Super structure

Now that the salon is fabricated and welded to the wheel house, I will officially call this the super structure.

The wheel house was fun to build because it has such cool design elements and its the wheel house. The salon was fun to build because building these structures goes so quickly that you really feel like youre getting something done. Now that Ive been welding on the super structure for the last week, Im ready for this part of the build to be finished. I can tell you that 90 % of the welding is finished, and if I didnt run out of welding wire this morning, the job of heavy welding would have been almost complete. I say almost complete because once Im finished with the heavy welding I still have a few small jobs to complete including: all the window stiffeners and nailing cleats need to be installed, the doubler plates for the hand rail and dingy cradle, the vents for the composting toilets, the mast step, mast framing, and mast rigging pad eyes. I also need to weld  future brackets for paravanes, and bushings for the ladder that will be used to gain access to the roof. This is still a fair amount of work, but the hours and hours of heavy over head welding are behind me and whats left is not really that much. to do.

The salon measures about 14 x 14. The original design had it measuring 14W x 16L. I wanted more space for a larger cockpit so I increased the size of the cockpit by 2 which shortened the salon by 2. Was this worth it? I think so. For me, lounging in a chair under the cover of the cockpit roof will be a great place to hang out. I also think I can now have a hot/cold shower in the port side corner of the cockpit by using a  curtain on tracks. The extra shower will be a  huge asset. There is now enough room for a small table and four chairs along with a moderate sized grill. This is a wide body design, so there is no side deck to get from the aft deck to the fore deck. Because of this the salon bumps out from the wheel  house by about 24" on either side. The deck from the wheel house terminates in the forward salon wall. Using the step up to the wheel house, Ill  gain access to the salon roof via a ladder that will be mounted on the wheel house deck ( more on this later).

To build the salon, I had to jack up the wheel house to get things in the relative position on how the boat decks step up as you move forward ( raised pilot house design). The wheel house is now pretty high above the barn floor, so Im going to have to install a temporary floor to paint along with scaffolding on the exterior of the wheel house.

The door in the salon is off centered to port because the salon table/settee goes on the port side. That port side corner will be nothing but table, so by having the door favor that side, we have more room on the starboard side for other things.  

To increase the size of the cockpit I had to alter the bulkhead where the salon door and windows is. Because this wall move forward, I needed to install a 1" filler piece on either side of the bulkhead. This was a fairly small change that has required a little bit of noggin work. The real challenge with moving this wall and the small design change I made to the cockpit was the starboard boarding door I added. Adding the boarding door now requires me to cut the starboard salon side panel in such a way as to not offend the very cool line the designer had originally drawn. I need to put some good though in to cutting this panel to make panel look as if it was not some aborted afterthought.

The other change Im going to make to the salon aft wall is Im going to increase the size of the door going in to the salon. Right now, the door width is 25 1/2". Im going to increase that door size to 32". 32" is not a huge door, but it does feel much better walking through vs the 25" door. The larger door will also make getting the stove and fridge through the opening much more doable. Im still debating on making the door a 36" but that seems large. Since I"m building the doors myself I should probably go larger. I open to suggestions.

The salon roof over hangs the salon wall by 5". The design has a piece of trim that forms a soffit similar to a gutter board on a house. The ceiling Im going to install for the cockpit roof will tie in to this soffit on the same plane and make for a nice, neat looking finish. The ceiling will have about 4" of clearance so I"ll be able to install some LED cans for some nice lighting.From a construction point of view regarding the clearance allowed for ceiling material, I wish that the designer had allowed a little more reveal so that using 3/8 ceiling material would still allow 1/2" of the metal trim piece to be seen. Right now, using 3/8 material will allow less that a 1/4" of  reveal, and in my opinion, thats cutting it too close. The last thing I want to see for aesthetics and maintenance, is the ceiling material below the metal trim. I also dont want to use 1/4" ceiling material, but I will it means seeing the ceiling below the trim.   Some of the push boats that work up and down the Ohio river have taken to running some accent lighting as they move at night. I think Im going to install three LED cans in the soffit centered above the salon windows for accent lighting. A lot of the push boats use a blue light that I think would look sharp as long as its not to bright.

The salon has 8 windows and all of those are sliders with screens. I went with a dark tint on these windows as I feel the tint helps with the heat.The windows are about 37 x 23... not hatefull huge, but a nice size. Before I paint, Im going to test fit .

