The sole

[Figment]

Tim,

Congrats on finishing installation of the cabin sole. I know you have a lot of milestones ahead of you, but I'll bet it feels good to put one behind you.
I like the idea of chamfering the access panel support cleats. Having recently spent an afternoon scrubbing the bilge, I know that my forearms and knuckles would've appreciated that little touch.

If I may ask..... Why not just build the mast step up to the cabin sole instead of going the split access panel route?

Looking great.

-MH

[Tim]

If I may ask..... Why not just build the mast step up to the cabin sole instead of going the split access panel route?

Well, the sole is still 6-7" above the top of my already-massive mast step, and I don't want to use any bulking materials that might rot, compress, or corrode in the step (in other words: no wood, foam, or metals). Continuing to build up the step using only solid glass to that height would take the rest of my life! :<) The height that's there represents 20-30 layers (at least--I lost count) at the after side. If the sole were closer to the step, I might have considered it, but I raised the sole considerably from where it was in the original Triton.

It's great having the sole in. Finally, after months of rolling tools and frustrating footing, I have a flat, level place to stand, work, and put down a tool!

Next: some rough interior structure. I'm trying to get all the big pieces in before I put the deck on (which I'm dying to do).

[Dave, 397]

Hi, Tim--

Your sole parts and stringers seem to go into shape (and place) so nicely and in no time at all, I wondered if you could elaborate a bit on the technique and methods/tools you are using to make the cardboard patterns so precisely.

Thanks,

Dave

[Tim]

Dave,

For my floors, what I did couldn't be simpler. First, I determined the height of the top of the floors, and marked out each location as needed. I extended the marks for each location down well into the bilge and also above the sole level, for ease of reference later. Then, I took an athwartship measurement at each location. This represented the maximum width of the floor--or the width of the top edge.

I determined the depth of my floors--6" in my case, except for the forwardmost one--and cut the foam to 6" wide by whatever length (as determined above). This gave me rectangular shapes that were ready for final fitting against the hull.

With these pieces all cut, I held one in place in the appropriate position, with the bottom corners resting on the hull. Now, this means that the floor was in the proper place, except 6" too high (the height of the floor--it's sitting on the bottom edge at this point). With this knowledge, I set a scribe to 6" spread.

I leveled the piece fore and aft, and athwartships, just holding it basically in place. With my scribe, already all set to 6", I simply scribed the two edges of the foam to the contour of the hull, holding the scribe on my location marks and in the same plane as the floor form. Then I just cut the foam to this line, and made fine adjustments as needed with sandpaper. Minor gaps are no problem, as all the strength in this or any such application comes from the tabbing, not from any sort of contact between the form and the hull.

For my cabin sole, I made the basic cardboard template by measuring the widths of each of the four floors, and then roughing out the shape from there. I didn't attempt to make the cardboard an exact fit. Then, once I placed it in the hull, I set my dividers to some arbitrary measure (usually 2"), and drew a line on the cardboard by running the point of the dividers against the hull. Then, from this line, it's pretty easy to then transfer the mark back out to the primary material, by running the point along the marked line on the cardboard; this then transfers the pencil line back to the primary material.

I chose not to try and make my sole substrate a perfect fit to the hull. The angle of the hull was too extreme, and cutting such a bevel on the plywood would have been way too fussy for this application. That's where that epoxy "edging" comes into play that you can see on the site. The bottom edhe of the plywood substrate fit pretty close to the hull, but because of the 1/2" ply thickness and the broad, shallow angle of the hull in that particular region, the top edge was further away.

Hope this all makes sense!