Inner-forestay support

This pertains to the pole-lift/inner staysail idea I've had for a while.  The blog post is here: http://dianaofburlington.blogspot.com/2012/08/internal-pole-lift.html

In fitting an inner forestay, even if it's a detachable one, the foredeck needs to be reinforced.  Though I've filled all the rotten core adequately, the deck alone won't support something that amounts to a chainplate and may be called upon, in a catastrophe, to support the rig as the only surviving headstay.  So I decided upon a "horse", a structure going athwartships at this point.  Here is my original drawing (on the piece of plywood I would use for the crossmember/deck beam).

Below is shown the initial structure, two short little bulkheads in the forepeak, aligned with a couple of sticks.  The stick under the starboard-side shelf is propping up the shelf from its as-built position, as it was both angled downwards inboard and also too low.  The cleat on the forward bulkhead (what used to be the rode locker)  is aligning the two shelves more or less evenly; though the starboard-side one, once leveled, is too high by 1/4".  Such is the nature of budget-minded mass-produced yachts of the 1970s.

Of course these pieces narrowed the space considerably.  I had trouble wedging my out-of-shape self forward of this to disconnect the running-light wiring (along the port side) which kept getting in the way; so I decided to cut out the bulkheads a little.

I am always wary of amorphous shapes like this (such as on the back of the Hyundai Sante Fe SUV, which is downright hideous) so I just used a 4" sanding block to scribe a line parallel to the hull and deck all round.  This picture shows the cutout with the crossmember in place.  The bulkheads are 3/8" and the crossmember is 1/2".  I use mainly good-quality cabinet-grade plywood, well-saturated in epoxy and sealed in epoxy paint (these will be done in Easypoxy).  The void to port is for the wiring, which here I have tucked back out of the way.

 

Pretty cool how the bow-locker door hinges open and fits into the curve of this new bulkhead; huh?  (Should I say I planned it this way?)

(And, yes; this is where the microwave goes.  I've written on this before.)

On most budget-minded production boats, the V-berth shelf is meant mainly to stiffen the hull above the bunktop, as this tends to be the longest and highest section of otherwise-unsupported fiberglass hull on most boats.  It's not there to be useful; and most of the time the fiddles on the shelf are so miniscule as to be only for show.  Determined to have a proper forepeak, I made these high enough (6" inside) to contain plenty of gnarly gear that will accummulate here, like fenders, mooring lines, a mooring pennant, spare tackle, and probably even a couple of sailbags (Diana's main and jib already share a bag that would fit in here as it is).  The fiddles are made of 1/4" plywood, just decent cabinet-grade lauan that I had got to finish some Barbie dollhouses for my kids.  I cut them down forward of the new bulkheads to allow the little door (the only cabinet door with hinges in the whole boat) to open fully.

 

Above is to go a mahogany plank, about 4" wide and 1/2" thick, to serve as a backing plate for the deck winch (which serves the anchor rode), the mooring cleat, and the inner-forestay attachment fitting, as well as the aesthetic purpose of representing the centerline.  Originally I made this for the full length of the space; but I will cut it and fit two pieces to the fore and aft of this crossmember.  It occurs to me to have some really nice bright white LED floodlights under the deck, forward of this, to illumine the whole compartment.

Along the deck, against the hull, kind of like a facia meant to hide the toerail bolts, I will fit a wooden cleat between the new bulkheads and the (new) chain-locker bulkheads, on which can be mounted hooks and straps on which to hang line and sailbags and other stuff.

These pics were taken a few days ago.  As of today (Saturday, 24 May) I have applied a fillet of 5200 along the hull and, using WEST epoxy, 'glassed the bulkheads and crossmember into place.  When this is kicked-off I'll be painting this with semi-gloss Easypoxy.The original faux-teak forward bulkhead will be left as original; though when I replace the door I'll be replacing the tired old brass-plated-steel offset hinges with some in SS or chrome.  My daughter Rachel hand-painted ship's wheels and anchors onto some wooden knobs for my mother's kitchen cabinets recently; there is one left over and I may use it on this door.

Stay tuned for the pics of after I install the rode-locker bulkheads and trim up here.  I've mocked it up a few times and it's going to look really cool.

* * *

It's been a long, cold, lonely winter.

The winter of 2013-2014 has been harsh to New Jersey. Most people of a certain generation are hard-pressed to recall more nasty weather. It hasn't been the frequency of snow, nor the intensity, but something like a combination of the two. We had two major power outages in the region and the township plowed exactly once in six major snowfalls. Plus I was commuting 52 miles each way to work at a marina on the Shore and lost plenty of time and income due to weather. Nearly nothing got done on Diana between early December and about five weeks ago.


Here are some updates, in no particular order.

Foredeck hatch

I finally got the foredeck hatch done (or done enough) and set it on the boat the other day, just before one of the rainfalls we've been having on and off all week.

