Monday 22 December 2014

Getting the insides of the seats sorted before sealing things up

Lots of little jobs. I've done 2/3rds of the third plank, and am starting to have to think hard about the order of events, so I don't make it impossible to do things.

First thing first, I finished off the front thwart. That meant making mounts for various pieces of gear; a 180W sinewave inverter for charging electronics from the battery, an AIS transponder, and an antenna switcher so the AIS transponder and VHF radio can share the same antenna. I also made some access holes in the thwart, both for the VHF antenna, near the mast tabernacle, and so that I can run power and coax back to the cockpit for a radio.

In the first photo you can see where I've added rails for the gear (on the inside, alas). You can also see a little bronze plate I made to seal up the antenna port, just next to the spine.

On the other side of the thwart the hole for other cabling is visible, complete with paint run. I'll cap that off with another bronze plate. Also if you peer into the hatch you can see a power point, for charging devices.

Moving to the cockpit seats next, I added pieces of timber to locate the backs of the seat tops in between bulkheads.

Then I spent ages doing fillets, sanding, cleaning up fillets, and coating everything inside the seats in epoxy. I'm currently vacillating as to whether or not to paint the inside of the seats. I also added hard points to the seat fronts. These are just bronze rings that I turned up. The idea is that they support a rod onto which the rowing stretcher mounts (the three at the right), and the one on the left supports a rod which in turn supports raised planking, forming a sleeping platform. That's the idea, anyway.

3 comments:

Lorenzo said...

Hello Suzy,
nice work as usual on your beautiful Navigator. I have a quick quesiton for you, is the mast tabernacle solid wood or is the wood concealing a st steel structure? Just wondering as I am still unsure how to do the tabernacle for my pathfinder. I remember reading the account of a fellow builder whose wooden tabernacle gave way while out sailing on launch day ... scary thought (but perhaps a major design/fabrication fault)
Thank you!
Lorenzo

Suzy said...

Hi Lorenzo,

The tabernacle is solid wood. There are plenty of strategically placed Bronze screws to add strength. The wood I'm using is Jarrah, an Australian eucalypt. It's dense and very strong, with wavy grain that makes it a real pig to work with but keeps it from splitting under loads where lesser timber would be matchsticks.

I have a lot of faith in Jarrah. It's good stuff.

Lorenzo said...

Thank you for the feedback.
Just a personal remark on the question you ask yourself concerning painting the inside of the benches. In my previous build I did paint them bright grey . It turned out to be a very good idea indeed as the bright color helps locating things easier in the lockers and spot problems such as accidental spillage or leaks. For my pathfinder I will surely do that again. Just my two cents.
Take care, Lorenzo