I"m a little behind on my schedule as I was wanting to be starting prep work for paint this week. Being realistic, I wont be fully into paint prep work for another week and a half. I still think Ill be finished with painting the super structure by the end of August but its going to be tough. My plasma cutter went down on me today and thats going to slow me down. When you operate on a shoe string as I tend to, small problems can cause delays. I guess the positive aspect of operating on a shoe string is that when small problems pop up, Im flexible and easily able to switch modes.

All in all the super structure has been fun to build, but like I said above, Im ready to be done with it. Another week or so, and I"ll be full blown into paint prep and that will be a good thing. Im sure, as Im now singing the welding blues, Ill be singing the paint prep blues in a few weeks. As you might be able to tell from some of the pictures, the shop is about as full as it can get. Theres still room to work, but it is very tight. Ill be able to take the gantry down once the funnel is in place, and that will help with room. I not so sure Im going to know how to act once the good ship Conall leaves the barn with all the room Im going to inherit.

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Work has started on the super structure

The axle work continues, just not by me. Due to me being busy with work and not wanting to mess with re building the dually axle I procured, I happily delivered it to JCM Equipment so they could put bearings in the axle. This axle has turned in to a loosing deal, but Im too far in to it to call it quits at this point. The easiest way to explain the dual wheeled axle I got for free is that this has been  the most expensive "free"  Ive ever found. I should probably end this thought with a Gumpism and say that "this is all I have to say about this right  now"

So, while I wait for the axle to  be picked up from JCM, I started work on the wheel house and salon, which I will now call the super structure. All the parts for the super structure were scattered around the barn years ago, and it took me half a Saturday to round them up and inventory everything I actually  had some of the long frame pieces stashed away in the roof trusss. I found everything, and checking my stash against the working drawings, every piece is accounted for.

After inventorying all the parts, the first order of business was to drill all the frames for the bolts that would be used to fasten the framing timber with. One of the mistakes I made on building the hull was to not drill all t he frames before I erected them. Drilling on the drill press will save me hours of work. Using 1/4" bolt is what I plan on doing, so I drilled all the holes to 5/16. The overage gives me plenty of room for paint and will help prevent skinning up the hole when I drill for the timber. After I drilled all the holes, I used a counter sink to ease the edge and give me a more paint friendly hole.

When you break the super structure down in to its most simple form, its basically a box. Four sides with a roof. Because of having to build the boat in two pieces, it also made the most sense to build the super structure as panels. Assembling the panels went very quick. Because all the parts were cut on a CNC machine, the accuracy of the parts is amazing. The really nice thing about having the metal cut via CNC is that the designer also had all the layout lines burned in to the metal. My appreciation to Bruce Roberts and Hal Whitacre on their attention to detail. A nice surprise I discovered while assembling these four panels is that the designer gave each panel a slight outbound crown. The crown is slight enough, about an inch over the length of the 16 salon panel  you see hanging from my skid steer loader, but not so severe as to interfere with the window installation. I dont know the reason for giving these panels a slight crown, but my guess is that the crown puts some tension on the metal and will help it to fair up much nicer.

The salon skin showed up at the shop with the window openings already cut out. The wheel house has the window rough openings burned in to the metal, and only the door openings are cut out. Im going to wait until I have the panel welded in place before I cut out the windows.  I already have the windows on site, I just want to wait  until the panel is in place as this will be help keep the panel shape as per design.

You can see on this picture below how the wheel house sheathing arrived at my place. The precision of the CNC plasma cutting is amazing. As you can see from this picture, the wheel house side is in three pieces. All I have to do is grind a bevel in the outside joints that will be ground flush. Turn the pieces over, kick them together so they line up, and tack them. The next step is to put the longitudinal stringers on the layout lines that were laser burned in to the metal and tack them in place. Making sure the sheathing is tight to the longitudinal stringers assures the panel will take the shape the of the design. Once all the longs are tacked in place the frames are fit over  the longs and tacked in place. The frames have all the notches cut in them including the mouse holes so no water can get trapped and start a crevice corrosion situation. The longitudinal stringers were also cut by the CNC machine so the designed shape is formed by the longs.  On this size project, with all the framing I had to do, I have yet had an situation where no part fit any less than perfect. 

