Finally back to work

It has been a slow summer for the Phoenix project, life just kept diverting me from it. But I am back at it for the last 2 weeks or so. I have begun building the sides of the hull up back aft where the master cabin will be.

The first step is to build the molds to lay the fiberglass up on.The sides were built using 3/4" plywood that was covered with Formica on one side. The molds only need to hold up for a couple of days and then they are removed and trashed. So you try to build them out of inexpensive stuff. It does not matter that they look like Frankenstein on the outside.

 Looking aft on the Starboard side. The sloped part of the mold in the foreground is where the side drops down at the stairs which go up from the side deck to the Sun deck.

Here is a shot of the inside of the port side mold. Luckily she is fairly slab sided in this area. Only the Transom had any shape to it.

Looking at the inside of the transom. I used 1/4" Formica faced ply for this part. I need it to bend and due to the bend it holds it shape much better than if it was just flat.
The rectangular area in the corner is where the stairs down to the swim platform start. The first two steps will actually be in the boat. So only the first 2" in from each of the sides and the bottom of that rectangle will be glassed. That will form a recessed lip in the hull side. The stairs will be molded into that aft section of the deck and will a a lip that will overlap the one in the transom.

Onward!!





The next step was to cover the whole inside surface of the mold with white gelcoat.
You can see how I left the gel coat off in the center area of the rectangle for the stairs. There will be no glass work there.










Looking at the inside of the mold in the starboard side with the gelcoat applied.

View of the inside on the port side looking aft with the gel coat applied. I did not bother to put gelcoat on the lip at the top. That is the hull part of the hull to deck joint and will be covered by the deck which sits on top of that flange.





We did get a start on the glass work today but I too tired to go out and take pictures. Hope to get it done tomorrow or Tuesday at the latest.

Salon Floor Supports

After thinking of all kinds of inventive and difficult ways to add support to the salon floor I gave up and did it the most direct method...other than some 2 x 4 's jammed into the bilge.




Here is the Starboard forward support. The problem is that the two beams at the sides of the main hatch are spaced further apart than the main stringers are. So you can't put a post on top of the stringer vertical up to the beam. I made these fiberglass pylons that fit over the forward web between the main and outer stringers.  Then fastened the post base on top of that. The pylon is  glassed onto the web as well. The space between the top of the web and the top of the pylon is filled with resin and wood flour. The post is made of a 7/8" stainless steel tube inside a 1" stainless steel tube. There is a 1/16" think stainless steel plate beneath and on top of the two base fittings. The 1" tube slides all the way through the base so I add the stainless plate as a bearing surface for the tube end. Wood and fiberglass would get eaten away with the constant vibration from the main engine.









Close up of the pylon and base for the forward support.

 Picture of the two port side supports and the muffler for the main engine.









Also finished up the walkways on the starboard side of the engine room. I lowered the walkway so I have more head room which makes it easier to move around.

Last job of the day was to start on the shelf for the generator muffler. The white part is 3/4" PVC board which I will glass in to the hull tomorrow. The PVC board holds screws very well and will not rot. That is why I like to use it instead of plywood.

Great day for grinding.....

Temps were dropping all day today. Ended at the high 30's tonight. So I was quite comfortable with a lot of clothing covered by a sealed paper suit. Spent 4 hours or so cutting out the limber holes that got covered with the latest glass work. them I had to clean up the openings in the gussets and fair in the edges of all the recent glass work.

Here is the finished platform for the main engine muffler. The bit of white you see in the stringer side is the limber hole though the outer stringer. I made the platform out of PVC board, so I can screw the muffler down to it, and I do not have to worry about rot. I made it a platform instead of  a shelf so no dirt can collect under it. It is now sealed off space in the boat.

Here is a close-up of the limber hole and drain area to direct any water that does come through the limber hole around the muffler.

Nearing completion of port side stringers under engine

I replaced the two original gussets and built a platform for the main engine water lift muffler today.
At least I completed glassing them in today. You can see the back end of the transmission at the lower left corner of the picture.

Here is one of the gussets. I made them out of 1" thick Nida -Core which is a 8mm Polypropylene honey comb material. Easy to cut, the only problem is to get the radius tops. I tried sanding to material on my 48" belt sander than I filled the holes in the exposed cores with resin thickened with wood dough. It worked fine but was a little messy to do. I used foam fillets where the

Generator supports

The "holding" tank part of the waste treatment system is located under the generator. So I needed to raise the generator about 8" to allow access to the top of the tank and give room for the hoses and valves that are part of the system. I also decided to move the generator off center about 9" to give better access to the top of the tank and fittings.
My original design was a table that was supported by one of the stringers and a system of supporting walls. I then realized that there was really no need for the large flat surface. The generator is mounted on a steel tray with four attachment points, so if I made two support beams located under the pan at those attachment points they would carry all the load. Another problem with the table idea would be that then the bottom of the steel tray would be in contact with the fiberglass tabletop and would rust with no way to paint it. I plan to use 4 squares of 1/2" thick rubber between the supports beams and the tray bottom at the four points where it bolts to the beams. Pictures tomorrow...