The poor contraption has been kicking about for about three years. Here it is getting a coat of varnish after I plugged the screw holes in the two sticks on top. (They are aligned over the two ribs which stiffen the frame and the Plexiglas.) I had to take the mahogany down to about 80 grit in some places. Right now it has about three coats of Captain's Varnish on top and about five or six on the sides (on the frame).

 

Here it is (below) after I set it onto the hatch base. The construction of this is exactly as we do on the Cherubini 44-- it is essentially two boxes, a frame and a coaming, made separately. When you have fit the frame box to the deck, you slice off the top portion (in this case 2-1/4") with the table saw, rolling the thing over the blade to cut the four sides. This ensures you have a mated base and hatch. Once the base is installed on the deck, you install the coaming inside it. I set the front of the coaming back about 1/16", using some lauan doorskin plywood, to allow the bottom inside edge of the hatch to clear the coaming as it hinges open. I also slightly tapered the outside faces of the coaming, above the base, to provide clearance. Actually there is a bit more clearance than is necessary or desirable; but it's not bad.

 

As viewed in profile, the hatch base is probably too high. During my usual intellectual communing with my dad, I apologized to him for it. He would have had it a whole inch lower to the deck.

At 24 x 26 inches, this opening is sort of a forward "command center" from which one can lower or raise the anchor, navigate and deploy or stuff headsails. The dimensions also allow for the hatch cover to be unpinned from its hinges and lowered through the opening to stow it below-- a consideration I considered paramount and one which led me to increase the former molded coaming's opening (in essence I sliced out the whole molded coaming entirely).

Today I got to enjoy this in a light drizzle, which was actually pleasant. The translucent white Plexiglas allows majestic light below and even when only partially open allows adequate ventilation.

Electrical panel

I have since added the rest of the trim to this; this is a pic from a few days ago. Today I concentrated on wiring the guts of this panel. As you can see the electrical space is located along the hull shelf above the quarter berth, using the original faux-teak-plywood shelf and just adding a front and top.

 

 The small panel to the left (aft) is the 115VAC panel.  Below the double breaker is the slot for the battery-charger's breaker.

The two main 12VDC panels are for the lights and other circuits.  There is also the bilge-pump switch, voltmeter, fuel-level gauge and a 12VDC outlet.  The voltmeter reports the status of the three batteries (a two-battery house bank and one starting battery) by way of three push-button momentary switches.  There is a switch to turn on or off the fuel gauge as well (switch is not in this pic; it was installed today).

The two rotary switches forward of the double panels are selectors; one is on the running-lights circuit to choose between the masthead tricolor and the pulpit-mounted lights and the other one is on the cabin-lights circuit to choose between the white and red lamps.  In this way no one can activate a white light below when the boat is being navigated at night.  The two rotary switches are aligned with their respective master switches in the panel to their left, as though pointing towards their home circuits when they are in the "normal" positions.

Bookcase

I installed this a while ago but never got a decent pic of it. (This isn't really a decent pic either.) The bookcase is an alcove built into the head (aft end) of the starboard-side settee, under the galley counter. It is scaled for paperbacks of 6 x 9 inches and accommodates things like the Eldridge's, novels and certain tools manuals. There is a blue LED lamp inside, activated by a switch above the galley. The little plywood end (to the left in this pic) opens to a compartment outboard of the books where I can "hide" (stash) CDs and DVDs that are not immediately needed or already loaded into the computer or iPod.

 

Head compartment

Almost all the trim in the head has been installed. As built, the Hunter 25 did not come with a basin in the head; there was just an open bin above the footwell of the berth on each side. Diana's PO took out the floor of the starboard-side one and added a hanging bar so that coats on hangers draped into the footwell of the bunk. I restored a floor here and made two "duffel-bag lockers" for guests' gear. This pic shows the top of those lockers (without their access panels installed) and the trim.

 

To port I installed a proper basin for foot-pump pressure water.  The portion of the countertop aft of it lifts up to the old bin's original floor, providing a space about 4" deep for "lady products" (for my daughters) and other stuff that isn't needed every day.

The old-style black-based Whale faucet is mounted in a 7/8"-ID stainless-steel flat washer serving as a trim ring.  The other washer lying on the countertop was meant for the bottom but I haven't been able to get my (arthritic) fingers up into the access hole underneath to install it.  The aluminum tube of the faucet is a little tatty and I may opt to replace it later; so this is a job that will remain "temporary" "for now".

The lockers outboard of the sink are for towels (aft) and toiletries (forward). Right now they hold everything I took out of the galley lockers in order to finish those now.

In this picture I still owed the fiddle of the lift-up some varnish; but as of this writing it's been done.

