More wheel house

I should probably start by saying Im going to stop crying about the winter that wont end. I know its close to giving up the beast, but after the 6" storm we had two days ago, and lows in the single digit this week, its fighting to the bitter end. The high today was around 26 degree F, but with the sun gathering strength, the cold air temperature can no longer sustain the snow, and its quickly receding. Given the air temperature is still below freezing cold, having the boat facing south, along with the strengthening sun, heats the inside of the boat up quickly, and I really dont have to run the heater at all.

I finished trimming the windows, and also got some color on the wood. The window trim is basically a house style detail being a 1/2" x 2 3/4" casing, a 3/4" x 2 1/4" stool, and a 1/2" x 2 3/4" bonnet under the stool. All the reveals are a 1/4".  Its a simple look, but I think its legitimate.  

Some more progress has been made in the wheel house, and Im inching up on getting the wood work completed. The layout was finalized, and more compromises were made. We were pretty dead set on having a 240 volt clothes drying machine and a 120 volt clothes washer, but in the end, having two units just took up too much space. In the space where the clothes dryer was going to go, I built a base cabinet with two large  drawers, and two doors underneath. Because the drawers are so wide, I used 3/8 plywood for the bottoms vs the usual 1/4". Im planning on the drawers being used for paper charts and other things navigation.  The drawer fronts are not installed yet as I just  fitted the boxes in place.
 
Just aft of the new base cabinet is the opening for the compact LG washer/dryer combo unit. Out of all the units I looked at on line, the LG units have the best, most consistent reviews. Im a little leery of its ability to dry clothes with only 120 volts, so I have it in the back of my head that a decent working clothes line might be in order... probably something on the roof running off of the mast.

The large opening starboard of the instrument dash area is where the electrical distribution panel  is going to go. I had some sort of cut twice/measure once thing going on and screwed up the door that houses the electric panel. I found out this mistake today as I was fitting all the shiny parts Ive made in the last week.

I have the wheel house counter top fabricated and dry fitted in place, but not not yet installed. Before the top gets installed,  I need to land all the wires on the bulkhead behind the distribution panel door. I used THHN for the primary wiring behind the walls, and will land all that on terminal strips. From the terminal strips, to the distribution panel, Im using a flexible, tinned, marine wire. I have about 90% of the boat wire pulled to the area under the dash, and landing it with the top off is going to be  huge vs lying on my back. I realize Ill still be doing some wiring while laying down, but I want to get as much done while its relatively accessible.

While I was fabricating in the barn last week, I decided to make the panel that finishes covering the dry exhaust/intake stack. Because the stack is such a large fixture, I decided to make this panel a raised panel. A large, flat piece of plywood just didnt feel right. The cherry veneer plywood is for sure nice material, but in my opinion, is a little too perfect. The air dried cherry I am using oozes character, and really puts the plywood to shame in regard to interest.  Being in the center of the room and such a visual element, this large raised panel looks spot on.

Heres to the coming Spring.

Cheers

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Wheel house door sheathing

The boat yard has been closed for the last ten days, so yesterday was the first day Ive been back to boat in that amount of time. Ive left my camera at the boat, but I did remember to bring it home with me so heres an update.

The new year has rolled in here with some raw weather. A storm found us last night, and as I type this update this morning, the temperature outside is -1 F. The lows foretasted for next week are -15.

The wheel house door is aluminum, and instead of sheathing the wheelhouse side of the door with aluminum, I decided during building of the door, that I would sheath it in Cherry. This is a fairly straight forward door, but like all things engineered by the seat of ones pants, I have to build a little forgiveness into my designs. The biggest guess I had to make was how much of a gap to leave between the door stops and the door to accommodate a sealing gasket. For this purpose, I made the hardwood stops easy to be removed by installing threaded inserts into the door. The threaded inserts are installed by drilling a proper sized hole, then using a special tool to crimp the insert into the hole in the aluminum. This is almost identical to a rivet, but is extremely robust. I bedded the hardwood stops in silicone and used a 10-24 x 1.5" stainless pan head screw to fasten the stops. The screws are 12" on center.  The other alternative to fasten the stops to the jamb would have been to through bolt the stops in place, but if one ever have to remove a stop later down the road,  the casings would also have to be removed to access the nuts. Through bolting is also kind of sloppy in my opinion and alignment seems to be a fuzz more difficult when through bolting.

