The bad...

In the previous post I mentioned that it had been both a good and bad week.  I mentioned the good...now the bad.

As readers of this blog know I originally planned on building 'Natural High' in Thailand where I have a subsidiary of my New Zealand business so it was quite convenient in that I could visit the boat yard frequently.

I started construction there as planned but earlier this year I became somewhat disillusioned with this decision and decided to 'eat a considerable loss' and pull the hulls out of the yard and ship back to New Zealand for completion.  One of the triggering points was that various parts of the vessel had obviously been build 'by eye' rather than using good boat building principles of string lines and ensuring everything was square.

I picked this up in Thailand when some nida-core furniture in the master stateroom was built and when I saw it I could see that everything was out of square.  It turned out that the bulkhead that it was attached to was about 35mm out of square.  The out of square bulkhead was not obvious until the furniture was attached. 

I considered it was pointless in trying to have it corrected using the same tradesmen as they didn't seem to understand the importance of using 'squares' to line things up instead of just placing things where they thought it looked OK.  In fact one part that they built which I had to have removed in NZ was so far out that I actually had to laugh about it.  It was the runners for a drawer and they were on such an angle and not parallel that it would be impossible for them to perform the intended function.

Anyway, back to why this week has not been so good.

I was in the master cabin with my architect finalising the the layout for that cabin and deciding upon the best way to resolve the out of square bulkhead.  We decided that the best solution was to put in a dummy bulkhead that was square and work from there.

Then the thought struck me...which I should have thought of earlier.  'duh'  If the bulk head was out of square then the 'slot' for the cross beams may also be out. So, we took a line down the center of the hull and squared of the section for the cross beams.  And, sadly it was way out.  So, there would be no way that the cross beam would match up with the other hull.  The photo shows a little of this.

As with everything on a boat one thing leads to another.  It now looks like that not only we will have to rip that part of the hull deck out and rebuild it but also rebuild the aft end of the cabin as that is also out of square.  So, all the fairing work and undercoating will have to be redone.

Only found all this out at the end of the day Friday.  Early next week we will align the hulls and use stringlines and check out the alignment of all the other beam 'slots' and then make decisions which as to how best proceed.

I always say that making assumptions is a dangerous thing and in this case I ignored my own advice.  I had assumed that the slots for the beams would have lined up and be square given it is such a basic requirement in boat building.

But, looking on the bright side...it was better that it was discovered now rather than after the hulls were complete and painted and then finding the cross beams would not line up.

This week has been good...and bad!!

Good, because progress on the galley has been excellent.  At the end of next week I should be able to post some photos of the progress.  I am really happy with the layout as it will be very practical.  There is a place for everything and nothing to rattle.

Also good as the preparations for the forward cabin fitout are complete and so are the bases for the Vetus dorades. 

I just have to finalise the layout for the head/shower which will be in the forward port cabin.  (There will be no accommadation in that cabin). But before I can complete the layout the design for the water muffler for the gen set which will be on deck has to be completed.  This is because the exhaust will be led to the forward cabin for exit.  I want to ensure that the exhaust system and indeed the housing for the genset is such that it is so quite that it will be difficult to hear it running.  That is the objective...we will see if it can be achieved.

The bad?  Well I will explain that in the next post which I will do now.

Refrigeration...

At the end of a day on the water and if at anchor I enjoy relaxing with a cold beer or a rum and coke...with ice.

So, refrigeration is important to me.  I considered a variety of options from custom building a freezer and refrigerator, or buying something already made.

I ended up settling on three units...all Waeco equipment.   I purchased a 35 liter chest type refrigerator which will be kept in a box on deck plus a small one to just make my ice for drinks and a drawer type which will fit nicely in the galley for food which needs to be chilled and used frequently.

From my research it seemed that the power requirements are less than a normal cooling system and they are well insulated and have a good reputation for reliability.

When taking into account the labor cost of building custom ones I think that these are a good option.

Fairing and undercoating now complete.

The hulls are now upright and the interior is being sanded.  Nothing much new to see, so no photographs.

On Monday the construction of the galley begins.  I have decided to go with an interior painted surface with cherry wood trim throughout the boat.

