Moving the boat to the shop

This is our busy time of year at the shop so I have not had the time to post as often as I'd like.
A lot has been done since my last post. I'll add more pictures soon as time permits.
The hull stiffeners are completed. Three layers of biaxial cloth was glassed over the ballast pig forming a new cap and an 18 gallon holding tank was glassed into the hull.
The prop shaft, stuffing box and stern tube were removed and the old glass ground out and three layers of biaxial glass was applied.
The aft (cabin) bulkheads were installed as were the partitions in the lazzerette and under the cockpit. The floor partitions were installed and a temporary floor put down.
A customer who had the same little diesel as I salvaged out of the O'day made me an offer I could not refuse and bought the diesel from me. His was not repairable and mine was a drop in replacement for it. I purchased an electric motor, controller, etc and will be putting them into the vessel this winter.
Last week we moved the vessel from the back yard of my home to the shop where I work and it will be stored inside a heated building for the winter so I can continue the project during the cold weather. Last winter we had several trees come down, some uncomfortably close to the vessel, I am grateful to my boss and good friend Gary Dawes for letting me bring the vessel to the shop for the winter! He says he likes the fact that I can't call in sick to work on my boat anymore! :-)

Placing the yard arm jacks

Nick (foreground) and Scott our professional boat movers chaining up for the lift. Thanks for doing a great job on the move! You guys are the best!

Going up!

Backing the trailer under the cradle

The cradle was custom built to fit the trailer

Lowering onto the trailer

On the way to the shop

At her new home in the south building at the shop


Framing a wall around the boat.

Installing a door.

Walled in.

Exposing the ballast pig

Looking forward

Ballast pig looking aft

Templating floor partitions

Making floor partition templates

Aft Hanging Locker bulkhead

The hanging locker bulkhead tacked into place

Aft Head bulkhead

The aft head bulkhead went together very easily. It was trimmed to fit, several coats of Minwax Wipe-on poly was applied and it was tacked into place and then filleted and glassed with three layers of biaxial glass.

V-berth; installing the bunk platform & hull ribs

The platform was built in three panels. Each panel is approximately two feet wide and spanned the width of the hull. They are screwed to the partitions and have epoxy fillets and a layer of biaxial glass tying them to the hull. The forward compartment is accessed through a small rectangular hatch. The middle compartment has three six inch round access hatches; the outboard ones to access storage compartments, the center one to access the water tank clean-out port.
The aft panel has an access hatch to port and a hanging locker to starboard.

The hull ribs were constructed of two to four, quarter inch layers laminated together with epoxy. Two layers of 1/4" "wiggle wood"; a very flexible plywood that bends into a tight radius without a lot of tension. It is sold in 4x8 sheets of various thicknesses and I've heard it referred to as flex-ply, wiggle-wood, and rubber-ply, depending on whom I was purchasing it from. I purchased the last sheet at Windsor Plywood and asked the salesman what the trade name was. He shrugged and replied "we just call it wiggle wood,...and if you try carrying a 4x8 sheet of it you'll know why!"

V-berth; installing the water tank

The aft partition was made of 1/2" plywood and was glassed into place using two layers of biaxial cloth.
We ordered a 30 gallon water tank to fit the space under the forward berth. Once the tank arrived and we made sure it would fit, we glassed in the forward partition. The tank was placed in the space and two part expanding foam was poured underneath the tank. We did the pour in two stages; during the first stage the boat was a little cooler than the recommended temperatures for the product and it did not expand as much as we expected. During the second pour the vessel was warmer than the recommended temperature and boy did the foam expand!
The stuff is very temperature sensitive to work with. Once it cured we used a large serrated bread knife to trim it; the large serrated blade goes through the foam very easily. The foam was shaped using a 4" grinder with a Zirconia flap sanding disk in it. After a few minutes the grinder quit working and I switched to my spare; I'm used to burning up grinders as the fiberglass dust is very hard on them and always have two on hand. After a few minutes the spare quit working. I think the foam dust was melting on the armature and fouling the brushes,......I'll have to disassemble them when we have time and see what happened. I switched to an air powered die grinder with a 2" sanding disk and finished shaping the foam. The foam was then resin coated with west system epoxy. Once the epoxy cured it was sanded and painted with Pettit Dura White paint. They claim mold and mildew will not grow on the painted surface so we are using the product throughout the cabin and lockers. The forward partition has three 4" holes in it; two that allow ventilation to the compartments outboard of the water tank and one in the center to access the tank vent fitting. The aft partition has two 4" ventilation holes outboard of the water tank that will have covers that can be screwed into place if desired. It also has two holes in the center to facilitate the tank filler and supply line fittings.