I sheathed the door with 1/2" Cherry  plywood. Because I did not want to see the edge of the plywood I turned to my tried and true method of ironing hardwood veneer. Ive been using this iron on edge banding for years now, and have never had any issue with the adhesive failing. Once you iron the edge on, you trim it off with a special tool that cuts both sides flush in one pass. A light sanding with 220 is all thats needed to make the edge perfect.   I love the edge banding system.

Im totally happy with how the door looks sheathed in cherry vs sheathed in aluminum, but I do have one issue Im going to have to deal with. The Trioving lockset fits good in the thick door, but the dead bolt trim does not work with the thickness created by the 1/2" ply. In order to make this work, Ill have to remove the sheathing, and cut square around the deadbolt, then brake a aluminum trim piece to hide the edge of the ply in this area, and re install the ply. I dont have a picture showing this issue, but the lock set is installed and working correctly although the dead bolt does not look as it should. 

The wheel house walls are almost finished being sheathed, and most of the window trim is installed. The stairwell ties in to the wheel house and salon sheathing and is burning up some time. Theres a lot of confabulated, ridiculous boat type detail in the stairwell area, but I should have it wrapped up next week.

After almost a two week absence from working on her, I can tell you it feels great to be back working on moving things forward.

Cheers

 

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Leaving the wheel house

The heavy lifting in the wheel house is complete, so its time to move onward in to the salon. The last big job finished in the wheel house was to mount the settee table and the large counter top.

Most every time I show up to work on the boat, I have a small armload of parts or material hauled from the storehouse in the barn. Sunday, before I applied the last coat of urethane on the counter top, I took a couple of hours to clean and re organize some space. Just about every cabin is overflowing with material, parts and tools. But since the salon is the next and last really big wood working project, I had to make room in there. Still to be completed in the salon before the room can be sheathed is to run water lines for the fresh water flush toilet and associated sink along with turning the three 1 1/2" waste lines down in to the lazarette. A few wires  need to be pulled along with deciding on where to mount the stereo, but no real big work has to be completed before sheathing can begin.

The electrical panel in the wheel house is fully functioning, but still needs some work from the engine room to call it a wrap. I have the 80 amp three battery bank charger installed and connected to the house battery bank, but since the engine and generator batteries are not installed, those two connections need to be made. Ive decided upon a location for the battery switchs so Im able to move forward with fabricating the starter cables along with fabricating the battery switch panel. Because Im sort of bouncing between the engine room and the wheel house before going full tilt boogie in the salon, I need to get the battery box built in the engine room. I keep having moments where I a tool could be laid across the battery posts or something metal like a square could fall and land on the posts, so I need to get the box finished to protect the batteries. Having the DC system fully functioning is one more item I want off the list before I can begin sheathing the salon. 

The salon is a fairly straight forward sheathing job as all of the time consuming wood working details have already been dealt with. The exhaust stack is covered. The up and down bound stairs are sheathed and trimmed. The fridge and microwave nook are installed. Given that the tricky stuff is finished, Im going to go out on a limb and say Ill have the room sheathed by the end of April. A lofty goal, but one that needs to be attained.

Cheers

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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 its 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 miters, 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 Im 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, Ill 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, Im going to have the spray foam insulators back to spray all those areas. When the spray contractor is on site, Im 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. Ive 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. Its time to it done.

