Another Navigator nearing completion Down Under

Lester Searle is nearing completion of his Navigator yawl Leighton.  Lester is building his Navigator in Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, which is on the East coast of Australia - about midway between Sydney and Brisbane.

Lester named his Navigator in honor of his father and his service during World War II.

"Shes called Leighton which was the name of the British merchantman out of Liverpool my Dad was serving on in WW2 when he met my Mum in Fremantle West Australia."

 

Lester tells me hes "given the plastic a workout at Duckworks" and has "got to the really scary bit for me - the rigging."

"Still no rub rails  but think I will get her in the water sometime in the next few weeks."

"I am not an experienced sailor so this is the most mysterious part of the whole thing.  I am not an experienced boat builder either - gardener by trade and latter day pen pusher - so the building thing has been great fun."

 

Looks like fine workmanship to me, Lester!

"...sometimes I just go down to the shed (4th one so far in a seven year build) and look at her and feel happy. "

For his yawl rigged Navigator, Lester rigged his mainsail as a sliding Gunter main, but with a sprit boom in lieu of the conventional boom.  Ive seen this rig many times on other Navigators, but I havent heard much discussion from those who have used this setup.  Im very interested in hearing how he likes it.

Congratulations, Lester, on your accomplishments thus far.  We are all looking forward to your upcoming "splash", and wish you many, many years of joy and adventure aboard Leighton.

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Salon passage door completion

Im calling the salon passage door a wrap and the little work that needs to be done to it will be finished once its hung for good in its 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 Ive done in the super structure.

Once the stainless hinges were in the shop I built a jig to route the mortises . 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 its 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 Im 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. Ive 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 wasnt 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, Ill 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 Ill 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, Im 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 Im 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. Im still up in the air on that decision so well see.

Cheers

 

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