I had some scraps of 1-1/2" coosa board( high density foam with a layer of fiberglass on both sides) which is plenty strong enough. So I built the beam and legs up by layering pieces of panel. I glassed the layer together than ground the sides smooth. In this picture you can see the glass work to seal the exposed ends. Next I glassed the sides as well, so the foam is completely encased in glass.

Here you see the two beams set in place with the support webs fitted all ready to be glassed on. There is a lot of glass work to this thing.
















A close up of one of the webs showing the foam fillets in two of the 3 inside corners. Fiberglass is weak in a 90 degree angle so I always put these fillets in to make a stronger joint. The plywood is marine grade hardwood ply.

Here are the beams all glassed in.
You can see the layers though the glass work. The thing is like a brick sh*t house. I don,t think I will have to worry about the generator breaking them.














 Today I finished this area up by glassing the top onto the waste treatment holding tank. So tomorrow I will get to move the generator back in place. Seems like ages ago that I moved it out of the way.

As usual I took pictures of all the glass joints. Here is one of the 5 pics of the joints holding the top on the tank. Each joint here is two layers of 1708 Biax tape and 1 layer of 1.5 Oz. mat alternating biax-mat-biax. the mat is in there to thicken the glass work at the the joint which makes it stronger.

Making the forward Cabin bigger

Finally got out of the bilge in the forward part of the boat and started on Chad's cabin. After removing the galley we have a lot of space left down there. So we decided to enlarge the forward cabin which is where Chad will be living for the last 2 years of High School.
The first job was to build the new bulkhead which of course has to fit the hull and deck shape.


The 2 vertical square poles you see are set plumb and square to the center line of the boat at the aft face of the bulkhead to be. They give my a inference to measure to to fit the bulkhead. There is a level which I am using as a straight edge clamped to the further pole. Using this you can mark where the bulkhead will meet the hull.

Here you can see the level again with the pattern clamped to it. The small light colored shape just above the level is a piece of the foam which goes between the hull and the bulkhead. The keeps the bulkhead from creating a hard spot in the hull. You can see the pattern (light colored) against the hull and then rising up the cabin side. There is also a section below the bottom of the picture.




Here is the pattern out of the boat on the sheet of plywood that will be part of the bulkhead. It took 2 4' wide sheets to make the whole bulkhead. The hull shape is rising going away from you.

Here is the first section of bulkhead in place. it is clamped to the vertical support so I know that it is plumb. You can see the line of foam between the hull side and plywood. This foam is shaped to make a 45 degree angle to the hull and plywood to form a fillet for the glasswork. That make the glass stronger.

Moving right long I have fitted the second piece and then spliced them together with epoxy glue and biscuits. All ready to be glassed in.

So this is how much space is added to his cabin. The aft wall use to be at the aft end of the bunk where the crow bar is hanging. Its about 3' of space the whole width of the boat. I plan to build a corner deck and book case in this space.

Hey long time no see, or write for that matter....

Sorry about that. I went through a couple of weeks where I was too tired at the end of the day to write on the blog. So we are playing catch up.
I have finished the glass work on the septic system. It works like this, there are 3 treatment chambers which aerate and filter the material that enters the 1st chamber. The aeration is to promote the growth of aerobic bacteria which digest waste a lot faster than anaerobic bacteria(what is found in most holding tanks) and does not produce methane gas which stinks.

So here are walls 3 and 4 freshly glassed in. Walls 1 ,2 and 5 yet to come. Together they will form 4 tanks, 3 treatment and 1 holding.

Here is a shot a couple of days later after all the walls are in and I have built and installed the filters.
The filters are removable so they can be cleaned if needed. One of the jobs of the filters is to provide a foundation for the bacteria to live on as the food supply goes by.....

You can see the first 3 chambers easily and the 4th which is past the last filter.

In this shot you see one section of the system. There is an upper baffle which goes in front of the filter system. The two white PVC tubes are the airlift returns from the next chamber. They go to the bottom of that tank just in front of the lower baffle similar to the one in this tank. The idea is that if any solids get through the filter they will settle to the bottom and be sucked up by the air lift tubes and returned to the previous chamber. The upper baffle directs the flow from the air lift tubes forward so the solids will settle ahead of that baffle and be returned back up stream again.

Here it is with the upper baffle in place. It too is removable. There will also be an air stone underneath the upper baffle and behind the lower baffle to keep the water moving and aerated.

And at last here is the completed , almost completed system. All the heavy grinding and glassing is done. I still have to install the air tubing drainage system etc.