Pro-Built Tiki 30

Tiki 30 Gettin It

2011-04-18T16:13:00.001-04:00

Wire Runs Between Hulls

2010-11-28T19:36:00.000-05:00

James and Hanneke don't mention in any of there plans anything about electrical systems. A builder is basically on there own. We used ordinary compression style wire glands at first. These were not really satisfactory as they are designed for a single round cable. We had leaks around them into the cabins. We came up with this technique that is very simple and very effective. I thought I would share it.
The basic system is we glue a stub of PVC tubing Onto the hull and then another piece in line with the first onto the side of the cockpit. Then we connect the two tube stubs with a piece of rubber inner tube and a couple of hose clamps. Here are some photos that will make it all very clear.

This is in the starboard hull next to the electrical panel and radios etc.

This is between the starboard hull and the cockpit. The inner tube is from a motorcycle. Between the cockpit and the port hull there are fewer wires and we used a smaller tube with a piece of bicycle inner tube.

This is inside the battery compartment at the starboard side of the cockpit.

This is the stub glued and glassed onto the side of the cockpit before paint.

This system has worked out very well for us and we don't have anymore water intrusion around our wire connections. We use pieces of split PVC tubing to run wires through along the bottom of the cockpit and in other exposed locations. They look nice when filleted in and painted to match.

New Engine Box and Yamaha 9.9

2010-10-04T20:53:00.000-04:00

When we first built this Tiki 30 we moved the motor fwd to the center of the cockpit. This left the aft end of the cockpit clear for the helmsman and provided a convenient location for the GPS. It also placed the motor in the center of the boat where it would be much less likely to cavitate. It was also a great location for the jib winch.

The box hinged up for easy access to the motor.BUT all was not quite as groovy as i should have been. We mounted the motor about 6" too low. This caused the motor to get too much salt spray on it and sometimes a high speed it would get water right over the top. This caused service issues with the motor due to corrosion.

Also when I purchased the motor I was unaware that motors this small were available with power tilt. It was a little inconvenient to have to unlatch the box and fiddle around for the latch to raise or lower the motor.

This summer I purchaesd a new Yamaha 9.9 out board with both electric start and power tilt. We made a new engine box and modified the motor mount to raise the motor up 6". We had to lengthen the box by almost a foot to accommadate the motor in its' higher position and allow it to tilt up. The new top does not have a raised edge which allows water drain off rather than be trapped by the fiddle.

The side benefits of this change were that we got a better lead to the jib winch and the GPS was much easier to read mounted in the taller box.

The new box is glassed into the cockpit floor and is much more rigid and we don't get water squirting out when we are blasting along at high speed. Access to the motor is a little more restricted but for other than oil changes and a new spark plug I need to yank it and take it to a technician.

The power tilt is really really cool and I am very pleased with the new motor and the installation.We also get almost another knot of boat speed with the 9.9 compared to the 8.

Islamorada Wharram Catamaran Rendezvous 2010

2010-07-06T16:08:00.013-04:00

May 14-16 was the spring hui of Wharrams in Islamorada. We had our Tiki 30 down for the event and had a great time as usual. This time we pulled right up on the beach at the Lorelei Restaurant and took people on demo rides all day long.

The wind was a little on the light side so we didn't set any speed records. However the slowest top speed we hit on any trip all day was 10 knots. Not bad for a boat with8-10 people on board.
There were the usual suspects in attendance of course, but also there were a couple of new boats who travelled to join us. The smaller boat in this photo is Rick's Tiki 21 Sandy. Rick and his wife and daughter trailered Sandy down from North Carolina. Rick's boat was very nicely built and they were enjoying her immensely.
Abaco strutting .
This is a crummy photo,but shows The Pahi 31 Surfrider sailed down from Pensacola by Greg Russell with a couple of friends visiting from California.
Scott B. Williams came down for the event and took most of these pictures. He also wrote an article that is in this months issue of Southwinds magazine. Here's a link.
http://www.southwindsmagazine.com/

Everybody had fun, the weather was terrific and we hoisted one in honor of James Wharram's
82nd birthday 5-15. Congrats James and thanks for all the fun. We will get together again this December further north in FL.

Wharram Tiki Catamaran Press

2010-07-04T12:11:00.005-04:00

When we let Onne van der Wal use our Tiki 30 in the Exumas last year in exchange for some photos and press we thought that it would be good for us. The whole deal has worked out very well for us. First Onne is a real nice guy and was very easy to work with. Second, the amount of press we have gotten has been great and the photos that he gave us are wonderful.
To start off his son had an article published is Sail magazine in January about their trip on Abaco.
This was followed by Cruising World magazine using a photo of Abaco on the cover of their February issue. Then in March we were there was a short article in Cruising world about Boatsmith being the US builder for James Wharram Designs. April saw a photo of Abaco in an article about simple cruising in Sailing magazine. Then in May we are gracing the cover of the May/June Boat US magazine cover. This is certainly an awful lot of exposure for one Wharram catamaran to receive in one year. There is also a photo of Abaco on Onne's 2010 calender. On the July Southwinds cover there is a shot of Gil Grove's Narai and inside there are photos of Abaco, and a Tiki 21 named Sandy, a Pahi 31 named Surfrider, a Tangaroa named Forever Young, and a Tiki 26 named Inseperable. These were all taken at the Wharram Rendezvous in Islamorada in May.

Boatsmith's Tiki 30 in Sail magazine

2009-12-30T17:16:00.005-05:00

The January issue of Sail magazine is a multihull focused edition. And one of the multihulls featured is our Tiki 30 "Abaco". There are some very nice photos of her in The Exumas. Here's a few more to titillate you.

Home from the Bahamas

2009-10-28T17:06:00.033-04:00

We had a great time with Abaco in the Exumas this summer. We had delivered the boat to Nassau for Onne van der Wal to take a working vacation with his kids. We ended up with lots of great photos and our boat ready to go in the Exumas. Some of our associates and their families spent time on her and then my family went over for a couple of weeks. I would have some pics of that trip but waded into the water with my camera in my pocket within the first 1/2 hr of arriving at the boat in Staniel Cay

So now it was time to bring the boat back to Florida to make her perfect for the Annapolis Sail Boat Show in October. My niece had just graduated fro college and I suggested that she and her roommate might enjoy going with David Crawford on his delivery back. being smart girls they didn't have to be asked twice. And David just needed a little arm twisting to have a couple of attractive young women for crew. Some guys just seem to get the sweet jobs.

The girls thought that this was a small plane from Fort Lauderdale to Nassau.
That was before they saw the plane from Nassau to Little Farmers Cay.

This is the airport terminal at Little Farmers.The crew is l-r Kelly, David, Sara

The boat was anchored in the harbor. We had a local man keeping a eye on it and all was well.

Sara is delighted with the small galley as she comments that obviously she won't be cooking in here.

This is really the shower?

First stop is a trip to the caves nearby.

Then a trip to the local seafood market for dinner.

While in the islands we added these blue tarp awnings. we rolled them down as required for additional shade. We will incorporate these into our next bimini.

Fresh water is readily available throughout the Exumas due to many RO units.

Even though this is technically a delivery there was time to stop and hike to see the iguanas on Great Guana Cay.

The next stop is the famous Thunderball Grotto.

The last leg is from Great Harbor at the north end of the Berrys to West Palm Beach. The weather report said go now as a front is coming through in 36- 48 hrs. Part of it was a little ahead of schedule as they experienced some thunder storms out in the gulf stream.

The wind was only 5-10 from the southeast. Not really enough to sail fast as they were headed north west.

As the sun was setting and the wind picked up a little my dirty moldy old fouly jacket started looking pretty good to Sara.

Fortunately Kelly had some sailing experience and could spell David at the helm. Sara sang out to David, who was napping below that there was a big cruise ship coming. David asked where and Sara replied over there,when queried which way was it going the reply was that way.

There was a lot of cruise ship traffic in the Northwest Providence channel and crossing the stream. Some of the had video screens on the upper deck that seemed as large as Abaco

One last shot of Paradise.

Wharram Catamaran in the Exumas

2009-07-10T05:51:00.007-04:00

I think that the two photos below show why Wharram catamarans are so suited for this part of the world.

These are some pics that Onne van der Wal sent me from the Exumas. The shallow draft makes much more area available for exploration. It also permits anchoring in places where most boats simply can't go. We are flying over Monday morning for some time on the boat.

Boatsmith'sTiki 30 in Nassau

2009-06-18T06:38:00.019-04:00

David and Scott arrived in Nassau Sunday morning. They had to motor the whole trip as the wind was right on the nose and light. They could have indeed sailed but the trip could have easily taken over a week and that sure didn't fit into our time frame. This is one reason why a good motor is a vital piece of equipment for most people. They left Thursday night at 11:00 pm and arrived off Great Harbour about the same time Friday evening. That would be an awful lot of battery capacity with an electric motor.

The Berry Islands lie between Grand Bahama Island and Nassau on the south side of the Northwest Providence channel. They are beautiful and not very crowded.

The water is so clear that it looks more shallow than it is. And it is shallow.

After clearing in at Great Harbour Saturday morning the guys went south a little ways to a spot that Scott remembered from previous trips to spend Saturday night.

Here is the latest view of the nav station aboard Abaco. When we installed the solar panel and controller we also added a 400 watt inverter. This is very useful to run a computer and recharge batteries for the handheld VHF and searchlights and cameras and phones. All of the interior and running lights are LEDs and the ventilation fans in each space are fractional amperage. The only other electrical loads are the stereo, the GPS/chart plotter and starting the engine. Our 160 watt solar panel with two 96 amp/hr batteries is expected to handle our needs well.

The boat is quite full. Everything in the Bahamas is pricey, so we tried to put as much stuff on board as we could. Onne and his boys will be on the boat for ten days, followed by my family for ten days, and then David Crawford will come back and spend ten days with his two daughters bringing the boat back to FL.

David and Scott arrived in Nassau Sunday afternoon and spent the rest of Sunday and most of Monday cleaning the boat and getting her ready for Onne. Here is Onne (on the left) getting some orientation on the boat from David.

