Cabin Wall Framing Finally

Whew, finally. We get to constructing the cabin walls. This is the fun part for me. As a former carpenter, framing construction is well-within my comfort zone.

Initially, it looked like it would be easy as pie. I planned to simplify the standard stud construction to reduce weight: (single) sole plate + studs + (single) top plate + simplified door and window openings.

But as I started planning out the end walls, I realized I needed access to the space under the decks, and so the end walls had to work around that.

The side walls were a little simpler and more conventional.

I was using all recycled Doug Fir 2x4s from the salvage pile at the dump, ripped from 3-1/2 inches to 3 inches.

Looking one more time at my wall detail, you see that the coaming (labeled "edgeboard") is cut into the wall studs.  So I had to dado a sizable groove into each of my studs to accept the coaming.

Real woodworkers have tools for this, but I had to resort to some deft skillsaw work. And without a working wood chisel, I was sadly using a flat head screwdriver.  Embarrassing. But it worked reasonably well.

Next, I assembled the walls on the floor of the barn, and then awkwardly personhandled them solo into place in the boat.  Every connection was adhered with construction adhesive and nailed.

In the boat, the wall framing was glued and screwed.

Two walls.

Three.

With window framing and blocking added.

And finally four finished walls. In this last photo, you can see the doorframe to the head on the right.

A big day, for sure. Time for a cigar.  Next up, more mistakes were made.

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Thinking About Cabin Construction

Now that the boat is ready to be flipped, Im thinking again about the cabin.  Heres the plan, in general, for the completed shantyboat.

Id been giving some thought earlier to the cabin layout, but finally sat down and planned everything out using real measurement.

In clockwise order from top left:

1. Small galley with 2-burner stove and sink
2. Couch with resident dog and cat
3. Bucket shitter (entered from the aft deck)
4. Aft stairs
5. Lounge chair
6. Woodburning stove
7. Table / chairs
8. Fore stairs

Now lets get down to brass tacks:  Looking at wall construction.

This is the side wall, first a sketchy sketch, then a more accurate one.  Pretty simple really.

It took some thought to place the windows in a vertical position that felt right. The expected window position of the inside and the outside are kind of at odds since the floor of the cabin is dropped nearly two feet below the level of the deck. From the inside, I want the windows to be more or less at eye level and not too high. And from the outside, where the cabin appears to sit on the deck, I want the windows to be a little above the midpoint of the cabin.

I decided on slightly tall windows at 3 ft which resolves the issue to some degree.  Three foot or so from the floor inside and just above the midpoint of the cabin outside.

The original cabin plans call for 2x3 structural members turned parallel to the wall. I originally considered using perpendicular 2x4s in standard frame construction so Id have natural nooks and crannies between the studs that would be easy to turn into storage.

So Im kinda confounded on which method I should choose.  Im trying to measure the pros and cons of each.

2x2 Wall Construction
Pro: Lighter Takes less space Less material Easy to connect	Con: Harder to diagonal brace No nooks between studs	Note: Recommended by pretty much everyone in the boat community, but feels flimsy to me.
2x4s Parallel with Wall
Pro: Takes up less space	Con: Heavier Harder to connect No nooks between studs Harder to diagonal brace	Note: Makes thinner walls and weirder window openings.
2x4s Perpendicular with Wall (standard framing)
Pro: Natural Nooks between studs Conventional technique Easy to connect	Con: Heavier Takes more space	Note: Standard construction, typical window framing, including sills.
2x3s Perpendicular with Wall (compromise)
Pro: Natural (smaller) Nooks Like conventional technique Easy to connect Lighter than full studs	Con: A little heaver than 2x2	Note: This might be a good compromise. Solid framing with reduced weight.

Hopefully, youll weigh in with your expert and experienced opinion. Or maybe youll weigh in with your totally inexperienced pet theory, thats fine too.

After we flip the boat and add the front and rear decks, well be coming up on building the cabin pretty quick here.

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Guest cabin dressing room

The basic layout of the cabin area below is as follows: Down four steps from the salon above. Once at the bottom of the steps, you can either turn left through a door and get to the master cabin, or go straight through another door to get to the guest cabin dressing room/hallway. One has to go through this area to get to the guest cabin/kids cabin located in the forward area of the hull. Each cabin has a door to access the common bathroom where the shower and toilet is located. Each cabin ( master and guest) has its own sink. The engine room is accessed from the master cabin through a water tight steel door.

