Cleats, Floors, Modifications

I left the cleats in the rear section of the boat to cure while I added cleats to the front compartment.  This compartment will be filled with foam flotation panels and sealed.  There will be an inspection plate installed (you can see part of the hole for it at the bottom of the picture) and a drain plug at the bottom.  There will be a deck installed on top of the bow compartment and the storage compartment, and this deck will be the floor of the anchor well.

Cleats at Top of Bow Compartment

The cleats on the sides are cut very thin so that bending them will not distort the hull shape.  I also pre-bent them with a heat gun as shown here:

Heat-Bending Bow Cleat

This worked very well, though it was not called for in the plans.  Even though I made the cleat thin as was required so it would bend more easily, they still distorted the hull shape when I tested them, so I heat-bent them.
  

There will be no side cleats at the top of the storage compartment even though the anchor-well deck extends back over it--this is probably because the side walls are much longer here and the cleat, no matter how thin, would still distort the hull shape.  That area is accessible from below so the instructions call for epoxy fillets.  The fillets will be very difficult to put in place, so I am tempted to make cleats and heat-bend them also.  Will need to give this some more thought.

I have also added cleats on the sides of the centerboard trunk to help support the cockpit seat and provide a surface to attach to:

CB Trunk Cleats

 

Transom Compartment Cleats

Here are the cleats in the transom compartment.  You can begin to see how the cockpit will go together.  There will be seats on each side, and you can see cleats for the seat sides and floor at the middle.  It appears here that the seats will be extremely wide, but there are small storage and floatation compartments and seat backs to be installed on top of the seats at the gunwales, leaving the seats a more natural width.  Floatation foam will be added below the floor.  The cockpit floor will be above the waterline, so that allows drain holes to be drilled in the transom at the rear end of the floor, making the cockpit self-draining.

Transom Compartment Covered and Heated

I have moved the plastic sheeting that was covering the entire boat to cover only the transom compartment while the transom cleats cure.  There is a small electric heater inside the transom compartment.  When the plastic sheet was covering the entire boat, the heater was sitting in front of the CB trunk.  This kept everything at 70 - 75 degrees while the cleat epoxy cured.

Starting Floorboard Project

It is already time to start fitting the floorboards.  That is because later on they will be much harder to get at.  Here you can see the first two boards sitting by the CB trunk.  I will have to cut a notch in each of them for the trunk.  The three-inch-wide boards will be placed 1/8" apart.

Below the floorboards you can see some of the flexible conduit which will be run on both sides of the boat from the storage (and battery) compartment to the upper-rear corners of the transom.  These will both be long enough to reach near the top of the boat and will be bent downwards at the ends to keep any casual water out.

I have placed the conduits in temporarily so I can see how to deal with the flooring at bulkhead 8:

Conduit Entering Transom Compartment Through BH 8

This is where I have made several modifications to the original plans.

First, there was to be no conduit, just loose wiring, and there were wiring holes on the starboard side only.  I added conduit holes to the port side and decided to use conduit to facilitate running the wiring.

Second, there were no conduit holes in bulkhead 8.  The wiring was only supposed to go through BH 7 then up BH 8 and somehow fed to the transom, where at the very least there is the need to power a running light.  I drilled the holes and will run flexible conduit that will go back to the rear corners of the transom, up through the cockpit seats, and into the side storage compartments.  The holes in BH 8 and the cockpit seat will be sealed around the conduit with marine sealant foam.

Third, there was to be no drain hole at the bottom of BH 8 (you can barely see that I have drilled one).  There were two drain plugs included with the Hull Hardware Kit, and it seems to me that a drain hole was originally intended for BH 8.  There will be two large lazarette doors in the cockpit seats, and water has been known to get into the transom compartment through them.  The transom compartment is sealed as part of the boat safety, so the only way to get the water out was to reach down through lazarette doors, then pump and sponge it out--not that easy with floatation foam under the floor.  So I have placed a drain plug that will allow me to periodically drain out all but a teaspoon or two of water.  (And I could add a few drops of Clorox or some other chemical to it to prevent mildew--will have to find out what is best to use with fiberglass.)