When we were at the Miami boat show with Abaco, the comment most often heard when people saw the boat was "Wow, that looks like fun." This same comment was the norm once the boat was tied up in Nassau.

This boat is ideal for the Bahamas with it's 2'1" draft. The bimini is also well suited to this climate and the large cockpit and swim ladder make life very pleasurable on board.

When making a passage we store the dink upside down on the foredeck. For short hops we just tow it or pull it up on the foredeck right side up.

We have left the boat with Onne and sons. We are very excited about the photos to come and the time we will spend on Abaco in the Exumas. It's possible that Onne will email me some photos this week and if so, I will post them, otherwise we'll have to wait until we return in about 3 weeks. Cheers David

Haulout and Solar Electric

2009-06-14T10:00:00.008-04:00

We hauled our Tiki 30 Abaco out at Cracker Boy Boatworks this last week to prepare her for a trip to the Exumas in the Bahamas. Onne Vanderwahl is picking up the boat in Nassau Monday afternoon to spend some time on her in the Exumas. For those unfamiliar with Onne's work, he is one of the premier yacht photographers in the world. He saw our boat at the Miami boat show and thought that this would be a really great boat to spend some time on with kids. While doing so he will take lots of pics for his and our future use. We are pretty excited about getting some really great shots to use in our marketing and publicity programs.

We have been making continual improvements to our Tiki 30. Above you can see the 3 gallon bucket we have installed for a sink. We had built a LITTLE tiny sink per plan and were all set to drill a hole trough the side of the boat for the drain and realized that the drain hole would be right at or below the waterline. So we instead cut out the shelve in front of the reefer access and the bucket just sits in the cutout.Easy to empty and easy to move outside as well. Seems like a great idea.Hanneke really liked this change from her drawings.

We also needed to install this 160 watt solar panel. We had to have another tube and some tabs welded onto our bimini structure to support the panel. The wire runs down the inside of the tube and through the back of the house through a gland.We mounted a controller next to the electrical panel. The controller controls the charge rate and shuts off the panel to prevent over charging.

Above the panel is installed and charging. We have yet to relace the bimini fabric. Below you can see some reinforcing bands of fiberglass tape we put on the tillers. I was concerned about them coming apart and they are somewhat crucial. We will cover them with some red stayset lashings for a more aesthetic look.

These two photos show off our new bottom paint. Onne takes both underwater and waterline photos and suggested that our bottom paint look its' best. The boat left Thursday evening about 10 o'clock. David Crawford and Scott Williams are delivering her to Nassau for me. I'm lucky to have such capable people working with me. They should be closing in on Grand Bahama Island around daybreak. Onne picks up the boat Monday. Ten days later myself , my wife and our son will fly to Nassau to pickup the boat from Onne and spend a couple of weeks on her ourselves. This boat is ideal for the Exumas. The water there is extremely thin and very clear. We expect to have a wonderful time and will share lots of photos and info when we return. David

Still Improving Our Tiki 30

2009-03-27T07:28:00.014-04:00

It has been a very long time since I've updated this blog. Sorry 'bout that, got busy and/or lazy.
In December we showed the Tiki 30 at the Saint Petersburg Boat Show. There were only 5 multihulls there. We had a good spot and the boat was very well received. We had people who had heard of James Wharram, full blown Wharramites, and folks who had never seen anything like it at all. We planted lots of seeds and met lots of people,some Wharram owners and some who want to be.

In February we were at the Miami Boat Show. This is billed as the largest multihull show in the world. There were many large catamarans being shown. There were two smaller tris, but every one else was larger than we were. There certainly was no shortage of condomarans. About a third of the people walking by didn't even see us, we didn't even register in their brain.Another portion looked casually and kept moving. But about a third of the folks saw us and got excited. Either they were familiar with Wharram boats or they just recognized a fun boat when they saw one. We were swarmed with visitors the four days of the show. We met lot of people and have since sold two Tiki 26's from contacts made at this show. There will be more about that later.
The photo above is our Tiki 30 sailing with 7 people on board at the Wharram Rendezvous in Islamorada FL held the middle of May. There were 8-9 Wharrams in attendance and maybe 50 people. We showed off our boat and gave lots of rides. Lots of fun.

Just some more details. Above is our motor cover/cocktail table/instrument panel /winch base. A couple of photos down is a view with the cover up. Below is looking into the port side cabin.

Below is an action shot of the rear tramp. This was en route to the Saint Pete show Thanksgiving weekend via the intercoastal waterway between Stuart and Fort Meyers.

Here is a view of the aft tramps with the swim ladder down.

This is a shot of our bimini. We had it made for us by High Seas Fabrication of Stuart FL. IT has worked out better than we had imagined.

This photo was taken at the Saint Pete show.

Below is a view of the radios and the electrical panel
.

We will be doing some more work during the next 2weeks to get the boat ready for a trip to the Exumas in the Bahamas. We are having photos taken by Onne Vanderwahl and then a vacation.
I will post more soon.

Ice Box and Anchor Locker, Bow Roller

2008-12-14T18:16:00.028-05:00

This is probably the last post concerning the ice box. The good news is that it works very well and has met our expectations. We put two bags of ice cubes in for the delivery to the Saint Petersburg boat show and ten days later their was still ice. Here is the exterior hatch with it's latch.

This is the insulation plug for the hatch. This ice box has 5" of insulation all around it. When you insert this hatch plug it settles down into the hole slowly as the air squeezes by. Nice fit.

With the plug removed the shelf is visible below the hatch.

The wooden square with the handle is the interior access to the main ice box. It also has 5" of insulation on it and slopes downward into the box to minimize cold leakage. Also visible in this photo is the propane burner and the galley sink. Not visible here is the foot pump below the shelf below the icebox access.

Adjacent to the galley side companionway is this cooler in the cockpit. While it only has 2" of insulation it too worked very well and is very convenient.

Here is the trap door to the box which hangs below the forward deck to store the anchor rode.

I
The box handily holds 20' of 5/16" chain and 150' of 7/16" anchor line.

Here is a view of the box from underneath and forward. Also in the fore ground is the roller for the Rocna anchor .

We have completed the outboard window change out and the results are good. More light is allowed into the cabin and there is a more open felling. This is the interior view.

Here's a fairly close view of the window from the outside. You can also clearly see the dead eyes and chainplates with terminators and the shroud lashings. The sliding hatch for the companionway is also very clear.

A port side view of Abaco showing the window and also the bimini. The bimini was built for us by High Seas Fabrication of Stuart FL. They did a real great job for us. The bimini provides lots of shade, standing headroom and as an extra bonus good hand holds at crucial locations. We did however forget to put a window in to be able to see the mast head and mainsail leech. We will have to have this added.

This picture was taken right before the bimini installation and shows the starboard side view .

More Ice Box and Anchor Roller

2008-11-10T09:15:00.012-05:00

All that's left to complete the new window installations is to repaint the house sides.

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
anchor chain and line.

Lots of Fit Out Details

2008-11-02T07:04:00.015-05:00

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.

Wharram Names Boatsmith As U.S. Professional Builder

2008-10-24T10:13:00.014-04:00

The primary reason we went to the Wooden Boat Show in Mystic, Ct was to meet James Wharram and Hanneke Boone and to show them the quality of our workmanship on our Tiki 30. Before James Wharram Designs will authorize a professional builder, they want to meet the builder and ensure the quality of his workmanship. I'm happy to announce that our meeting went extremely well and Boatsmith, Inc. is now officially the authorized U.S. professional builder for James Wharram Designs. For more details, click on the link to the announcement article on the Wharram website. http://wharram.eu//live//article.php?story=20080816102936984

Mystic Wooden Boat Show - 2008

2008-07-04T10:51:00.014-04:00

Our Tiki 30 was launched last week in Mystic, Connecticut, just in time for the Mystic Wooden Boat show. The following photos show how the completed boat looks in the water. We are exceptionally pleased with how everything came together and couldn't be happier with the boat.

Best of all, we were able to meet the designers: James Wharram and Hanneke Boone and show them our first completed Wharram catamaran. Click on the photos for a larger view to see the details.

Below: A crowd gathers in the cockpit at the boat show, while the designers, James Wharram and Hanneke Boon are hanging out with us on one of their many visits over the weekend.

Below, left to right: David Halladay (myself), James Wharram, and Hanneke Boone enjoying a pleasant visit in the spacious cockpit of our Tiki 30.

Final Details and Ready for the Road

2008-06-26T13:40:00.002-04:00

The photos below were all taken Tuesday as we scrambled to finish all those last minute details to get the boat ready to take to the Wooden Boat Show in Mystic, Connecticut. The first photo below was taken Tuesday night as we are loaded on the trailer and ready for the road. We left the shop at 10:30 PM. We will be assembling and launching the boat at a yard near the boat show today, on Thursday, June 26 - just a little over 5 months since starting the construction in late January.

Here is a view of the cockpit showing the custom-made seat cushions and other details such as the cockpit table/motor box, hatches, etc.

A close-up of the motor box shows the teak table top and the central jib sheet winch, as well as instrumentation and engine controls.

Here is a view into the galley in the port hull. The sink is on the outboard side to the right, and our custom-made stainless single burner propane stove is mounted on the shelf to the inboard side. In the center is an opening portlight above the access to the ice box.

Here you can see the finished nav-station in the starboard hull. A VHF and stereo have been installed, along with the DC circuit panel and 12-volt fan and lighting. All the varnished trim is teak.

Here is a view of one of the rudders showing the lashings. The V-shaped notch in the top of the stern post is a receiver for the extra aft netting beam.

We will probably have the boat in the water before most of you read this. We hope to meet some of you this weekend at the boat show.

