I gave all of the bunks their first coat of epoxy today, and I did the final coat in all of the bilges in preparation for the bunk installation. I also knocked out a few more fillets in the starboard hull and milled down the lumber for the tillers on the table saw.

Second from the left is the fixed bunk section that sits underneath the main hatch. The stock width (fore and aft) is a small 12". The narrow width, to me, makes for a bit of an awkward sitting position when my feet are the in the bilge. I basically have to be sitting with my back completely straight, and I can't really recline against the bulkhead. Maybe this is because I'm six feet tall. Anyways, I ended up extending the width to 14", and after testing it out, I really appreciate this mod.

Warm Weather!

Today was an outstanding 70 degrees, and I managed to glue up the bunk bearers to the bunks, fill the screw holes in the port hull, and get some starboard hull fillets done. I also sanded and rounded the corners of the starboard hull diagonal stiffeners. Tomorrow I'm going to final coat the bilges after a little sanding to prepare for bunk installation. I'm also going to coat the bunks and stiffeners with the first coat of epoxy. Oh yeah, I also made some mini-fillets along the top edges of the diagonal stiffeners in the port hull, to give it some real pizzazz. It turns out that slacklining in conjunction with boat work helps me relax and get some frustration out. I can take a break whenever I need it, and head to the front yard for some balancing!

Wind Vane

Today graced me with exceptionally cold temperatures, and I decided to get all of the wind vane parts cut out. I'm glad I did, because the thing looks really cool! I still have to glue on the arm for the weight and epoxy everything etc etc, but here are some pics of what it looks like right now. I just nailed the 2x4 as a temporary fix at the base of the mount. There will also be a post that the vane stands on, but you can't do everything in one day, so those pictures will have to come later on. I'm stoked about the idea of sitting in my hull under a dodger while the vane steers away with no gripes or complaints. It's going to be awesome.

I guess we have a cold front coming through, because it topped out at 43 degrees today and will stay like this until Friday. As a result, I didn't do any epoxy work today. I did, however, get all of the bunk bearers sanded down (corners rounded). I am going to glue them on tomorrow and let them cure downstairs in the epoxy room. Even without the heater our house stays around 60 degrees inside. I also drilled out all the holes to get them ready for filling with thickened epoxy. Since it will be cold, I have decided to go ahead and cut out some smaller parts like the tillers, tiller bar, gaff, hardwood pieces (beam end cleats, dolphin striker, etc). We'll see how far I get before I get fed up with the insidious table saw!

All nice and sanded

Here's an idea of the room in the forward section of the bunk! I took a solid hour nap in there. There aren't many pics out there of the actual cabin size of a Tiki 21, so here you go!

Bunks

Today I rough-fitted the bunks. I have to do a little more sanding here and there to get them to all lay down well, but they are more or less fitted. I'm looking forward to installing them, so that I can finally get inside and sleep. I'm filleting the starboard hull as well, and I'm ready to install the diagonal stiffeners in it. We decided to paint the anchor lockers and the storage spaces under the bunks with Interlux Bilgekote. It's cheap and very durable. Here are some pictures:

I put in the glass tape along the keel of the port hull yesterday. Getting the long strips of cloth down in there and wetted out well was a bit of a chore at first. I ended up wetting the cloth out first on some plastic sheathing and then laying it down into the keel. This was much easier than trying to wet it out while bent over the side of the boat. Today I did the first fill coat to fill the rest of the fiberglass weave, and I started filling in the keel of the starboard hull. Tomorrow I will make the full size fillets along the starboard keel.

Starting on Beams

I spent a long time today belt sanding all of the beam webs down to the pencil line. Then, I stacked them together and sanded everything down flush. They are all pretty even and equal now. To my amazement, I realized that one of the webs was thicker than all of the rest! We couldn't fit all of the webs on one piece of ply like the plan suggests, so we went over Christmas and got another sheet of what was supposed to be 5/8" ply. Well it turns out that this new piece is actually about 3/4". We should have measured it at World Panel I guess? I thought it was safe to assume that a lumber distributor would be organized enough to know what's what in their warehouse. Oh well. Now I am going to cut another web tomorrow from the 3/4" to make things even, and I think we are going to just use this for the mast beam, since it takes additional loading from the mast. I guess that's just one more thing that is beefed up now. I also got all of the butt blocks cut, and after I cut the new web tomorrow, I will glue them all up. Here are some pictures:

Grace cut all of the plywood webs for the beams today, and I (finally) finished all of the fillets for the port hull. I did eight in a row, which took me quite a while. Between the mixing, adding filler, applying, shaping, cleaning, and cleaning tools, the fillets really end up taking a good amount of time. I'm trying to be pretty hard on myself with the fillets, as we are finishing the cabins bright instead of painting, but we are overall going for a workboat finish. We want to spend more time sailing and not staring at some tiny details! The exterior is where the serious fairing will take place. All I have to do now is glass tape all of the fillets in my hull before I can final coat the bilges and start fitting the bunks. We are going to paint the buoyancy chambers and anchor lockers white for better visibility in each.

Plywood Web for Crossbeams and Panel for the Windvane

Fillets are Finally Done! All of the white is just sanded epoxy. It will all go nice and clear again with the final coat.

Now to repeat all of this work on the starboard hull :(