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In addition to working on the cuddy interior when the weather is bad, I’ve been cranking away on the outside. I’ve got anchor locker covers.

From Summer 2010

I glassed the base of the anchor lockers, liberally sealed the rest in epoxy, and made some drain holes. All of this would’ve been so much easier had I done it before installing. Lesson learned.

From Summer 2010

It really starts to feel like I’m building a sail boat when I have winches, t-track, and other various boat parts laying around.

From Summer 2010

From Summer 2010

I’m drilling over sized holes and filling with them epoxy for everything that is being attached to the deck. This way if water seeps past the caulking, it will just drip on my head instead of soaking into the wood causing structural issues. It’s a lot of extra work, but I’ll feel so much better about it being done this way. If it’s a fitting that takes a heavy load, like a winch or cleat, I’m drilling and tapping the hole (in addition to backing plates) to distribute more of the load to the deck. Again, lots more work, but I feel like it’s worth it. The process is pretty simple, drill a hole, tape off the back, fill with thickened epoxy, drill and tap for the machine screw. repeat. repeat. repeat.

We even have an opening hatch, which of course had 10 or so holes to drill, fill, and drill. When we were on Richard’s Romany, I was amazed how much air would move through the front hatch, even in a slight breeze.

From Summer 2010

I’ve built half the dutch door, but haven’t gotten around to the top half yet.

From Summer 2010

This box looking thing will attach to the aft end of the cuddy and is the cockpit. It’s hard to imagine, but the corner closest to the camera will be where we’ll stand at the helm. I try not to spend much time thinking about it.

From Summer 2010

That’s about it for the exterior. I’m probably not going to paint until I attach it all together next season.  Stay tuned for hulls. Fiberglassing, fiberglassing, and more fiberglassing. Oh, and even a time lapse movie on moving a hull single handed!

The cuddy was mostly put together, but then I had to go and spend time on Richard and Jetti’s Romany… so of course, I had to implement some of the additional storage ideas they had come up with. It was back to sawing, gluing, and all the corners to sand that come along. Once it was all in place and cleaned up, I put 3 coats of sherwin williams tile clad epoxy paint in all the lockers. This was neck breaking work to say the least, but it sure felt nice to get underway with the painting.

From Summer 2010

From Summer 2010

From Summer 2010

Richard thought there may have been some flexing from the pressure of the mast forward of the king post, so I put in a wedge between the forward panel and the post…and of course primed it all with tile clad.

From Summer 2010

I also built up the area behind and above the sink in the galley. It’s mostly going to be storage for the normal galley stuff, but the panel near the roof of the cuddy (ceneterish on the photo below) is going to be where I’ll mount our electrical panel, battery monitor, and probably the VHF….and of course primed it with the awesome tile clad.

From Summer 2010

I suppose the mast beams would count as cuddy interior since they’re what attaches the cuddy to the hulls. The unpainted portion in the forward part of the cuddy is where the outer mast beams will be mounted.

From Summer 2010

From Summer 2010

Other non pictured interior projects I’ve worked on include a battery box to hold 4 Trojan T105s, an 1800 watt inverter that will be able to power our vita-mix, and lots of bits for for our fresh water system. Stay tuned for cuddy exterior…windows, winches, and t-tracks – oh, my.

I’m getting close on the outside of the cuddy. It’s been my night and some weekend project all summer while the hulls are my vacation time hog. I spent the day yesterday trying to picture what a battery box could look like in that forward locker. I’m pretty sure I’ll put it there, but I could think on it some more and build it after the cuddy is complete. It’s also hard because we haven’t settled on what electronics we’ll be having aboard, so I don’t know how big the battery bank would need to be. The space I’m looking at would easily fit 4 trojan T105s. (I think it would actually fit 6 and but 4 would probably do based on what I think our loads are at this point.) Originally, I had planned on doing it before I put the top of the anchor locker on, but the access is pretty good, so I could wait. I’ve noticed that I tend to put off what ever I can until it really has to be done. Sometimes that works and other times it makes it harder because the access isn’t as good.

