Moved to the boat yard

Having the boat moved to a boat yard firmly places our build in to the next phase, and knowing that all work we do from here on out will be final fit out for our Spring launch has us feeling superb.

Putting the move together represented about six weeks of patiently planning and trying to make all the parts come together. I had decided to have a complete brake job done on the truck, the CAT track loader needed some work, the barn door needed to be modified, permits needed to be procured, signage and safety gear needed to be found, etc... The reason I had to go to all this work vs paying a boat hauler,  is that in our part of the world there are no boat haulers that can move a boat of this size and configuration, and the grade steepness of our driveway scared away the one hauler I talked to.

The boat moving crew was made up of a few close friends: Ollie, Bud, Dennis, Pat the mayor, and Bill. The night before the move, Ollie and I were getting things ready, and as I moved past the hitch bar of the dolly while on the bulldozer, the bulldozer track grabbed the hitch and tore metal giving us a late day welding repair.

The plan to get down the drive way was to  have the boat hooked to the the tow truck, the track loader in front of the truck in case of a catastrophic event, and the 40,000 lbs excavator in the rear holding the load. The biggest problem of moving a hay wagon type dolly down such a steep grade with such a heavy load is that the steering axle is going to want to jackknife. We could not  have done this without having the excavator holding tension on the load to prevent a jackknife. The driveway is gravel, and while we did grading work on it prior to moving the boat, the gravel is like marbles, and the truck could not get traction. To much brake pressure on the truck, caused the rear of the the truck to begin to jackknife and the load began to move dangerously off course. The end all solution was to have the excavator hold every thing while the truck was used for steerage with no braking at all. I was able to control the excavator, but it was tenuous at best as it just at the point of breaking free on the marble like gravel driveway. I had guessed it would take 20 minutes to get down the driveway, and three hours later, we finally made it out to road.

Once out on the road, and having the road blocked, one of my neighbors stopped to see how things were going and to tell us there was a wreck in town with two state troopers working the accident. I had obtained an over height/over width permit, but one of the permit rules was that we hire a state trooper as an escort. Given  the home made dolly, and the basic unsafe look of the dolly, I felt a state trooper escort would not let us leave, so I decided not to contact the troopers for the move. I had a permit in hand, so I could not get fined for not having a permit, and if I did get pulled over, the troopers would have no choice but to let us proceed. I was betting that a trooper pulling us over was not going to want to deal with having the boat by the side of the road for a day or two while another tow vehicle was brought on site. The trip was only Twelve miles port to port.  We were basically asking for forgiveness vs permission with only a reduced fine for not following the exact parameters of the permit if caught. Given that we now knew that troopers stood between us and our only route, we decided to use the time to jack the boat up and re adjust the dolly as it had shifted due to the extreme forces placed upon it as we came down the hill. The "time out", we as we waited on the road gave all some time to calm down and double check what we were doing.  We live in a rural area, and our road is narrow and not heavily traveled. We moved the boat over as far as we could to one side of the road, allowing cars to pass  with one set of wheels in the grass as we worked on the rig. We sent Dennis down to the area where the troopers were to let us know when they left. With us blocking most of the road and working on the rig on a drop dead gorgeous Saturday morning, our work site soon became a social hot spot as neighbors pulled over to see "wass up?".  Two  hours later, the rig was aligned, the troopers were gone, and we were moving towards the boat yard.

The rules of the permit were that we have an escort vehicle in front checking wire height, and an escort vehicle in the rear ( along with a state trooper). The Mayor and Bud were in front dealing with traffic, and pushing up low wires as we wound our way down state route 132 towards the more open state route 52. Because our front tires were so severely over loaded and were afraid of heat building up and blowing the tires, we crept along at 10 - 15 mph. Given that it was a Saturday, and with people out and about, the spectacle of moving such a large boat began to feed back to us. Shannon was riding in the dump truck with me, and she began to start seeing pictures of us showing up on face book. It was kind of funny watching people pulling over and taking pictures of us with their phones. Once out on the open US SR 52, the mental pressure on us subsided, and almost an hour later we pulled in to Washington Marine. Hugs, handshakes and some back slapping were had as we quickly unhooked the boat from the truck for the return trip back to our place to get the wheel house.