Standing in the guest cabin dressing room, one will find a large sink base with storage underneath, four wall mounted cabinets, and a bench seat with storage underneath it. There will be two ceiling mounted DC lights, and one ceiling mounted AC light with all lights being controlled by switches on the wall. There is also a decent amount of wall space available to have some hanging storage without impacting ones ability to walk through the space.

Because of my wish filled thinking regarding shower sump pumps, I had to re think how I was going to hold the gray water from the shower and cabin sinks. I decided to add a holding tank, and the most logical place for it was under one of the bunks against the dressing room bulkhead. I was going to buy a plastic tank, but since I had enough stainless plate left over from the water tank construction I decided to fabricate my own and save some cash. The tank ended up with 47 gallons of capacity.


Under the sink base in the dressing room is some of the gray water plumbing. The through hull fitting you see is above the water line. When we have to hold our gray water, the blue valve will be shut and the black valve will be open. This will direct the water to the main sump which will then direct the water to the 47 gallon holding tank I just built. When we can discharge gray water, the blue valve will be open, the black valve will be closed, and the shower sump will discharge overboard via the black pipe when the sump selector valve is in that mode. Its a pretty simple set up albeit a bit on the bulky side, but I made everything from parts found in the shop and did not have to depart with any cash. The elbow on he end of the manifold is for the guest cabin dressing room sink once I get that sink installed.

I built four more cabinets to fill up the wall in this room, and stopped them well short of the port light. One of the cabinets will be the medicine cabinet above the sink, while the other three will be general storage. The cabinets are 12 inches deep at the base, and about 18" deep at the top. Im also using these cabinets as the chase for the air conditioning duct that will feed the guest/kids cabin. That duct will be a four inch flexible pipe.

In order to give one as much privacy as possible, there will be a door between the dressing room and the bunk room. The door will be 20" wide.

I had enough room to create a bench in the dressing room so people could sit down while they were getting dressed. I installed a piano hinge on the lid of the bench so the bench could double as a locker for more storage.

The room is a fuzz narrow, but Im able to easily navigate through it without bumping my knees or having to turn the least bit sideways. I think this space will be an important part of the boat in regard to helping all on board with privacy, and a sense of having ones own space. To be honest, this is a very comfortable room even though its function is mostly utilitarian.

I have six doors to build for this room, and one more sheet of plywood to install on the partition between the master cabin and this space. I also have to plug all the screw holes, sand everything, and get a coat or two of finish on the wood. Once those jobs are finished, Im ready to start work on the sleeping room and its four bunks. Once the doors are installed and some finish on the wood, Ill post some more pics.

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Kids cabin guest cabin

Im well into the finishing the wood work in the guest cabin ( kids cabin ), and Im feeling good regarding my schedule of having the wood work finished before the end of Spring. Since I do not need to do any welding regarding the pilot house install above this area of the boat, Im going to go ahead and install the ceiling, doors, and light fixtures before I start a new area on the boat. The pilot house is directly above the master cabin and bathroom, so I have to wait to install those ceilings until after I weld the pilot house to the boat deck.

The guest cabin has four permanent bunks with two being on the port side, and two on the starboard side. The bunks are 24" wide, and 6 6" long. The framing is steel wrapped in wood with a 3/4" plywood deck. The clearance between the lower and upper bunks after the 4" mattresses are installed will be 23". Each bunk will have its own reading light. I wired the guest cabin with an AC receptacle along with a coaxial receptacle on the bathroom wall so a TV could be installed. There will be three ceiling light fixtures in the guest cabin that will be controlled by one switch. Each of the reading lights for the bunks will have their own switch. All off the lights on the boat, along with the guest cabin lights, will be LED type fixtures.

