
so no boat building today! The upside is that there is no smell
of smoke in the air as yet. The last week or so has been a bit
cooler however, which has been more productive. I keep drinking water in the boatshed in used plastic milk containers and the extreme heat a few days ago caused them to expand sufficiently to rupture - all six of them! That's twelve litres of water that ended up flooding the three desk drawers below, destroying drawings, receipts and various other pieces of relevant paperwork. Several trays of small tools, drill bits and the like, were also drowned and starting to go very rusty, before I found them. Another several hours wasted cleaning and drying! Grrr... Any boat wishing to cruise the Murray River or any Inland Waterway for that matter, needs to be signed-off by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as "complying" with its published Code of Practice in relation to the disposal of grey and black water. The "sign-off" process requires a licenced inspector to survey the vessel to ensure that it complies with the law. The legal situation with the EPA has been complicated a little because of the time it has taken to build the boat. The "Build Date" of any vessel is Internationally accepted as the date the keel is laid, which in my case was July 2008. Two successive sets of regulations have been introduced by the EPA since then to apply to vessels built after January 2009 and 2011 respectively. Given that my Build Date, which has been agreed in writing by the EPA, is before that, regardless of the fact that the boat is yet to be launched, means that those newer regulations don't apply. Although, this has been the subject of some "discussions" - shall we say. So, rather than wait until the boat is in the water before going through the formal inspection and certification process. It seemed prudent to try and arrange a preliminary inspection to find out if anything major needed to be changed before the boat is launched. This would mean that those changes could be made in the convenience of the shed and before the boat is painted. So, a preliminary survey was duly arranged and finally took place last week. The result is that all the arrangements for both grey water and black water disposal were deemed to be "compliant" and the boat has been given the "all clear". It will be inspected again of course, once the plumbing and wiring are installed. The saloon hatch has been fitted with some reinforcing timberwork inside, specifically to support the reasonably significant load of the gas struts and to provide convenient mounting points. The new work will also partially hide them from view and also make them less of a "squashed finger" hazard -- with a bit of luck! (A degree of self-interest there perhaps)! A pull-down handle has been made as well and the "hatch closed" magnetic Hall Effect switch for the courtesy lights, has been fitted as well. The ongoing efforts to replace the very effective paint products previously purchased from Sea Horse Paints, has been longwinded. I bought some polyurethane undercoat from TopLine Paints last week and have since painted the Sundeck with it. Given that the Sundeck will be carpeted, the quality of the finish was not vital. However, it took two coats to show any success at covering the black marks, construction lines and all the other blemishes underneath. I have also since discovered that it is twice the price of the equivalent epoxy undercoat from ProTec. So, my mistake, but I won't be going back to TopLine Paints any time soon! However, the sundeck is now painted ready for carpeting and a coat of gloss white around the edges and tops of the coach house, where the woodwork will be seen, will finish the job nicely. The next obvious target for painting is the adjoining sundeck stairwell and the sanding and fairing in that area is largely finished already. And, if I'm doing the stairwell, I may as well do the stairs themselves as well, which are not actually finished, however. The stairs are open to the weather because of the difficulty in making any kind of suitable hatch. So, rain ("Into each life some of which must fall") will simply cascade down the steps and into the saloon - not ideal. So, the plan has been for the bottom step to be provided with a run-off through the Starboard side of the hull, via a non-return fitting. This has moved forward from being just a plan to reality this week, with just some filleting and tidying up to do. Then more painting... (Oh, joy of joys)! A few days of marginally cooler weather presented an opportunity to sand the saloon roof ready for its turn to face the paintbrush. The iron roof of the shed is only about 500mm above the saloon roof of the boat in places and that means sanding operations have to be undertaken flat on one's stomach with arms outstretched, which is a long way from any ergonomic standard and bloody uncomfortable. However, it's finished. A few "blemishes", particularly around the saloon hatch cover, meant that another round of fairing was required before it could be considered as completely finished. This has been done and although a little more sanding is therefore required, all is ready for undercoat. I have since bought some two-pack epoxy undercoat from ProTec for half the price of the polyurethane used before, so we'll see how it performs. One of my friends