Building the Interior

With much of the mechanical, plumbing, and electrical nearing completion it's time to start building the bulkheads and lockers that will surround all that work.  All the wood has been planed and sanded to a uniform thickness.  Wayne has lofted the bulkheads in the shop, and has milled the rails and stiles.

The sheet of plywood on the right serves for the lofting and layout of multiple bulkheads.  The top, center, and bottom stiles for two narrow panels are laid atop the lofting for two narrow panels.

The end of each stile has a long tendon that will fit into the mortise in the rail.  In the picture on the left one can see the inner edges which will face the raised panel within the bulkhead.  Each has been milled on the shaper.  To produce all this Wayne has been running plank after plank through the shaper and then cutting out the tendons with a jig on the table saw.

I've no idea how he keeps it all straight, but there are dozens of small stacks of wood, each with the grain matched, piled around the shop and slowly forming themselves into raised panel bulkheads and doors.

Few boats have bulkheads built this way today, primarily because it's a massive amount of work and also because modern boats utilize the strength of the bulkheads as a key component of the boat's design.  In older boats, like MAYAN, the bulkheads often aren't structural and can be both less strong and moved to whatever place in the boat is most useful.  In the three pictures to the right, you can see how the tendon on the stile fits into the mortise in the rail to form the center structure of a bulkhead.  A panel will be inserted into the interior slots in the stile and rails.

A number of new bulkheads will be built to surround the new head, separate the head space from the forward passageway and from the galley, and to provide the cabinetry along the starboard side of the main saloon.  In addition, we will most likely replace a few of the older doors in spaces like the master stateroom and build new doors for the new head and shower that are all constructed with this raised panel technique.

Traditionally, only the stiles and rails were glued and fastened together.  The panels within the system were free to move within the slots.  This was done because the finishes were not particularly water-proof.  For example, oil based enamel and varnish only blocks 60% of moisture.  As the humidity changed, especially in northern Europe and New England, between summer and winter this allowed the large panels in the center of bulkheads and doors to expand and contract as they absorbed and lost water content.

However, many modern glues are capable of providing enough flex.  This will allow Wayne to glue in the panels, making everything much stronger and resistant to mold and rot that can occur when the panel is loose set.

Because the bulkheads and doors in the shower area will also be built in this way, and will be subjected to a great deal of moisture, we will be using epoxy to set all the joints.  After a few tests, we've decided to use varnish to finish the interior of the shower.

Panels made entirely of one broad plank are prone to cracking as the humidity changes.  As a result Wayne is gluing up the large panels from multiple smaller pieces with the grain matched.  This results in a stronger and more stable panel.

It has been a great deal of fun for me to hold the "dumb-end of the board" for Wayne in this process.  Learning a new field is always entertaining and in this case it's teaching me that I have a tremendous amount more to learn about the complexities of wood, adhesives, joints, shapes, and thousand of other things that Wayne has learned over his 40 years of ship and boat building.

What we did this week.....

MAYAN is a mess right now, with Ruben hard at work putting the port passageway berth in, Wayne building the head space, and me tearing out the stb side of the main saloon. After weeks and weeks of infrastructure stuff, like new exhaust systems, wiring, refrigeration, etc... none of which shows any progress to the uninitiated after the lockers are closed, it is wonderful to see the chips fly!!

Here is Ruben looking forward into the forepeak from the place where the passageway head used to be. Before "El Destructo" went after it (that's me) this is the place where MAYAN had her head. This opening will allow the foot well of the berth to protrude into the forepeak and reach the required 6'6" that our sons demand. There will be a hatch in the foot of the berth so that fresh air can flow through. (I hate quarter berths that don't have a vent in the foot well - too damn hot.) Also, as The Admiral pointed out, the munchkins who will inhabit the forepeak will have a lot of fun tickling the toes of the person sleeping in that berth and crawling through the foot well hatch!