Fitting Out Details

2008-06-24T07:21:00.002-04:00

We're in the final assembly and fitting out phase of the Tiki 30, and have been working long hours in a final push to get everything done in time to make the Mystic Wooden Boat Show this weekend, in Mystic, Connecticut. The boat will be loaded onto a trailer later today and we will begin the trip north to arrive in time to assemble and launch at a nearby boatyard. There are lots of projects going on simultaneously as we complete such tasks as rigging, wiring and systems and hardware installations. The photos below were taken a few days ago, but will give you and idea of how things are coming together.

Here is a view into the cockpit, where you can see that the decks and non-skid areas have been painted, the motor box/table is finished with cut-outs for instruments and controls, and seat box lids and inboard portlights have been installed. We have since installed the engine and remote controls for it.

Here is a view of the port stern deck and aft portion of the cabin top. You can see the stern mooring cleat, inspection port, icebox hatch lid, and on the cabin top, the spinnker lead block and self-tailing winch for the port sheets.

Looking inside the port hull, forward into the bunk area, you can see that the portlights and cabin top opening hatch have all been installed, and the teak trim for the bulkhead openings is finished. The shelves are also getting small fiddle rails of varnished teak.

Here is the almost finished nav-station in the starboard hull. We have installed the DC switch panel, VHF radio, 12-volt L.E.D. lighting and 12-volt fan, and the portlight in the aft cabin bulkhead.

In addition to what is shown in these photos, we are completing the standing and running rigging and all the wiring within and between the hulls. Painting and varnishing is complete and most of the custom canvas items we ordered such as cockpit cushions and bunk cushions have arrived in time for the boat show. It's been an exciting and busy time in the Boatsmith shop. We'll post more photos as soon as possible of the completed boat, and we look forward to showing it in Connecticut, and to meeting the designer: James Wharram.

Topsides Painted, Outboard Mount Installed

2008-06-17T04:29:00.000-04:00

The hull topsides have been sprayed with two coats of red Awlgrip, providing a nice contrast to the white Petit Vivid bottom paint and the decks and cabins, which will be painted with white Awlgrip.

Here is the forward deck, removed from the beams for finish sanding. We have lots of finishing details going on simultaneously as we are jamming seven days a week now to get the boat ready for the Mystic Wooden Boat show in Connecticut the last weekend of this month.

The outboard was delivered the other day. It is a Yamaha 8hp, 4-stroke with long shaft and electric start, and should be an ideal match for the Tiki 30.

With the outboard on hand, we were able to design and build the motor mount, and install it on the bottom of the cockpit sole. Below, you can see how the sides of the wedge-shaped mount were glass taped to the adjoining surfaces of the bottom of the cockpit.

In this side view of the motor mount, the glassed-in structure has been filleted and faired to the underside of the cockpit sole.

Here is a view of the motor mount from the cockpit. It is centered fore and aft to keep the prop in solid water between the hulls.

The foam-core cockpit sole had to be epoxy filled in the edges where we cut out the opening for the motor mount. In this view you can see the transom for the outboard clamp at the aft end of the wedge-shaped pod.

We have also built a covering box that encloses the outboard from the top and serves as a cockpit table as well as a place to mount such instruments as the steering compass.

Detail work is also going on down below in both hulls as we finish such things as edging all the shelves with teak fiddles and trimming the exposed bulkhead edges. Below you can see one of the main bulkheads with teak trim being formed for its edges. We are making these trim rings by gluing up layers of very thin teak that can take the radius. The clamps hold the layers until the glue sets, and then the rings are removed from the boat for finishing.

Here is one of the bulkhead trim rings, shaped and sanded and hung outside for varnishing.

The companionway hatches have also been varnished.

Forward Deck and Boarding Ladder

2008-06-11T12:04:00.000-04:00

We have opted for a teak deck between the mast and forward beams instead of a trampoline as shown on the plans. This deck is constructed as lightly as possible to still have the required strength, and as the much of the weight of the boat, with the outboard, etc., is aft, this extra weight forward is not going to hurt the trim. The deck planking is not solid, but has small gaps for easy drainage between the planks without being spaced so far as to make walking uncomfortable.

The U-shaped handles on the four corners make for convenient tie-downs for the dinghy and other gear and aid in lifting the deck into position during assembly.

The deck is situated low between the beams, close in line with the bottom edges of the beams, and just slightly higher than the foredecks of the hulls.

This view from below shows the attachment method. The U-shaped sockets in the background are on the bottom of the mast beam, and act as receivers for the longitudinal stringers that support the deck between the beams. The extended forward ends of these stringers are lashed to the underside of the front beam, as seen in the foreground here:

Aft of the cockpit, we are also utilizing the large amount of space between the hulls by adding the custom-built extra aft beam that allows the integration of a boarding ladder with nets or trampolines to either side. Below you can see the frames for the ladder, running fore and aft between the aft cockpit beam and the extra stern beam. The cut-outs in the rails are hand-holds, that can be used by reaching up when climbing out of the water. The ladder will swing down between these rails. There is a horizontal piece on either side of these rails, attached at a right angle. These are drilled for the net/tramp lacing lines and correspond to the lacing rails on each inboard side of the aft decks.

This view from below looking aft shows how the ladder frame rails hang on the extra aft beam, and how the horizontal pieces on either side provide a place for lacing the nets. This right-angle construction also adds great rigidity to the rails while keeping them light weight.

Another project also nearing completion is the cockpit. Here you can see on one side of it the side wing that extends outward from the seat boxes to meet the curving inner face of the cabin side. This view is from the port bow angle, looking aft. There is lots of storage below the seat level in the separated boxes.

Fitting Companionways and Trampoline Rails

2008-06-03T15:53:00.001-04:00

Here is a view of the installed companionway hatch on the starboard hull. The hatch slides on a piece of stainless steel tubing mounted in teak blocks attached to the cabin roof.

To attach the sides of the aft trampoline to the decks, we are installing toe rails that will have lashing holes drilled for lacing the trampoline. To build these strong enough and still have them conform to the curvature of the deck, we are using glued-up laminates clamped in place. When the epoxy cures the rails can be removed for shaping, sanding and drilling, then re-installed with lags into the sheer clamp.

Hatches and Aft Beam

2008-06-03T03:30:00.000-04:00

Here are the completed companionway hatches, showing the teak overlay and teak framing. These will be finished bright to add a nice natural wood contrast to the white decks and cabin sides.

In the clamps on the bench below, you can see the extra aft netting beam that we've laminated from Doug fir. It is a hollow constructed spar, not structural to the boat but plenty strong enough to support the aft trampolines and a boarding ladder.

Below is a view of the completed double-coaming hatch for the insulated ice box. Note the drain hole near the bottom edge of the outer coaming. This allows drainage of the small amount of water that might get in between the outer coaming on the deck and hatch cover. The inner coaming prevents any water from getting inside. This is an old and proven way to build a waterproof wooden hatch. This opening is in the stern deck of the port hull just aft of the aft beam. The round hole aft of the hatch is for mounting an inspection port to access the compartment aft of the ice box.

This is a view of the port foredeck and hatch coaming, complete with primer.

Decks and cabin roof are also primed on the starboard hull, and beam lashing pads and deck blocks are complete.

Companionways and More Cockpit Progress

2008-05-29T18:13:00.001-04:00

We've been working on the companion way hatches this week as well. Here is the beginnings of one of them, consisting of a strong teak frame that will get a subdeck of plywood and then a teak overlay. These main hatches will be finished bright.

Here you can see the teak overlay planking being held in place with lead bags while the epoxy cures.

The companionway coamings and trim are also of teak.

Here is one of the beam lashing blocks, bolted glued and filleted in place. All 12 of these are now completed.

In this photo the cockpit ledgers that the cockpit hangs from on the beams are being clamped and glued in place.

Here the cockpit is hanging in place from the beams for the first time. Now this is starting to feel like a boat, and to feel much bigger. That's the way these Wharram catamarans are once they are assembled. The whole is definitely greater than the sum of its parts, and despite the fact that each hull is relatively small, when joined together by beams and cockpit structures, even a Tiki 30 has a big boat feel.

Another view of the boat with beams and cockpit in place.

This is the leading edge of the cockpit box, angled off to present less resistance to wave tops in a choppy sea.

One of the forward hatch openings can be seen here. These will be fitted with Bomar extruded aluminum hatches.

This is the view from inside the starboard cabin, looking aft at the electric panel. In addition to things like the battery switch and a circuit panel for navigation lights and other electrics, the navigation station will also be in this aft area of the starboard hull.

Building the Cockpit

2008-05-29T15:50:00.000-04:00

The first step in building the cockpit is laminating the cored floor, which is a foam sandwich construction using a top and bottom face of 4mm plywood and a Divincell central core.

This is a big assembly and requires plenty of pressure to squeeze out all the air bubbles that might become trapped and insure a good bond between the panels. As you can see here, we threw everything we had at it to weight it down while gluing up the panels.

The finished sandwiched floor assembly came out just right.

Here is a view of the beginning of the cockpit assembly, looking forward from aft of the cockpit. The large side lockers are under the longitudinal seats. We also wanted lockers across the rear and the forward sides of the cockpit. All of these will provide needed storage for things like fuel tanks, propane bottles, the house batteries, a grill, snorkeling gear, boat hooks, dinghy oars, etc.

The forward locker that goes athwartships across the cockpit has a long storage space available for things like the dinghy oars, boat hooks, and spear guns. The lid to this locker will consist of a double panel hinged together that can be folded aft to form a double berth in the cockpit.

Aside from the cockpit, we also completed the T-shaped beam locating blocks that go on the bottom sides of all the crossbeams to lock into the beam landing blocks on the decks.

Beam Locating Blocks

2008-05-24T11:50:00.001-04:00

With the two hulls aligned and the beams resting in the correct positions on their locating blocks, our Tiki 30 project is now beginning to look like a catamaran. Getting precise hull alignment was quite a task, involving leveling each hull individually as well as making sure the stems and sterns of the two separate hulls were level with each other and in line fore and aft. Once this was done, the beams could then be fitted to the blocking on the decks.

The photo below shows forward beam with a clamped on lever weighted with a lead bag to hold the front edge down flat on the beam blocks. This lever is a bit hard to see with the background behind it, but was necessary to keep the beam flat.