Because of the way the bunks had to be installed, I created a divider between the two lower bunks. This is a fairly good sized room in terms of a bunk room on a mid sized yacht, but I am cramming a lot of function into a relatively compact space and I have to pay attention to make sure the occupants have their "own space". The divider walls off about 16" of bunk, and goes a long way towards helping those in the lower bunks feel as if they have some privacy. If I were going to sleep on one of the lower bunks, without the divider, Id be in a constant state of bad attitude given the closeness. The divider will also serve as a point to locate the ladder that will be needed to access the upper bunks. The divider also ( some more dumb luck) acts as a vent for the blanket chest which in turns will allow ventilation into the bilge. A small fan placed in the open bottom end of the divider has the potential to provide air flow all the way down the bilge to station #9 which is the water tight steel bulkhead of the engine room.

The guest cabin area of the boat is a pretty complex room given the extreme curvature of the hull, the odd shapes Ive created, and the obvious challenge of getting so much sleeping and storage area into a tight space. To be honest with you , a 55 footer would have suited us a little better, but that was not in the budget. The maximized space of the bunk room works well in my opinion now that I created the guest cabin dressing room. These two rooms compliment each other extremely well and one room now relies upon the other. With the future installations of bunk curtains, privacy, might be a little easier by all on our little trawler yacht.

This room is going to take a few posts to work through, so being the creative guy that I am, I decided to start at the beginning. Breaking the bunk room down to a basic level, the room is sheathed with 1/2" birch plywood, then all the bunks and cabinetry are being built out of the air dried Cherry.

We will be using a deck winch to handle our anchor gear, so the huge anchor chain locker in the guest cabin will not be used for the anchor chain. Im acting like the locker will be used for anchor chain ( possible future use), so I installed the drain in the bottom of the locker along with the water tight door I fabricated. The water tight door kind of ruins the ambiance of the wood work, so I built a wood door to cover the steel door. The wood door is held in place by a wedge and some Velcro, and takes about two seconds to remove. One heavy duty door dog along with a heavy 1 1/2" rubber gasket is what creates the seal for the steel door. The door dog came from the water tight door I cut down in order to make a door for the rear of the engine room.

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Guest cabin dressing room update

The six cabinet doors are finished and I have two coats of Urethane on all the wood in the guest cabin dressing room. I also have the sink base top completed, but its not installed yet as I changed my mind on the sink. I had purchased a square stainless steel sink for this room, but because the top is an odd shape, I could not get the sink installed in such a way that it looked aesthetically pleasing. A square sink on a trapezoid top just doesnt look right, so I decided to sell the square sink, and buy a round sink. Im still waiting on the round sink to arrive, then Ill finish the sink base install.

I had enough 1/4" Cherry plywood to use for the doors, so I decide to use a flat panel vs a raised panel for these six doors. I used the same style and rail method of door building as the master cabin. Using the flat panels shaved quite a few hours off of the door construction while helping preserve my stock of air dried lumber.

This room, along with the master cabin, are as finished as they are going to get for right now. Once Ive got the boat at the launch site, Ill give all the wood one more coat of Urethane. Ive still got quite a bit of work to do and it makes no sense to me to spend my time putting any more urethane on the wood as its going to get banged up. Theres enough protection on everything to get it through the rest of the build.

Im going to start on the kids cabins sometime next week. Im feeling confident that Ill get all the cabin wood work finished this Spring.

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Cabin Plumbing

The master cabin wood work is complete and before I can continue wood work in the rest of the lower hull, I had to get some plumbing issues worked in.

Each cabin has its own sink. There is a common area shared by both cabins for the shower and toilet. The guest cabin has a bunk room, and a separate dressing area where the guest cabin sink resides. The time was now upon me to get all the water lines and drains lines installed for these areas.

For the shower I decided to do a build a conventional shower pan with cement and a pvc liner. Ill use tile as the finished shower floor. The shower drains to a shower sump, then the gray water will be directed either over board, or to a holding tank in the aft section. Since the sink in the master cabin is amid ship, and I did not want a through hull fitting ( I only have one below the water line through hull fitting on board) for the sink, I decided to share the master cabin sink share the shower sump. I plumbed the master cabin sink into the shower sump with 1" flexible PVC.

The guest cabin has its own sink, and this sink discharges directly over board, or into the shower sump. The drain line for the guest cabin sink is also 1" flexible PVC.

I installed the shower valve in the head. I also installed the sink valve in the master cabin. The sink valve will be installed in the guest cabin once I have the wood work completed in that area.