The night before, Ollie and I had backed the trailer under the wheel house, so all we had to do was jack it down on to the trailer and bind it down. The wheel house is almost 15' wide, and was a little off center on the trailer, so I had to stay pretty much in the center of the road. The good news is that I was able to get up to speed, so the trip down to the boat yard only took 1/2 of an hour. Once down at the boat yard, we backed the trailer up to hull and unhooked it so we can deal with it on Monday. Job done.

I had touched base with the yard about getting the wheel house craned on to the hull early in the week so Monday morning I'll be confirming our schedule. Hopefully, she'll be joined together early in the week, and by this time next week, we'll have made the transition from a dream in the barn, to a legitimate boat inching closer to launch. Heading back home in the dump truck with the windows down and the river shining as the sun was closing in on the horizon, we noticed all the boats anchored in the river on  this fine Saturday night, and we felt good knowing we would be joining them next Spring.

Cheers

 

Ready to move

The day after we pulled the hull out of the barn, we moved the wheel house over to side of the barn with the now  modified door. The rest of that second  day was spent jacking the wheel house up high enough to allow our trailer to get underneath it.

Using a floor jack, the wheel house end of the super structure was  lowered down on to one of the 6x6's that were removed from modifying the barn door opening. 2" steel  pipes were first  placed under the 6x6. The aft side of the super structure was raised up enough to get pipes under it by using a block and a crow bar. For some reason, I thought I'd be able to move the super structure by having  Shannon and I push on it. After about 5 seconds of pushing, we figured another source of power was going to be needed. The John Deere tractor we use to mow was the perfect tool for the job. We move the structure as far as the tractor would allow, then used the skid steer loader to bump it over the rest of the way from the other side.

Jacking the super structure up for the trailer to fit under it was pretty straight forward. Using the skid steer loader with a set of forks in the front, and a floor jack in the rear, it took about 4 hours of lots of moves to get the job done.

The nice thing about building in metal is how rigid the structures are and how things don't rack when you pull on them. When I hooked the tractor to the super structure on one end, and pulled, the whole structure moved.

The wheel house is ready to transport as is the hull. I spent the last weekend doing some work on the dolly, and tidying up the inside of the boat. We  had about three inches of rain the other day, and while we had spent some time taping and tarping openings in the deck of the hull, we  still got some water inside. The good  news is that all the water tight bulkheads are indeed water tight below the sole, the bad news is that I had to spend Sunday getting the bilges dry. It's really no big deal as this is still a construction project, and it's not weather tight yet, but I hate seeing the weather getting to her.

I have the permit to move in hand, and for the most part I have the strategy we're going to use to make it happen. The permit expires this Sunday, so the move has to happen between Wednesday and Sunday. So, this time next week, I should have both pieces down at the boat yard ready to join them together.

Cheers,

Out of the barn

The hull is out of the barn and another big milestone has been achieved.

The hull is wider and taller than the 12 x 14 doors I have in the barn so a overhead door company had to be called in to remove the door. Once the door was off, it was up to me to remove some of the siding, the purlins, and two posts. It took me about two nails to remember that pole barn siding nails are not meant to come out. It took me about 30 more nails to realize that a cat's paw and a hammer is really not the preferred way to remove these nails. My right angle die grinder with a cutting disc used to cut the nail head in half, then a punch to knock off the nail head is the fastest, cleanest way to remove pole barn siding nails ( if any one really cares ;-0). Because the 6 x 6 posts are on the gable, and I had bolted them to the foundation when I built the barn, I was able to easily remove them for salvage on the re build of the door opening.