And fourth, the floorboards would normally go all the way back to BH 8.  What I have in there now are standard 8-foot boards (the lengths don't match--haven't trimmed them yet).  So I would have had to buy 10-foot boards and cut them down to about 8' 6".  But with my other modifications I don't want them to go all the way to BH 8.  I will instead build a small lift-out section that will reach from the ends of the floorboards to BH 8 so that I can get to the drain plug.  That means building another floorboard joist or cleat at the ends of the 8' floorboards.  I will probably make it out of 1 x 3 lumber (not a lot of weight on the floor back there where one can only lie down).  You can also see the lines for the floorboard cleat on BH 8.  I haven't installed it yet because I have to figure how it is going to work with the drain plug and conduit.  It will have to be made in either two or four pieces, and a cutout made in one or two of the floorboards to accommodate the conduits.  The cutouts will most likely be in the lift-out section, which will actually make that part a lot easier.

MAS Epoxy Cure Schedules (Revised by Me)

MAS Epoxies Cure Schedules

Resin Hardener Mix
	Resin/Slow	Resin/Medium	Resin/Fast
Temp. ⁰F	Pot Life / Thin Film Set / Full Cure
86⁰	17.25m/3:45h/3.75d*	9.75m/2:25h/63h*	5m/1:30h/1.5d*
77⁰	23m/5h/5d	13m/3h/3.5d	7m/2h/2d
68⁰	34.5m/7.5h/7.5d	19.5m/4.5h/5.25d	10.5m/3h/3d
60⁰	44.5m/10h/10d	26m/6h/7d	14m/4h/4d
50⁰	69m/15h/15d*	39m/9h/10.5d*	21m/6h/6d*
s = seconds;  m = minutes;  d = days

* Not recommended

Note:  For clear coating and bonding resin must remain 60⁰ F to 80⁰ F.  

Above is my modified version of the cure schedule.  I decided upon it after much thought and study of posts by John Harris, CEO of Chesapeake Light Craft.

Moving Right Along

Sanding Transom Compartment Fillets

Here I am just finishing up the sanding of the fillets in the transom compartment, next the entire inside of the compartment is sanded down so the epoxy will stick.

Sanding Transom Compartment

 

Transom Compartment 'Glassed

The fiberglass cloth has been added to the transom compartment and the first wetting-out coat of epoxy added.  I waited about 4 hours and added the fill coat, than another 4 hours or so and the gloss coat.  The pictures of the second and third coats would not have looked much different so didn't take any.  By waiting until the epoxy is tacky but not starting to cure, you can add subsequent coats without sanding and get a good chemical bond.  You have to do this for the fill coat because sanding would damage the exposed fibers.  I also follow this procedure for the gloss coat when I can to save on sanding and to get a better bond.

Cockpit Cleats Glued in Place

The cleats that will help support the footwell floor and cockpit seats have been added to bulkhead 8 and most of bulkhead 7.

Bulkhead 7--Two Cleats Missing

I cut the cleats for bulkheads 7 and 8 a couple months ago and forgot I had not cut all of them for BH 7 yet.  In this closer shot from aft you can see that two cleats are missing--the vertical cleat for the port (left) side and one that goes along the bottom.  I'll cut and add those in the next day or so.  

Some Real Progress At Last!

The next step is fiberglassing the hull floor.  The rear (transom) compartment and the storage compartment are not quite ready yet, I have to sand the fillets some more, so I am making paper templates for all the floor sections.

Rear Cabin Template

 Here is the first template in place.  I have made all the cabin floor templates and the next step is to use them to make two fiberglass panels each, one for the port side and one for the starboard side of the cabin.

Cabin Floor Templates

Here's a shot of all the cabin floor templates in place.

Port Side 'Glassed

I have laid in all the fiberglass panels for the port side of the cabin floor and added the wetting-out epoxy coat.

The first starboard side fiberglass panel is in place but not epoxied as yet.  As you can see, the panels overlap about four inches over the keelson and from front to back.  They also go up three or four inches on all the bulkheads and floors and the side panels.

First Wetting-Out Coat Applied to Both Sides

 I have glassed and wetted-out the fiberglass panels on both the port and starboard sides of the cabin floor.  In an hour or so I'll go out and add the second (fill) coat of epoxy.