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

 Cheers

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The wheel house

The wheel house has now become my new favorite place on the boat..Before I built the wheel house, my favorite place was a toss up between the engine room and my cabin. Ive never owned a boat with a wheel house, but I can without a doubt say that the wheel house is huge. The other thing I can say about the wheel house is that, the designer got it right when the designed the reverse rake of the forward windows and the trim ( the bill that extends from the roof) for the wheel house roof... its perfect. Ive seen some pictures of other boats of my flavor completed by others, and a few of those the builders decided not to install the trim as designed. I have always felt that it took much away from the look of the wheel house, and not that Ive seen it up close and personal, I now know it to be a fact that eliminating the trim detracts from the look of the boat.

The first step in getting serious about building the super structure was to build a gantry. The left over 4" beams from the building cradle strong back provided most of the steel to do the job. The main lifting beam I had saved from the gantry I used to build the hull. Because things are getting tight in the shop and the gantry just fits between the metal lathe and the hull, I had to pad the gantry with a canvas tarp to prevent it from gouging the hull and causing me some serious paint repair. I"m so glad I decided to do this as the gantry has already bumped the hull. I can say that the rub rail is working.

Having previously assembled the side walls to both the wheel house and salon, the wheel house went together pretty quickly. The first thing I did was establish a center line on the barn floor, then squared another line off of that. The squared off line became the line for the wheel house front. Positioning the various panels in relation to the line and bracing them was about all it took to get the show started. Once all the panels were in place, I then installed the roof beams and the  room longitudinal stringers. The roof sheathing, obviously was the last item to be installed. Because of having all the layout lines laser etched into the sheathing, it was just a matter of putting the blue line on the roof sheathing on top of the  side wall and tacking the sheathing down. The roof sheathing is what squares up the structure, so paying attention to detail for this part of the build was a key strategy. I first tacked the sheathing in the forward corner then worked my way down one side bringing the side wall to the layout line and tacking the pieces together. Because the roof sheathing is now tacked to the side wall on the layout line, I then started to bring the  forward part of the wheel house to the layout line of the roof sheathing and tacked it in place. I started this process from the same corner. A lesson one learns quickly with metal work is never tack yourself in to a corner...always start from the closed end of something and work your way outbound. The other strategy with metal work is to tack all your parts together first, and leave the serious welding until  EVERYTHING IS TACKED TOGETHER.  Welding generates serious heat and caused the metal to move quite a bit. Final welding before youre finished fitting will only cause one grief. Now that I had two  panels tacked to the line, the third panel easily moved to the line and was tacked. I then installed the aft part of the wheel house and the box was complete.

This part of building the wheel house went together rather quickly and only took me about a day of work to get it finished. The trim for the roof section was another story. The trim wraps around the wheel house and creates a drip edge to keep water from running down the sides of the wheel house. The forward piece of the trim extends down over the room sheathing a little further than the side trim, and  creates a bill to keep the sun out of the captains eyes. Its the exact same as wearing a hat, and not that I see it installed, I love it. The other piece that gets installed to complete the trim is a piece that angles up from the room at 45 degrees, and welds to the bill. This 45 degree piece creates a gutter on the inside of the roof and also stiffens the bill piece of the trim. The gutter piece is another nice detail that will make painting and maintaining this part of the boat easier. There are no tight crevices for bad things to start working against me and everything is open and easily reached. This same gutter detail will be repeated on the salon roof, and all the rain will  travel this course and discharge overboard without hitting the decks. There will be a lot of rain running this path, so I need to have a way to capture it and get it in to the water tanks if the need arises. All the trim parts when installed ended up having funky angles with compound bends. The funky angles and compound bends required some patience, and about as much time to do as assembling the main wheel house panels, but in the end it was worth it. All of the trim is fair and  should paint up nicely.

I"m ready to start on the salon, and once thats in place, Ill final weld all the seams for the super structure. Because the deck of the boat falls from bow to stern, the back of the wheel house is sitting on the barn floor with the front up on some blocks. Before I can assemble the salon, I have to jack up the wheel house the same distance as the step that is decks. I could leave it as it is, but that would mean being crouched over as I build the salon, and that wont work for me. Ill probably end up putting in a temporary floor in the wheel house to make painting the inside easier.