I had to use the swim platform of the boat for scaffold while I removed the door header. Using the skid loader to pull the boat back and under the door header had me realizing just how easy she moved across the barn floor. Walking around on the swim platform with demolition tools and using a chain saw to cut the posts out had me reminding myself that I can fix the dings I'm creating later on down at the boat yard.

For some reason I've long forgotten, I decide to build the boat in the barn facing the wrong way. Building her in the barn backwards ended up causing some more work in getting her out.  Because the parking area outside the barn is on a grade I had to use a I beam with one end chained to the boat dolly axle, and another end chained to the dozer blade so I could control the hull and prevent her from rolling down the hill in to the dozer. The I beam idea worked good and getting her in to the barn  yard was really no big deal.

Once out in the barn yard I backed the dump truck in to position so I could get a measurement on the length of the hitch. Once the hitch was welded to the dolly, and the pintle ring was bolted to the hitch, I again backed the truck in to place and hooked the dolly to the truck. For the most part, she's ready to leave our property.

 This morning I'm going to chain her down, and move her further away from the barn using the dump truck. I need her away from the barn door so I can back a trailer in to the barn and load the wheel house on to the trailer. Hopefully, this time next week, both pieces will be down at the boat yard ready to weld together.

As she sits on her dolly, she measures 14'3" above the road.

Getting her out of the barn was a pretty big milestone for me. This is the first time I've really been able to see what she looks like. It feels amazing not having to duck under the truss's. To say I'm happy would be an understatement.

Cheers

Odds and ends

I've worked out a deal with the boat yard where the final fit out is going to occur and I now have a list of things to get finished before I can move her out of the barn.

The boat yard, understandably, wants me to carry a builders risk insurance policy in case I damage others property. The folks who handle my commercial policy for my excavating business do not handle anything marine, so I've had to look at another agency to  help me find a policy. I've been dealing with a company up in Mystic, and they are putting some effort into my project. Hopefully this will work out and I'll start a long term relationship with this insurer to handle my yachting needs.

I had to find another set of tires for the front steering axle for the transport dolly. The tires that I had on the axle would not handle the load and were going to cause us problems. The tire vendor I use for my trucks is hunting two used tires with more ply's that should be up to the task. It's taken a little longer than he had figured, but he's still looking and I'm sure he'll come through. 

Once I get her to the boat yard I'm either going to be running off a generator or I'll be using some sort of shore power from the yard. Either way, I want to be able to plug the boat in at one area and distribute AC power from that one point. I've never been a fan of having a rats nest of extension cords so I decided to start the boats shore power connections. I have two 30 amp inlets for the boat, and they reside on the front of the wheel house. For my shore power connections, I've decided to use the smart plug system. By the nature of the old style twist lock connections, I've always felt like problems were designed in to those connectors. Twisting on the metal spades to make a connection... metal wearing out... resistance building.....heat....fire.... no thanks. The smart plug system is a well built, well thought out way of connecting the boat's shore power. Another builder I confide in recently told me insurers offer a discount for using the smart plug, and it makes sense. The bottom line is that the smart plug is a far superior way to connect your boat to the shore power link.

Another item I needed to take care of was getting the air compressor in the lazzarette operational. I had purchased a 3 hp, 8 CFM, 30 gallo

n, 120 volt, 20 amp air compressor for my on board life. Why the air compressor?  The first thing I do when I get in my shop in the morning is turn on the air compressor, the last thing I do when I leave is turn off the air compressor. Air compressors are for sure on my top five most important tools and I've always had my mind set on having one on board the boat. This boat is large enough to handle a small air compressor such as this and it will get it's fair share of use. I'm figuring that there is going to be some fit up work required to land the super structure, so having the air compressor operational to run my plasma cutter is important. I wanted to have an air outlet on the aft deck, an air outlet in the lazzarette, another outlet in the engine room and one more outlet in the wheel house. I've never been a fan of using " T's " in any kind of line, and I for sure would rather create a manifold to distribute the on board compressed air system. Besides using air tools on board, and being able to inflate floating things, I'll also be using an air horn for sounding. I had contemplated using air to shift the transmission, but I think I'm going to stick with a cable type control for that.

