We got back from the Wooden Boat Show in Mystic and unloaded and parked the boat. We had a large teak deck to template, fabricate and install on a large yacht in san francisco that required all hands for the better part of three months. This wsn't all bad because if we had put Abaco in the water we would have bought into a whole lot of stress due to the fact that several hurricanes had south Florida in their sights this year. While none of them ended up coming here, we still would have had to deal with the threat. If you wait until you know for sure you're going to get swatted, then it's too late to take any action.
But we are back in the groove again and have lots of things to complete on our Tiki 30.The rudder lashings were not shapedjust right and needed some reworking of the aft edge of the stern pos and fwd edge of the rudder.Then a layer of six oz cloth to seal every thing up tight and some new paint.
The photo below shows 1/2 of a pvc tube glassed onto the bottom of the cockpit as a conduit for the battery cables and fuel hose. We originaly installed this tube in the cockpit, butit turned out to be a toe stubber and prevented water from draining out of the strbd side of the cockpit. Seems obvious in retrospect.
This tube is to provide a condyuit for the wiring tha passes between the strbd hull and the port hull. It wasn't something we thought about until it was time to actually run that wiring and realized that there really wasn't any appropriate location where the wiring would be out of the way and secure.
We also moved the spinnaker halyard inside the mast. It seemed a shame to have the aerodynamicaly clean wingsail rig and then have both parts of the spinnaker halyard just dragging in the breeze. This will get one part in the mast and also position it properly to use one of the halyard stoppers at the base of the mast.
One of the first comments on the boat at Mystic was that our outboard portlights were too small.This thought was expressed by many others who have seen the boat in person and online.I really didn't get it until I saw the boat from a distance, and then had to agree.
Here we have removed the port light
Below you can see the new window frame on the port house side.
Once the shape was finalized we cut out the lexan and rabbeted it into the back side of the frame. Due to the high expansion factor of the lexan, we attached the lexan to the plywood frame with 3M 5200.
Here we have glued the frame with the lexan to the house side, also with 5200. The little wooden blocks are attached to the boat with super glue and then small wedges push the frame against the house side. Once the 5200 sets up (a couple of days) we will fillet in the frames and add a layer of fabric to seal it off. Then some fairing and we will repaint the house sides.
We used 12 mm Dyneex for the headstay bridle. Also visible here is the lower end of the jib on the Harken roller furling unit.
When we first went to hoist the mainsail, it was a no go. We followed the plan and used a double block for the upper end of the halyards, being careful to run them in opposing directions. What happened was that the block layed over on its side and the throat halyard wore a groove in the block cheek and jammed up tight. Perhaps if you pulled upboth halyard sat exactly the right time it might work. But we changed the double block out for two singles and the gaff and mainsail went up as smooth as silk.
We are now preparing to take this boat to the St. Petersburg, FL "Strictly Sail" boatshow in early December. We are having a custom rigid tube bimini fabricated By High Seas Fabrication in Stuart FL. They are a custom shop that does great work. They are building the top and will install it next week when we launch. We are also having trampolines made for the aft end of the boat on either side of the boarding ladder. The tramps are being made by John MacNally of Gulfstram Sailmakers of Jupiter FL. We are closing in.
You may recall how many times this custom ice box has appeared in this blog. Well here it is again. This photo is looking down from the deck and shows the cleats we have installed to hold the shelf where the blocks of ice will sit and also the cleats that will hold the top plug.
Here is the top plug and the shelf. The plug is 4 1/2" of foam covered with 4 oz xynole polyester cloth ans epoxy and is ready for final fairing and paint. The ice shelf and the cleats that support it have epoxy inserts in way of the attaching screws to prevent water access to the wood and still permit removal for cleaning and maintenance.
The next two photos show the plug and the shelf in primer. The plug fit very snugly, tight enough that it settles slowly while air eases out.There is an arrow carved into the top of the plug to indicate proper orientation. The holes in the shelf are to permit free air flow.
We have outfitted this boat with a 22 lb (10kg) Rocna anchor. This anchor has a reputation for setting and resetting quickly and being able to handle changes of direction in pull. But it did need a special roller built to hold it ready for deployment. Below is the roller almost ready for primer.
This box will be bolted up under a trap door hatch in the teak foredeck. It will hold the primary