The black conduit tubing will get tidied up. But due to the crossmember (on which the junction box for the spar wiring is mounted), the wire loom can't drop straight along the bulkhead; so it is led about an inch away along the cabin side and through a hole in the top of the locker. I did not make a fiddle here; the trim is just a common corner bead. It's too narrow a space to put anything on it anyway.

My mother, the accomplished seamstress, is making the curtains for these windows. They will span the full width of the space so that, when closed, they will be proper drapery that regularizes the oblong shape of the deadlights. The same will go for the main saloon as well.

I still have not connected the fresh-water lines to this sink. The holdup is solving the water-filter question. It's looking like I will install two undersink cannister types, one here and one in the galley. RVers tend to use a "pre-tank" filter, hooked up to the garden hose as they fill the tanks; but this requires that the water in the tanks is presumed good. Most of the bad-tasting water I've encountered has gone bad in the tanks. I'd rather apply the charcoal and coconut-shell filtration at the tap(s), so I'm looking into Purete and Whirlpool compact filters. The one I've got in mind for the head sink is meant for icemakers and its connections are for 1/4" tubing. I may be able to do without the small-ID "quick connectors" and adapt it to 3/8" supply hose for the head sink. The galley can get a 3/8" one adapted to 1/2" supply hose.

* * *

Interior developments, 2013

I have not been on this site for some time!  Here are some photos of recent progress as this boat really is coming back together.

 

Anchor-rode lockers

I have long had the idea for relocating anchor rodes farther aft in the hull.  One of the biggest detriments to performance, especially in small boats, is in carrying heavy ground tackle at the pointy end of the boat.  Of course this is where it must be deployed, and from where it must pull; but nothing but some shortsighted concept of 'convenience' says it has to be stored there.  Ancient ships brought their anchor rodes aft to the foremast or even abaft it; but this was only because the ship was sufficiently wide there to allow for a human-powered vertical capstan.  When I designed Starchase (an 84-ft lug-rigged schooner) in 1981-82, I envisioned a whole full-width compartment aft of the foremast in which sails were stowed and through which the anchor rodes were dropped to a deep well under the sole, right in front of the ballast.  This is where such weight should be; but of course it entails the leading of chain aft along the deck, which can be a tripping hazard and much else. 

 

For Diana I had already given over the idea of using the V-berth for a two-person sleeping area.  Its foot is too cramped and the whole space is too hot.  And I had already committed the after outboard corners to plumbing and such for the toilet and holding tank.  Against the forward bulkhead is the toolbox locker (with microwave above, since it's the only place a microwave can fit) to one side and a hanging locker (the only one in the boat) to the other.  So I decided to extend these lockers forward and to make room for the anchor rodes as well. 

   

My first idea was to use common plastic trash cans for the rode bins.  They're cheap (and replaceable) and, if fitted with a plain nylon through-hull, can drain into the bilge or elsewhere.  I bought two trash cans; but after cutting out the V-berth hull shelf I realized they were just not going to fit.  So I concluded the sensible plan was to use the trash cans as trash cans somewhere else and to just drop the rodes into the spaces as they were. 

 

The two bulkheads are show here, each side, before the fitting of the longitudinal bulkhead that will finish them off.  Each side will be fitted with an access plate; but the bulkheads will be removable as well. 

 

This 'glass did not kick off immediately.  I suspect bad MEKP, or just an improperly light quantity of it, as my MEKP dispenser's pickup tube snapped off in the bottle while mixing.  (This happens with MEKP dispensing bottles when they get old.  No matter what it looks like, replace it at least every three to five years.)  These surfaces will be painted in gelcoat later; but for now this is what the work looks like. 

1. Port side 

  
The white stuff is 5200, with which I seal all edges of plywood before 'glassing them to the hull.  Water intrusion along the edges of plywood where they are 'glassed to the hull is the number-one killer of plywood bulkheads-- especially where chainplates are mounted. 
 
(If you think it's sealed against water, think again.  It's a boat.  Water gets everywhere. 

2. Starboard side  

  

Here is the toolbox locker, complete with fiddles to hold the all-plastic (no metal anywhere) Rubbermaid toolbox.  Ahead is the old rode locker, above which the rode deck pipe is removed.  Though I fitted a proper drain pipe in the pointy space, to lead dribbles aft to the through-hull sump, this will be dry.  Some light comes in through the 'eye' windows, where the old hull-mounted running lights were.  (More on that later.) 

 

The battery box fitted with a PVC tube and rolls of wire is my Wire-O-Matic (shop-use wire dispenser, typically made from a box or barrel).  It even has a proper lid (the lid from the battery box)! 

  

The hull-side shelf is cut out for where the plastic trash can was; but now it broadens the space so there is less chance of the rode becoming caught under its edge when running out by deploying an anchor.  

  

  

 Main cabin (aka 'saloon')

During one of the hottest weeks of July I came out to the boat each day at 6.30 AM before leaving at 8.30 for my contract job 50 miles east.  I managed to use up a whole quart of Easypoxy on the bulkheads, which has been a great relief because it's made the boat look closer to done.  
   