I think getting her moved in August is doable. I do believe I was blogging these same words last July, so I must defer to the old saying of "never say never". The boat is darn near ready to move, and I am for sure ready to move her. A few details need to fall in to place, and at this point, there's no need to push it. This will happen, it just needs to  happen the right way.

Cheers

Wheel house door

I built the wheel house door out of Aluminum. Given how exposed the wheel house is, I thought Aluminum would offer me a more tough door. Now that it's all said and done, I do think the aluminum door is more robust than my wooden salon door. The salon door, at two inches thick is for sure a tough door, but the all welded Aluminum door appears to be pretty tough given the weight of it.

The first decision I had to make on the wheel house door build was how to build the frame.  I found a piece of 2 x 6 x 1/4 " angle at the scrap yard and ripped the six inch side to 4" to match my 4" wheel house frame depth. The angles on the rough opening are a degree off of 90, so a little fitting had to be done before I could tack the frame together. I guess at this point I should say that I TIG welded the wheel house door. The frame was assembled using miter's, with all the cuts being made with my miter saw... you gotta love Aluminum. Once the frame was fit in to the opening, I built the actual door frame using some 1" x 2" angle and some 2" flat bar for internal framing. I had the hinges in the shop, so figuring out the reveal of the door was not too big of a deal. With hindsight being 20/20, I wish I had used a hinge that did not require a mortise. I ended up having to create a  mortise for the hinge in the door, and while not  a deal killer for the success of the job, it was sort of a pain.

The flat bar cross member framing of the door was laid out for a couple of strategic reasons. Two of the cross members were laid out as to house the Trioving lock assembly. To make all the lock assembly housing hidden yet removable, I added an internal plate to bolt the lock assembly in to. Trioving bores four holes through this composite lock assembly housing for just the purpose I needed. The four bores are the same size needed to tap a 1/4-20 thread so one can attach the lock housing assembly to the door. On my wooden salon door, I created a mortise, then epoxied the lock assembly housing in to the mortise. The other two flat bar cross members were installed in the locations where my inside door dogs will be bolted to the interior door skin. In order to keep the door skin flat, I had to weld a few braces in to the door frame perpendicular to the cross members.

Aluminum is great material to work with, but controlling movement due to the immense heat created by TIG welding is a challenge. Taking your time and paying attention to the  heat is crucial. I also found that by clamping blocks of heavy stainless steel under my welds and along side of weld areas helped the heat sink in to the blocks and keep things under control. My external door skin was .090.

Because I had always intended on painting the door, I ground all the welds on the exterior of the door and on the frame. Once I had the welds ground flush, and repaired a few welds that failed as a result of grinding, I sand blasted the door and frame. On As per advice from my paint vendor, I conditioned the aluminum with some material I applied with a spray bottle.  The conditioner had to sit on the metal for 15 or 20  minutes, then I hosed the metal clean and let it drip dry. My paint guy said the conditioner is good for 24 for hours, so after baking in the sun for a few hours, I hung the door from some lines and gave it two coats of epoxy primer along with the frame. After priming the door, I faired the ground edge of the door first using West epoxy mixed with fairing compound, then finished with Rage filler sanded to 320 grit. Spot painting two coats of primer on the filler to seal it, then three or four coats of acrylic urethane top coat and the door was ready for assembly.

I pre drilled the frame for 1/4" screws, and will not final install the door until the super structure is landed at the launch site later this summer. I also have only installed a temporary stop as I'm still undecided on what type of gasket I"m going to use to seal the door to the stop. Once I decide on the type of gasket and how much room the gasket requires, I'll bolt the door stop to the frame. The door stop will be  hardwood and will extend out the the edge of the door frame to also catch the interior  finish wall sheathing. Another important build part of my wheel house door is that I decided that the interior skin of the door will be Cherry to match the wheel house finish wood. Because the doors interior skin will be plywood, I bolted firing to the cross members.