All the panels are assembled and stacked against the barn wall while I begin taking the boat off of the building cradle and sitting her on the axles. JCM has told me the axle will be ready for me to pick up mid to week. I have to make a trip to the steel yard and pick up some square tube to build stanchions for helping support the boat on the axles. I hope to have her sitting on the axles after this coming weekend.

Im feeling pretty good about finally being able to assemble the super structure. Its a big piece of structure, but I feel as if it will go together quickly and without any major hiccups. I am pretty sure I have a plan that will allow me to do some good layout and build the super structure so that it will mate with the hull in a good way.

Cheers

Cheers

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Ive started painting the super structure

The interior of the super structure is painted and once again Ive discovered the hard way just how big a boat this is.

To begin, I am changing the paint schedule. After speaking with a commercial boat yard, they have me convinced to  only prime the interior of the super structure. The interior metal will get covered with closed cell spray foam then the liner will go over that. There is nothing such as UV or physical abuse that is going to break the primer down, so a top coat of paint is really not needed. I gave the interior a thorough blasting and applied three coats of epoxy primer.

Because I  have to weld the super structure to the hull, I taped off the the bottom edge of the metal so I will not have to grind away the primer later. Having the prime being burnt off by the welding is not only nasty, it can lead to the  primer gas mixing with the weld shielding gas and cause a defect in the weld. Porosity of the weld would be one example of a defect of this nature. Taping the joint is a heck of a lot faster and easier vs grinding.

Because paint over spray is not an issue with the interior, I decided to do this area first. Acting on the advice of some experienced paint people, I have taken a different approach to painting this part of the boat vs the hull. When I painted the hull, I blasted then primed, then started doing my fairing and filler work. The paint guys talked me into blasting the joints I want to do filler work, applying the filler, then blasting the rest of the metal then priming. Doing the work in this order will save me time as I will avoid some scuffing. This order of work will save me the most time on the roof. I  have a few areas I want to do some filler work on so I blasted those areas clean, and applied some filler. The filler work Im doing on the roof is more for function than for aesthetics. Ill sand those areas smooth, blast the rest of the roof, apply two coats of primer, and within the 72 hour chemical bond able time limit, Ill top coat the roof. No scuffing will be needed, and the more reliable chemical connection between primer and top coat is achieved.

The sides of the super structure is the area that everyone is going to see. For the sides, Im blasting all the joints and welds I want to fill over, then Im applying filler. Ill sand the filler smooth, blast the rest of the sides clean, and two coats of epoxy primer. While the primer is still hot, Ill apply two coats of sand able high build primer and long board that coat smooth. I know Ill be doing some more filler work on top of the high build, but thats  to be expected to get a nice finish. Once Im good with the high build surface ( my version of good is different than a professional body mans version). Ill spray another coat of primer to seal the high build, then top coat with my off white Acrylic Urethane. At this point the paint will be finished, and the list will be that much smaller.

Ill be posting updates as I work through the roof and sides.

The move to the launch site continues to get pushed back further. October seems doable, but early November seems more realistic. Once the paint work is finished, there is still work to be done here in the shop that will make the launch site assembly go faster. There is really no reason to slow things down by getting in a hurry. This is a big ass ed job, for one man to do by himself, and the time it takes is going to be the time it takes. I can only hope that the crap weather holds off until I have her dried in at the launch site, but Ive worked my whole life out in crap weather, so Im not to worried about me. I just dont want to compromises any work on the boat nor cost myself extra money.

Ill have the roof blasted and primed this weekend, and if all goes well, well have a off white roof to look at come Monday evening or Tuesday morning.

 

Cheers

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I started the super structure interior

Because I am swamped with paying work, Ive taken a few days off of the build. Hurricane Sandy has changed that, and caused  major slow down in my work, so Im back to the important things in life... the boat build. I have to say that while we are four or five hundred miles from Sandy, we had 25 mile per hour winds sustained last night while  she came ashore.

To begin the interior, bolting lumber to the metal frames is the first order of work. To make it seem like I was getting something done, the first attachment I made was to bolt lumber to the ceiling frames. Because of the camber of the ceiling frames and not wanting to piece things together, I had to use a 2x6 for the ceilings. It seems like a lot of waste, but all the off fall was ripped again for the side wall frames.