built a river boat a couple of years ago and was astonished to find that he had spent nearly $10,000 just on paint. I absolutely refuse to keep track of such expenditure - I don't want to know! However, I'm starting to believe that it's possible... Whilst in the mood for sanding roofs - well not really, but the Galley roof has to be done too, so why not start it while I'm on a roll? The galley roof was built many years ago now, because I needed it in place to set the height and be the support for the windscreen frame. Which in turn, was necessary to support the leading edge of the saloon roof etc. etc. The galley roof was glassed and finished with Peel Ply all that time ago ready for final sanding and painting, but of course, since then it has since suffered from large daubs of epoxy, paint spills, chips and dings of all kinds, and is generally a mess. Then I made a discovery - epoxy, once it has been set for many months or even years, is very, very, very hard indeed!!! Now this is a good thing if you don't want your newly completed boat to fall apart, but if you just want to sand off the great gobs of epoxy that have just dropped and dried in the wrong places, it's a pain in the err.. sander. So, off for some 40 grit discs next week - I'll fix the little ... Last month I saw a couple of mice on board and I still have no idea how they got there. I have taped up a couple of holes that would have required a vertical jump of 200mm, so they don't seem very likely access points, but you never know, I suppose. There are some power cables going into the boat too, now I come to think of it - perhaps that's it. However, I reluctantly placed a couple of traps in the bilges and over the course of a couple days, caught what I presume to be Mum, Dad and four little ones. Not nice. After lifting all the floor panels in the bedroom and under the gearbox, I found two nests. They were both built of grass brought in from outside and not sawdust and shavings as I had expected. They were completely clean and must have taken hours to build. Happily, they were both empty as well. Now all I have left is the smell... |
| 27 February 2020 | Time for the February Report! At least it's a Leap Year
this year, so I get an extra day - maybe it'll make a difference... I've been painting. Have I told you how much I hate... Yes, I'm sure I have. Anyway, the saloon roof and the galley roof are now painted with two coats of Interseal 670. I'm using a 100mm roller which leaves a good looking "stippled" finish. It also covers a multitude of carpentry sins very nicely and leaves a finish that is less slippery than a straight gloss paint would be. However, it turns out that the solvents in two pack epoxy attack and soften the glue that holds the "fluffy stuff" on to the paint roller. So, after a ten minutes use, the roller starts to disintegrate and leaves great tufts of said "fluffy stuff" all over your lovely paint job. The tufts are awkward to remove with rubber (OK, purple Nitrile if you must know) gloves on and if allowed to dry, form very sharp points which are a problem. So, back to the paint shop to discover some rollers with "fluffy stuff" made of Nylon and a note on the back of the package saying, "Suitable for two-pack paints". And, aside from being really expensive, they have solved the problem. Almost. For reasons that are not altogether clear, close inspection of the finish after the Interseal has dried, shows minute pinholes here and there. They are really tiny but are holes nonetheless and therefore really undesirable. I decided that applying another coat would probably fix it so that was done. I also tried tipping-off the second coat with a brush after the roller, but the paint is much too thick for that. And astonishingly, once the second coat had dried, some of the pinholes were still visible. Very odd! Interseal is a very thick paint, which is its major attraction of course, but perhaps also its problem. I have no idea what the appropriate thinners would be, so that's not the solution. (pun intended). However, after some thought, I decided to apply a third coat, this time using gloss two-pack polyurethane. It's a very much thinner paint and should flow better and thereby fixing the pinholes in the process, which indeed, it has. Another bonus is that since Interseal is an epoxy, it is not entirely UV stable and a topcoat of polyurethane would fix that too. Interseal is guaranteed for ten years but I wasn't sure whether that was in the Australian sun or that watery brightness they get in the Northern Hemisphere every so often. The underlying stipple finish has largely preserved the non-slip characteristic as well so, a good solution I think - albeit a lot more work. In order to actually finish something, the saloon hatch has been faired and painted - and then repainted to match the gloss of the rest of the saloon roof. All very tedious! Still, it does look good and is now ready to go on. The gas struts will have to wait until the boat is out of the shed to have enough headroom to fit them. In the same vein, the sliding saloon door has also been faired and painted. The idea is to start painting at the top of the boat and work down. Funny how one thing leads to another. The galley roof is immediately in front of the windscreen which has a substantial fillet of epoxy joining the two. The joint is curved of