After I land the super structure to the hull and have all he weld zones painted, I'm going to have the spray foam insulators back to spray all those areas. When the spray contractor is on site, I'm going to have him spray foam the inside of the door before I install the plywood interior skin.

Now that the wheel house door is complete along with the salon door, the last piece of being able to secure the boat from weather and other undesirables  is  now complete. I've pretty much stopped working on finish type things of the build, and am now focusing on getting things ready to move her out of the barn. Getting her in the water next Spring is the plan, and believe it or not, that date is fast approaching. It's time to it done.

I started to add some You tube videos if anyone's interested. The videos are pretty lame, but hopefully I'll start improving on them. I'll post a link soon.

 Cheers

Salon passage door completion

I'm calling the salon passage door a wrap and the little work that needs to be done to it will be finished once it's hung for good in it's opening. I did hang it to work out some of the details and to make sure the lock set had no issues. The door is temporarily hung, and will be removed for the trip to the launch site just like all the other case work I've done in the super structure.

Once the stainless hinges were in the shop I built a jig to route the mortise's . The jig assures perfect alignment between of the  hinges between the door and the door jamb. The jig is just 1/2 plywood with the hinge layout cut in the jig a  1/6" of an inch larger the the hinge itself. The router is fitted with a guide bushing and a 1/2" mortising bit.

The door jambs were cut 1/8" wider than the opening. Experience has taught me the having the door jambs a bit proud of the finished wall surfaces make casing the door much more trouble free. Because the aft wall is only two inches thick, I decided to make the stop the door closes against the full width of the jamb. I also made the stop a full 3/4" thick vs the 5/8 one would normally see on a door  in a house. The door stop now is the full width of the jamb so the casing will cover the joint  between the  jamb and the stop. I might regret this one day, but I glued and nailed the stop to the jamb, and once it's permanently hung in the opening I"ll add screws to the stop. A few of the screws will be thru bolted to the metal frames as will some of the hinge screws and the stainless keeper that the lock set lands in to.

One of the reasons I hung the door was to see how the door  seal gasket was going to work out. I purchased a 3/8 round hollow rubber gasket with a 3/4" spline on it. My intent was to  cut a rabbet in the stop for the spline to lay in, and have the 3/8" round hollow  bulb act as the seal getting compressed when the door closed against the stop. Fitting this idea up proved to be a problem, and after a day of tinkering with it, I decided to used a closed cell gasket. I had some 1/8 and 1/4 x 3/4 closed cell foam in the shop and was able to position the stop so that the 1/8 material would work and create a nice seal. Watching the door close on my mocked  up pieces had all looking good and I'm happy it looks like that idea will work out OK.

Before I was able to call the door a finished  job, I wanted to make sure the Trioving lock set was going to work given the thicker stops I installed. I've seen situations before where full mortised lock sets have the  handles hitting the stop as the door opens. Trioving uses a very deep mortise for the lock set @ 4 1/4" so this scenario really wasn't a problem. Trioving has some pretty nice user friendly design in their gear. The screws they use to hold the sets together are machined to adjust. Once you have the lock set in place, you cut the screws in a machined groove they  have to get the proper length. This way one does not have to use a die to repair the cut end. Another nice detail Trioving uses is how they hold he handles on to the square stock that passes through the lock set. The square stock is split in half for a certain distance where the handle lands, and the set screw that holds the handle in place is extra  long. The  extra long set screw has a long nipple machined on the end of it and as you tighten the set screw in place,  it engages the slot in the square stock and spreads it out creating an interference fit between the square stock and the handle. This is a much nicer way in my opinion to retain the  handle vs a set screw that just engages the stock.