The blocks on deck as well as the T-shaped blocks that fit on the bottoms of the beams to lock into these deck blocks are all made of teak, for durability. We are using the lashing method for the beams, Tiki 26 style, rather than the Tiki 30 webbing straps shown in the plans. We feel this lashing method is much stronger and more reliable, as well as simpler to build. Note also the sheer stringer doubler shown here under the stringer at the position of the beam blocks. These teak doublers provide a place to mount the square plywood lashing pads at each beam lashing location, and become the bearing surface the lashings contact when the turns are made under the plywood pads.

Sheathing Decks and Cabins

2008-05-20T05:47:00.001-04:00

The photo below shows the upright hulls after all four decks were sheathed with Xynole polyester cloth.

On the starboard hull, shown below, you can see the fairing compound applied with putty knives, over the sheathing. This build-up allows sanding everything smooth without danger of getting into the weave of the fabric.

This last photo shows the aft side of the starboard cabin, with sheathing applied. Vertical surfaces like this require lots of fairing as the epoxy wants to sag before curing.

Priming and Bottom Paint

2008-05-19T21:38:00.001-04:00

We're moving forward with project much faster than the updates here indicate. Lots of priming and pre-finish work has been done on various parts. Below is the mast with primer coats completed.

On the hull we applied three coats of Interlux barrier coating, beginning with the gray seen to the left and progressing to a lighter gray and then white.

Bottom paint was then applied below the chine knuckle. We used Petit's Vivid bottom paint in the white color. The topsides above the chine will be painted with red Awlgrip.

This bulge in the inboard side of the starboard hull, below the waterline, is a custom made mounting for the fathometer. The transponder needed to be pointing down and with the hull shape of the Tiki 30, it was necessary to build in this wedge-shaped hollow mounting space to accomodate it. The other hole is the thru-hull for the knotmeter.

The following photos show the crew turning the hulls back upright. With the bottoms done and topside panels ready to paint, we will not have to invert the hulls again.

Moving forward from this point will begin with sheathing the decks and cabin structures with Xynole cloth.

Sheathing and Fairing

2008-05-08T13:07:00.002-04:00

With both hulls fully sheathed with Xynole polyester cloth, we have now proceeded with the fairing and priming processes. Below is the port hull after the sheathing was completed.

Fairing begins with filling the weave of the cloth with more coats of epoxy, thickened with phenolic microballoons and silica. This mixture creates an easy to sand surface with minimal sags and runs.

The fairing process continues with low spots being filled to the same level as the rest of the hull and then sanded fair using a batten to determine what needs more filling or sanding.

Below you can see the port hull, along with one of the crossbeams, now with a first coat of primer applied.

The mast case built onto the mast beam is also in the process of fairing, and all the intricate surfaces had to be sheathed the same as everything else.

Below is the mast beam, sheathed and faired, almost ready for primer.

Here are the three complete beams, primed and almost ready to paint. We will also build a forth, smaller beam for a rear netting beam, but it will be a simple hollow spar section of Douglas fir rather than a complex triangle section like the main beams.

The mast that Scott Williams built last week has also been finished sanded to a perfectly round section and coated with epoxy.

Shaping and Prepping the Hulls for Sheathing

2008-05-04T08:38:00.010-04:00

(Posted by Scott B. Williams)

I'm back home in Mississippi now after working for 9 days on the Tiki 30 project. So much progress was made while I was there and since I left on Wednesday that updates here are way behind. This post and the one following on the rudders will detail some of the other phases of the project that were going on while I was there to build the mast. After this, David will be taking over again with new photos of what has happened since I left.

When I first arrived back at the shop to begin the mast, the hulls were still outside under a tarp, as they had to be moved out of the way until the interior for the Liberty 42 Sportfishing Yacht was returned to the rear of the shop for finishing. David had built a small, low cart with 6 wheels for moving the hulls. This method works fine when you have enough help to manhandle the hulls onto their sides.

The cart was padded with heavy blankets and the hulls laid over on it, one at a time to be wheeled back inside the shop. The Tiki 30 hulls are much heavier than my Tiki 26 hulls. Once you get into this size range, moving the hulls requires either a lot of muscle or mechanical aids, or both.

The hulls were set up in the inverted position on custom-built, super-strong sawhorses David had the crew build. This was necessary to begin the process of shaping and fairing the keels, skegs, chines, and stems and filling screw holes in preparation for sheathing.

Here you can see the starboard hull with all this filling and shaping work going on.

After the keels and skegs were shaped to a smooth, rounded surface that will cut quietly through the water, they were reinforced with heavy layers of triaxial fiberglass cloth in the areas of possible impact and abrasion damage.

Here is a profile view of the keel on the port hull, reinforced with the triaxial cloth.

Below the starboard hull is ready for sheathing. David decided to use Xynole polyester cloth for this, rather than fiberglass. This decision came about after we made another trip to Ft. Pierce to visit with boat designer and builder Reuel Parker, who uses this material for sheathing on all his boats. This fabric is tough, lightweight, conforms around corners easily and provides great impact resistance. Parker describes its use in detail in his book: The New Cold-Molded Boatbuilding: From Lofting to Launching

David and I made another trip to Ft. Myers on Wednesday before I left and visited the Raka Epoxy warehouse, where he bought enough Xynole cloth to sheath all the exterior surfaces of the boat. His crew is so well organized that he called them from the truck while we were driving back, instructing them to begin pre-coating the hulls, so that when we pulled up the cloth was immediately rolled out and applied to the wet epoxy. As I was leaving the first hull sheathing was done.

Other parts that were sheathed and finished while I was there were the front and aft crossbeams. These were covered with 6-oz. fiberglass, as this was done before the visit with Reuel Parker. The beams came out really nice and will look great when painted.

Preparing the Rudders and Laminating Tillers

2008-05-04T08:32:00.009-04:00

Another project I worked on while I had drying time on the mast parts was preparing the rudders for installation by giving them the treatment I devised for my own Tiki 26 rudders. I wanted to insure that the holes drilled for the rudder lashings would never allow water to penetrate the plywood and lead to rot, and David liked my method so he asked me to do it to his rudders as well. Photos and descriptions of this process on my Tiki 26 rudders can be found here.

The process is easier if you do it before the hulls are assembled, when you can match the skegs up with the rudders and drill all the holes on a drill press. Since David's skegs were already in the boat, they had to be done in a different fashion but it was still possible. The rudders were easier, as shown in the steps below.

First an oversized slot was cut in the position of each set of lashing holes. This was done by first drilling three 7/8" holes in a straight line and then cutting out the material between them with a jigsaw.

These large holes were filled with epoxy thickened with chopped fiberglass strand and silica, then the leading edges of the rudders were routed out to allow for teak inserts to be glued in where the rudder lashing will cross over in the attachment to the skegs. These hardwood inserts will also help prevent water entering the plywood edges. Below Pascual is using a template to route consistent-sized openings for the inserts.

This photos shows his template set-up and some of the routed openings. Pascual is David's top guy with router set-ups and custom templates, and he loves doing this kind of precision work.

Below you can see the rudders with the teak inserts installed, and the plywood template I made for drilling the holes. Pascual also made another router template to recess the area around the lashings 1/8" deep in relation to the surrounding rudder surface. This will keep the lashings lower in profile and reduce turbulence in the water.

This photo shows the finished insert work done, with the lashing holes drilled using the template and the sharp edges of the routed recesses filleted with epoxy to allow sheathing over the whole surface. All that remains to do on the rudders is shape the edges to a hydro-foil section as the plans show and sheath them.

The tillers were also laminated while I was there. David has lots of extra teak on hand so he built them of teak and used a simple form on a work bench to glue them to the curved shape, as this allows more control than the weighted method shown in the plans.

From Square to Round

2008-04-29T19:04:00.009-04:00

(Posted by Scott B. Williams)

Today was my last day in the shop on this trip to Florida, and I completed what I came here to do, which was to build the Tiki 30 mast. This was also the most enjoyable work day of the trip, as I love the process of shaping a beautiful wooden spar from a rough glued up square box of wood. The chips were flying as I spent most of the day with a hand-held power planer, taking the square section first to 8 sides, then 16, and finally 32. The final rounding was done with a belt sander.

The first photo below shows the square section as it appeared when the clamps were removed first thing this morning. The plans show the amount of offset to mark the lines for the first cuts that take out the corners and produce an 8-sided section. I measured and marked these lines and cut the corners away roughly with a worm-drive Skilsaw first.

The final cutting down to the 8-sides lines was done with David's 6-inch Makita power planer.

Once the spar is cut to the octagonal section, two straight lines must be marked exactly 14mm from each remaining corner. This process took a bit of time. The corners were then removed with a smaller 3-inch Makita planer. Once this was done, there were 16 even sized sides. I removed the remaining corners from all these sides with the small planer, which resulted in 32 sides.

From this point, I was able to shape the mast to a round section using a 3 x 18" belt sander with a very aggressive 36-grit belt. This entire process took a full day, working alone, but now the mast is done except for finish sanding and fitting the top plate. It came out straight and is undoubtedly very substantial. While it is heavier than my Tiki 26 mast, it is not as heavy as I expected, consider the 25mm wall thickness.

The filleting and shaping of the tabernacle was also completed today and it is now ready for fiberglass sheathing.

Here is an aft view of the tabernacle structure, showing the hardwood mast step.

Mast is Assembled, and Tabernacle Built

2008-04-28T19:21:00.013-04:00

(Posted by Scott B. Williams)

I've been working in the Boatsmith shop for 8 days now and we've accomplished a lot on the Tiki 30 project, with many parts in process simultaneously while I've been working on the mast. The full crew has been back since Friday, and David and I worked alone on Sunday while they took the day off.

Today I completed the assembly of the mast, and hopefully tomorrow will begin the shaping process - taking it from the rough laminated box section to a perfectly round spar. I've also complete the building of the mast step and tabernacle assembly that fits onto the mast beam. The photos below show the steps taken to get to this point.

