Sail carts

May 02, 2021 by Lukasz Kumanowski

After my initial attempt to make them in Teflon I sent drawings to workshop in Poland, in hope to get reasonable price for making them on CNC machine. Well, the price was not reasonable.

I redraw the design to simplify it and made a prototype from black plastic piece I found lying in the corner. Tried it on the mast and it glides nicely. I send it to the workshop for revised price offer but still they wanted 28 EUR per piece. Too much for making 10 pieces.

I reverted to original design and printed a prototype in ABS plastic. Turned out very nice and trials on the mast show that it glides freely. I’ll print more and we shall see how long they will last in service.

So much work for one plate!

May 01, 2021 by Lukasz Kumanowski

It took far too long. Maybe because it is so little space in fo’c’sle to work in (relative) comfort. Maybe because I took this too seriously and wanted to do it right. Or simply because there are other things in life to do than to mount toilet on the small boat!

Anyway - after many short visits, trials, mockups and many minutes of thorough consideration I finally arrived to optimal placement for the loo. More or less as on Jim’s Kaika - behind the bulkhead.

This part of the hull is a challange to work in. Not only it is narrow but shape changes very rapidly towards the bow. To place a toilet in so confined space is a compromise between comfort (head room, leg room and privacy) and space. Ideally it should sit in the middle, as it was originally. That caused my anger every time I needed to go towards the bow - I had to crawl onto toilet to reach there. Not good. Having it on the side gives me clear passage all the way but rises the whole business so that head room becomes an issue.

Careful mockups consumed much time.

As nothing is straight on the boat I needed to rely on perpendicularity to the bulkhead. Meritaten is more or less levelled right now but she leans a bit towards bow so spirit level cannot be relied fully on.

Initial tests with head room and placement. All is held in place by double-sided tape, paper tape, Ettan, silver tape and a bit of luck. No sudden moves before I take measurements!

Not only once all this fell apart when I took deeper breath. I also conclude that mounting tape works poorly in 2 degrees Celsius and holds only for about 23 seconds.

Laughing and cursing on this whole business finally I managed to get measurements and started shaping the pedestal. Necessary openings for frames and wires add complexity to the task.

Still held by shims and duct tape the concept starts getting shape.

Next step is to make supporting leg. The whole structure will be resting on the bulkhead and thick frame. The idea is to avoid driving screws into frames and freeboards, relying instead on bulkhead’s rigidity.

Checking angles before determining shape of the supporting leg.

Size of this structure is determined by chemical toiled size and length of mahogany panels which I want to use to cover it. I have them left from another project and they come handy here.

As this is just a toilet I initially planned to use scrap pieces of thick, marine plywood as supporting posts and reinforcements. I changed my mind thou - this is my Meritaten, she deserves better!

So I took a nice, quarter-sawn piece of oak from my wood collection and cut the supports from it. Yes, toilet on Meritaten is build with prima sort Polish oak!

All screwed with brass screws (bronze is reserved to parts in contact with water). Initial tests of the final setup - good head room, good ass room. Perfect.

In the final configuration the toilet will not be visible. I will cover it with hinged panels, serving as a neat box hiding the loo and as a step to climb up through the hatch above. That will have to wait till next winter.

Before leaving I organised wires in this section. They were lying loose and making me uneasy. Routed them with copper loops, nailed to frames with short, copper nails. Much better.

I took all plates to my workshop, for sanding and epoxying. These are not final products yet - sole boards will be covered with solid mahogany slats but until then I need to protect them for this sailing season with one layer of epoxy.

Fo'c'sle campaign

April 24, 2021 by Lukasz Kumanowski

Typical April day: snow, rain and occasionally sun. Moderate and chilly wind. Perfect day for boatyard work.

I started with setting up temporary workbench. There will be quite a lot of sawing today. The plan is to finish templating and cutting temporary fo’c’sle sole boards.

I started with chaining Meritaten to the ground. For sanding and varnishing I removed chains and used side supports instead. Now when the varnish is cured I put chains back - it feels safer when I run back and forth between ladder-boat-ladder-bench many times.

Without auxiliary supports there is more space around the boat.

Dry winds are blowing inside the boat-hall. I started sprinklers under Meritaten’s winter dress (plastic tarp covering her bottom) to keep humidity high.

Moved inside the cabin to measure the final sole board. The time has come to finally remove the smaller valve left after marine toilet. It was in the way of the floor so I had to remove it. Now I have a hole in the hull which needs to be sealed!

Templating for these boards is simple - they do not need to be cut for each rib space. That will come in later stage when I will install mahogany boards on top of these plywood plates.

Hull shape in this part is going up abruptly so some edge shaping was necessary, especially for the board close to mast step.

By the end of the day I have all sole boards ready cut and fitted. Working conditions changed dramatically from this:

To this:

No more crawling in the bilge!

Eventually this floor will match the rest of cabin sole and will look like this:

Most probably I’ll not manage before launching so it will have to wait until next winter. At least we will be able to use this part without breaking ankles. Tomorrow I will start building toilet module.

I have a small problem to solve:

how to properly connect battery terminals to the installation?

I need to connect this:

With this:

Of course, I can just use screw already present in acu-mounts on installation side and fill the gap with washer. Then tape all tightly with self-vulcanising tape. I have a feeling thou that it is not the most professional solution.
I will need to cut this rubber sealing every year to disconnect battery boxes from the main installation.

Any ideas, anyone?

Give me a hint, please!

Before leaving I re-installed name plates on newly varnished freeboard. Meritaten wears her name with proud!

Evening at the waterfront

April 19, 2021 by Lukasz Kumanowski

Short visit to the boatyard, to check fitting of cabin sole panels before final gluing. Some more forming needed, to match hull curvature but otherwise all ready for epoxy and bronze screws.

Jim has made exceptionally good job on varnishing Kaika! Thick, equal and glossy layer of varnish, already hardened. It took him half night but it was well worth it.

Before heading home I went to the waterfront. Lennart’s boat is floating, waiting for her mast.

Gigantic Staika, another Laurin’s design boat, is already at her place, rigged completely.

It was a warm, sunny day. Temperature reached 16 degrees but evenings are still cold: falling down to zero or slightly below. Anyway - time to book a date for launching!

Messing around.

April 18, 2021 by Lukasz Kumanowski