Below is the space where the head used to be. Originally, as seen in earlier pictures, I was going to refinish the long leaf yellow pine ceiling material as I did in the forepeak. But after taking some time away from the project I noticed that the wood had an odor (Damn leaking heads). I had attributed that to the plumbing for the head, but alas that wasn't the source. Various leaks over the years had saturated some of the wood with foul stuff (don't ask) and the smell was coming from the grain of the wood. Rather than strip and sand it all, which would have required at least a week, I tore it all out (took 5 hours). Rubin will install a Alaskan yellow cedar ceiling this coming week (in fact he's probably got it done by now). Smell gone and replaced by the nice fragrance of cedar. One third the work and a better result.



Meanwhile, Wayne has been milling the wood with which to build the interior bits. Here's a stack of milled "rails" for the raised paneling and doors. Also a door jam and a few other bits in the making.



Here's a pile of the "stiles" (the bits that go between the "rails". Together then surround the "panel" that will be machined to have that nice raised panel look. All the joints will be mortise and tendon, pinned with trunels.



Meanwhile, back in the main saloon, El Destructo has been removing the stb settee and cupboards. In the picture below, the large space (6'6") on the right is where the berth used to be. We will move the berth forward and inboard, putting storage behind, so it can serve as a settee for the saloon. It'll be long enough to be a berth, keeping in mind Mr. Perry's missive to allow a space where women can curl their legs up and read. This should be about the best reading spot aboard when on port tack. Above the back rest for the settee will be raised panel doors and in the center of the row will be some leaded glass doors to break up the monotony of all the wood. Back aft we'll put in a small flat work space. It can serve as a chart table, for the rare occasion that we need to look at paper charts, but it's primary purpose will be as a stand up desk just below the main companionway. above and outboard of the work space will be doors that hide the RADAR and other instruments. (No electronics in view on MAYAN.) We've nixed the quarter berth under the chart table idea as we want the space for storage of wet sailing gear. There will be a powered fan in a vent, drain/pump and hot plumbing in there to get rid of water and dry things out quickly.



In the forward section you'll notice that somewhere along the circuitous course MAYAN has sailed weights were added to her starboard side. Our guess is that these were added when the Yanmar generator engine was added to keep MAYAN on her lines. We're pondering removing these and adding some more battery capacity on the starboard side. No sense in hauling around lead unless it's doing something helpful!



Next week should see a lot of "visible" progress, as opposed to invisible progress we've been making. It will also see the arrival of the sails on Wednesday and Thursday - which I'm really looking forward to!! The booms and lower 6' of the spars have been painted and the fitting remounted, read to have nu-suls bent to them. We'll get to go sailing on Thursday!!! 

The Sails Are Nearly Done!!

I have had some business things to attend to. As a result, I've been in Santa Cruz dealing with this rather than down on MAYAN getting "work" done; which is mostly getting in Wayne's way asking inane questions. But, one piece of the project is proceeding apace just a couple of blocks from home - sail making. Yesterday my granddaughter and I walked over to check out the progress on the sails.

The white sails are all completed and waiting in bags for the big "haul" to LA.  We've taken a little different approach, non-traditional, on the main staysail and the fore staysail. They are loose footed so that we can ease the outhaul and round the sails when appropriate. The mainsail is still running on a track with cars along the boom, as it doesn't need to have the draft altered as much. But the poor staysails are either operating solitarily or are flying in the slot between the advance staysail or the yankee/genoa. As a result, I've always wanted to be able to get more shape in them when they're on their own. We'll see how well all this theory actually applies, and can always put the cars on them again if we need to.

We're keeping the original multi-colored spinnaker - which appears to have been cut down from a much bigger boat so there's no chance we'll ever blow that thing out. We are also lifting the over-size A-2 from S'AGAPO (It's not legal under PHRF, IRC or ORR) and we will just have to live with the british numbers. This A-2 is perfect for MAYAN. When flying it has an effective overlap of about 140%, a great reacher.

Finally, the gollywobbler is finally done. It's got a dyneema luff rope and triple cloth luff tape, so we can reach up more with it. But I really didn't have any idea how BIG it really is until seeing it laid out on the floor at the loft. It literally doesn't fit. Pretty funny! It is coming out exactly the way our granddaughter and Stacey wanted it.