As I did on my Tiki 26 mast, we installed conduits for masthead wiring and a VHF antennae coax. We used thin-wall PVC pipe for this, as it can be easily glued with epoxy if it is sanded first. One conduit was installed in each mast side, exiting near the foot at an angle and straight out the top. The photo below shows one of the exit points, through a hole drilled at a low angle. The mast foot is also visible glued to the other side half to the right.

Here the aft wall is being glued to one of the side walls. A level and straight form like this helps tremendously, enabling this process to be done in control without a mad rush to assemble all the parts as once as shown in the plans.

Today we glued in the final piece, completing the square box section of the hollow mast. It is almost completely hidden under the dozens of clamps used in the assembly. Having all these clamps is another great aid to building a mast, and there is certainly no shortage of clamps in the Boatsmith shop.

Here is a view of the clamped assembly from the other end. In the background you can see some of the other processes going on in the shop. Both hulls are inverted for shaping and fiberglass sheathing, and the crossbeams, tillers, rudders and gaff are all in various states of completion.

Yesterday I began building the mast tabernacle. This is quite a stout structure that is not shown on the Tiki 26 plans, but I like it so much I might incorporate it on the mast beam of Element II. It certainly will make raising and lowering the mast easier, and will provide more security at the foot.

Here is the complete tabernacle still in clamps, as it was glued up at the end of the day yesterday. Today I have completed the shaping and fillets, and tomorrow it will be sheathed in fiberglass.

Building the Mast

2008-04-23T20:30:00.003-04:00

(Posted by Scott B. Williams)

I'm back in Jupiter, Florida this week, hired by David to build the mast for his Tiki 30 project. Working in the Boatsmith shop is always an interesting experience, and even more so on this project, which I've been involved in from the beginning in setting up this blog. A lot of progress has been made since I spent four days here helping assemble the hulls back in February.

Since I've already built the mast for my Tiki 26, Element II, I'm familiar with the process and so far the construction of the new mast is going smoothly. David and most of the crew have been out of the shop this week, working on a teak deck for one sportfishing yacht and the interior for another as described in his Liberty 42 blog. Most of the work I've done so far has been with one helper, Francisco, and it has been considerably easier than building a mast alone as I did for my boat.

David buys most of his lumber as rough stock. Below are the Doug Fir planks we started with. These are 18 feet long by 6 inches wide and a full 8 quarters thick. The mast walls for the Tiki 30 are 25mm (1-inch) thick, so we had to first surface this material with the planer and then resaw it to the proper thickness.

This is easy when you have the kind of serious tools David's shop is equipped with. The table saw shown here made resawing easy and also made it easy to saw the triangular wooden fillets required in the mast interior.

After processing the wood, the next step was to set up a form for laminating the mast parts to insure that we would end up with a straight spar. I used a similar system for building my Tiki 26 mast. The key is to insure that the form is perfectly straight and dead level. This insures that the finished spar will be true after all the individual parts are laminated.

David already had plenty of the large bending knees shown below that make up the form. The Boatsmith crew uses these for laminating teak covering boards for yachts and for such projects as the massive teak pergola we built last summer for a Palm Beach mansion. I set up the form to accommodate a length of 32 feet, as we are extending the mast by a couple of feet to provide more clearance for a bimini. Shade is essential for a boat that will be sailed in the tropics, and many other Tiki 30 builders have raised the mast height for the same reason.

On the backside of the table with the mast form, we have enough space to cut and glue the scarf joints. Here the side walls are being stacked four high to cut the scarfs. All the scarf joints are cut to a 12:1 ratio, so they are 12" long for the mast walls and 18" long for the square stock the triangular fillets are cut out of.

Cutting scarf joints is really easy with David's 6-inch Makita power planer. Here I'm using the stacking method with the planks each set back 12 inches, cutting them down to a smooth ramp using the planer.

By the end of the day yesterday, we had the two side walls completed, clamped on the forms with the triangular fillets glued in place.

The next step on the two mast halves shown above is installing the masthead crane and the pivoting mast foot. Below is the crane, laminated from solid teak, one layer in the middle 16mm thick and two outside layers 12mm thick oriented with opposing grain.

The mast foot and the matching step for the mast beam were also laminated today. These too are teak.

During periods of epoxy drying time when nothing else can be done on the mast, I'm also working on various other parts for the Tiki 30 while I'm in the shop this week. Today we laminated the rudders to the finished thickness of 40mm from two pieces of 9mm ply and two pieces of 6mm ply each. The laminations cured by late afternoon, and as shown below, I clamped them to a work table with the leading edges facing up so I can fit the hardwood inserts at the lashing points, as I described in my blog about building my Tiki 26, Element.

Rudders and Gaff

2008-04-14T07:35:00.000-04:00

Work on Tiki 30 parts is still going on while the hulls are stored outside our shop until we can move them back in later this week. Some of the details that have to be completed include making small parts like the rudders and the gaff. Parts for the rudders were cut out yesterday and are shown on the table here. They are built up of several laminated layers of plywood to the required thickness, and then shaped and sheathed with fiberglass before installation.

The gaff parts were also laminated yesterday. The gaff, like the mast, which will be built next week, it is made of Doug fir for strength and light weight.

Here is the glued-up gaff, ready now for shaping and fitting of the gaff slider.

Moving Outside

2008-04-04T08:40:00.001-04:00

The forward and aft crossbeams shown here are mostly finished except for fairing, priming and painting.

This view of stern deck of the port hull shows the coaming we built for the ice box access hatch.

We are now beginning work on fairing the hull exteriors in preparation for fiberglass sheathing. The first step is to make all the fillets at the stem posts, stern posts, and topside panel overlaps to smooth the transitions where all these parts meet. This view shows the transition from the sheer stringer to the topside panel.

Below you can see how the stern post is faired into the hull panels and the joint where the topside panel overlaps the lower hullside. Excess thickened epoxy is used to fill these transitions, and when it cures it will be sanded fair.

Here is a view of one of the bows, showing the filled in stem post and the various temporary screw holes that have now been filled.

After this filling was done, we loaded the hulls onto carts so we could move them out of the shop temporarily. We had to get them out of the way so that we can move the interior for the Liberty 42, which has to be taken to the Liberty Yachts facility for fitting into the hull.

Below you can see we have moved the hulls out of the shop and covered them with a tarp. They will have to stay outside for about a week while we fit the Liberty 42 interior on site and then bring it back into the shop for finishing. Once the interior is back in its place in the rear of our shop, the Tiki 30 hulls can be moved back inside for finishing. In the meantime work will continue on various parts for the Tiki 30: including the crossbeams, cockpit, gaff, mast, rudders and tillers.

Ventilation for the Tropics

2008-03-31T21:00:00.000-04:00

The first two photos here show the openings we've cut for the portlights that will be fitted in each aft cabin bulkhead. This bulkhead has enough vertical clearance above the aft crossbeam for a good sized opening portlight, and these will greatly improve the habitability of the cabins by increasing ventilation. Below is the port hull, showing the galley and port opening which is positioned in a good location to vent the heat from the stove.

In this photo you can see the portlight in the starboard hull. Just above the portlight opening, in a protected location near the cabin roof, you can see the shelf we've built to house the VHF radio and a marine stereo system.

This interior view looking forward from inside the port hull shows the cabin roof installation and the reinforcing deckbeams that support it. At the forward end you can see the cut out for the opening ventilation hatch that will be fitted to provide airflow over the bunk. The cabin side port cut outs are also visible here. These too will be fitted with opening portlights, so we will have maximum airflow down below - important in a boat that will be sailed in south Florida and the nearby islands.

This view of the inboard side of the starboard hull shows the portlight on the cockpit side of the cabin, as well as the forward hatch and the main companionway opening.

Here's an overview of the Tiki 30, with both hulls now decked and the cabin tops on. The crossbeams are nearly done, so we will soon be joining the hulls together. The next two big projects are building the cockpit and the mast.

Closing in the Hulls

2008-03-28T13:28:00.001-04:00

Work on the Tiki 30 has continued at a steady pace since the last update here. Below you can see that the cabin roof has now been installed on the starboard hull. These roof panels are built in foam sandwich construction, with a foam core and top and bottom skins of 4mm plywood. This construction insures a stiff, lightweight panel in larger spans such as this.

The photo below shows the solid lumber parts that went into the cored roof panel at the edges of the hatch and companionway openings and around the perimeters.

In the port hull you can see that the galley sink has been installed and the opening for the ice box is finished. The ice box door is a 5-inch thick foam cored plug with a plywood panel on the interior side. The sides of the opening taper inward, as does the top, and the bottom tapers down, so that the plug fits tightly in place and forms a seal. Addition sealing will be fitted to the inside of the plywood panel.

Here, we at last have a finished ice box, shown here with a coat of primer in the interior. The area around the top edge is the mating surface for the top part of the box, which is built into the underside of the stern deck.

This is the matching top section of the ice box beneath the top loading opening in the stern deck. This plug fits perfectly to the surfaces surrounding the top of the box, shown in the photo above.

Here is a view into the starboard hull navigation station, showing the finish paint coat in the interior before the cabin roof was installed. The shelf edges, bulkhead edges, and ring frame edges will all be trimmed in natural-finished teak to offset the white paint.

Ice Box Nearly Finished

2008-03-20T08:01:00.001-04:00

In the last post I mentioned how some of the interior extras like the ice box were adding a good bit of extra time to project. These modifications definitely add complications beyond the basic plan but will result in a much more habitable boat for cruising.

The ice box is almost done, as you can see in the photo below. It's not pretty at this stage but will soon be ready to paint inside. You can see access opening going through the 4-inches of foam into the main cabin. At the bottom of the ice compartment we've installed a drain line that also passes through to the inside, where melt water can be drained into a bucket.

Here's a view from inside the galley hull showing the ice box opening and the drain line at the bottom, just to the left of where the galley freshwater foot pump will be mounted.

Forward of the entry compartments we have the main bunk areas painted. The rest of the interior finish painting is not far behind.

