Main cabin soles in.

December 20, 2009July 14, 2014

With the success of the starboard sump lids I will of course repeat it for the port hull. The port sump needs a large lid even more than the starboard one, because as well as acting as a normal sump I will also fit 2 of my port through hull fittings in the sump. In all there are 5 through hulls in the port hull, I will have a salt water intake and the black water out further back in the hull as well as a separate outfall for the sink as I dont want this emptying into the sump because of the potential for smells and larger waste pieces that usually find their way down the drain in the kitchen and finally the grey out.

It makes very good sense to have potential leak points in the sump where there will be a bilge pump permanently waiting to evacuate any water in the sump. The 2 through hulls in the sump will be the 2 senders for depth and speed/temp/log. I will have a Raymarine multi display chart plotter which will also display depth and the speed log will also add to the data interface to help the autopilot. The GPS tells the plotter the exact location which in turn interfaces with the autopilot and the speed log tells it the water current speed or speed of the boat through the water as opposed to over the ground that the gps tells.

The holding tank outfall points will be above the soles but still below the waterline. I could lead them back (or forward in the case of the black) to the sump but I dont think it is necessary and having above sole visual of the outpoints means I will keep a better watch of them.

I will also be fitting a toilet in the space directly in front of where the sump will be and in front of the toilet will be a wall with a door in it that closes the toilet room. So I have split the sole for fitting separately leaving a little of the sole area below the toilet exposed in case any plumbing needs to come through the under-sole into the sump. The black water out will pass through the sump as I want it below the level of the shower base so that it is completely hidden, so I have left the sole area open for now to that I can plumb it all. The sump cover will have the screw lid fitted as in the starboard hull and will extend to meet the sole already glassed in. I am in the process of making the screw lid as per the starboard one now.

I have also glued and glassed in the main cabin starboard sole. It has some plumbing under it, it has a water hose to send cold water to a small hand basin in the aft bedroom for drinking or brushing teeth so it will be cold only no hot, and of course this basin needs a drain to send the waste to the sump. Fitting the pipe and hose was easy enough but getting the lid on with glue on the web tops (and fortunately I had the dagger brace to glue to also) was quite a job. I tried dry fitting a couple of times and each time I got the sole down I crimped the water hose. I solved this by pulling the hose through as tight as I could and maneuvered the lid down over the drain pipe as I lowered it into place. At one stage I almost gave up and was going to cut the sole in half and fit each part separately but having succeeded to get the top down without kinking the hose I decided I could do it and went for it. I buttered all of the sole top and dagger brace and repeated the same way I had just fitted the sole dry, and it worked without smudging any of the glue off the sole tops or me standing on any of them!

The water pipe enters the sole at the bulkhead corner opposite the dagger case and of course exits just under where the basin will be. I set about wetting out the tapes then coving the joins, filling the gaps (which apart from around the daggercase were very small) as I went, then laying the tapes when the coves were down. At the dagger case in order to fill the gaps without the coving falling thought I cut a small piece of duflex to jam into the gap with glue over it, then finished the coving over the top of it to finish the taping. I also filled the through sole holes that contained the water hose (at both ends) and drain pipe with coving compound to seal the sole and hold the pipes exactly in place firmly.

Then to finish off on Sunday afternoon Jake and I glued the ply base into the dingy that we had cut and I had kerfed earlier in the week. I ran a cove top and bottom. I often glass to coving wet on wet but in this case we will sand the coving and glass the entire outside and inside later.

With the soles in I can start on furniture in the hulls adjacent to the saloon but this area will need walls put in which will need to wait for the hull sides to go on. So in the meantime I will finish the sump lid for the port hull and finish the fitting of the starboard ensuite, I have the sump pumps and toilet so I will finish all of the plumbing (and wiring) so that I can move on. That will keep me busy over the Christmas break (the week between Christmas and New Year).

In case I dont get a chance to update again before Christmas, enjoy the time safely and thanks for reading.

I only managed a lame 55 hours this month. December and January have not been productive boat building months for me over the years. The heat combined with family commitments usually mean I miss weekends work which is when I get the bulk of the hours done. Anyway I still feel that I am progressing, however slowly and am happy with the way things are going. Happy New Year to all, thanks for reading.