Here's our granddaughter doing her first inspection, and you can see Patrick (a top sailmaker at Santa Cruz Sails {Now Ullman Sails}) laying out the MAYAN logo on the center section of the sail.




Most of the stencil for the MAYAN logo is glued down now. It's computer cut with the same cutter they use on the sail cloth. Double layers of butcher paper and a bit of spray adhesive hold it in place. There is a pattern under the sail to show Patrick where to put the stencil, which was generated by replacing the cutter with a sharpie. 




Next Patrick gets the box ink (used for putting black logos and stuff on cardboard boxes) and starts to "paint" the logo on with a foam roller. This goes fast and the black ink is amazingly potent. It covers in two passes easily, drying quickly. The solvent is denatured alcohol, so it smelled a little like a doctor's office. "Icky" said our granddaughter as she sniffed it.





After two coats, Patrick is hunting for "thin spots" with more ink.  My wonderful granddaughter was lying down in a Syndey 38 spinnaker by this point having a little nap. Clearly a ocean going sailor in the making.




Finally, we pulled all the masking off and revealed what our granddaughter calls the "Monster Face". Stacey and I are thrilled with the contrast between the yellow/gold cloth strip across the center of the gollywobbler and the black ink. No one will doubt which boat this is! We will be putting a 6' high version of this on the mainsail also, and have selected "1947" as our sail number (the year she was built).



We've had hats, shirts, and vests made with this MAYAN logo and the entire package is coming out wonderfully well.

Now, back to work!

Beau

The Wood Is Here!!

With the exterior varnish nearly finished we've moved our focus back to the interior.  Next on the list is building the new head.

To match MAYAN's beautiful original Honduras mahogany Wayne had to hunt for quite a while. The wood's here!  I'll help stack and sort it, and we'll get started on making the bulkheads, panels and doors for the new head. After weeks of work which doesn't really show progress - re-wiring, re-plumbing, engine work and bilge painting - it will be a blast to see this beautiful pile of lumber come to life.

The varnish work on the cabin sides continues, and the outcome is fabulous. Ruben finished the wood work a week ago and José has been hard at work finishing it. Here are a few snaps of what she looks like now. We're really pleased with the way the dark mahogany cabin sides bring out the curve of MAYAN's sheer.

I spend the morning removing all the sails from MAYAN, we have new sails coming in the next few weeks. She looks a little odd with bare booms, but this will give me a chance to re-paint the booms, replace the worn rigging for outhauls and topping lifts, and generally clean things up before the new sails arrive.

Gluing The Splines In The Locking Scarf

Yesterday we (meaning Ruben) fit and glued the splines into the locking scarfs on either side of the trunk cabin. Having made the gap between the planks straight and of even width, Ruben hand shaped piece of Honduras mahogany to fit. The picture to the right shows the locking scarf prepared for the splines.




In the photo below you can see the work Ruben has put in matching the color and the grain of the wood, so that the resulting repair will disappear after varnishing. We'll come back to this once it's finished, in about a week.


The third picture, on the right, shows Ruben holding up the spine being slathered with gorilla glue just before tapping it into the slot in the side of the cabin. Each piece is press fit and doesn't require clamping.


In the final picture the spines have been inserted and the excess Gorilla glue is pouring out. This is easily cleaned up and we will go after it later today.  The next step is to hunt down all the small imperfections in the cabin sides and fit them with small dutchmen or wood plugs to fill years of damage to the wood.  We should be able to start sanding and the initial refinishing early next week.

Gluing The Cabin Side Planks

Glueing in the new panels:

First, after everything is cut to a nice press fit, both sides get covered with glue. The glue in this case is what Wayne calls "Golf Club Glue" for the center of the piece. This is a two part 50:50 glue of some sort, and I have to investigate exactly what it is. Wayne and the guys use it to double plank hulls (Which is their standard approach to fixing sad caravel planked hulls.) and they used it when MAYAN was rebuilt in 2005. It is a stretchy form of glue, that will hold well and dry while also letting the wood move more than West System. 

