Decks and Interiors

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....

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

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

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

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

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

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.