I purchased the Trioving lock sets off of Ebay used, and the keepers that mortise in to the door jamb did not come with the lock sets. I used some scrap 3/16  316 stainless I have in the barn to fabricate the keeper. I used the  mill to  machine the slots that the two lock set bolts will engage. The bolts are 1/2" wide, so I machined the slots to 9/16". Once the door is hung for good at the launch site, and after the seal is in place, I'll adjust the keeper in the jamb and final grind the slots depending on how tight I want the door to  close.  I might have to TIG weld a small return piece of stock on the slot that engages the handle bolt, but I'll figure that out once the door is permanently hung. I I also might try to broach square corners in the keeper, but once again, well see how it fits.
 

Now that the salon passage door is complete, I'm thinking of turning my attentions to the wheel house aluminum door. I was thinking of making it a dutch style, but given how tall my bulwark is, I"m not so sure I n need to do that. I have pretty good ventilation in the wheelhouse, and if I'm in a situation where I need to have the door closed, 100% closed vs 50% closed with a dutch door is not going to make any difference regarding ventilation. The dutch door seems to be  more appropriate for boats without the bulwark, and also adds some complexity to the fabricating. I'm still up in the air on that decision so we'll see.

Cheers

 

Salon passage door

There are two passage door on board, one in the salon and another in the wheel house. The salon door I decided to build out of wood, and the wheel house door will be aluminum. The salon passage door is on the aft deck, under the aft  deck roof and protected by the 36" solid steel bulwark that surrounds the aft deck. The wheel house door is a little more exposed given that it's on the front of the boat. The free board on the at the wheel house door part of the boat is almost 8', and the wheel house is protected by a 46" tall steel Portuguese Bridge. The fore deck is also protected by a 36" tall solid steel bulwark.

The wooden salon passage door is what I would describe as robust. Because I am using Trioving mortised lock sets, and because I wanted a stout door I decided to  build the door 2" thick. The panel for the door is 3/4" plywood. The door is built out of Cherry.

I did not have any 2" thick cherry stock so I had to laminate three pieces together to get my 2" thickness. I like to laminate material using a form, and welding a couple of 4" H beams together made for a nice straight form that was easy to clamp to. By using a "straight as string" form, my lamination's came off of the form perfectly straight.

In my opinion, mortise and tenon joinery is best for a door such as this. The first step in joining the door together after I had all the stock prepped was to plow the groove for the panel. I used a stacked dado cutter in the table say to plow a 3/4" x 3/4" groove stopping short of style ends by 1". I finished the panel dado with a cutter set up in my mill. I then used the same cutter in the mill to cut the mortises to their 2 1/4" depth. The mill is really a nice way to cut these deep mortises.
 

The tenons were cut using the same stack dado cutter in the table saw. Because of the amount of time to laminate the stock I was very cautious cutting the tenons and left them about .030 over sized, and  then used a chisel and sand paper to bring them to the final thickness. The fit I was looking for was for hand pressure only to drive the parts together. A slight interference fit with  not mallet needed. There is such a thing as too tight. Dry fitting the parts together found no problems. Once the door was glued, clamped and squared, I through pinned the mortises using 3/8" walnut dowels. The Cherry has plenty of character and is for sure nice to look at, but the walnut pegs add a wee bit more interest to the door.

The mortise for the Trioving lock set was cut on the mill using a 1 3/8 forstener bit.  I'll go in to the lock sets a little more in the next post, but I will say that I found the lock sets used on Ebay two years ago. If any one knows anything about Trioving, you probably know it's high priced stuff. I had to take one lock set apart to test fit it in the door, and I was impressed by the high quality of the parts, and the fact that it's all easy to service and re build-able.  Nice equipment.

I sanded the door to 220 grit and coated with three coats of urethane. The next step will be to mortise the stainless steel  hinges, build the jambs, and devise the gasket. I feel pretty confident I can make the door weather tight and able to handle some water getting on to the aft deck. I think I'm going to fabricate two dogs for it similar to how I dealt with the bulwark doors.

Cheers