I had a little trouble getting the front window panels fitted becuase there would’ve been too much of a twist in the panel. I ended up fitting a doug fir wedge on the upper side to help reduce the twist. There’s still a little there, but it’s much more manageable. It’s all epoxied together, but I’ll put some long stainless screws through the whole assembly and it’ll be plenty strong. There’ll be a small cosmetic issue on the inside, but I’ll probably be the only one who would notice. I think there’s going to be way too many places that I, being the builder, will notice more than others will. Oh well, I think I can clean it up reasonably well. A pass over with the grinder to shape it and some epoxy/microballons followed by way too much sanding, and it’ll be fine. I’ve been trying to find the balance of it looking good enough and getting the job done. I don’t want to spend the next 5 years not sailing. Making it strong enough is easy, it’s the fine finish that takes the most time.

This will probably be the last cuddy photo update for awhile. I want to spend some time cleaning up the inside before I put the roof on. It’s much easier to move around now, and I have to get all those corners sanded sometime, so I may as well do it now…sanded corners just don’t make for very exciting pictures.

Things have been going well. The evenings are getting warmer and warmer, and that makes working with epoxy much easier. I just put on the upper sides and the front central panel/shelf. I guess I didn’t take a picture of the shelf, but it’s behind that front panel. That will also have an opening hatch, but I haven’t bought one yet, so I’m going to hold off on cutting the hole.

The base level is structurally done, and the upper cabin sides are made and ready to be attached. The holes in the side panels are for windows. You’re looking at the panel as it will be on the inside of the cuddy. The window will be flush with the outside.

Things are moving along in the galley area. I have the water tank, and I actually measured correctly when I ordered it. I haven’t yet found the kind of strap I want to hold it down, but I’m sure something will come up. I did glue down a couple 1×1 battens on the base of the cuddy to help keep it in place. I figure with those, setting it on a rubber mat, and a few straps holding it down, it should stay put. At 4 degrees C, a US gallon of water weighs 8.34 pounds, so it’ll be around 358 pounds full. That’s not something you want flying through the cabin when the cabin starts going over large waves. I wish I could find some kind of ratcheting tie down that is made from a non-corrosive material.

We picked out a really basic double stainless steel sink that’ll go on the port side above the water tank. I’m not sure if I’ll install it right away, but I needed it to see where I could put framing in.

I also fitted out the starboard side galley area and work top. As I said before, it’s really basic since we’re not doing refrigeration or a stove. I’ll put in the horizontal shelving when we decide how to split up the space.

Since my last sad attempt to take a picture of the cuddy, the temps have risen, and I took the plastic tent down, so it’s a little easier to see what things look like in a picture. I’ve also added a few more parts: the aft panels and door frame are now attached, the back rest and lockers on the port side are up, and some of the starboard side galley is fitted and ready for epoxy. The 43 gallon water tank is on the way and I think I have a galley sink picked out. Heather and I have spent many hours discussing how we want the galley laid out, and the more we talk, the simpler the layout becomes. Being raw foodies (mostly) we don’t have much use for a built in propane stove, so we’ve decided to go with a portable non-pressurized alcohol stove. Yeah, the fuel is more expensive, but we just want to be able to make tea once and awhile, and the installation (none) will be way cheaper and safer than propane…not to mention take less time to install. I had planed on also having a propane cabin heater, so that’ll probably be out now. I’m not sure what way I’ll go… maybe a solid fuel heater. We had one on our last boat, and it wasn’t exactly convenient, but it did take the chill off on cold nights.

It might be helpful to point out what the cuddy looks like in another romany. It’s the center cabin between the hulls. This is the boat we went to visit a few years ago when we were trying to pick out a design.

On a side note, a gypsy (smaller version of the romany) just finished a passage between Mexico and Hawaii. http://www.time-for-a-catamaran-adventure.com/

well, for today anyway. In keeping with the tradition of the last few years, the day I do my first boat building work of the season is followed by a huge snowstorm. I’m hoping this won’t last long, and we’ll get back to the nice spring weather.

Anyway, I finally was able to warm up the garage enough to do some epoxy work on the cuddy. I’ve got the base and lower sides attached and I’m starting to work on the interior cabinets for the galley. It’s really hard to take pictures of the cuddy, since it takes up the entire garage and has a tent of painters plastic covering it to keep the heat in, but here’s a couple that probably won’t help you visualize it at all.