Could it have been the wine? --- 279 hrs

High water mark.

What a shame, I felt like I was making real progress and a boat was taking shape. The hull sides, keel, stem, stern and BH 4 were wired/screwed together....but there was that problem.

Going backwards:( Notice all the shiny copper wire pieces. 

Once I got the starboard keel backbone out and on the bench it was pretty clear the keel sides did not have a fair curve or even hit the offsets by less than 2mm in 3 or 4 out of 7 reference points. How did this happen? I'll admit, I still drank, red wine, back when these keels were built but I don't think I ever  BWD(built while drunk), but it's the only idea I have to explain the results. After seeing this my head hurts from banging it on the wall. Oh well, I gave up drinking last fall so that excuse can't ever be used again and hopefully this type of bonehead maneuver will not happen again:)

Man, what the hell is going on here?

Next the small circular saw was used to cut out the new curve, then I used a wood chisel to remove the offending material. The curve looks much better now but the proof will be when the hull sides are set.

Now that looks right!!

On Monday I set the keel back in and the starboard side looks great, but the port side is still off. So the only thing to do was take the whole thing apart. Then I spent a day measuring hull sides, bulkheads, and the keel. On the keel I measured the port vs starboard sides every 4-6 inches figuring the starboard side was correct. They were equal to within a mm right up to the last forward 6 inches where the starboard was high by a couple mm. But just looking at both sides, the curves both looked fair. I wasn't sure if this was enough to cause the problem.

This is what the fit should look like. Now to get the port side to match. 

Even though the side to side difference didn't seem significant, I did clean up this small error. Then it was time to rewired/screw the hull sides together, reset in the cradles and finished the screws in the keel area. Results...much ,much better. Port/starbroard look good, BH 4 is wired in and the floor bearer is only fractionally high. So now I'm finally ahead of were the stop work occurred, YEAH!!!!!

BH 4 is wired in, and BH 3 is ready, progress!

Also note that I wised up and am using multipart block and tackle to lift/move the hull. At this point I'm able to lift a hull end one handed! This made it really easy to level out the hull fore/aft and get the cradles and keel supports just right:)

Going backwards:( Some days suck. -- 254hrs

I finally got back to Tiki today and figure out what was going on with BH4 floor bearer not landing even with the keel backbone. I then checked BH3 and it also was off:( The answer is in these pictures...

BH3 area. There shouldn't be a 1/2" gap

Forward of BH3, end of keel sides.

Those hull gaps then cause this:(

Looking back, I had problems with building keel backbone a couple years ago. I couldn't understand the plans well enough to get the curve correct for the keel sides. I don't remember if I understood at the time but these sides are where the hull sides land so the curvature is important to allow the the hull top edges to be at the proper height above the keel backbone and the floor bearer to be at the correct height. I suspect this is my problem because when I pulled the port keel up on the bench and measured the six  distances found on the drawing, from the backbone top to the top of the keel sides only one or two were spot on. Then when I checked to see how fair the curve was...well it wasn't:(


So now it's a step back. Tomorrow I'm going to disassemble the starboard hull and free the keel backbone. Then measure, mark and draw a fair curve and add/subtract as needed to have a fair curve for the hull sides to land on.

All in all a pretty depressing day, but I've got a plan which I didn't have this morning and that's progress!

Feeling like a wingnut......

Alright, this is really a basic safe shop practice, leave the shop when tired. Tiredness is the proximate cause of spilling Acetone on the battery and charger for my Ryobi drill and saw. Chain of events, first clean a piece of work, but leave the can sitting on the floor and the cap not tightened, first bad move. Next move the charger to the epoxy table, why I did this I don't recall but obviously another bad move. Then grab the acetone can and attempt to place it next to the charger on the epoxy table, but instead allow it to slip from the hand and spill a cup of acetone on the plugged in charger. I'm not a chemist but I know acetone will melt plenty of plastics and wow did it eat up that charger. The black sections quickly became soft and the obvious staining on the battery. Not much to do to but unplug and allow the acetone to evaporate. The question is whether the circuity in the charge has been damaged? I'll open it up and give a visual when we get back and hope for the best.

Finally...Looks somewhat like a boat:) -- 250 hrs

I've had a couple good days working on TIki #164. The rudders are damn near complete, just some fairing and drilling out the hinge holes on the starboard rudder. But the big advancement came with stitching the starboard lower hull, keel,stem,stern post, and two milled keel timbers together and dropping the collection in to the two cradles.

BH1, not stitched, just spreading the lower hull sides.

BH4 goes immediately forward of the butt strap in view.