  
Nearly all of the brightwork was removed before painting.  The very intricate and delicate doorjamb seemed stuck to the bulkhead with varnish and I would not risk prying it off; so I masked it.  Along the baseboard to port some residual tape can be seen.  The baseboards are actually structural-- they help hold the sole joists down against the hull. 

  

The thermometer and hydrometer are from a cheap 'weather station' I found in the trash.  I dismantled the instruments, cleaned them and painted the shells in matte black.  They work great.  Above them, on the same centers, will go the clock and barometer.  Below them is a bulkhead-mounted compass (mounted in the bulkhead! --imagine).  I consider it vital to have a decent compass visible below, with which one can check courses and at-anchor bearings.  Below below this, above the drop-leaf table, goes a clinometer.
  

The second blue plastic outlet box is for a 12VDC outlet and USB-based chargers.  The stereo goes between the empty box and the (now absent) table.
  

The four-foot-long fluorescent shop light is, of course, temporary. 

  

  

In this view the saloon is being used as a varnish shop.  The large piece on top of the workbench is the top of the 'duffel-bag lockers' outboard of the toilet in the head.  The other plywood piece is the top of the galley bins.  The rest are just various bits of mahogany that go all over this compartment and in the head. 

  

Plugs have been added to the vertical grab posts (at last!).  Typically I varnish the main piece a few times before adding plugs so that the plugs receive a few coats less and so show as a lighter color.  This is just an aesthetic I happen to prefer; and I have always done it this way.  

  

The galley counter is still covered in cardboard.  I have decided to add ceramic tiles to that 3-inch-high bulkhead above the settee. 

  

The small red toolbox is the 'jewelry box', in which I keep all the cool rigging stuff (my favorite parts). 

  

Here too can be seen the side of the speaker box, at the forward edge of the hull shelf, and where I 'glassed the small athwartships bulkhead of it to the hull.  The white-pine stick, old iron C-clamp, and red-handled squeeze clamp (almost hidden from view) are currently holding this shelf up into position.  Like the ones in the V-berth these two did not match each other, sideto side; and this one sagged while the one to port tilted up.  The stick is forcing it up till the 'glass cures.  Hopefully this will remedy some of the problem; but the little mahogany block under the forward end of the shelf (partially painted white, because its proper replacement is undergoing varnishing) will assist in this.

  

Other stuff

Here is a pic I took, on my back, up at the new foredeck hatch with the old hatch, which fit only the original trapezoidal molded-fiberglass opening, on top.  Still waiting on white Sikaflex 295-UV to complete the new one.
  

The terminal blocks are junctions for the spar wiring.  These get screwed to the teak crossmember (now painted white) and enclosed in a cute little mahogany box with sliding door, currently undergoing varnishing.  

   

   
At the other end of the boat, I 'glassed a short bulkhead across the back end of the fuel-tank shelf, tucking it in just ahead of the fiberglass rudder-post tube.  The problem with all skegless rudders is that they are liable to catch something nasty, such as when shooting some dodgy inlet.  In this eventuality, there are two possible outcomes: one, the rudder will break off below the stainless-steel shaft (preferable) or, two, the rudder, tube and all will tear backwards and out of the boat (not good).  If this were to happen, there is little anyone could do to save the boat-- unless that water were able to be confined to a watertight compartment.  ALL rudder tubes should be isolated from the rest of the boat, so that intruding water cannot invade the rest of the hull and overwhelm the bilge pumps.  (We all did learn something from the Titanic; right?)  
  

 

This bulkhead is not high; and it will be fitted with a drain tube as well-- but in the event of a leak at a stricken rudder tube, the drain can be plugged and this compartment will contain much of the water before it is overwhelmed.  This may be enough time to shift weight forward, get something over or into the torn hole(s), or fix or reroute a pump to handle the inundation.  In any case it's far better a solution than that on most other boats-- which is to say it's better than nothing at all. 

 

The little block is just holding the bulkhead in place and gets removed.  In fact I painted this recently and probably should have taken a newer photo.

 

The little step in the foreground was added for climbing down into this locker through the cockpit-seat hatch, which I have done about 350 times since I have owned this boat.  I got tired of leaning over and lying upon the edge of a 3/8" piece of plywood.  Above this is the top of the under-cockpit locker, forward of the fuel tank, which is accessible through the quarter berth and, as of this writing, is now isolated from the rest of the under-cockpit space and its attendant gasoline fumes. 

  

 
* * *

Head compartment

In these photos this is far from being done; but I was just fooling about with the camera and took some photos of the head area to record progress.


This is the head sink, which, as all H25 owners know, the boat did not originally come with.

The stainless-steel basin came from an old Chris-Craft; I bought it on eBay for $19.00.  Its drain goes through the forward bulkhead-- to get out of the foot area-- and then to a trap and down to the drain seacock.