The barn is about as full as it can get and the only place to set up my table saw is under the roof of the aft deck. I had to position the saw so I can make long rips through the door of the salon.

The basic method of getting the ceiling beams done was to clamp the 2x6 to each end of the frame. I then used a scribe set for the gap between the 2x6 and the frame at the center of the frame and scribed the top ( roof  ) side of the cut. Because the frames are so long, and the curve not that radical, I was able to use a circular saw to cut shy of the line. The cut put the saw in a bit of a bind, but it was not too hatefull, and thats what tools are for. Once the roof side was cut to shape, I re clamped the board to the frame, set the scribe for 5/16", and scribed the interior side of the cut. Once again, I used the circular saw ( vs the band saw ) and made the cut. All the boards are being held proud of the steel frame about 5/16" so foam remains on the frame flange after the foam is trimmed. With the board now cut to fit, I applied a bead of polyurethane adhesive and re clamped the board. I then use my right angle air drill, and drill through the existing holes in the steel frames. Next I use a hammer to drive the 1/4"x2" carriage bolts home, followed by a flat washer and a nylock nut, then tighten all the bolts using a 3/8" air ratchet

Gluing the lumber to the frames in addition to bolting might seem like over kill, but bolts have a funny way of working loose in lumber, and since the adhesive is not that expensive, I think it to be good insurance to prevent a squeak.

As I type this post on this rainy Tuesday, I have all the ceiling beams finished in the wheel house, salon, and aft deck. I also have the wheel house walls and windows complete, and am getting ready to start on the salon. Another full day, and I should be finished bolting all the lumber in place.

I have an insulator  showing up in the morning to give me a price on foaming the interior. Im going to foam the interior down to within a couple of inches of the weld zones.

While I still have the boat in the shop, Im going to also install the Cherry plywood at the window opening so I dont have to deal with that at the cold boat yard. Im  using a clamp ring for the window installation, so I have to have the finished wood in place in order to install the windows. The window installation is also complicated by the fact that  the maximum wall thickness at the window is 2 1/4", while the frame thickness of the boat is 3 7/8". Its kind of a strange deal to describe, but on the salon windows and the side windows of the wheel house, the windows will be set in by the difference. The front wheel house windows will be flush with the  interior as I was able to make the tabs work out to 2 1/4" wall thickness.  It will look OK as Im going to spend a righteous amount of time getting the trim right, but it does add a whole bunch of work to the window trim job. Im not quite sure how the finish window trim will look, but Im going to use each clamp ring as a template before I install and make a pattern out of paper board for future fabrication of wooden trims for the windows.

The weather had for sure turned  here, but I have plenty to keep me busy getting the super structure in a more finished state. Taking the super structure as far as installing the windows before shes landed and welded in place has entered my mind, but I think it too risky. I can install lots of the trim, some of the ceilings along with some wiring and a host of other items before I have to commit to taking her out of the barn. While Im aching to have her assembled at the boat yard, all of this work goes much faster while shes in the barn.

Cheers 

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Wrapping up the super structure metal work

Getting all the little odds and ends completed before I can paint the super structure is taking quite a bit more time than I had anticipated. Im trying to work out a few problems as once I start paint prep, I dont want to stop to do some welding. Once the boat is at the launch site, I have a feeling Ill be doing some welding I forgot on the super structure, but my hope is that I get it all figured out now.

The first thing I did on the super structure was to install a temporary floor in the wheel house to bring  things close to the finish floor level. After I had the wheel house floor back up to grade I installed all of the cleats and tabs I need to bolt the lumber to. Trying to use up what material I have on hand, I cut my longer pieces of flat bars in to tabs, and wherever possible, used the tabs welded in place to bolt lumber to. Once I have the interior painted, Ill bolt lumber to the tabs and cleats, then have the insulator spray foam the interior of the super structure.

 Im limited to the wall thickness around the windows to 2.25" due to using the clamp rings. The clamp rings will make for a nice neat finish, but I wish I would have been able to get the rings for a 3.5" wall thickness. Im able to make the wall thickness on the front of the wheel house 2.25", but the rest of the boat is going to be thicker due to the framing, so Ill have to build some custom wood trim rings to tie everything together.