These are the lids for the storage areas below all the bunks. They've been epoxy coated and finger-holes have been drilled. The next step is priming and painting.

New Project Blog

2008-03-20T07:02:00.005-04:00

To the readers who have been following our progress on the Tiki 30 construction with interest, we would like to announce the launching of a new project blog. We are now building a complete interior for a Liberty 42 Flybridge Sportfishing Yacht in the shop alongside the Tiki 30. These interiors for Liberty have been an ongoing part of our business at Boatsmith, and for the first time we've decided to document the construction and show how we do this in a location remote from the hull of the vessel.

As with Pro-Built Tiki 30, we've contracted our friend Scott B. Williams (who is building and writing about Element II) to design and write for the new blog.

Check it out at http://liberty42.blogspot.com/

Lots of Work without Visible Progress

2008-03-15T20:17:00.006-04:00

We're at a stage right now where there's a lot of work going on in out of sight areas, namely the interior under the decks at the deck to hull joints and in such added features as the built-in ice box. These details have to be completed though, and then more visible progress will become evident. Stitch and glue wooden boats like this are literally built from the inside out, unlike some other more traditional forms of construction. In the case of Wharram catamarans, it is easier to completely finish the interiors while access is easy. When everything inside is done, the exterior surfaces can be sheathed, faired, primed and painted.

Below is a view from inside one of the forward bunks. This is the final paint coat in this area of deck to hull joint.

The ice box is taking an inordinate amount of time, but we feel it will be well worth the effort. That's 4 inches of solid foam insulation you see below, in addition to the insulating properties of the wood hull skin. The interior surfaces of the foam will be glassed over and painted. This ice box should stay cold enough to keep perishables for a long time using block ice.

In the foreground you can see the central epoxy station we now have set up between our two major projects: the Tiki 30 build and an interior fabrication for a Liberty 42 motor vessel. Between the hulls is another view of the tables mentioned previously that we've set up between the two hulls to allow easy access to all work areas. This set up is working out well.

Decks and Interiors

2008-03-13T18:02:00.008-04:00

Deck panels have been installed with the exception of the one stern deck over the ice box, in the port hull. Below you can see the starboard hull with the foredeck clamped into position.

The reddish patch here is fairing compound in the area of the bow cleat backing plate.

This is the ice box compartment aft of the cabin bulkhead in the port hull. Foam insulation has been glued in and is awaiting fiberglassing and epoxy finishing and fairing.

In each hull in the area of the companionway, we fitted additional ring frames to reinforce the unsupported area of the cabin sides and coach roofs where the companionway openings will be cut. This is the starboard hull, looking aft at the navigation station.

Here is a view of the galley showing the added ring frame in the port hull.

A view of one of the forward bunks, showing the painted underside of the deck. All that remains here is to paint the joint areas where the deck meets the hullsides.

Looking aft from the decked forward cabin, into the larger main cabin.

The hulls are now spaced the correct assembly distance apart and we've set up work tables between them with steps on each end so the crew can move freely about all the various areas that are in progress.

Moving Forward....

2008-03-10T19:01:00.015-04:00

Today we rearranged the shop and moved the Tiki 30 hulls forward to a location near the front entrance. This space in the rear where we built the hulls will now be used for work on another project.

The Tiki 30 will be finished here, near the front where we can easily get it out the door for loading on a trailer.

Today the forward bunk areas were painted with a top coat of Awlgrip Matterhorn White. These are now finished except for the taped off areas at the hull to deck joints.

All other areas inside the cabins are primed and almost ready for paint.

A view into the main bunk area of the starboard cabin.

The plywood panels for the cabin roof tops, which will be foam sandwich construction, are prepped for scarfing below:

This is the frame work for the hatches that will be located in the forward part of the roof of each cabin over the main bunks.

The undersides of the decks are also painted with Awlgrip and are ready for installation. The portlights beside them on the table below are the new ones we picked up last week for the inboard sides of the cabins. These are opening ports that will provide more ventilation in the cabins.

In the two photos below you can see the locations of these opening ports scribed on the inboard sides of the cabins.

Finishing the Cabin Sides

2008-03-06T21:03:00.009-05:00

Today the cabin sides were installed on the port hull, so now you can see the two hulls side by side at the full height they will be when finished.

The starboard cabin interior is almost ready for primer and paint.

Both hulls are in progress simultaneously, as we still have the full crew on the project for most of the day. A couple of other small jobs not related to the Tiki 30 had to be taken care of, but we're still going full steam ahead on this project and plan to continue until done.

In the port hull filleting and taping is in progress at all the joints where the newly installed cabin sides meet the bulkheads and sheer lines.

This is a view looking aft to the galley from forward in the port cabin.

This view of the starboard cabin shows the height and the outboard slope of the cabin roof line. The guys are standing at bunk level.

Galley, Interior Fairing and Painting

2008-03-06T08:50:00.001-05:00

The built-in features of the galley are now done. Below you can see the shelf (where the bucket is) that will hold the stove, and on the outboard side of the hull you can see the sink. The opening in the middle of the bulkhead is access to the icebox that is built into the aft compartment. An insulated door here will make it convenient to retrieve items stored in the ice box, while a top-loading hatch from the aft deck will make adding block ice easy.

In this view of the port hull you can see the bulkhead to cabin side joints have been filleted, glassed and faired.

The undersides of all the deck panels are being primed and painted.

In the starboard hull, we have the forward cabin area primed and ready to paint.

We're scarfing plywood to get long enough pieces for the cabin tops and cockpit panels. This will avoid having to join these parts with butt blocks.

Here's a side view showing the lines of the cabin roof.

Fitting out the Cabins

2008-03-04T18:05:00.010-05:00

The cabin sides went on the starboard hull today, and interior work continued, including installation of more of the shelves and the galley and navigation station counters.

The cabin sides were held in position with clamps and filleted to the upper bulkhead edges.

Here's a view from aft showing the curve on the inboard, or cockpit side of the starboard cabin.

In the companionway area the shelf at the sheer to hullside joint wraps around to the aft bulkhead, forming a wide countertop surface. You can see this one-piece unit below, and how it is being filleted and glassed into the joint at the lower edge of the cabinside.

Here is a view looking in to the starboard hull from aft, showing the installed shelving.

And this is the perspective from the forward bunk, looking aft into the main cabin. We cut this passage way in the forward cabin bulkhead to open up the interior and make the small space in the forward bunk area more usable.

The port hull is only a few steps behind the starboard. Here you can see the shelves in the bunk area are in and fillets are being made on the bottom joint.

This is one of the cleat reinforcing blocks we glued under the decks. This deck panel is now locked to the correct camber and will fit right into place after the underside is prepped and painted.

Interior Shelves and Stern Decks

2008-03-03T23:14:00.001-05:00

Today we installed the shelves that fit at the sheer and lower cabin side joint on the sides of the cabin interiors. These shelves not only provide handy storage for small items in the otherwise unusable space on the sides of the cabins, but also serve to greatly strengthen the joint between hull and cabin. Forward of the main ring frame in the cabins, which is the berth area, the shelves are installed on both inboard and outboard sides.

Here you can see the shelves clamped to temporary braces to keep them in a horizontal plane while the epoxy fillets that secure them are made on the underside of the joints.

We also temporarily closed in the sterns today, fastening down the decks with screws through scrap material on the top edges while the epoxy cured on the cleat reinforcing blocks underneath. This was done to maintain the correct amount of camber in the decks when they are taken back off for finishing on the underside.

The mounting location of the cleats can be seen here, where the bolts protrude through the deck.

Meanwhile, the forward decks are almost finished. Backing plates for the bow mooring cleats were glued on the undersides.

This photo shows the large reinforced backing area for one of the bow cleats.

One Month into the Build

2008-03-01T19:51:00.000-05:00

We're a month into the construction of our Tiki 30 at this point and progress continues at a steady pace. The main focus today was on the details that have to be finished before the hulls can be decked and the cabins built. The triangular support boxes under the crossbeam locations were finished up, complete with the solid sub decks that cap them and add critical strength to these sections of the deck.

The finished support boxes are shown below. The shape not only provides great strength, but is designed to intrude only minimally into the accommodation space, as the widest parts of the supports are located in areas that are otherwise unusable for any practical purpose.

On the work benches all the deck assemblies are being completed off the boat so that they can be completely finished on the underside before installation.

The decks are reinforced by the glued-on stringers, which we are also fairing to the undersides of the panels with a wide radius fillet as shown below. Again, all solid stringers in the interior are rounded over and and faired in so that no sharp edges can be found anywhere. This makes for a much nicer finish, prevents moisture from accumulating and causing rot, makes everything easier to keep clean, and eliminates hard corners that can cause injury to crew below while in a seaway.

This is a closer view of a finished foredeck underside, showing the fillet details.

Lots of other parts have to be fitted and installed in the interiors before the cabin sides and roofs go in. These include shelves along the outboard edges at the sheer level and the built-in parts of the galley and navigation station. Work will continue on this next week. Once the decks and cabins are built, the hulls will be stable enough to move and these tables will be rearranged so the boat can assembled near the front of our shop.

Finishing Deck Framing and Fitting Cabin Sides

2008-02-29T17:57:00.006-05:00

We are now finishing up the details of the deck framework and have made and fitted the cabin sides. Below you can see the foreward deck stringers in place. These were removed and taken to the workbench for the detail work.

The foredeck hatch openings shown below are one example of these details. Here you can see the deck beams fitted with the fore and aft carlins that are spaced on either side of the hatch openings. Since the Bomar hatches have a corner radius, we have made matching corner blocks of teak to finish out the openings.

Here's another view of the deckbeams and carlins with the teak corner blocks clamped in place while the epoxy cures.

On another bench we have all the cabin house sides and parts for the below-decks beam reinforcing boxes spread out for epoxy coating.

An example of one of these reinforcing boxes is shown below. Triangular in cross-section, their purpose is to spread the wracking forces induced by the beams to a wider section of the topside panels and adjacent bulkheads.