The after portion of this countertop (to the left) lifts up for access to a 4-inch-deep compartment above the foot of the bunk.  The two openings outboard of the sink are for toiletries and towels.  The little mahogany stick on the forward bulkhead, inside the locker, is the cleat for the shelf in there.  The shelf divider is sitting against the hull.

I put the tissue dispenser in there to calculate the space for it; but I certainly won't rely on a cardboard tissue dispenser to be kept in the head, under the large foredeck hatch, aboard a 25-ft boat!

There is no headliner or hullliner in place in this photo.  The trim is not installed here either.

The wiring isn't really this messy-- it's just dangling down from the connections block above this doorway where the spar wiring enters the cabin and the cross-cabin circuits pass by.  When it is connected properly you won't see the danging bits in and out of the lockers.


This Wilcox-Crittenden Head-Mate toilet was given to me by a guy called Bill who was working on his friend's boat in Hancock's Harbor, NJ.  I saw it sitting outside the boat on a Sunday and left a note on it: 'If you are getting rid of this toilet, call me and I'll take it.'  The guy called me as soon as he returned to the boat.  It pumps perfectly well-- they must have been switching to either a larger bowl or just an electric one.  The intake/flush lever is a little rusty; that's all I can find wrong with it.

I had intended to mount my existing 'Frankentoilet' with the crossover sanitation pipe underneath this blue shelf; so the shelf is mounted a little higher than it would otherwise be.  Unfortunately this toilet's pump doesn't mount on the level; it mounts at a slight angle (like a modern Jabsco) on an angled flange on the crossover pipe.  So I can't mount this pump on the shelf, with the crossover pipe underneath, because it won't sit flush.  I have no idea why Wilcox did it like this.  I really wish I were reusing the original Raritan Compact Mk I; but this is similarly 'retro' and works fine-- and best of all the price was right.

The two little openings under the shelf are meant for access to the bolts; and this was supposed to accommodate the crossover pipe underneath so these would allow for cleaning out as well.

Behind the toilet the black ring is a Starboard trim piece around the exit pipe (PVC) leading to the holding tank.

The all-plastic Rubbermaid tool box is actually in its intended place-- this V-berth area has become a true forepeak, having room for only one to sleep but getting equipped with a tool box, workbench, hanging locker, microwave oven, plenty of outlets for charging cordless tools and possibly also a fresh-water supply tank for flushing the toilet. The holding tank is underneath, with most of the plumbing and all but one of the boat's through-hulls.  And that's in only the aftermost 26 inches of it! [wink]

The mahogany in the foreground is the backup to the compression post, underneath where the maststep really is.  It's a piece of the stock I cut for the cabintop handrails, but here it is solid except for only one hand hole (through which the vacuum cleaner's cord is running).  I gauged this hand-hold for someone sitting on the potty and only after installing the stick I realized that the head door's latch has to go at the very same elevation-- so when you reach through it you will stub your fingertips on the edge of the latch plate.  Oh, well.

At the time this was taken the lockers behind the toilet were taken up with the stereo, the outlet strip and the lift-out panels for all the lockers about the boat.

The bronze Barlow selftailing winch (vintage 1977) is a leftover from Warren Luhrs' C44 cutter and served as a doorstop in my mother's bathroom for about 20 years.  It's now slated to be the foredeck-mounted anchor-rode winch for a first-generation Hunter 25 called Diana.  Funny how things turn out!

Here is an 'aerial' shot of this space, minus the toilet, taken from the foredeck hatch opening. 

The door jamb, to the right, was excessively tedious.  It is a T-section and has to fit a very awkward three-sided space and accommodate the natural crookedness of the boat as-is.  It turns out that the face of the head's sink cabinet (side of the port-side berth's footwell) is neither in one plane (it's twisted) nor parallel to really... anything.  Fitting delicate mahogany (the lower portion of that stick is 5/16" square) to a crooked boat is an exercise in near-futility.  But I got it to fit!


The threshold of this doorway is somewhat more robust.  If it appears crooked, it's because the main bulkhead of the boat is not square to the centerline.  Believe it or not that threshold is in the only place it can be to make the (not yet built) door work.

I still have to countersink those screw-holes to fit them with plugs; but I'm keeping it as removable in case something happens with the door later.

The rough plywood sole is only temporary.  The finger-hole, however, will be in the finished mahogany panel.  It's the drain for the space, as there'll be a shower hose here too.


The black square is the pedal for the Whale Gusher foot pump for the head sink.  It feeds from only the port tank, however, despite being likely to be the most-used water source in the boat.

In the foregound (top right of photo) you see the coaming for the foredeck hatch, not yet varnished.

I like the deep-blue/white/black/stainless/mahogany decor theme of this boat.  It's bright, cheerful, nautical and traditional.