Once I had all the cleats welded in place I turned my  focus to the welding needed to be done on the super structure roof. The roof work has turned out to taking a little more time than I had thought it would. I am planning for using a LP fired stove in the galley, and I needed a place to store propane. I framed a propane locker on the roof that will be large enough to store two bottles. Even though Im not going to be doing any fairing work on the roof, I used pipe to make the corners of the propane locker. The pipe corners will paint up nicely, and will require little fairing to make them look good and cut down on future maintenance. The locker has two drains to let wasps in and water and any propane that could spring a leak out. I welded a 1/2" stainless nipple in the bottom of the locker to allow me to plumb the propane supply line in to the galley. The lid for the propane locker will be a simple lid with two pins for hinges and a simple latch.

In the center of the super structure sits the exhaust stack funnel. Im using a keel cooled main engine and a dry exhaust system. The exhaust system is basically like a truck, and uses a pipe to bring the exhaust up and out of the boat. Along with the exhaust from the engine, Im using the exhaust funnel to vent the hot air out of the engine room. I also am using the exhaust funnel to bring cool air in to the engine room. In order to do this, I partitioned the exhaust funnel in half, with one half dedicated to getting hot air and exhaust out of the engine room, and the other half for bringing cool intake air into the engine room. The largest hole I could cut in to the exhaust funnel at what I would consider an elevation where the hole would actually do something was 12"x16". So I have a 12"x16" hole for the intake, and the same for the hot air exhaust. I purchased a cheap coil stock louver from Lowes to see how it would work out, and Im going to buy some better quality louvers for the final install. Ill probably use the cheap louvers over the winter just to keep the weather out. Removing the louvers is also how Ill gain access to clamping the exhaust pipe to the 4" stainless pipe I welded in to the exhaust funnel top.

I like the way the exhaust funnel looks and in order to keep things looking good I had the metal formed on a press brake. The fab shop owners is one of my neighbors and it was fun helping him do this small job for me. The exhaust funnel is tapered so there are two different radiuss on the piece. In order to get the different radiuss Mark set the machine to hit harder on one side than it did on the other. His machine is a Cincinnati 300 ton press brake, and was built in 1942. Cincinnati is a good brand, and this machine was built in a era in this country that has faded fast. We need our manufacturing jobs. Mark laid the pieces out for 20 hits per piece, and in this picture, you can see him lining the die up to hit on his punch marks.

I welded a four inch stainless pipe in to the exhaust funnel. Im thinking about running the exhaust stack up the mast, and if I do that, Ill probably either do that in chrome or stainless. If I dont run it up the mast, Ill clamp a stainless or chrome 45 on the the nipple and call it done. I have room for a silencer on the exhaust piping, but for right now, Im not going to install one. If I run the exhaust pipe up the mast, the outlet will be so high and with the wind blowing the sound away from the boat, I doubt youll hear it. You might hear the whistle from the turbo, but I think that sounds good. I can always add a silencer if I need to, I just would rather not as they get hot and its just one more thing to buy and maintain.

The inside of the exhaust side of the funnel will be  insulated to help keep the heat headed up and out. Ill post more on this later down the road, but Ill be using some fans in the engine room to help air get in and force warm air out.

The salon roof is where well be storing our skiff, bikes, and kayaks. Because of having to work up there, I decide to install a hand rail around the salon roof. Im not ready to install the hand rail, and really dont want to do that job just yet, so I decided to cut some 1.5" discs to act as a doubler for welding the 1"  handrail stanchions to. By using the doubler discs, all Ill have to do is sand the paint off the disc and weld the stanchion to the disc. The disc will act as a heat sink and not burn the paint from the outside or inside of the roof. Ill be TIG welding ( Norm F. @ Kevin M ) the hand rail together, so splatter will not be an issue. I cut the disc on my mill using a hole saw and cooling the bit with water. The disc will also look decent with the hand rail stanchion, will not look like an afterthought, and allows me to keep things moving as doing this work is a hell of a lot easier with the hand rail not installed.  As per my locating the hand rail stanchions over a frame, I have kept in line with over building everything. The hand rail stanchions ended up being 30" on center.

I also will need a cradle for our yet to be designed skiff ( Kevin M), so instead of figuring out a cradle for a skiff I dont own yet, I just welded some 12" long x 3" wide doubler plates where I plan on building the skiff cradle. A 12 long skiff will fit nicely, but a 13 would also fit albeit tight. Im going to build the skiff in aluminum, but that wont be for another two years. Getting a little off subject, I sure would like to weld part of the cradle to act as a fuel tank for storing gasoline for the skiff. Again, the doubler plates will allow me to build the cradle later without destroying the paint outside or inside under the finished ceiling. The plans Im looking at for a skiff is 12 long, 5 beam, powered by 20 hp, and can carry 1000 lbs. It will weight about 300 lbs when completed.