The first real challenge started with trying to install BH4, which is the first to be installed following the build instructions. First thing I noticed was the aft floor and bunk bearers were too long(not the only problem unfortunately) or should I say they were full bulkhead width IAW sheet 2 drawings. The problem was that BH4 is right in front of a hull side butt strap. Which is clearly shown on another sheet. So the fix was to remove 6mm off each end of the aft bearers. Not a big deal but just another delay, but with a back saw from an old miter box set and couple sharp chisels and the job was done.

Removing 6mm from the floor bearer.

Then there was the forward keel timber, an 18mmx45mm milled piece that also needed the aft end tapered, which I didn't realize until the hulls were stitched up and sitting in the cradles. So out came the sharp chisels. Good chisels are becoming my favorite tool.

Really don't what to sound negative, in fact I'm really happy seeing the hull setup, but if your building a Tiki 30 these are issues to watch out for. No more progress for a couple weeks as we head out to pickup another boat in Maryland. But before closing up shop I discovered another problem with starboard BH4 and this time the the problem is completely on my shoulders, the floor bearer is to high! The bearer is about 8mm high when the bunk bearers are flush with the lower hull side top:(  A few  quick measurements show that my build tolerances added up a few millimeters here and there. Oh well, something to ponder, best way to "fix" this error, on the long drive to Maryland.

Port Rudder -- 234hrs

Today some pictures, found the camera:) I picked the port rudder to work on today since I had been working on the port stern post. It needed the trailing edge shaped to improve water flow across, then I tackled creating the slots for epoxy where the rope rudder hinges will pass through. As I mentioned in a post along time ago cutting the slots which are then epoxy filled was slow and tedious using a router and not satisfactory using standard drill bits and jug saw. A year of home improvement and wood work on other projects have increased my knowledge base a bit and these slots were relatively quick and easy. The trick is using Forstner drill bits, 8" torpedo level, Ryobi battery drill with built in vertical level bubble, and sharp wood chisels.  First I level the area where the slot is going to be cut and solidly clamp everything in place on the work bench. Then using 1/2" Forstner bit I drill out the two ends of the slots keeping the drill as vertical as possible by watching the bubbel. Next I use the jigsaw to cut between the two holes outer edges. There is usually some material remaining since the jigsaw blade bends making the slot look like a dumbbell, but a few minutes with a just sharpened wood chisel and it looks like a proper slot.

Rudder leveled and first hole started.

Two nice square holes.

The jigsaw removes most of the material. 

Next a sharp chisel is used to square up the slot.

Now I'm certainly not saying this is the only or best way to do this slotting but it works for me. And by the time I finish the starboard rudder I should be expert at this technique:) The other hinge project includes adding kevlar to the the area where the rope hinges cross over between stern post and rudder. Maybe I'll get to that tomorrow but I've got work to do preparing and get my other boat Phoenix next week.

On the port stern post/skeg I taped off the area and wetted out the kevlar on a piece of plastic then placed it on the hinge area. To get the sharp bend I hold the excess kevlar in place with pop-sickle sticks and spring clamps.

Port stern post

The pop-sickle sticks are remove in a few hours before the epoxy kicks hard.

The trick is cutting the kevlar while the epoxy is still a bit sticky, but this stuff doesn't cut easy with a utility knife like fiberglass cloth. I end up using a Dremel with cutting wheel to cut 90%+ of the threads then brand new razor blade to cut the remainder. The rudders get the same procedure.

Finally back to work after almost 11 month --- 228hrs

Wow, it felt terrific to dust off parts and try and remember where I left off back in June 2012. I can't believe it has been so long, where does the time go....
My thanks go to Neil who is building Tiki 38 Gleda and Brad who is building Tiki 21 Beto. Their recent blog entries kicked me in the butt to get something done. And also a huge thanks to my wife who has been living in a substantially incomplete house for two and a half years. Heck I just got the utility sink out of the kitchen and built the cabinets and and installed a "real" kitchen sink just this week.

No pictures today since I spent the hours shaping, drilling,cutting,filling the port stern post/skeg, same work as I did on the starboard stern post all those months ago. It's close to complete now with just the drilling out of the two lower rudder hinge points and adding kevlar cloth to the wear areas. Then the port and starboard stern posts will be the same then it's time to finish off the rudders.

I've have so many other big projects but I'm determined to get at least one day a week dedicated to TIki #164.

The Spray set sail, 118 years ago

I the first time I read "Sailing Alone Around the World" about 20 years ago I thought I could appreciate the adventure but I realized later as I became a more experienced sailor I really didn't understand. It really was a different world, technologies that we today take for granted, GPS, and even some we consider obsolete, LORAN, were not even imagined in 1895. And my current dilemma of outboard engine choice would not have merited a moments though back then. Unfortunately we still have the water borne thieves we romantically call pirates.

Capt. Slocum sailed out of Boston Harbor aboard Spray April 24, 1895

I hope I can have Tiki #164 completed by the 119 anniversary of Spray leaving Boston harbor.