* * *

The quarter berth

The first-series H25 came with a 12-foot-long berth to port.  Having come up with the original concept for this interior when I was 14 or 15, I suggested that the ‘nav station’ be its own little cubbyhole but got vetoed by budget and marketing at Hunter, perhaps the first of many rude awakenings over the years about how these two departments, not engineering and design, govern how boats get made.  So when I got an H25 for myself I was determined, as with the bridge deck, to rectify this fault and create something cooler about my boat for myself.
 

Immediately ahead of the quarter-berth I added a bulkhead to correspond to the forward bulkhead of the galley on the other side.  In this photo the camera is leaning on the vertical grab post that terminates the inboard end of that bulkhead.  But the original space was only 12’0” long, a kind of head-to-head double bunk.  Putting in this bulkhead left the quarter bunk about 5’8”.  So I would extend it.

[photo 2011.09 q.berth 1a.jpg]

Fortunately on poor Diana, the after bulkhead here, at the foot, being the mounting space for the (dumb) idea of the gas-can locker, had got so rotten from the boat’s being operated with the hatch open in rain that I was able to remove it... with no tools.  One of the first things I did was to build a new bulkhead 9 inches farther aft and make a shelf over the foot end.  It appears as a winch-handle shelf in the cockpit-seat hatch.  The same shelf extends forward over the foot of the bunk, making a duffel-bag locker there (see the one at the far end, here cluttered with small boards and other stuff).  The lockers along the side were an afterthought.  I had a piece of wood in my hand, going around the boat fitting it into places, and suddenly got the Eureka idea to make what we used to have on C44s up front, the underwear, t-shirt and swimsuit ‘stuff lockers’ over the bunk.

This side locker face was VERY hard to fit properly.  There was no structure here to rely upon-- I was measuring things in thin air.  It is not parallel to the centreline nor to the angled side of the bunk.  Immediately forward of it, in the space where the fiddle-rail shelf used to be, is the electrical panel.  (In the photo the panel is lying back in the bunk with two rectangular holes for the switch panels.  It appears here face-down; the switch panels are to the right when you look at it.)  This was hard to fit against the back of the cabin but I finally just left the end long and figured I’d make some kind of bin in the back end, over the end of the fiddle-rail shelf.  This end of the electrical panel actually formed a good anchoring point for this new locker face.  I mounted it with no bottom and cut the bottom to fit.  It’s bonded to the hull with 5200, lending strength and stiffness in this notoriously flimsy area.
 

The fit of the overhead of this space has yet to be determined.  I intend the roof of the locker for the shotgun but have to install the traveler and backing plates before I can see what I have to screw the hinges and latches to.
 

The bit of what looks like plain trashy plywood in the back of the crosswise locker is a bit of plain trashy 3/8” CDX plywood I had been using for templates and the like till one day I got the silly idea to make dividers for these lockers out of it.  Diligently I fit the pieces, sanded them carefully (try sanding CDX some time!) and saturated them in Salem sealer before installing them.  As such they’re adequate for humidity and will last ages.  Another divider is visible beside the blue duffel bag.  One of them I signed (before the varnish and installation) as a tongue-and-cheek reminder to the next owner that I really did know what I was doing using this plain trashy plywood and that it was meant as a joke.  The one in the back blocks off a ragged piece of ‘glass from the earlier bunk-foot structure.
 

The little cubbyhole down at the far end is where the original after bulkhead was-- its forward bulkhead is heavily ‘glassed to the hull.  The two blades of ‘glass after where I cut it off have remained strong even though the wood between it was rotten to nothing.  There’s still some (good) wood in there.  The inside of this locker isn’t pretty-- I put it there mainly to trim off the remains of what had been there.  I had to make a floor in it, uncharacteristically blocking off the space below to keep things from disappearing into an invisible and almost inaccessible wedge in there.  I call this locker ‘Indiana’ because its plywood face is the shape of that state only mirrored.  Beneath the foot of the bunk, beyond the original bulkhead (still there under the bunktop), is another locker against the inside of the hull.  If you were to peel up the front of the mattress some day you would assume there are only the two stock traps under the bunk; so it might be a good hiding spot.  But I’ve just said that in this blog; so you can rest assured that’s not the only secret spot this boat holds!
 

I will take other photos of the under-cockpit area and the ladder but I have been waiting to pretty it up with more trim.  I have been going up and down that ladder about 6 years now and only recently have I considered that the treads might like another coat of varnish.  Captain’s Varnish is made for spars and is excellent for durability as well as UV protection.
 