course and sanding a curve is awkward. Sandpaper on a "long board" is fine for flat surfaces but finding a similar tool suitable for fillets is another issue. Answer - make one! So, a length of 50mm PVC pipe and a handle carved from a scrap of Teak found lying around, has made a very handsome and efficient sander for preparing filleted curves for painting. Another couple of hours gone... The sundeck roof is finished ready for its carpet or artificial lawn although the edges plus the A/C box, have yet to be quite finished with gloss white. The Port side is done, but the Starboard side needs the staircase walls to be finished first and indeed, the stairs themselves for that matter. There is a stained-glass porthole to go in the Port side stairwell wall and whilst sanding the area, I realised that whilst I had made a pretty stained round timber frame for the inside, the outside would look very odd without some sort of frame. So, out with the router with its homemade radius fitting and a piece of 6mm marine ply and voila! More painting... Making the rain drain for the bottom of the sundeck stairs as described above, required the removal of the cover that hides the engine battery and muffler. A little job that had slipped to the dim recesses of memory (dangerous place for anything important) was that the muffler needed an extra mounting to stop it vibrating. It only took an hour or so, to make and glue one into place but remembering to do it is the trick. And yes, more painting... In passing, I also noticed that the rubber exhaust hoses attached to the muffler didn't seem to be particularly tight. Further investigation revealed that the rubber hose material had compressed a bit over time and that the clamps needed tightening. That wouldn't have been a problem except that the clamps were at the end of their adjustable range and couldn't be tightened anymore. So, off to Repco for a pair of SS Clamps the next size down. (60-64mm). The last piece of running gear being made for me by C.E.& A. was received this week. It is the support for the bottom pintle of the rudder and consists of a straight piece of very beefy 316 SS "U" channel together with matching butt plates to go inside the hull. I ordered a suitable set of coach screws, bolts and nuts via eBay and happily, my son's Father-in-law has agreed to weld the nuts in place to make them "captive". Drilling the holes to install the pintle support rail will involve raising the back of the boat by several inches from its current position, which I really hope will not be in the least bit exciting... My son is very keen on RC Drones and has a couple he flies regularly. They are great fun, take great photos and movies and the technology is generally too much for anyone of my tender years to understand. Since he suggested that he could land his drone very nicely on the galley roof, it has become known as "The Helipad" - I might even have to paint a circle with an "H" in the middle. See - this boat has everything - except a wet bum. |
| 31 Mar 2020 | Given that it's the last day of March and I have been in
the habit of starting a new chapter of this tome for each April
1st (for the ten long years of "fitting out" thus far), this
will be the last report for this chapter. However, March 2020 will I suspect, become known for more momentous reasons such as - the time when life as we know it, changed for us all. It is the time when a tiny virus, which had previously only infected animals, has suddenly mutated into a form that now affects humankind and actually threatens our lives. It has forced us to change the habits of many generations in the short term, and at least some of those changes will now become the new "norm" and remain with us into the future. Whether our economy will ever recover remains to be seen. Building a boat for me has been a largely solitary process and means that I can maintain the now mandatory "Social Distancing", without changing my activities much at all. Major changes occur when visiting hardware stores and other suppliers of course, where the shopping experience has become quite weird. Also, the stocks of goods from China are dwindling rapidly and since we make practically nothing in Australia anymore (even viruses), like the rest of the Western World, all sorts of components and materials are now in short supply. A situation spectacularly worsened by the "panic buying" of some seriously moronic members of the population. Some people are just embarrassing! OK, on to more important things. You'll be happy to know that my various attempts to eradicate a different pest seem to have been successful - I now have no more mice in the boat! A small win perhaps, but important you'll agree? Inside the keel under the bed, is to become a water ballast tank so that the boat can be trimmed as its weight distribution changes. The area is vaguely triangular with curved sides that also slope outwards towards the top. In order to be able to make a top panel that can finally seal the tank, the sides had to be extended variously to create a level edge. This is a job that has been put-off for some years because it has awkward access, space is tight, and the angles involved are constantly changing because the sides are curved. Still, four small panels have finally been made (largely empirically) and glued into place. Some of the inside area of