This picture shows a little more detail on how the gutter is formed and how the designer projected the trim to hang over the wheel house walls and create a drip edge to keep water off the wall. I like the way this was cut, and I love how fair and subtle the curve of the wheelhouse wall is. I actually think I found my first error in the cutting file. The trim you see to the right is about four inches short of where it needs to finish. Im not going to do anything until I have the salon welded to the wheel house. If this is a cut file error, it wont be that big a deal to fix by extending these two pieces another four inches.

 In case anyone is curious, I now have a tarp hanging off of the hull to prevent any damage to the paint from grinding and other things Im doing while building the super structure.

Cheers

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Wheel house sheathed

The wheel house walls, like all the walls on board, are sheathed in 1/2" cherry veneer plywood.  Im a little amazed that between the wheel house walls, the dry exhaust stack, and the stairs for accessing the lower level, I burned up nine sheets of plywood.  Those nine sheets represent sheets of cherry, and dont take in to count the two sheets of AC plywood I used that are hidden under the wheel house cabinets. I have some decent off fall left from cutting that will go in to filling in some less conspicuous areas, so not much plywood waste will go to the boat yards wood fired boiler.

Sheathing is pretty straight forward, but it does take some time due to the complex shape. When I say complex shape, Im using the plumb and square shape of a house as a reference. My wheel house has the walls,  by design,  a few degrees out of plumb, and a three inch camber over the 11 length of the wheel house. So every sheet has to be scribed, back cut, hand planed, and jacked around until it fits.

The out of plumb wall thing looks good when you step back on the decks and look at wheel house, but it has given me a fit regarding the wheel house door. The boat yard has the boat blocked up a bit out of level looking at her from port to starboard, and with the wheel house door on the port side, the out of plumb wall is about double the design. The problem with this is that I built the door frame square on its depth and water collects on the bottom of the frame and cant drain out. To remedy this problem, I used my die grinder with a rotary burr, and cut a little channel to run the water out. The channel works good, and once shes launched and sitting level, this will no longer be an issue.

The windows are 2" thick, and the walls are 5" thick. Because of this, I had to create an extension jamb between the plywood and the window frame. Being most familiar with a certain style of trimming  out a window, I created a window stool before installing the extension jambs. The window stool extends past the plywood by 3/4", and will receive a 1/2" bonnet under  the stool to trim out the underside of the stool. The window casings will be 1/2" thick and will cover the extension jamb/plywood joint while finishing the trim detail. All the reveals on the windows are a 1/4". I left the jambs off of the window clamp ring by 1/4", the stool will be proud of the bonnet and casings by 1/4", and the casing edge will be 1/4" off the edge of the jamb. The window stool edge was rounded over using a 3/8 round over bit in the router, and all the other edges will be eased by hand sanding. I used screws to hold down the stools, and all the other parts, jambs, casings, and bonnets are fastened by the nail gun using galvanized finish nails.

Looking at the front of the wheel house, I used some to the reverse rake to create a 7" wide x 10" tall chase directly under the wheel house windows. The wheel house windows lean out at 7 degrees, but the wall under the widows is plumb as she will sit on her water line.  This part of the wheel house wall, the aft salon wall, and the water tight bulkhead on station # 9 are the only plumb walls on board. I created this chase so I could fit hose for a window defroster system and also to house windshield wiper motors. The window stool under the two fixed center windows is removable, while the two stools under the port and starboard operational windows are installed for good.  The basic layout of the front wall will be a navigation desk @ 30" above the floor to the port side of the wheel, and a 36" tall top will start from the desk and wrap around the starboard side of the wheel house all the way over to the stairway. The desk and the console top will both project 24" off of the wall. The 36" tall console/cabinet gives me a huge area for all kinds of stuff.

With the walls now finished, the finished width of the opening getting up to the wheel house is 26 1/2". This is an important dimension as I have to be able to get the 24" wide clothes washing/dryer machines in to this area. This leaves the stairwell going down below with a finish width of 25". The down bound companion way is a fuzz  narrow, but is OK comfortable for my 6, 200 lb frame.