The trim around the lockers came from C44 hull 5, which was in for restoration while I was collecting scrap wood.  The wood is only 3 years younger than this (1974) boat.  The trim around the teak cabin back looks washed-out from the flash, but it is really more golden than the long-varnished other stuff, and it is all Honduras mahogany (not the pretend stuff you get now).  I just screwed it on and let the screws show-- it’s too thin for plugs and it’s how the trim was originally on this boat.  I also don’t believe in staining wood that’s already pretty.  I leave it as-is, apply sealer and then Captain’s Varnish and let it have its own identity.  So the interior appears a mix-up of varying wood colors, which is exactly how it should be.  It reflects the reality and naturalness of the natural material.  (Also it is much less work.)  I tried a bit of stain on a bit of mahogany-plywood bulkhead and even though I used only a very little it got so black that it was downright ugly and I remade the piece and just varnished it as-is. Varnished mahogany marine plywood, going back to the Cherubini Sea Scamp days, is as much of my heritage as are original artwork, Roman Catholicism and frozen waffles.  In this boat I am surrounded by what I am.

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The bridge deck

  One of the periennial drawbacks of the 1972-1978 series of the H25 is the lack of a mainsail sheet traveler.  Some clever people have fabricated one on brackets across the aft end of the cockpit.  This is not a bad idea and the sheetline leads are not too bad.  Putting one on the cabin roof, as many do with other boats, would place the mainsheet so far forward as to be utterly useless (except as a vang).  Moving the sheeting point forward on a boom is never good anyway-- mid-boom sheeting is a significant loss of mechanical advantage as well as a loss of sail trim.

  Those with mostly-original H25s will notice that the early H25’s boom is about a foot longer than it has to be.  The foot of the mainsail is designed to be at about 8’8”.  The boom which should be about 9 ft is more like 10' on some boats.  This was to extend the sheeting point, at the after end of the boom, far enough aft to connect to a single block at the back of the cockpit coaming.  This was the Cherubini-and-Seidelmann solution that enabled them to keep that lovely little egg-shaped cockpit surround.

  Part and parcel with the lack of a traveler is the lack of a bridge deck.  No one venturing offshore in any sized boat should have a hatch opening down into the cockpit pan.  Some people have said that keeping one or two hatch boards in is enough to keep most of the big stuff out; but remember that wooden boards float! --and in anything big enough to poop the whole cockpit you run the risk of one or more of the boards floating off and out of your life for ever.  Of course you could argue that in weather like that you’d have the whole hatch closed-up and when it’s nicer out you could have the whole thing open for air and convenience. But we singlehanders don’t like to leave any more than necessary in a state of needing attention as the weather escalates.

  The construction of a bridge deck on the H25 is an obvious solution to this two-pronged problem.  It provides a place to mount the traveler that is not too far forward of the end of the boom and effectively blocks the water’s access to the lower third or even 40 percent of the open hatchway’s space.  Its only drawback is having to step over it like one has to on just about every other seagoing yacht anyway.

  My first design for this involved a really cool folded-aluminum bracket that spanned the after end of the proposed bridge deck with legs down the sides of the cockpit pan to take the shear load of the traveler.  A gusset plate welded across the after side made it stiff and gave a place to mount the compass and engine-start switch.  I cut a plywood template and fitted it into the three-dimensional wedged space till I could screw it to the cockpit with sheet-metal screws and get good measurements.  (Look on the picture at the hole in the side of the cockpit pan, under the after edge of the deck-- this is where the mock-up's leg was screwed.)

  But no one would weld my bracket cheaply enough.  I wanted it for 60 bucks.  (‘It’s just a bent piece of metal!’)  The best quote I had was over $200.  That was out.

  Then I bought some aluminum angle from McMaster-Carr and started to fabricate a bracket by myself, mainly bolting it together.  The more pieces I put together (and paid for) the less I seemed to need each one.  Then my cousin Lee said, ‘Why don’t you just ‘glass it?’

  So I did.

  Mind that it was VERY hard to fit this thing.  The cockpit seats slope upwards as they go aft and the cockpit sides slope outwards as they go forward and inwards as they go down. By the time I’d got it screwed into the only place it could go and got one layer of ‘glass and epoxy on it, I found out one corner was too low.  So I built it up with more ‘glass and ground it fair again, and it’s thicker in one corner than elsewhere.  (I won’t tell you which corner.  You'll never be able to tell when it's done.)

  The piece of teak came from the old CBC shop which, in the process of being taken-over a long time ago, built big bulky trawler yachts about as cheaply as they could be made.  One of the ‘savings’ was from buying very bendy (and fragile) ready-made panels of teak decking. The 2-inch planks, about 5/16” thick (same as we made our teak decks on C44s) are already bonded together with Thiakol, the same stuff production teak decks used to use before we at CBC (and many others) discovered black 5200.  This piece was a scrap from the trash.  I cut it in its appropriate trapezoid and bent it over the very mild, but correct, crown from seat to seat.

