Building 23' catamaran. Build updates

[stevemid]

My next project on the fitout was to fit the fridge compressor unit. These Isotherm units come with a compressor and a variety of condensor sizes and shapes and are pre-charged with coolant. The sealed quick disconnect connectors allow you to connect and disconnect the tubing multiple times without losing charge.

The Isotherm unit came with 4 rubber feet and a (mild steel!!) mounting bracket with spring clips to allow the compressor to be easily removed. I did not think mild steel would survive long in the marine environment so off to the hardward store for a spray can of etch primer. Four coats later and I was ready to install.

To refresh your memory, I built in my refrigerator into the galley cabinet. The first picture shows the back of the fridge under construction and the second picture shows the outside of the galley cabinet and the lid to the fridge. I decided to mount my compressor in the apex of the "L" in the galley cabinet as it was in reach of the supplied tubing and in the cabin, away from the salt air. I ran the tubing and the electric cable from the thermostat on the underside of the shelf that separates the top from the bottom sections of the cabinet. The unit includes a cooling fan and I cut a hole in the cabinet to vent the hot air out of the compressor space (albeit onto the feet of the helmsman!)

The last picture shows the space I've left to the outside of the compressor for the fresh water pump, which I'll tackle with the plumbing related fitout.
Fridge from Back.jpgFridge & Galley Cabinets.jpgFridge Location.jpgFridge Compressor.jpgFridge Tubing Run.jpgSpace for Fresh Water Pump.jpg

[stevemid]

I also completed the fuel system fitout this weekend by buying and plumbing in the portable tanks. I got two of the 25 litre jobbies from BCA for about $70 ea. and connected these to the shutoff valve using Suzuki quick disconnect fittings (thanks, Noelm.) Then on the output side of the fuel filter, I connected the hose to a primer bulb, leaving enough of a loop so the bulb was vertical, and from there back to the transom.

I also installed the remote control and attached the cables to the ignition switch and the remote and ran the cables through the in-built conduits back to the stern just to make sure the supplied cables were long enough.
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[surveyor]

really nice work you are doing beautiful professional looking work.You can be extremely proud to say you built this yourself very inspiring it is such a great looking boat as well .impressive

[outwide1]

Whats with the small fuel tanks Steve?

[stevemid]

Hi Outwide,
My permanent tanks are 150 litres each. In the picture showing the portable tank, you can just see the back of the permanent tank forward of the fuel filters. So adding a 25l portable tank to each side gives me a total of 350 liters. I got the idea on here that fuel goes off if allowed to sit. So my idea is to use the small portable tanks for pottering around Sydney, to keep the fuel fresh and to be able to fuel up from the Servo’s rather than the marinas. When I go out wide, I'll use the big tanks first and keep the portables in reserve. I could've got bigger portable tanks but 25 l in each hand is all I could handle.

[stevemid]

Only three pictures today but a fair amount of work installing all the hatches, the door and the fixed windows. The fixed windows are held in place with 5mm (1/4” thick) double sided tape. Then, sealant adhesive is pumped in between the glass and the surface of the boat. This needs to be packed in with a putty knife. The tape holds the window off from the boat surface to ensure a nice thick bond (because the windows expand and contract a lot and the adhesive has to give.) The tape also forms a dam which stops the adhesive intruding into the cabin. This is a very messy job. Clean-up on day two.

I got all the hatches and the door from Sailfish Marine. I would like to thank Pauly for adding value to this project even though he's in Qld and I'm in NSW. Anyone could have given me just what I asked for but Paul went out of the way to give me the benefit of his experience and kept me from making mistakes. I went with clear glass front windows and tinted perspex for the rest. Just a word on working with the your window and hatch manufacturer: Most trades control their own delivery commitments. With aluminium framed glass or perspex hatches, first the frame has to be made and sent out for powder coating. Then it returns to have the glass cut, which needs then to go out for tempering before coming back to be fitted in the frame. Delays in this food chain are out of the control of your glazier. So give him a break.

Phil is an all-rounder based in Lake Macquarie. His specialty is extending the hulls of Seawind cats. He finished Frank's Spriited 230 when Frank got sick and comes in regularly to help me with heavy lifting, to get me over a hump or to do some specialised things such as roll & tip painting and the glazing. He usually comes as needed for 2-3 days at a stretch; I’d guess 45-60 days over the last 23 months. He works cheap but talks a lot! More than earns his keep though.

Front Windows Hatches.jpgRear w Templates.jpgPhil the Glazier.jpg

[stevemid]

I got the windows and hatches finished installing last week and got the electrical done this week. The 3 50mm conduits that I ran through the sponsons made pulling cables a 1 hour job. Got every thing terminated this week and set about installing the table in the cabin.

About a year ago, before I laid down the floors, I built in a 25mm plywood support for the table pedestal by glassing a piece of ply to the chamfer panel and an intermediate bulkhead. I was worried about the beating that the pedestal support would take with the leverage of the table rocking on the pedestal underway. I took pictures of this so that I could locate the pedestal when the time came. The time is now.

I looked at the surface mount pedestals and chose instead the kind that sits in a locating hole in the floor. As you see in the last picture, I cut out the hole to perfectly match the profile of the pedestal support even going so far as to make indents for the plastic supports around the circumfrence of the base. Of the six holes in the pedestal, I was able to thru-bolt 4 that I could reach and the two closest to the centreline of the boat which were obstructed by the chamfer panel, I screwed down with 1 1/2" long 1/4" screws. Because the floor is glued to the support and the pedestal is thru-bolted, this is immensley strong.