The last roof job I need to complete is welding the tabernacle for the mast along with the pad eyes for the mast fore stay and shrouds, and brackets for flopper stopper poles. Flopper stopper poles are poles that extend away from the boat when at anchor and allow you to hang a device that helps mitigate rolling of the boat. I accepted some advice from an engineer I know and am reinforcing all of these parts to be robust enough to accept a more demanding paravane system to help with rolling while were under way. Because Im building a lot of these parts out of 1/2" stainless, I had to develop a cut list and have a local shop cut all the parts for me on a band saw. I just got all the parts back from the shop the other day, and Ill start putting it all together this week.

By the end of the week, Ill be able to move the welder off of the roof and finish a few simpler jobs on the aft wall of the salon. Primarily, the fill and vent points for the fuel tanks, the outdoor shower brackets, cutting the starboard side of the salon  so the boarding door works, and a few other smaller brackets. I feel pretty good that Ill be prepping for paint in a week or ten days, and should be done painting by mid September.. I might sneak away from work a few days to make sure I can get all this done, but early October looks to be about when Ill be moving her out.  

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Super structure metal work is finished

Tomorrow morning, before I take off for work, Im going to spend an hour or two so I can clean and organize the shop now that the metal work is completed. Im ready to prep the super structure for paint so I need to put away all the tools Ive been using to do battle.

Im a little blown away with how long it took to get the metal work completed. I did have a major set back in that the rough openings for the windows were cut for a four inch radius, and the windows are built using a six inch radius. There are 17 windows in the super structure and the repair consisted of me using my plasma cutter to cut out the 68 corners out of the existing rough openings. I then cut 68 new radius corners and welded them back in to the openings. The windows in the salon were easy as they were all square. The windows in the pilot house were a bit more of a challenges as they are all parallelograms, and required a little bit of noggin work to get the angles along with the radiuss correct. But, the window openings are now correct and all the widows fit the way theyre supposed to. Along with repairing the window openings, I added 60 or 70 more tabs to the window openings to bolt framing lumber to. 

 

 

 

 

 

Another job I got finished was fabricating the Tabernacle for the mast. After some indecision and talking with some other builders, I decided to go with a six inch mast. The primary function of the mast is going to be used to hoist my skiff to the roof of the salon. I am also going to have my radar mounted on the mast, and some lights and antennas. My long term plan regarding the mast is to be able to use it for a future para vane rig, and at a minimum, a flopper stopper rig. The Tabernacle is built out of 1/2" stainless steel. The pins used to hold the mast to the tabernacle are 1.25". The tabernacle is centered on frame #13. The tabernacle also has a doubler plate that it sits on and by doing some additional framing and reinforcing, I am spreading the load of the tabernacle to two additional frames, #14 @ # 12 . The bracket that will hold the para vane pole is also connected to frame #13 with solid 1/2" plates. I increased the flange thickness on # 13 to 5/16, and all is a continuous weld  were the reinforcing occurs. Two frames aft of the main para vane bracket, sits another bracket for another pole that will act as a brace for the main pole. The bracket for the brace is also connected to the frame with 1/2" plates. To connect the stays and shrouds, I welded 1/2" stainless pad eyes to frames.  I have two shrouds on each side, and one fore stay. I dont know if Ill ever use a para vane rig, but I do know Ill use flopper stoppers while at anchor. I had an engineering friend of mine give me some advice with beefing up the structure, and I feel good that I have things beefy enough. A fair amount of time and fabricating went in to this part of the boat. Because I will have electric winches for the mast/boom, radar, and some lights, I welded a 1.5" stainless nipple next to the tabernacle to run the mechanicals. I positioned the nipple so that  I can bolt a 6"x6" splice box to the tabernacle gusset, and use a grommet to make a water tight seal to the nipple. Ill use good quality cord grips to bring the various feeds out of the splice box.