Trimming out the stairwell took up the most time, and Im happy with how it worked out. I used 1" thick stock with 1/2" dados cut in to it to cover the edges of the plywood.  When its all said and done, the console top will die into the angled companion way top, and a cabinet will be fitted above that as to not interfere or requiring notching the trim of the small window in that corner.

Once the jambs were installed, I was able to fit the last piece of ceiling on both the port and starboard side.

The windows are completely trimmed on the wheel house front, but I still have to case the side windows and the door. The door needs to have some insulating paint on the jambs to create a thermal break as to not allow sweating thus dampening the fiberglass insulation Im going to jamb in that opening prior to casing it. The casings are going to be 1/2 plywood that Ill glue veneer to the edge. I dont want to create a fancy casing profile using solid stock, so the flat ply casings will work great for me.

I think Im going to stay in the wheel house and get started on the navigation desk and console framing. The console is large enough for me to crawl in to so a removable panel will have to be created.  Ease of access to the console is paramount as darn near everything of electrical importance home runs to this area.

Because theres no finish on any of the newly installed wood, some of the detail is hard to see. One of the things I like most about working with wood is the instant transformation one sees as soon as finish is applied. Really, I just like seeing any transformation that has me moving closer to launch.

Cheers

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LAnse aux Epines House a house I built in Grenada

The truth is I did the drawings, engineering, supervised all the construction, taught the locals new building methods and with the owners ready cash flow built this place in local record time.

Iam sharing the tale of this project here as a record for my kids to look back on to show what can be done with a basic education, ( Iam self taught from 9th grade on) common sense, hard work and a bit of money.

In my life time I have found all my jobs by face to face meetings. Most by chance, some by referrals from past jobs. Living on a sailboat and sailing to distant islands being on the move all the time gives me the ability to come across lots of different opportunities with my basic skills. As stated, I do not have a high school diploma, but I feel good common sense has been a good traight of mine. I can read so Iam always educating myself. The math I know is high school level. Iam good a geometry, accounting, and understanding that there are no short cuts with math.

My math skills have held me well in dealing with other peoples money. I think of their money as mine so keep meticulous records. Since I have worked my way up from the bottom I know how to make a dollar stretch a long ways. 

I was taught by my Cuban grandfather that had immigrated to New York in the middle of the depression speaking no English this simple rule." Cristobal, you dont need to remember everything, you just need to know where the information is and how to use it." He found a job, raised his young sons, and going to night school received a Masters degree in engineering. An American success story.

I have added to this advice that I never lie if I dont know how to do something, but in my head if I know where the information is for this new project I will get back to you soon with info.

I had many years before worked for six months for a friend in the Florida keys building concrete houses. My job consisted of building plywood forms, laying in the steel work, pouring cement, stripping off the forms, and starting the whole process over. During this time period I helped build 6 buildings. I learned a lot  about this building process during this time that I would carry over to this job.

This job came about by chance. I was hoisting my dinghy on deck in Prickely Bay in Grenada getting ready to sail north back home to the Bahamas. We were low on cruising funds. We had just crossed the Atlantic a month before from the Cape Verdes after a years sailing around the Atlantic islands. It was time to find a good job and to get our young girls into school again. They were doing Calvert home schooling but our oldest wanted to be part of the mainstream. She was 15 and wanted what all kids that age wanted, a life of her own.

Before the dinghy was stowed our friends Tim and Galye Evans yelled over from a big sloop that had anchored between us. The owner of the sloop wanted to talk to us about a job he had in mind.

I put he dinghy back in the water.

Hurricane Ivan had just destroyed about 50% of the houses in Grenada including his which we were anchored to the leeward of. It had been an old small bungalow that had originally not been built well to start with. It was a wreck. He wanted to build a new stronger and bigger place.

He did not want to deal with the locals at their pace and the way they would deal with costs and building standards. He wanted a hurricane proof new place, a huge pool, a replica sugar mill apartment 

With its own pool and the new place would have a gym, and on and on.