The biggest decision I had to make was how to run the 1/2" water lines for all these devices. I had the choice to either run one hot and one cold from the water pump and have a forest of "T"
fittings under the sole, have each fixture be fed from a central manifold that distributed the hot and cold. I chose to have a central manifold to supply the boat. Having a bunch of "T" fittings did little to give me a warm fuzzy feeling on future maintenance of the boat, and the manifold just made good sense. The hot and cold manifold will be in the lazzerette area of the boat, and will make maintenance and winterizing a breeze. If I choose to expand the water system, Ill do so from this manifold. Since Ill have an air compressor on board, winterizing will be just a matter of opening manifold valves, and blowing all the lines out from one location.

I ran all the water lines in one bundle down the port side of the boat. I had drilled a two inch hole through the galley frames, and installed rubber grommets in the holes to protect the water lines. The rest of the path for the water lines ran through a chase I had created with cabinets and a little framing. The framed chase is easily accessed through the cabinets, or by removing a panel in the master cabin. The framed chase also houses some electric conduit, the water port side water tanks vent lines manifold, the hydraulic lines for the steering system, and more than likely, the hydraulic lines for leading the the wheel house. A pretty busy chase to say the least. The starboard side of the boat has a similar chase that houses the air conditioning feed for the cabins, the toilet waste transport line( if I decide to use a pump model), and some electric conduit.

Since I wanted fill the two inch grommets in the frames, I decided to include the wash down line for the anchor area ( one 1/2" line ), and I also had enough room to include a 1/2" line that will supply compressed air to the wheel house. Ill probably "T" off of this air line in the wheel house and run air to the wash down pump area. When ever I have to get into the area under the bow pulpit, Ill use an impact wrench to remove the 15 or so bolts holding the on the cover plate.





Im leaning towards installing a composting toilet so I installed an 1 1/2" vent line for that type of toilet. I also have a 1 1/2" sch. 40 line installed to transport waste to a black water tank if I decide to use a macerating type toilet.











Since I had the master cabin sink valves installed I wanted to see how the sink fixture looked installed. Because I was scrounging for every available inch in the master cabin, it made more sense to have the sink valve mounted on the wall vs mounted on the sink top. Ive never seen that type of valve before, and Im real happy with how it looks. I also like the look of the under mount sink. In regard to the under mount sink, there was quite a bit more size choices in a bar style vs a vanity style as long as one can live with the bar size sink strainer ( Im one of those folks who can live with bar style sink strainer).

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Master cabin cabinet doors

If youre ever in the market to get your fingers bobbed, grab a six pack of tall boys and come on over to my shop where you can play around with the wood shaper. The wood shaper has a 3 hp motor and whirls some heavy bits around at 12,000 rpm. The sound made by the bits spinning is almost as impressive as the wood that pukes out the discharge shoot. The shaper is a nice tool I bought about 20 years ago while I was renovating houses, and its becoming quite the handy item on the big boat build.

The doors I built for the three cabinets in the master cabin are straight forward cabinet style doors. They are what Id call frame and panel doors consisting of styles and rail pieces with a raised panel. These doors are overlay doors meaning the sit on top of the cabinets face frame vs a flush door that would fit within the face frame. Overlay doors are much easier to build and require a tenth of the precision that flush doors require. The method of joinery Im using is called cope and stick. Basically one cuts a grooved profile in the panel side of all the styles and rails, then you cope the rail ( top and bottom horizontal pieces) to fit into that profile. The panel then floats in that frame you just created. Its a pretty nice looking door and adds a little more detail than one would get by using a flat plywood panel.

Ive built some doors for some other projects lately, and on those projects I used 1/4" plywood for the panels. On the boat build, Ive decided to invest more of my time and build raised panels for all the cabinets ( well at least the cabinets in the master cabin and probably the galley). Because the raise panel is a solid wood panel, I had to build the doors to allow for seasonal movement of the panel. The air is pretty dry here now that we are in the late fall time, so if fit the panel on the loose side. I gave myself 1/4" gap all around the panel to allow the panel to "float" within the frame. I cut some pieces of 1/4" foam backer rod and stuffed the backer rod in to the groove of the style and rail before I assembled the door. The backer rod holds the panel centered in the frame while allowing it to expand and contract as humidity changes. After I get all the finish on the doors, I might go back and put a dab of glue in the center of the rail @ the center of the panel. Since wood expands across the grain, a little bit of glue at this location will allow the panel to expand while helping with any rattle I might get when the door closes. If one would glue the panel tight all the way around the style and rail frame, it wouldnt be long before the expanding panel would destroy the frame. Before I assembled the doors I put a coat of finish on all the panels. If I didnt finish the panel prior to assembly, a line of unfinished wood would show up once the panel started to expand or contract. I clamped some boards to the edge of the work bench to help keep the doors square while I assembled them. I then checked the diagonals to assure the door was perfectly square before I clamped them.