The other job I  did was increase the width of the door at the salon to 32". Ill be fabricating the aluminum door, so I feel OK with the increased size. I plan on  having at least two dogs in the door to help hold it fast. Along with being weather tight, I want a door that will keep the thieves out.

Im using composting toilets on board and each one of those requires an 1.5" vent. I made those vents out of sch. 40 stainless. One is welded in to the soffit above the salon, and the below deck vent is welded in to the front of the wheel house.  Ill use PVC to connect the toilets to the stainless stubs I welded in the hull.

We have a shower for the cabins below deck, but due to the size of my posse, I felt it best if we had another shower on board. The easiest place to do this was on the aft deck in the port side corner of deck on the salon bulkhead. This will be a hot/cold shower. I fabricated a stainless shelf with a lip on it to retain soap, and a bar for wash rags and to hold back shampoo bottles.

I installed a 4" stainless vent for our 230volt clothes dryer.

On the aft salon bulkhead on the aft deck the fuel fills and vents reside. There is a two inch fill on both the port and starboard side. Next to each fill are the vents for the two port side tanks and two starboard tanks. The fill and vent pipes are welded in place. I really need a box around each set of pipes, similar to what Peter did on Koala ( now Kame Hele... not sure of the spelling). I have a little bit of time left where I can fabricated these boxs, and I might try braking them over the work bench. If not, my neighbor will do it on his press brake.

Outboard of the fill and vents are the two three inch vents for the lazzarette. These are weld in place.

I welded the six inch vent intakes for the master cabin. These vents are in the foreword wall of the wheel house.

To get up on the the roof of the salon, Im going to gain access via the wheel house side deck. Because of the raised pilot house, a five foot tall ladder is all that is needed to get on to the roof. I fabricated and welded some brackets to the salon wall to pin the removable ladder to. Its hard to describe it now, but because of the bulwark, and how I plan on working the salon roof hand rail, this will be a safe, secure way to get up on to the roof. I was going to get fancy and use a torsion spring to have the ladder self stow up on the roof, but my short time frame killed that idea and I decide to stow the ladder on  stainless post welded to the front of the wheel house. The forward  rake of the wheel house windows along with the almost 5 distance to the Portuguese bridge will allow all to pass by this area without bumping the ladder. It will make more sense once the super structure is welded to the hull.

Because I moved the aft salon wall, I had to cut the panel that extends down the salon line towards the aft deck. One of the boarding doors conflicts with this panel, so I cut it to fit. I gave this cut a nice looking radius where it meets the aft deck roof. It was important to me to keep some protection of the aft salon wall at this area, so we still have an inside corner where I cut the panel to accommodate the boarding door. Because both the port and starboard side panel are 3/16 material, I decided to treat each edge with a 1/2" stainless round bar. The round bar treatment should come in handy on the side where the boarding door is as this area will get some abuse. Hopefully, the stainless round bar helps with decreasing my  maintenance painting. Every exposed, exterior edge on board, has a 1/2" stainless round bar welded to it.  

I used 70 lbs of .035 welding wire to build the super structure. Im not for sure, but I think I drilled darn near 500 5/16 holes for bolting framing lumber to the steel frames. I might have drilled more holes, but Im going to order 500 2"x1/4" carriage bolts, nylock nuts and washers and see how that works out. 

As of today, my paint schedule is going to be blast the metal followed by two coats of epoxy primer. The inside of the super structure will get two more coats of Alkyd Enamel, then the framing lumber gets bolted on followed by spray foam. The roof of the super structure will get blasted followed by two coats of epoxy primer then three or four coats of Acrylic Urethane. Ill probably put a non skid on the roof, but that wont happen until after launch. The outside of the super structure will get blasted, two coats of primer, two coats of high build primer, fair ed, more primer to seal the high build, then top coat with three or four coats of Acrylic Urethane.

The last job I did to get the super structure ready to begin paint prep was to have my daughter and her friend Olivia walk around on the roof so I could fix the six or seven areas that were "oil canning". All that was required of that job was to find the offending areas, then weld a 1.5" flat bar between the longs and pull the roof sheathing down and weld it to the flat bar. Pretty easy job, but it still took us about three hours to wrap it up.

As anyone can imagine, Im glad to have this part of the job behind me. Paint and paint prep is going to be nasty, but I can now see the bitter end. Maybe by early October, Ill be able to post some sort of smiley face as I should be starting to take the front of the barn off.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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