When telling this to Tim and Gayle on his boat as they were visiting, Tim pointed over to the Hogfish and said, " Chris is the man youre looking for". He came over and we talked. I looked at his sketches of his vision. We argued about building standards. He wanted to save a bunch of the destroyed house. I explained my vision to do what he was looking for. After a couple of hours of back and forth he held out his hand and said he wanted me to build his house. We shook hands and struck a deal.

We really enjoyed our time In Grenada. This job took 1-1/2 years to do. Our oldest daughter Kalessin stayed for the first year going to school ashore with her sister. She then at 16 moved to Florida and went to high school there staying with a friend. We would catch up with her when this job was over.

After hurricane Ivan the place was pretty much bare. We rebuilt the dock first. 3 large Catana catamarans had flipped over three times crossing the bay to land on the original dock destroying it. Don Streets little "Iolair" ended its life there too. I have its bronze Wickham roller furler that I dove up hanging at my house. The winds had been so strong that the red clay tiles a mile across the windward valley were piled up against this house. Asphalt shingles were stuck 4" into the trees that were still standing like Ninga blades.

These are the sketches that the owner provided me with to start on the designing of the house.

He explained verbally what he wanted.

This is his land scaping vision.

I supervised all the trench digging with this JBC using my Plastimo hand bearing compass to get all my tangents. The 21 year old driver was from Guyana and had to dig all the trenches and move the dirt up the hill to be saved for use under the pool. He was fantastic moving this thing around like a one armed crab. The trenches took 2 weeks to dig.

The crew starting on the foundations. Because I had free run on how to design and build this place I just made sure everything was at the Dade County Code level or above. I put steel through every block and pored all the walls solid.

We had lumber stored every where as there was not much space on the top of the hill where the house sits. We were always moving stuff.

The bottom of the pools infinity edge.

The Sugar Mill started. Thats Paul. He had chopped his brothers hand off a month before in an argument with a machete. He was a very quiet worker. 98% of the guys had zero body fat. Very fit and could work all day in the heat and sun. Iam used to it to but at times the sun over head was strong at 12 degrees latitude.

Sugar Mills first floor. This building has been rented non stop since it was built.

This house design called for some very long open spans inside. 22 for some. I just engineered these huge box beams in plywood and using glue. All wood here is Green Heart from Guyana. When orderd at 2x12" thats the way it came. Very heavy. I ordered $189,000.00 US dollars worth with all dimensions listed. The order came in five 40 container boxes with all the planks Jammed in without any order. All had to be removed in one day, stacked and stickered to length. What a day that was, just brutal as this wood weighs a ton each. Three men to pick up one plank.

When all was done I had been shorted about $32,000.00 in wood. I faxed back what they had not sent but I had paid for. Amazingly the rest came on the next freight boat without a word. So much goes on here like this I beliveve they do this hopeing the rich foriener does not notice.

Looking down at the pool. It rains every day so stuff just grew all the time.

I design my floors to never move when walking on.

Second floor walls were 10 high inside.

The steel guy worked 10 hours a day with a helper to keep up with the project.

Victor a mason in the front porch

Pumping cement was always a challange as the pipes would always clog with a conch or some rock. 

The pool bottom about ready to be filled in. The pool is the largest one in Grenada. Its ten feet deep.

Contains 135,000 gallons of water. I put in French drains all over the place. When filling in I compacted the dirt and watered it down for days to be as compact as possible. The floor of the pool took 112 yards of cement. This pour took 22 hours to do using all the local cement companys. I had floodlights, a food cart and changed the crew out on watches to get this all done with a wet edge. Its bottom and walls were 14" thick with Double rebar matting. No cracks in the entire project to date.

Pool bottom

Dining area going together.

Upstairs rooms. Walls were sheeted in Hardie board planking

Always storing wood some where.

The owner wanted to build the second story on top of the old house. I said no as it was too weak.

When he left to fly back to Europe I dug out and built proper foundations, collums and support perimeter belts. So he had a new foundation inside the old one. He did not notice this till after the whole project was finished.

