Re: Winter refit - transom
One more pic of the bow. Kinda a goofy angle, with me under the new bow looking up.
It's shiny there because of the tape I used to join the panels on top of the spray foam.
I trimmed the excess glass just after I took this pic.
Okay, back to finishing the deck now that I have a bow.
I made a plywood box out of 1/2" ply glassed on two sides with three layers of 12 oz biax cloth (I bought a roll of the stuff a while back).
Then I glassed it into place ahead of the rib I had made from the cut down bulkhead. The top edge is at the height of the foredeck, the sides are glassed to the bulkhead behind the box, and the back edge will form a "step" from the mid deck to the foredeck. The box itself runs from the hull up to foredeck height and should have its top way above waterline. Initially it'll be a storage compartment, but eventually it'll be a mini moon pool where I can mount a trolling motor through the hull.
The new anchor locker bottom is formed by the foredeck piece, which again is 1/2" ply glassed on both sides with three layers of 12 oz cloth. Again, there are cleats on the hull and on the edges of the box providing gluing surfaces.
For now the spaces under the foredeck on either side will be sealed. There are limber holes there though, and I've leveled off the bottom of each compartment with filler. Eventually they'll be storage.
I forgot to mention... before I put the aft deck section on I drilled holes in the stringers for through bolts and mounting for 1 inch aluminum angle.
The angle will support the deck above and also provide an anchor point for attaching items on the deck like my console and potentially a changing room/head box. The angle lets me move the console forward and aft as needed using "filler" deck sections ahead of it. If there's space in the well aft of the battery box and ahead of the console I can even mount something there that extends down to the hull bottom, like a live well or whatever.
Before I finished putting the "steps" together and putting the top of the forward deck on (fore-fore deck?) I spent some time aft. This pic sums up a lot of work.
The extra large knees in the engine compartment support the transom, which is going to need the support since I'm going to cut a through-transom door on the port side (assuming all works out with my planned waterline calculations). The port side of the hull has also been reinforced to take the strain. The short shelf in the center above the engine space is where the hinges (or possibly latches) for the dog house will attach. I wanted it kept short because I don't want it in the way when I put the engine in via cherry picker.
The starboard side (left in the photo) has a sort of table section on top of the tranom. This is for the davit/outrigger for my sonar unit. It's essentially the thickness of a transom section that's attached with knees to the transom itself plus the motor bay knees, so it's rather strong. It also forms the top of the computer compartment... the onboard computer will hang on the transom to give it a smooth ride.
There will be a half inch aluminum plate bolted to the top of the table section which will have mounting points for the actual davit.
I'll fair all the pieces of the transom together at the back edge in a similar manner to how I did the gunwales. The gunwales at the transom form a sort of angle at either corner which should be more visually interesting than a flat transom top.
I designed it this way because I wanted a low transom I could walk through with few obstructions for the davit, and maximum space given to the deck.
The engine I wanted in its own nearly sealed compartment to limit flooding if the sterndrive leaked, and also to keep noise down. It'll have its own bilge pump and alarms.
I'm proud of the eventual solution I came up with for engine ventilation. I had originally installed a pair of knees, one at either side of the hull near the transom, as support for the sides. I decided to sister on a full height (to the gunwale) rib piece above deck to those, and then another full height rib piece about a foot ahead of that, forming a rectangular box. I then cut a hole in the deck at the base the same size, which leads into two compartments that link up with the engine compartment below decks, again with the same amount of clear space. You can see one of them on the right side of the above pic.
I'll put a flat removable front on each one and cut some kind of hole into the top edge from the outside of the hull, and these will be my engine air intakes. They're about 112 square inches each, which is about 30% larger than was recommended for my engine size.
No hoses to route or limitations on the shape of the intake vent. I can be creative, or just cut a big hole into their space from outside the hull. Inside the hull they look like big supports for the gunwales (which is another function of theirs).
Because of the way the compartments route to the engine, any water coming in will mostly divert to the main bilge via limber holes.
I'll build a vent box at the top of the engine compartment to suck air from bilge level out to clear fumes, and I'll use 3 inch hoses for that running down the transom inside to the bilge level.
I'll also need to vent the battery area (even though it's technically joined to the engine space) and the fuel tank bilge. Not sure exactly what form that will take yet.
So, with the triangular forward gunwale/deck installed but not yet glassed, I went ahead and did most of the glassing on the inside... deck to hull, step to deck, hull joint. I have some more to do on the engine air intakes and the transom where that table is. After that, I just need to glass the hull joint on the outside. Edit: Forgot to say I need to attach the remaining forward section of the gunwales too, and build the joint where they meet the foredeck. Just one more thing...
I could do some more on the edges of the hatches and steps, etc. but I'll probably leave that until the hull is painted and I'm fitting out the interior. In the meantime while the hull is outside being painted I'll also be working on constructing the console and seats, hatch covers for the fuel tank, moon pool, and the deck sections for the battery/console area, and the front covers for the engine air intakes. Once the engine is in I'll build a new doghouse.
Phew. Lots to go yet, but I'm really excited to get this hull outside after a year and a half.
Erik
I'm leaving it for now, I'll fair it probably when I finish rigging the interior (after painting the hull) and when I install the engine and fuel tank.