I had my architect spend quite few days detailing out the galley so there would be a place for everything and it would be able to be kept tidy irrespective of the sea conditions.  To ensure that there were no mistakes I purchased everything that could think of that would be needed and designed racks and spaces for all of them.

I think that I have got is covered...we will see.

Response from Raoul

Hi Warren

That boat has been built for Mr. Creed but as he never paid at the delivery , after some months has been sold .

The boat was at the anchor and for some reasons ended up on the beach (loose anchor or broke the anchor rope) and the waves caused some damages .

Ropes connecting hulls and beams got broken and some damages are evident here and there when the hulls rolled on the beach .

Beams did not break and the boat will be back in shape within some weeks , as mostly is an issue of repainting some scratched areas and the rudders .

I hope the owner , a thai national , will find a better place where to keep the boat , may be into a Marina .

Nothing too serious this time , but he has been only lucky as the boat ended on the beach and avoid the rocks outside Ocean Marina .

No structural damages after 2 days on the beach with big waves are the demonstration of the unique strenght of cedar/multiaxial/epoxy construction .

Regards

Raoul Bianchetti

Open question to Raoul the builder of Creed O'Hanlon's Tiki 38

Hi Raoul,

I am not sure if you are aware of this but a Wharrram Tiki 38 was washed up on the beach at Ocean Marina in Pattaya a couple of weeks ago. The photo that has been sent to me by a reader of my blog seem to indicate that it was Creed’s Tiki 38. Would you be so kind as to investigate this matter and if it is indeed Creed’s boat can you let me know what the cause of the mishap was.

I am very interested to know more as some people have suggested that the beams broke (of which I have not seen hard evidence to support the suggestion). If the beams have indeed broken and given that you built mine as well I need to reconsider whether I use them or not.

I would very much appreciate you sharing with me what you may know about this incident and also if you know the whereabouts of the wreck irrespective whether or not it was Creed’s boat. I would like to have a look at it next time in Thailand if possible.  If you are agreeable I would like to publish your response on my blog.  Please let me know if you are OK with that.

Thanking you in advance,

Warren

More info about the wrecked Wharram Tiki 38 in Thailand

I had a number of emails from various people in response to my request for more info about the wrecked Tiki at Pattaya.

A couple of people who insisted on being anonymous had actually seen the boat on the beach and one sent me a photo he/she had taken. In my opinion and based on my intimate knowledge of Creed’s boat it certainly seems to be his. For example, the hatches are quite distinctive, both the main hatch and the secondary ones. Also the way the windows are fitted are also quite distinctive. I remember raising concerns about these as they are not mechanically secured.

As I mentioned I am keen to get to the bottom of this. All the other people could tell me is that they understood the mast had fallen down and then the boat broke in two.

As it does seem to be Creeds boat I now consider it appropriate to ask the builder direct and that I will now do and post my question to him and his reply when I get it on the blog.

The fairing and painting of both hulls and rudders will be finished this afternoon. Unfortunately it has proven to be a bigger job than expected.

The reason?

Well, in a nutshell a lot of the fairing had to be redone. One of my (many) concerns in deciding to ship the hulls back to New Zealand for finishing was the way the fairing was being done. Fairing a hull is not as simple as some people think. There is a skill to it.

For example, the ‘bog’ must be put on thinly otherwise when it is troweled and then sanded it will leave a multitude of pin holes. This is what happened on my hulls.

Another thing to be very conscious of is that when another layer of ‘bog’ is put on top of another, the original layer has to be sanded thoroughly to ensure a good bond. Otherwise the top layer will some apart. That also happened on my hulls. In fact, large sections of the hull started coming apart in chunks about 5mm thick.

Anyway, the builders here in NZ had to go through and remove all the parts where it had not bonded and were very thick. Then they had to fill all the pin holes with epoxy. But of a pain really as it took three guys an extra week to do work which I thought had already been done.

Never mind, it is done now and I am very pleased with the results. They also checked the hull beam slots and found a number of them were out of square and they corrected these so everything will line up and don't have to be packed with plywood like another Tiki 38 that I know of.

So, if you are building a boat yourself and are going to fair the hulls yourself I hope these hints will save you some time in the long run.