  Once I was happy with the fit I figured out a very annoying but structurally-sound way to screw it in place from the bottom and test-installed it.  Owing to the thickness issues with the plywood substrata it wasn’t exactly flush all the way around.  I solved this by putting masking tape over the screw holes on the bottom, running a fat bead of 5200 round the perimeter, and then setting it down with clamps.  Relying on the 5200 ‘dam’ around the edges I drilled a few little holes in the top and flooded the uneven space between the teak and the plywood with WEST epoxy, the same as I do to repair damaged deck core inside ‘glass decks.  Then I torqued up the clamps and gave it a few days.

  The result is so strong that it probably doesn’t need the metal traveler support, but I’m putting it underneath anyway, just to spare my little artistic creation from literally flying off the handle in some nasty jibe some day.  This bridge deck allows for the mounting of the traveler about 9-1/2” aft of the cabin back, which is about 9-12 inches in from the back end of the sail.  That’s good enough for only one boom bail and fiddle blocks.  The Schaefer traveler setup has double blocks with cam cleats at each end, better than the clunky setup we had on our Raider 33, Antigone, with cam cleats mounted vertically above the traveler-control blocks so that it could only be adjusted from above, not from abaft.

  The Schaefer 1-1/8" track has holes 4” on center.  If I center one hole, one on each side goes into the gap between the teak and the ‘glass.  I have to settle on two in the center, each 2” from the centerline.  That just means I have to be particular about where I cut the track.   It takes a 60” piece, which is ideal (part 42-75).

  Along the gaps beside the teak deck will be lines of black 5200 which will resemble the Thiakol.  Amazingly-- for clearly there was some divine intervention-- I got the slivers of the outer planks more or less even and the central plank on center.  How that happened I don’t know, so don't thank me.

  The waterstains are from a leak in the aging cover.  They will sand out and I am not concerned at this point.  Eventually this teak will go silver in the tropical sun-- which is what it's supposed to do.

   So now I may have the only original-series Hunter 25 with a teak deck (ha!).

   I had intended to put the compass on a ‘dashboard’ underneath this but my neck is bad enough from using a computer already and you never want to take your eyes too far from the way ahead to steer compass courses.  I have two compasses, one from this boat and one from a wreck, and I will mount one on each side in the back of the cabin.  The current hole on the port side won’t used as it is balanced with two holes for wind gauges to starboard; so the starboard compass will be mounted below them, rather low on the bulkhead, and the other one in the corresponding place to port.

  The wood behind the hole is the epoxied back of the teak plywood laminated to the inside of the cabin top.

  The photo shows the top of the patch I made over the old deep hatch opening.  Having planned this bridge deck from the start I left the teak plywood on the inside all the way up (it was once much higher than this) and so was able to lay up half a dozen layers of mat and cloth with WEST epoxy (much of which dribbled into the cockpit pan-- see the brownish staining-- and created an increased fillet along the forward edge).  It isn’t a perfectly-smooth layup because it doesn’t have to be; only the beer cooler and cockpit bucket ever have to see it under there (though it will get more or less faired just the same before Perfection).  Above the teak it matters because a mahogany block with a white-ash threshhold gets fitted to it; and after that I can establish and install the hatch-slider boards.

  Since this picture I have cut out the bottom and sides of this hole and dry-fitted the ash threshold and the mahogany under it.  At finished height it's only about 2-1/4" above the deck now.

  The black Plexiglass deadlight admits light to the quarter berth.  As of this photo it's only dry-fitted.

  The thing along the side that looks like teak Formica is the original cabin table which isn’t going to be reused because:

  1. it’s teak (or pretending to be);

  2. it does not fit to the bulkhead and new compression post as I would like it to;

  3. it weighs about 850 pounds.
  I just never seem to throw out any part until I am absolutely sure I won’t ever need it again. I saved the original weatherbeaten hatch boards too and just recently figured out how I can reuse them on this new opening.

  The can of Bio Blast came from a WM closeout.  I like it but it doesn’t work as well as StripEaze does.  I’d much rather be bio-friendly but there is such a thing as getting the job done; and this job desperately needs to be done.

  Down below can be seen the grab-post and the top of the bulkhead I added between the saloon berth and the quarter berth.  Above the quarter berth is the cabinet for the VHF and the wallets-and-sunglasses compartment (here stuffed with clean shop towels).

  There is another picture somewhere of the head compartment forward.

  As I have mentioned before, all the of the trim wood on this boat, beyond the ash threshold, the teak plywood of the cabin bulkhead, and this bit of real teak decking, is mahogany.  None of this teak will be finished with anything; but the ash will be saturated (as well as ash can ever be) with WEST epoxy and given about 19 coats of Captain’s Varnish for good measure. Much of the mahogany came from remodelling old C44s.  Also I consider it a much prettier wood; and of course whatever I got from old C44s is REAL Honduras, not what you get now, rosier and deeper and more beautiful.  And I am amused to think it’s almost as old as Diana is; so that’s fitting

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