Interior Progress Photos

Several posts ago I was singing the blues over the longitudnal lines of the starboard side furniture.  The pilot berth face and settee back traced a fore and aft line of its own mind outlining functional but formless furniture. It just looked crooked. 

As shown in the photo to the right the fix is in. It is too early to visualize the end product but trust me, the reconstructed furniture is now fair.

Here are a few more photos of the current state of affairs below deck:

Secondary Anchor

I have already talked about the configuration of my primary anchor and rode in a previous entry, but what about the back-up? The secondary anchor system serves as an extra in case the primary fails or is lost. And if the main anchor system failed as a result of overpowering wind and wave forces the secondary will have to be as strong as the first. Otherwise it will have no chance of success and by deploying it I will only be sentencing it to the same fate as the primary.

Footnotes.

Bud is an 8' Trinka dinghy that under my command will be rowed to and from Rose (Rose.......Bud, get it?), but under the command of my grandson, sailed on venturesome voyages. Rose will remain under construction through this spring and summer so Bud and Whisper will stand in as seamanship and sail trim teachers. I expect them both to be unforgiving taskmasters.

Only a scant few years after inheriting a huge family fortune a local reporter found young down and out Ritchie in a homeless shelter.
"What in the world did you spend all that money on"? he asked.
"I spent most of it on women and whiskey; the rest of it I just wasted".  Yuk.

I am only 3 for 14 on my month old  "to do list".   The Aerogel insulation material is in.  I will use the 5mm for the inside of the hull and layer the 10 mm to build the icebox lid. The galley sink has been exchanged for the proper size version and the two new water tanks are ready to install. I think the pace will quicken once Juan finds port and starboard symetry in the main cabin.

Neil Young is selling his boat.  Not rigged for single handing but looks like he has full standing headroom down below.

Holding Power - Primary Anchor

From the bow there will be two anchors.  The primary will be the hoss.... a Rocna Model 20 44 lb anchor on 60 ft (maybe 75) of 5/16" G4 HT chain spliced to 200 ft of 5/8" polyester eight-plaite line. The theory being there would typically be some rode out, thus eliminating the need to rig a separate snubber line. On a long scope, say 7 to 1 in 12 to 35 feet of water there would be enough rode out to absorb shock  but unlike nylon not so elastic as to behave like a bungee cord in a strong blow. The rode would be secured to the sampson posts not a chain stopper. On a short scope in 10 to 20 feet of water, the boat would lie to all chain, or almost all chain, with a nylon snubber. The chain will stow down low in the bottom of the sail locker (where many BCC owners install a holding tank) to keep as much of the weight off the bow as possible.

DC Electrical System

My original DC system and battery management design has been modified. (Its hard to keep up with all the technological advances but I'm changing my mind as fast as I can (( by the way, I don't put a funny face icon behind my amusing remarks.  I figure that if I have to send a signal alerting you to the arrival of humor it probably wasn't that funny anyway)) :-).   Under sail or at anchor a Mastervolt 2000/100 Combi inverter charger will provide power to a few AC appliances including a small microwave oven, a 17 in computer monitor,  a cell phone charger and the Climma air conditioner.  Hey! You can't air condition a boat away from shore power! Yes we can! (That's a quote from someone.).  Power a Climma 7 from a DC Source. 

The battery bank will also be Mastervolt.  Four 115 amp hour Slim Line AGM batteries will store 460 amp hours of DC power. Each battery is 22 inches long, 4.3 inches wide and 9 inches tall. One pair will be positioned port under the forward end of the quarterberth and the other pair will be positioned to starboard in the same location under the foot of the pilot berth. A separate Mastervolt type 27 will be dedicated to engine start duty and station itself under the bottom step of the companionway ladder.  Battery amp hours will be replenished by the two 70 amp alternators running in parallel and controlled by a single Adverc battery management system with split charging of the two battery banks, engine and house, via 95 amp blocking diodes...... Twin Alternators.  Dockside the Mastervolt combi 100 amp charger will assume regulated charging duties. The Adverc's DCM MKIII will monitor battery status.  Adverc DCM Monitor.

The breaker panel may be slightly larger than it's pre-Ike predessor but its location under the companionway ladder will not change. The electronics breaker will tie to an electronics fuse box in the navigation area.  The Muir anchor windlass will take power from the house bank not a separate battery. The engine start panel will be down below next to the breaker panel not in the sometimes very wet cockpit.

I am sure I am missing some vital info in this article and equally sure that I will be revisiting this topic long before I throw my first Lean Cuisine in the microwave.

Egalite'

For two weeks I have been looking askance at the lines of my newly built starboard side pilot berth and settee. Every time I go down below, my new starboard side mid ship interior layout, like a crooked picture hanging in the doctor’s reception room, dumbly announces ….”This is just not right. Fix me”. In denial until now my response has been, “you’re fine, your seatback is not supposed to be parallel to the port side, besides it’s designed to be functional first and symmetrical second. It doesn’t look that bad; I am probably the only one who will ever notice”. Au contraire! It looks awful and has got to be fixed.

I’m an Idiot! I should have built a complete mock-up of the starboard side furniture before glassing it all in place. I was so focused on the dimensions of the pilot berth that I closed a blind eye to the lack of longitudinal symmetry. The two settees have to face each other squarely (master of the obvious ((in retrospect only)) ), that is to say, these two bulkheads must be parallel. The pilot berth measurements will then be whatever they will be. I designed it backwards forcing the measurements of the pilot berth first and then letting the line of the port settee back fall wherever the pilot berth location dictated. I can just picture myself six months down the road ordering the starboard settee seat cushion , “yes ma’am, a 4” deep cushion measuring 53” x 15” x 51” x 12”. “I’m sorry Mr. Kent; it’s against the Hippocratic Oath of seamstresses to make a seat cushion that ugly.”

Anyway, as my papa used to say, “It ain’t arms and legs, its only money”. The fix is of course is to tear it all out and start again which is what I will do starting tomorrow morning.

In a couple of years when we are seated across from each other, just the two of us, we will be exactly facing each other and you will be seated on a 52” by 14” perfectly rectangular settee cushion.

And symmetry ruled the land of Rose once again.

Weights and Measures

Picking up a few pounds are we? I hope not, but let's get on the scale before we get too far along. A full dead weight survey would provide the detailed data necessary to calculate the port and starboard and fore and aft trim when she hits the water. For now I will simply stay aware of all appliances, equipment, variable loads and construction materials that have been or will be added, removed or changed as a part of the reconstruction project. Location changes are just as important as the net weight changes.

New Water Tanks

The new water tanks are 2 inches shorter than standard in order to get the extra headroom in the main cabin. Miller did a nice job but I had to take them back to have inspection ports cut.