As designed the table was a single layer of 10mm Duflex. It was shaped to allow passage through the cabin. The table seemed a bit small, so I designed a leaf which when folded up makes the table a rectangle. I'm still looking for a solution to hold the leaf up if anyone has any ideas. As designed, the table seemed a bit flimsy so to the underside of the table, I glued a 10mm piece of marine ply that I could screw into for the pedestal and for the piano hinge supporting the leaf.

When I get to the stage of installing the trim, I'm going to put a timber fiddle on four sides of the table, leaving ample space around the rounded corners to sush off the crumbs.

Still to do is the following:
1. Sweet and saltwater plumbing
2. Cabin liner in the berth area
3. Timber trim around the ring frame, entrance to head area, and galley table
4. Canvas enclosing cockpit, cushions in the cockpit and the cabin all of which I plan to do myself with the help of Sailrite.
5. Finally, possibly doing rails around the cockpit where the coamings are not high enough to keep you in the boat if anchored and a sea is running.
6. Paint the floors with Kiwi Tread.

Steve
Table_3.jpgTable.jpgTable Pedestal Support_2.jpgTable Pedestal Support 1.jpgTable Support.jpg

[Dave_H]

Might need a couple of folding shelf brackets to retain and support the folding part of the table? They have a pin/spring loaded latch type of construction and work fairly well.

Fairly certain I've seen these around in 316 SS around the place. Maybe Whitworths (etc)?


Attachment 99145

[stevemid]

Thanks Dave_H,
I found them in the Whitworth's catalogue.
Steve

[chris69]

Just caught up with your build Steve ..........excellent .................. it looks great with the window in,theres a bit in fitting it out,cheers chris.

[weswilson]

We have two folding tables in our house that have outside leafs like this, both have a pair of rods that slide back underneath the main table. When you lift the leaf up into position you then slide both of the rods out about 8 inches under the leaf and it rests on them with half the rods length under the leaf and half under the main table. Very simple and durable.

[stevemid]

Few things to report from the past couple weeks.

I had decided to put off doing the cockpit rails but changed my mind once I realised that the canvas covers for the cockpit would need to be made up taking into account the rails (duh.) The rails will have the effect of pushing out the canvas which slopes down from the roof. You can see this clearly on the last picture of this section. Since I had already painted, this meant figuring out a way to attach the rails. I started by using the lip that surrounds the cockpit and made up some mounting brackets using the lip as a mould. I then sawed the brackets into 120mm lengths, positioned them in the right places and epoxied on an upright brace. Then I bent the horizontal conduit (using a 500mm long spring which goes inside the conduit) and glued the horizontal rail to the verticals. I setup a fascimile cockpit on the workbench and did all the glassing there. Basically I draped wetted out 450 gsm uni over the uprights as shown in the picture and secured this with 50mm DB tape. With this in place I draped a wetted out layer of uni over the entire horizontal plane and glassed this in with 100mm DB tape keeping about a 50% overlap. Over all this I drapped another layer of uni and finished up with another layer of DB. It's not quite as heavy a layup as the front but the run is much shorter and the 90 degree bends in the pipe make it much stiffer. I ended up sikaflexing the brackets to the lip aroud the cockpit and securing each bracket with 2 1/4" bolts. I noticed when we sea-trialed Frank’s boat that I felt very insecure in the back under way. The coamings are only knee height at the back, just the right height to trip over. This will now feel much more secure when we’re under way.
Cockpit Rail Vertical.jpgCockpit Rail Base.jpgCockpit Rails.jpgCockpit Rails_2.jpgCockpit Rails_3.jpg
You see there's a spot where I dripped epoxy onto the paint and didn't notice it till after it had gone off which is the payment I got for rushing the painting.
Epoxy Spill.jpg
I also fixed up my breathers (Fed!) which I relocated from just behind the fillers to the stern. I had cut access holes to mount my stern cleats and the ubolts at the back of the transom and needed a cover for that anyway. I had wanted to run the engine controls out these holes as well but my port cables weren't quite long enough anyway so I made up a cover for the hole and mounted the breather in that. That means now that I'll cut new holes for on the insides of the motor wells for the engines cables and hydraulics.
Breather.jpgBreather_2.jpgBreather Stb.jpg
I also painted in the stripes to separate sections of non slip deck paint. I'll be using KiwiGrip deck paint which will be going on Thursday/Friday so that will really finish off the look of the interior and I'll post pictures on the weekend.
Deck Tread Striping.jpgCockpit Tread Striping.jpg

[stevemid]

I decided on KiwiGrip non-slip deck paint which went on yesterday and am very happy with the result. In the non-slip there's the type where you add non-slip additives to paint and there'sKiwiGrip which is a rubbery paint that that gets its texture from the coarseness of the roller sleeve. The result you get depends on how much product you put down (more product = higher peaks), temperature (product does not settle at all in hotter weather.) They recommend and we used a notched trowel to get an even distribution of the product. I wanted more grip on the foredeck, so we used a 4mm square notched trowel up there and a 3mm triangular notched trowel for the remainder. The thing I liked about the Kiwigrip product was the need for only one coat and the uniformity of the result. It took a total of 5 litres to do the whole boat for a total product cost of $189.

One tip: it was really hot yesterday so the product was really setting quickly. That meant the masking tape needed to come up within 10-15 minutes of the paint going down, otherwise the tape started to pull up the product.
Deck Deck Paint.jpgBoarding Platform Deck Paint.jpgCockpit Deck Paint.jpgSteps up to deck.jpg4mm Trowel.jpg3mm Trowel.jpgTexture Roller.jpg

[Jarrah Jack]

One thing I've learnt about all your work Steve is that its top notch. Most of the time spent would've been putting all that tape down perfectly.

[Chimo]

Love your work Steve!