Main Salon Demo started

It's funny how it all ties together in one big jigsaw puzzle. I am trying to maximize the use of space as much as possible. There is not that much space in boat and you don't want to waste any of it. In working the drawings over I realized I could fit the propane tanks under the side stairs leading up to the sun deck which is right next to the galley stove. I even managed to utilize the dead back corner of the galley cabinets to fit two extra tanks in. I also managed to fit the flash heater in right behind them so the propane lines will be really short.
Of course a propane locker that fulfills ABYC requirements is not an easy thing to build. It has to be completely sealed from the rest of the interior of the boat, have a direct drain over board and accessed only from the exterior of the boat.



So yesterday I began doing the demo in the aft port quarter of the salon where all this is going to go in.




There had been a long term leak in the fly bridge deck right over this area so all the plywood "core" was rotten.
Nothing like nice black mold. I decided the strip all the plywood out of the cabin side there to get a fresh start.


Today I continued with the demo. I decided to remove the aft cabin side today too. I am moving the aft end just a little further aft and making it plumb. With that removed I realized that the really was not much holding the outside skin of the aft portion of the port cabin side. Sooooo



I just finished removing it. I have to close up the door anyway and I need to grind all the bondo which they used to bond the plywood to the glass off as well. It is a very messy dusty job and I was not looking forward to doing it in the boat. Works out great, I was able to grind all the junk off down below in the open. Then I can bond it back on to the new plywood core in the shop before re-installing it up on the boat.
So back to the butane tanks. You can see part of the side deck still left just below the blue tarp. I will cut it at the lower end of the sloped part of the hull side just above it. The stairs go up there. it is about 15 inches down to the deck beams that hold up the main salon floor. The propane locker will sit on top of the those under the stairs.



Here is a close up taken from down below in the aft cabin. I will try to take pictures as it all comes together.

First Deck Panel Completed

I am a little late with this post, due to a cold...again. But I was able to beat this one in 2 weeks!!!!

We laid up the first 4 foot wide deck panel last week. Here it is with the core in place. I made a mold for the an upside down panel. That way I would have a finished surface on the top. So we laid up 3 layers of the 24 Oz Biax material I have and 1 layer of 1.5 Oz. mat with the cored embedded in the wet mat. Those are 50 Lbs. lead bars on top of it.

A closeup of the core and top skin. If you look closely you can see how well the resin saturated the scrim of the core.

Here is the completed panel before trimming. We laid up 2 layers of 1.5 Oz. mat and 18 Oz. Roving.

When we put it up on the boat it seemed a little too flexible. The laminate schedule is based on a book I have on boat building. I think that when they are all glassed into one it would be stronger. I am working on trying to do a better calculation of the strength. It may be that I have to go with a 2 inch core. This panel will be fine because it has a lateral bulkhead under it with only a 30 inch span or so.