My main wood worker Etteane and me on Friday party day seeing who could stick their belly out the farthest. Etteane is from Dominica. He is a fantastic craftsman. I believe he was stoned smoking pot every day he worked for me. Most guys smoked pot all the time. We never had an accident during the entire build. But I had to keep pulling the pot plants that were growing from the seeds that were falling out of their joints. 

Mr Rolle and I this trip catching up on old times. He is a master carpenter from Dominca. Does not drink or smoke. He worked building the house with his girl friend doing all the detail work, like all the stairs and scarf joints. Here we are this year with me hiring him to rip and cut rough teak for my current project redoing a teak deck on Wild Bird in Antigua. I sailed to Grenada to buy the teak and get Mr. Rolle to help me make up all the planking as he is as fussy as I am about details and he has all the big tools needed to do the job. When we were building this house I was flying back and forth to Miami to buy supplies. I could bring in everything without duty. Duty is so high there that most workers could not afford tools. I bought Mr. Rolle a table saw, joiner, thickness planer, chop saw and other hand tools. These are the tools we used to shape up the rough teak. All being used everyday but in like new condition. Its no big deal to sail 700 miles to get supplies and stuff done right.

LAnse aux Epines house today.

I love this pool but with the trade winds blowing over it it loses 1/2" of water a day through evaporation.

The front drive way

Today with the owners latest boat.

Rachel a few months ago enjoying the morning where Victor the mason was a few years ago

Kitchen

Dining room

Stairs going up to the five bedrooms. All wood is green heart and is all bunged.

Living room being cleaned by the house keeper. See all the collums I put in while the owner was gone to support the second story better. 

All the beams are open and all finished bright

Owner wanted this bathroom set up. Floors are oak. Walls cypress.

8,500 feet of Italian marble throughout

Pool pump room.

Starting the hill climb looking up at the Sugar Mill

Marvin the grounds man. He worked for me as a general helper. When the house was finished I recommended him to stay on as the maintence man as he was 19 at the time and I could see that he was very bright and hard working. Hes been there now 11 years. You can just see the Hogfish off to his right.

A dormer I installed five years ago on a trip down island to race and work. These let the heat out in the evenings. The house is very cool but the owners tend to lock all the doors at night as they worry about crime. The air cant flow so it gets hot. I like living on a sailboat as I have a moat around me at all times.

The porches are 7 wide

Cabana. Lots of slippery Italian marble tile about.

Sunset

With so much rain in Grenada its easy to landscape.

In the pools infinity edge I put a 4" ledge down 4 for your toes to hang onto. Its 10 deep here as the owner who is just to my right wanted to say he could float his 60 sloop in this pool.

Iam at the left in this picture. The mast you see comimg up in the middle of us is his 60 sloop. The mast is 85 tall.

During the build of this place I had at times men from Montserrat, Antigua, Dominica, Guyana, Cuba, Nevis, and many Grenadians all speaking their version of English. The deal I made to all my men was that if they stuck with the job till the end they would receive a 10% bonus in the amount of their wages for the project. They wanted to work 10 hours a day 7 days a week. They were used to the local way of the boss showing up in the morning for a bit and then disappearing the rest of the day. That left lots of time for slacking off.

They had never had a boss like me though. The house site was a two mile walk for them to get to in and out of after a 1-2 hour local bus ride from the other side of the island.The local contractors let their men find their way to the work sites.

I picked up everyone at the two mile bus drop off site and drove them all back and forth each morning and evening starting at 6:30 in the morning and ending at 6:00. So they saw me first and last. I explained to them that in order to get 10 hours of pay they had to work 10 hours but at a nice even pace. All the work I delegated everyday to each crew I knew from my own experience what and how long it would take. So I never asked more than what could really be done. This they picked up on real fast. I also explained and showed them many new ways to build things that were much faster than what they had been doing. This they liked as they learned stuff that they could apply to their own houses. Most West Indians want to work but will try and drag out a job with the idea that it will last longer if it takes longer. This system I had to change. I did it by example of showing them how to nail up a stud wall 55 long in one day as opposed to the week and a half they would have taken. I hired everyone that asked for a job explaining that they had 3 days to prove their worth. I also gave everyone a raise after the first week if they could do what they claimed. When they got better more raises. If they were seen slacking off I fired them. In no time at all I was seen as being fair and hard working. I got a good crew of 20 guys moving along enjoying seeing this house going together so fast and built like no other in strength and details. The other local builders saw this too. I started to get offers to build more houses. 

