Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Building Bunks on the Left Hull


Next on my agenda is to build the bunks on the hull. The idea is to get as much work done inside the shaded shed before getting the hulls outside to be joined.

The interior of the hulls are still bare at this stage. these two hulls will eventually serve as my guest rooms. Now this will ensure maximum privacy for my guest.

As per the plan, 6 mm ply is used to make the bunks. The measurements had to be correctly measured before transferring onto the ply to be shaped. This is a tedious process as I will have to climb two ladders to get in and out of the hull. The first photo shows the ladders.

 It takes several trips in and out to get a good fit on the bunks


A layer of wood stain is applied onto the marine ply. It gives some protection and also looks good.
  

Here the bunks are ready. At the same time I applied a layer of white epoxy paint to the side of the hull. Notice the voluminous space for storage below the bunks

Actually it is quite spacious inside the hull. there is standing room in the middle of the hull.
 
 Next the side of the hull is cut to prepare for the insertion of the two beams.

 Now this beam entrance has been cut the left and right hull has been decided. Do you think this is a right hull or  a left hull?




Sunday, March 10, 2013

Shaping the Gypsy Rudders

  This year the Monsoon has been quite bad since October last year until now with the improvement in weather it is time for me to start building my catamaran again. To regain back the momentum, I started with the shaping of both the rudders. the rudders were shaped from a big piece of wood measuring 1100 mm by 300 mm. The wood that I had selected for the job is Balau hitam which is a all weather resistant wood.(same as those used for the main beams)
 First the shape of the rudder had to be drawn on the edge. I then used a planner to give it the basic shape
 It is quite a slow process as the wood is hard.

  

This is half done!
 
 A sander is used to give the final finish .And this is how it looks like when completed.  Now I have to do the same process all over again for the second rudder...the joy of catamaran building...always have to do twice the same work!
Now I have two identical rudders.