the tank is already glassed, but some of the bulkheads fitted later still have to be finished. The stern tube passes through the area as well and it has to have its glassing finished off as well. Then the top can be made. Now the sides of the ballast tank are finalised, the final volume and therefore weight, can be re-calculated. It looks as though it will hold very close to 300Kg of water and given that it is placed so far aft in the hull, should be very effective. Even further aft of course, are the two house-battery lockers, which will add some significant weight there too. The whole subject of "trimming" is really only guesswork at present of course, because the real situation won't be known until the day the boat meets the water - then all will be revealed. And, if we then have to start buying lead ingots - so be it! The sundeck stairs are now painted with the same Interseal 670 as the roof, which boasts one of its applications as being a "concrete paving paint" - so, it should be tough enough! Two warm-white courtesy lights have been purchased to fit in the Starboard wall of the staircase to light the way and a set of aluminium stair-nosings obtained as well. The nosings each have a non-slip plastic insert in bright yellow, which should make them highly visible. Now the saloon roof is finished, the funnel or chimney for the LPG heater could be installed. There have been various arrangements for the heater and its chimney considered not only for efficiency, but for convenience and aesthetics as well. The heater came with 28" of flue pipe, which effectively determines its height below the roof, because I didn't want to have to cut it or buy an extension from the company in Canada - which is all too hard. I also decided to move the heater slightly to Port on the saloon wall so that the flue doesn't obstruct any of the A/C outlets. That position still allows for a sideboard type shelf to be installed albeit not full width, which still has enough height to store a folding table underneath. Moving the heater away from the centreline of the boat also freed up the spot where I had originally wanted to put the A/C controls and light switches. It all seems to have resolved into a workable set of compromises now, as all boat designs are! The chimney is now installed (Dick Van Dyke would be impressed), but because it is really two pipes, one inside the other, the cap looks really odd. It is very tall and has two bell-shaped "rain hats" of different sizes, one on top of the other. It looks like a Minaret - appropriate for a completely non-sectarian vessel... The LPG heater weighs 10kg and is to be mounted close to the centre of the saloon wall, (which is the wall of the shower on the other side of course). That panel is a single sheet of 12mm plywood, and I don't want it to flex and risk cracking the acrylic facing on the shower side. The heater also hangs on just four 6mm attachments and since I would have to use very short screws, because I cannot bolt through the wall, some additional reinforced mounting for the heater seemed prudent. So, I have made up a frame of 42x19 Meranti to be screwed and glued to the saloon wall panel first, with 6mm studs embedded in it to mount the heater. The frame will spread the load and also help keep the wall cool as well. My original plan for painting the outside of the boat was to employ someone to do it for me. Partly because I'm no spray painter and I really hate painting anyway, but also because it represented a treat for me to look forward to toward the end of the project - a "carrot" if you like! However, circumstances have conspired to change that plan so, now I have to do it myself. The roofs are finished, which is good. I have researched the fairing and painting process and I'm still experimenting with the best way to proceed. It's a long, slow, difficult and extremely tedious process of mostly "finding out the hard way". However, the aft section of the Port side coach house is now ready for topcoat and has actually come out quite well. Now, I'm experimenting with polyester filler rather than epoxy because it's so much quicker, but - it's yet more learning and it might be quicker, but I'm certainly not! The outside of the transom has been ignored all this time and is still just bare timber. It needs to be sealed, glassed and faired ready for painting, but I cannot reach it. The boat is over 36' long and it's in a 40' shed, which means that there is not enough space behind the transom for me fit to do the work and the solution is really scary - I have to move the boat! Moving the boat implies that it should be put on wheels and this has always been the plan. There are a couple of steel jinkers of various sizes around the yard, which I had considered, but they are too small to be really stable and I'm not confident that their wheels could manage the weight of the boat which is probably now approaching four tonnes. I do have a set of really heavy-duty wheels bought from a market, so the solution is, as always - make one yourself! The boat presently sits on two hardwood railway sleepers to which I can attach my wheels and I found a couple of four metre, 150x50 steel beams in the yard, so we have the makings of a very appropriately sized jinker. Some "U" bolts and four big square 6mm steel plates (Thanks Kevin) and I think we have a plan - we'll see! |