The outer edge of the piece and the lips covered in West Epoxy that has been thickened with Honduras Mahogany dust, heaps of it. One of my jobs was holding the angle grinder in a trash can with a piece of wood and grinding it into dust. It took me a while to get the hang of grinding a piece of wood with a powerful grinder, one in each hand, without being able to see anything as the top of the trash can is covered with a blanket to contain the dust. You grind until the grinder starts to overhead, which is darned quick, and then stop and clean everything out, capturing the dust.

Here's Ruben putting the port side plank into the cabin side.



Next it is time to clamp the plank down. Pressure needs to be built up in the center first and then towards the outside to allow the glues to migrate towards the edges. We were in luck with MAYAN, she has a large bulwark and it is at exactly the right height. On the port side Rubin had rigged up his normal clamping system, and I helped out with some braces and wedges to the bulward. He liked that so much we did the entire starboard side with just braces and wedges.




In the picture above you can see the clamps, with the forward one reaching through the port hole and the after one reaching over the cockpit combing. The plank that is between the clamps is a piece of beautiful Honduras Mahogany that is an off cut from two covering planks that we were installing. "Don't break that by tightening the clamps too tight! We need that wood for the next pair of dutchmen." said Ruben.

According to Ruben, clamping is a big challenge and often more difficult than getting the bits of wood and the hole for the dutchman exactly right. "If we were installing this repair in a painted surface, we would simply drill holes and hold all this in with wood screws. Then we'd plug them later and no one would ever see it. But, you want this to be varnished, so we can't injure the wood like that." Ruben is from Peru and his syntax is often more flowery than ours. "Injure the wood" I like that.

Once we'd started the glue flowing it's all hands to the clean up. Putty knives for the big ugly bits and lots of shop towels with alcohol for the final clean up. The biggest problem I had was a real knack for getting the glue on the back of my hands, my knees and my arms. Ah well, I used to have the same problem years ago building stuff with epoxy; somethings never change.

Now, it's off to the starboard side to repeat the process.




This plank is smaller so there wasn't a need for a central block in the ultimate clamping. I installed a central post and wedges while the glue moved/migrated and then removed it once we'd moved to what you see above. 

The posts and wedges are all made from scrap that I found laying around the boat yard. I was shocked to find that one of them was teak, old and battered, when I cut into it. Ruben says it came off the rail of a boat built in the 1890s, the wood was still oily and beautiful inside the piece. "You should save this" I suggested. Ruben just laughed and pointed at a stack of wood twice as high as my Mini, "You can put it on the stack with all the other old teak we've saved from boats that have died." It seems that Wayne and the guys save every piece of teak they can and that has allowed them to deck a number of 20 and 30 foot boats with the scraps left over from deck rebuilds. Ruben informed me that the beautiful 30' Danish cutter that is a few boats down the dock was due to be re-decked from the pile. "We like to use the old wood. It's stable and doesn't wander." Rubin continued.

After we've cleaned everything up, Ruben goes around with small wedges and adjusts the pressure to right where he wants it. In the picture above you can see the tiny wedges he has driven under the 2X4. Prior to using a 2X4 for this purpose, Ruben has used the joiner to insure that the surface is completely flat and true - a great use for what used to be the side of a palette that an engine was delivered upon. 

Below you can see a close up of the tiny wedges and the glue continuing to migrate out from behind the plank. The reason for the West with the sanding dust becomes apparent as well. While the Golf Club Glue is great for holding the plank, it is white when it dries. The West Epxoy full of dust will blend in with the varnished Mahogany cabin side and you'll never see the joint. Well not unless you're waking up from too much fun on the side deck. 




Next up will be filling the hook-scarf joints further forward on the cabin side. As I write this, Ruben is probably already at work cutting the odd splines that he'll need. Because the hook scarf runs across the grain at various angles, the spline needs to be cut with the correct grain angle to avoid being visible. It'll be interesting to see how he cuts these.

Back to work.