Below you can see the cabin house sides temporarily fixed in position with clamps and screws. The stringers on the upper edges are stiffening battens to keep the panels in a fair curve.

The portlight and companionway openings will be cut after these panels are actually installed. For now they have been removed and taken back to the benches for completion and coating.

With the cabin sides on, you can now see how deep the hulls of the Tiki 30 really are.

While all the above parts are in process, finish work in the hulls at bunk level continues. Here is one of the forward cabin areas, ready for priming and painting.

Deck Stringers and Beam Fairings

2008-02-28T08:54:00.006-05:00

One more step in the process of preparing for the installation of the decks is fitting the longitudinal deck stringers that support the 6mm deck panels between bulkheads. These stringers are let into the bulkhead tops by means of notches cut in the cambered deckbeams to receive them. The placement of the foredeck hatch was taken into account in the exact spacing of the stringers on either side of it.

Front fairings are now going onto the crossbeams. The aft and front beams are closed in. The mast beam requires the extra detail of the dolphin stay wire that is fitted inside it before the fairing is installed. The custom swaged stay has been ordered.

Interior fairing above bunk level is mostly done and we will soon be priming and painting the hulls up to the sheer so that decks and cabin sides can go on.

Tiki 30 Cabins

2008-02-27T10:10:00.000-05:00

With the topside panels now in place and most of the bunk work completed, our focus is now shifting to the construction of the cabin houses and the layout of deck and cabin hatches. Below you can see the middle ring frame clamped in position and the mock-up of the roof line using battens laid in place.

We made the middle frame in two parts so it can be precisely adjusted to position it so that the cabin sides and roof are fair.

Here you can see the details of the two-part frame.

Our adjustments to the middle ring frame also incorporate a slight rise in the mid-section to add a bit of curve to the cabin roof. Camber will also be added so that the cabins are not quite as boxy looking. These subtle changes to the cabin lines are similar to those of the newer Tiki 8-meter, which is an updated fiberglass version of the original Tiki 26.

In the photo below, you can also see the position of the Bomar access hatch that will be mounted over the forward bunk cabin. The hatch will face inward, just like the companionways, making access to this cabin from the cockpit and forward deck easier.

We are using high-quality Bomar hatches and opening portlights to gain good ventilation down below, yet retain watertightness when at sea. The larger hatch is for the foredeck. The opening portlights will be mounted one each in the aft cabin bulkheads.

Other interior details include the installation of a Whale foot-operated fresh water pump in the galley hull. This pump is mounted in a recessed box built in just above floor level in the aft cabin bulkhead, where it will be convenient to the cook yet intrude only minimally into the limited available space.

A view of the foot pump box from aft of the cabin. This area is going to be sealed off and will be a buoyancy compartment after the floor is installed, so it was an ideal place to locate this pump.

Fairing continues on the interiors of both hulls. Here the taped seam at the topside joint is being filled with a final pass of thickened epoxy in preparation for sanding.

The bow and stern buoyancy compartments are finished. Fillets and made and glassed over, and the stiffening plywood webs have been added. We put a web at each stringer level since they add much stiffness at negligible weight cost.

On to the Next Level

2008-02-24T06:36:00.000-05:00

This is where we were at the end of another week, late Saturday. The topside panels are now installed on both hulls and you can see from this overview looking into the interiors how deep they are at this stage.

A view from the bows. The hulls are much closer together here where we built them side-by-side than they will be when spread apart to assembly width.

Work on the crossbeams continued as well. Here the beam end caps are fitted and the fairings will go on next. There are small vent holes in the bottom edges of these end caps to prevent damage due to heat expansion in a small, closed space.

The two photos below show that the interiors above bunk level are filleted and sanded and almost ready for primer and paint. We still have the support boxes to build under the crossbeam landing locations. This will be done next week and we should soon be ready for decks and cabin sides.

Port Hull Ready for Topsides

2008-02-22T20:44:00.013-05:00

Today the water tank installation in the port hull was completed and the bunk panels glued on. Tomorrow we will be ready to install the topside panels on this hull.

Here is a view showing the prepared topside panels for the port hull in the foreground, and the port hull with just the lower hulls built in front of the starboard hull that now has topsides.

In the starboard hull the filleting work has been completed up to the level of the sheer, with glass reinforcements in the stem and stern joints.

Where the topside panels join the lower hulls, a structural fillet has been made between the lower hull stringer and the adjoining bottom edge of the ply panel. This joint was also reinforced with fiberglass tape, which can be seen in the photo below. The extra thickened epoxy visible in the photo is a fairing application that will be sanded smooth before priming and painting.

Here's a view of the two hulls from the starboard side. You can see that the bunk to topside fillets have also been made and are ready for sanding and fairing.

Water Tank Installation and First Topside Panels

2008-02-21T19:51:00.000-05:00

Because of the extras like the ice box and the water tank that are going into the port hull, which will house the galley, this hull is a couple of stages behind the starboard hull, but catching up fast. Here you can see the main bunk panels have been glued in and paint work is finished in the compartments below.

A big step was taken on the starboard hull with the addition of the upper hull topside panels. Below you can see how much bigger the hull looks now that these are on. The accuracy of James Wharram's plans became apparent as these panels were fitted. We had lofted and cut them in the first week of construction, and today the assembled panels aligned perfectly with the already built lower hull, needing no adjustment at the stem and stern posts as we had first assumed.

The 25-gallon water tank was fitted in the port hull on a raised support of glassed-in foam. This is to get it up high enough in the V of the hull so the corners can't touch the sides. It's still has enough vertical clearance to fit under the bunk nicely.

Here is the finished bed for the water tank, complete with fiddles to keep it firmly in position.

As soon as the topside panels were attached, filleting work began immediately, bonding the joints where the panels meet the upper sides of the bulkheads and filling the large cavities at the stem and stern posts.

The hulls are so much deeper now that ladders are necessary to get in position for working inside.

With all their recent experience in the lower hulls, the crew made quick work of the upper hullside filleting.

A view of the starboard hull profile, showing the strong sheer that is characteristic of Wharram designs. It is the blend of traditional Polynesian and Western lines that lend these simple canoe-form hulls their timeless appeal and set them apart from the crowd of modern spaceship-shaped plastic multihulls.

Bunk Installation and Topside Panel Assembly

2008-02-19T19:38:00.000-05:00

Most of the bunk panels were installed today. The tops will be coated and filleted when the hull topside panels are installed. These photos show how bright the white painted stowage compartments are. This will make it easy to find things stashed down below when out cruising and will make it easy to keep the interiors clean.

Here is a view from the inside of one of the stowage compartment interiors below the bunks. The unpainted area at the glue joint will get an epoxy fillet and will be painted as well. There is a lot of volume for gear and provisions in these convenient, out of sight locations down in the lower parts of the hulls where most of the weight should be carried.

This a view into one of the forward berths in the compartment forward of the main cabin. There's lots of storage space available under these too.

In the port hull, where the galley will be located, we are installing a 25-gallon fresh water tank below the forward end of the bunk. This size tank fits just right in the space available and the tank will be surrounded in foam to fix it in position. It will be plumbed to the built in galley sink with a foot-operated pump. This tank is set up for convenience in the galley. The boat is capable of carrying a much larger water supply that can be distributed between the two hulls in portable containers that can be used to top off the tank.

We are expecting to begin installing the upper hull panels (topsides) tomorrow. Here you can see an assembled pair for one hull. These panels have a central stiffening stringer that is pre-installed before the panel is offered up the hull. The bulkheads are notched to take this stringer. We will make epoxy fillets on both sides of these stringers and coat the interior sides before installation. Once the topsides are on, Tiki 30 hulls show their true lines and one can get a better sense of the overall size of the vessel.

Busy Monday on the Tiki 30 Project

2008-02-18T18:32:00.011-05:00

Today construction moved forward on the crossbeams while part of the crew continued the finish work below the bunks in the two hulls. Below you can see the beams in the foreground. Many other parts such as the hull topsides are also in process on other tables outside this view.

The Tiki 30 beam interiors require many structural fillet joints where the floors are joined to the vertical webs and where the triangular fairing supports attach. After the fillets are completed they are sanded and smoothed with a second filleting application where needed.

The beam interiors were then coated with epoxy and are almost ready to be closed in with the installation of the front fairings.

The hull interiors below the bunks were painted today.

These compartments are now done and ready to be closed off with the installation of the bunk panels.

The underside of the bunks were also painted. The masking tape on the edges is to keep the paint off the bearing surfaces where they will be glued with epoxy upon installation.

Paint Prep Below Bunks

2008-02-16T17:35:00.001-05:00

All the accessible storage compartments below the bunks have now been faired and primed with Awlgrip primer. The clean white interiors of these compartments will make it easy to find things stowed below the bunks and will be easy to maintain.

Before the bunks are installed the undersides of all the panels will also be primed and painted except for the bearing surfaces on the edges that will be taped off to allow a good epoxy bond. Sealing all these interior surfaces with epoxy, then primer, and finally paint will insure that all the wood components of the hull interiors remain moisture free and will greatly increase the longevity of the vessel.

Below is a view into the lower compartment aft of the cabin in the port hull. The first layer of foam insulation has been glued in around the diagonal stringers. This compartment will be an ice box, with a deck hatch allowing top loading of block ice from outside the cabin, and an interior door opening into the galley to allow easy access to the contents from inside.

Below is an overview of the hulls with primed lower interiors. Next week we are looking forward to moving on above bunk level and installing topsides and building the cabin accomodations.

Finishing Lower Interiors

2008-02-15T17:19:00.004-05:00

As the fillets and keel fiberglassing get finished in each below bunks compartment, these areas are completely sanded and cleaned and then coated with a second, sealing coat of clear epoxy. Everything in these storage compartments will be smooth and easy to clean. Even the tops and bottoms of the diagonal stringers have been filleted to the hull sides so there are no dirt traps or flat areas to hold moisture. After this epoxy coating has cured, these compartments will get an Awlgrip primer, which will in turn will be sanded and faired smooth for the final topcoats of white Awlgrip paint.