At any time I would have my core crew of about 30 men working with at times another 15-20 subcontractors doing electric, plumbing , rock work , etc with me having to oversee all they were doing to stick to my standards. 

There was every shade of black, brown, redish brown, chocolate and tan working. To these guys if you were the blackest black and were a Rastafarian from Jamacia or Dominica you were the coolest guy. Then it was all about shades of black and brown. So when saying to me to " Go don a speak dat dark skinned mon"

What ? They are all dark skinned. Not really when you look about. Lots of shades going on. They said I was a red skinned man between us but when an official came to see the boss they always said," He da White guy over der" pointing at me.

West Indians do not want to work alone so will always pair up with a friend so they can talk. They talk continually. Most all do not want to be put in charge at all even for more pay. So you have to get them sorted out into working groups and give them a doable goal with the alpha guy telling the other guys that they were not doing it right or to hurry up. They became leaders with out knowing or asking. Then you can leave them to it and go on to the next group and project. This has worked well for me in building boats too. 

At times during a pour with 8 guys yelling at each other in their own local version of English with most of them not understanding each other I would step in and yell " Please speak the Queens English!" 

They all in their youth went to British schools so can speak clear English if they want. But its not so cool so most just go on with their local version of talking like a Jamaican. " Ah boss, de Conch be stuck in de hose, wa to do?"

It was a daily challange to keep things moving along at a good steady pace. Most foreigners that get to the island that are used to first world order look at everything down here as chaos. I look and see a way to try and steer and control this chaos. To survive you have to be able to punt, kick and weave every day like its a soccer game. No day will be alike or unfold as you planned and hoped for the day before. It will pour rain for two hours, then be hot as hell with no wind, the pump you need for the days pour is broken, the crane you can hire has no dump bucket but his rival company does, so how to make it all happen. 

Knowing the local mind set and customs helps. You have to greet everyone with a good morning or good afternoon before going on about business. You have to find out where all your main suppliers hang out so when they are supposed to show up you instead track them down and make sure they know you want them and get them to come to the job site. They want the job but most are in no hurry to do the work. Paying your bills right after the job is done does wonders. Now they know you mean business. Dont ever give money in advance. You buy the materials on your own and when so much is done then you pay. The going pay rate for the top carpenters was $ 45.00 a day, $30.00 for masons and $25.00 for laborers. It has not gone up much since then. 

Looking back I still cannot belive that I was offered this job with only Tim and Gayles reference after only a few minutes conversation. Such is boating life. The owner is a very successful Irishman that was very frugal with his money. In the end I built the place at a cost fully furnished for $138.00 US a square ft. I got everything in duty free because the Chinnese were building a new Cricket stadium for the Grenadians for the up coming world Cricket match to be played there. The island needed hotel rooms. I counted up 11 bedrooms and bathrooms so that it fell into the hotel act and enabled me to save about $400,000 in duty. They never came out to count up the rooms or inspect the building for code. The third world has lots of loop holes you can wiggle through.

When rachel and I sailed into Prickely bay this winter the owner had just left to go to his other houses in St. Barts. He graciously offered the place to us to use while we were there. Tim and Gayle were sailing back there after ten years absence in their new Boat Wild Bird. They had not seen the place since I started the project.

Along with them and other new friends we had some great parties around the pool looking out over the bay and our sailboats at anchor below over the next few days. 

This project has been one of many that I have taken on or been a part of in our sailing travels about the Atlantic basin. I have never been lacking for a job or work while sailing. Thats why I carry so many tools with me and need a vessel that can carry this load. You to can do the same thing if you have basic work skills, energy and good common sense.

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