After I assembled the doors, I gave each door three coats of urethane sanding with 320 grit between coats. I used a self closing hinge that holds the door shut. I dont think Ill put much faith in these hinges holding the door shut once the boat experiences some weather, so Ill install some catches of some style to make sure the doors stay shut. While the drawers have no pull hardware, Im thinking of installing some pulls on the doors.

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Guest cabin dressing room update 2

The last few weeks have found me getting the Carver boat ready for its new owner so not much has been getting done on the boat build. Now that the carver is finished and out of the shop, Im back working on the boat build.

I received the new sink so I was able to complete the installation of the top, the sink, and the faucet. All the cabin plumbing connections are now complete. If I had the pressure pump and a couple of days work, Id be able to use the sinks.

I installed a new valve for the through hull fitting under the guest cabin sink. The valve I had originally installed was a cheap gate valve that was probably doomed for failure. I installed a more corrosion resistant ball valve in place of the gate valve and hopefully saved myself a future headache. I had read on another forum that gate valves have no place on boats, and I agree.

The through hull fitting under this sink is the only through hull fitting for the cabins sinks and shower. This through hull fitting is a stainless steel piece of pipe, welded in to the hull that is threaded on the inboard end. The ball valve threads on to the pipe, and that is my basic through hull fitting. If gray water needs to be held, the red handled ball valve is shut, the black handled ball valve is opened, and the sump pump selector valve is moved to the holding tank position, then all the gray water goes to the holding tank. If we can discharge gray water, the red handled ball valve is opened, the black handled ball valve is closed, and the sump selector valve is moved to the discharge position so all gray water is either pumped or gravity flow overboard.

The galley sink, the clothes washing machine, and the half bath above will have another holding tank and one through hull fitting to deal with that gray water.

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Guest cabin updated 3 Storage

For the cabinetry Ive built on the boat prior to building the guest cabin, Ive used frame and panel construction. The cabinets Ive built in the guest cabin are what I would call frame less construction.

There are four bunks in the guest cabin. Each bunk is 6 6" long with a minimum width of 24". The overall average ceiling height in the cabin is 6 8". Underneath the lower bunks are two cubby hole frame less storage spaces. Underneath the port side bunk Ive added a large drawer, and one more not so large cubby. The 45 gallon gray water holding tank is underneath the starboard lower bunk so no cabinets were able to be built in that space. Between the port and starboard bunks is another cubby on the same elevation as the other lower cubbies. Each set of bunks has a bulkhead. Because of the the standard bunk length and the left over space I had after laying out the bunks, I created a large blanket chest forward of the two lower bunks. The blanket chest is a huge storage space, and all the linens for the cabin will easily fit in this space. All the linens for the rest of the boat could also go in this space. The lid of the blanket chest serves as a step to gain access to the anchor chain locker when one needs to get in to that area. Since Im using a deck winch, I see the anchor chain locker becoming storage for one thing or another. To both port and starboard of the anchor chain locker, I created four more cubbies that are behind the bulkhead of each of the upper bunks.

For the drawer and not so large cubby, I stuck with the frame construction method. I could have probably made a frame less unit, but the framed method seems to work best for drawers. Ive not yet built the drawer, and this will probably be the last major wood working project I will do in the guest cabin.

It seems like a battle is being waged to gain every inch of storage space on the boat. In all honesty, there is a tremendous amount of storage space, and it is kind of fun to develop it. Once I get finished with the cabinetry in the engine room, the salon, the wheel house, the companion way from above , and the lazzerette, I see us having to develop a chart or map to inventory where we store all the "stuff" we are going to stash on board.

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