Here you can see that the floors in the main cabin compartment have been filleted in and everything up to bunk level coated in epoxy.

This view into the aft section of the starboard hull shows the floor installed in the compartment behind the main cabin bulkhead. We will not use this entire area as a wet locker, as shown in the plans, but instead will cut out an opening from the navigation station in the cabin and use this as an extra area for securing navigation instruments and gear. An extra bulkhead from this floor level up will seal this off from a smaller wet locker in the aft half of this compartment. In this photo you can also see the horizontal ply web that is installed to strengthen the hull in the sealed buoyancy compartment just forward of the stern post.

Below are the bunk sections for the main cabins. These will all get two sealing coats of epoxy on the underside before installation.

Floors and Bunks

2008-02-13T17:17:00.005-05:00

Work in both hulls continued early this week with finishing up the glass laminations in the keel interiors and completing work below the floors and bunks so they could be installed. In the photo below you can see the ventilation tube that extends out of the sealed buoyancy compartments below the floors. Small sealed spaces like this in wood-epoxy boats must be ventilated to prevent damage from expansion due to heat, especially in a boat that will be sailed in the tropics.

Below you can see the floors in one of the hulls, now glued in place with epoxy and weighted down with lead-filled bags to apply even pressure until the epoxy sets.

Here is a view of both hulls with the main bunk panels temporarily in place. These will not be permanently installed until the compartments below are finished and painted and built-in water tanks completed.

Assembling the Crossbeams

2008-02-12T21:25:00.007-05:00

Laminating the solid Doug fir stringers to the ply parts of the crossbeams requires a bit of advance planning, due to the shape of the parts. The beams consist of a vertical plywood web with a curve along the top edge and a horizontal plywood floor with the curve along the leading edge. This shape allows for a good-looking finished beam with a sloping fairing on the front face to decrease windage and the slamming effects of wave tops when beating to weather.

Due to the curve on these ply parts and the size of the stringers, which are cut to an angle matching the fairing, getting a good glue joint with epoxy requires good clamping technique. Here at Boatsmith we use a very effective method we have developed on other big laminating jobs, involving making temporary clamping blocks and glueing them to the parts using an industrial CA glue with a quick-dry accelerator. This glue will hold the blocks in position on the finished parts and is strong enough to withstand clamping pressure on sprung parts like this while the epoxy glue mixture used in the lamination cures. After the epoxy is set, the blocks are easily removed with a blow from a hammer. In the photo below, the blocks are being glued to the large top stringer of one of the beams. Glue is applied to the block, and the accelerator is sprayed on the beam surface. A few seconds of pressing it in position by hand and it is secure.

Below you can see a vertical web (left) which has already been sandwiched between the two stringers that are laminated to the bottom edge, where it joins the floor web. The angled top stringer with temporary clamping blocks glued to it is shown just to the right of it. On the far right is another crossbeam assembly already clamped up and glued with epoxy.

Below are two beam assemblies in the clamps while the epoxy sets. We use lots of clamps on assemblies like this to insure even pressure while laminating. The use of clamps eliminates the need for making a lot of extra holes in such assemblies as you would have to do using temporary screws.

Below are the three beams: mast, aft, and forward. The next step will be to glue in the small ply triangles that support the front fairings.

Ten Days into the Build

2008-02-09T19:22:00.000-05:00

At the Boatsmith shop we work 6 days a week, so today we made lots of progress on finishing the fillets in the keel and at the bulkhead to hullside joints and laminated most of the fiberglass reinforcement that is required inside the keel. At this stage of the construction of a stitch and glue composite boat you can't see much difference despite the amount of work being done, but it is critical to get this part right because the structural integrity of the hulls depend on it.

In the photos below a second layer of filleting blend is being applied after the intial fillets of yesterday have been sanded and cleaned with denatured alcohol. Here Tomas is finishing a bulkhead fillet below the main cabin bunk.

In the bow and stern compartments large fillets are necessary to fill and fair the deep recesses on either side of the stem and sternpost.

The fabric we use for reinforcing the keel interior is a biaxial double bias fiberglass that lends great strength to critical joints such as this.

End of the day on Saturday afternoon. We are now ten days into the build. Scott Williams will be heading back to Mississippi tomorrow after spending four days with us doing the work he loves best - building a Wharram catamaran. But he's got a Tiki 26 to complete for himself and with new inspiration, can't wait to get back to work on it. For the last four days we've had eight guys on the project, including Scott and myself. In the upcoming weeks a crew of at least four will continue on the project, with assistance from the others when they are not tied up on other projects.

Lower Hulls Almost Ready for Floors and Bunks

2008-02-08T19:43:00.000-05:00

After hull assembly and set-up, the real work begins. The Wharram Tiki 30 catamaran is a stitch and glue boat, and this is where the glue part comes in. With so many fillets to make, mixing epoxy correctly and efficiently is the key to moving forward, and this is where the experience of our crew saves time. These guys already know what to do. Here Pascual is applying the first fill layer of thickened epoxy in the deep recesses along each side of the keel backbone.

In the photo below, you can see bulkhead fillets that will require only minimum sanding. The keel fillets will be built up in two or three applications, then sanded and laminated with a reinforcing layer of triaxial fiberglass cloth. The interior will be painted, rather than varnished, so the color of the filleting material will not be a factor.

Here is the epoxy mixing station. Thirty-five gallons of West System epoxy is a start, but will not be enough to complete the this build.

While part of the crew was working on the fillets in the two hulls, we kept a couple other guys busy cutting out parts that will be needed in the next few days. Parts that are cut and ready include all the ply crossbeam floors and webs, beam timbers, bunks and floors, bunk bearers and stringers and topside panels and stringers.

In the photos below, you can see the parts laid out on the tables, ready for coating and assembly. We expect to have floors and bunks installed early next week.

Exciting Day at the Boatsmith Shop

2008-02-06T19:27:00.000-05:00

Today we went from epoxy coated bulkheads, backbones and hull panels to two assembled lower hulls. Scott Williams came down from Mississippi last night to help in the shop for a few days and with all the parts ready to go the assembly happened fast. Having recently built his Tiki 26 hulls, Scott was familiar with the process.

In the photo above we are moving the first hull into the cradles after wiring and screwing it together at the keel, stem, and sternpost.

Here, the hull is set up and bulkheads are in place. Minor adjustments were needed to align the keel where the hull panels meet.

By mid-morning, the second hull is preassembled on the table and ready to move to the cradles. And at the end of the day, here is where we are: two hulls set up in the cradles with all bulkheads in and alignments made. The next step in the morning will be leveling the individual hulls and locking them in position with braces until epoxy fillets can be made. We will also fit and install the diagonal stiffeners, and hopefully begin the keel fillets before day's end.

Stems, Skegs, Keels, Bulkheads and Topsides

2008-02-03T20:29:00.000-05:00

Here the stems and skegs are being laminated together. Each one is made up of two layers of 9mm ply. Again, you can see the scrap ply pieces used as blocking on top to prevent the heads of the temporary screws from penetrating the workpiece.

The two photos below show the mini-keel assemblies for each hull. The keels will be shaped and epoxy coated after glueing up.

Here, some of the bulkheads can be seen, along with the installation of the floor and bunk bearers, milled out of Doug fir. Also on the table are stringers for the upper edge of the lower hullsides, scarfed to length from 45mm Doug fir.

Using a router to simultaneously cut stacked parts for both hulls. We use a lot of production techniques like this to save time and increase accuracy. Experience with much bigger jobs on a tight timeframe will enable us to quickly build this Tiki 30 catamaran to a high standard.

Tiki 30 Lower Hullsides Cut, Joined and Coated

2008-02-03T20:28:00.001-05:00

One of the four hullsides being joined together with butt blocks. A piece of scrap blocking is put on top of the actual butt block so that the screw heads don't penetrate into the finish piece. The parts are held in place on the work tables with lead bags - each one containing 25lbs. of lead shot. These are great for applications where you don't want to make excess screw holes.

Here's what the finished hullsides look like, after joining together and coating with epoxy. These are all done and ready for assembly. With a crew of four and enough tables for glueing it does not take long to prepare the parts.

Tiki 30: Getting Started

2008-02-03T20:25:00.000-05:00

The crew at Boatsmith looking over the Tiki 30 drawings and getting ready to start layout and cutting of parts. From left: Nicolas, Pascual, David, Tomas, and Alejandro.

In the shop the night before construction begins:

A stack of 6 and 9mm Ocoume marine plywood for hulls, bunks, bulkheads and decks; and some nice, clear vertical grain 8/4 Douglas Fir lumber for milling out stringers, clamps, beams and other structural components.

Using a Makita mini circular saw with a 4-inch blade for precise control in cutting out the curved hullside panels.

Welcome to Pro-Built Tiki 30

2008-01-31T13:51:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the online journal documenting the construction of a new, professionally built Wharram Tiki 30 catamaran. This Tiki 30 is being built in Jupiter, Florida, by the capable crew of Boatsmith, a marine carpentry company owned by David Halladay.

As a long-time Wharram enthusiast myself, I am currently building a Tiki 26, named Element II here at my home base in Mississippi. As a boat carpenter who has worked for David Halladay off and on since 2001, I am honored to be involved in this project as the designer of this journal and a contributor. As the work progresses on this vessel, you will see the occasional post from me, but those signed "Boatsmith" will be directly from David Halladay at the shop.

As I post this today, David and his core crew of four have cut out all the hull panels and are assembling them and cutting bulkheads and other parts. I'm planning to visit the shop next week, to assist in the initial assembly of the hulls and what ever else we can get done in three days or so. I'll look forward getting hands-on involvement in the project and will update here after this experience.

Oh, and in case you're wondering.... Yes, this Tiki 30 catamaran is for sale, and you don't have to wait until it's finished to own it. Buy it now and have it custom finished to your requirements. Please send your inquiries directly to David Halladay: david@boatsmithfl.com