Boat Plans Bruce Roberts | Guest cabin dressing room

Boat Plans Bruce Roberts

The basic layout of the cabin area below is as follows: Down four steps from the salon above. Once at the bottom of the steps, you can either turn left through a door and get to the master cabin, or go straight through another door to get to the guest cabin dressing room/hallway. One has to go through this area to get to the guest cabin/kids cabin located in the forward area of the hull. Each cabin has a door to access the common bathroom where the shower and toilet is located. Each cabin ( master and guest) has its own sink. The engine room is accessed from the master cabin through a water tight steel door.

Standing in the guest cabin dressing room, one will find a large sink base with storage underneath, four wall mounted cabinets, and a bench seat with storage underneath it. There will be two ceiling mounted DC lights, and one ceiling mounted AC light with all lights being controlled by switches on the wall. There is also a decent amount of wall space available to have some hanging storage without impacting ones ability to walk through the space.

Because of my wish filled thinking regarding shower sump pumps, I had to re think how I was going to hold the gray water from the shower and cabin sinks. I decided to add a holding tank, and the most logical place for it was under one of the bunks against the dressing room bulkhead. I was going to buy a plastic tank, but since I had enough stainless plate left over from the water tank construction I decided to fabricate my own and save some cash. The tank ended up with 47 gallons of capacity.


Under the sink base in the dressing room is some of the gray water plumbing. The through hull fitting you see is above the water line. When we have to hold our gray water, the blue valve will be shut and the black valve will be open. This will direct the water to the main sump which will then direct the water to the 47 gallon holding tank I just built. When we can discharge gray water, the blue valve will be open, the black valve will be closed, and the shower sump will discharge overboard via the black pipe when the sump selector valve is in that mode. Its a pretty simple set up albeit a bit on the bulky side, but I made everything from parts found in the shop and did not have to depart with any cash. The elbow on he end of the manifold is for the guest cabin dressing room sink once I get that sink installed.

I built four more cabinets to fill up the wall in this room, and stopped them well short of the port light. One of the cabinets will be the medicine cabinet above the sink, while the other three will be general storage. The cabinets are 12 inches deep at the base, and about 18" deep at the top. Im also using these cabinets as the chase for the air conditioning duct that will feed the guest/kids cabin. That duct will be a four inch flexible pipe.

In order to give one as much privacy as possible, there will be a door between the dressing room and the bunk room. The door will be 20" wide.

I had enough room to create a bench in the dressing room so people could sit down while they were getting dressed. I installed a piano hinge on the lid of the bench so the bench could double as a locker for more storage.

The room is a fuzz narrow, but Im able to easily navigate through it without bumping my knees or having to turn the least bit sideways. I think this space will be an important part of the boat in regard to helping all on board with privacy, and a sense of having ones own space. To be honest, this is a very comfortable room even though its function is mostly utilitarian.

I have six doors to build for this room, and one more sheet of plywood to install on the partition between the master cabin and this space. I also have to plug all the screw holes, sand everything, and get a coat or two of finish on the wood. Once those jobs are finished, Im ready to start work on the sleeping room and its four bunks. Once the doors are installed and some finish on the wood, Ill post some more pics.

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Boat Plans For A Chesapeake Deadrise | Expansion Tank

Boat Plans For A Chesapeake Deadrise

My main engine is cooled with a keel cooler welded to the hull. Because coolant will expand as it warms up to operation temperature, I needed to give the coolant a place to go without building pressure on the system and causing the fill cap to burp off coolant.

The expansion tank is at the highest elevation of the cooling system. This will allow me to get air out of the system and also use the expansion tank as the fill point for the cooling system. I made the tank out of a 12" piece of thin walled pipe. Welding a place for the pressurized fill cap, end caps, mounting brackets, level check sight glass, connector fitting on the bottom, and drain fitting on the bottom plus and extra fitting on top was all it took to make the tank. Well I might as well throw in finding the pipe, getting the pipe, cutting the pipe, cutting the end caps, fabricating the fill neck and mounting brackets, air testing, sand blasting, and painting. Now that I think of it, building the expansion tank was a pain in the ass, and if I had to put a pencil to it, Id say I have 12 hours in it. I could have purchased one for a dump truck for about $250.00 but given my nature of tripping over a dollar to save a dime, I decided to fabricate mine.

I Installed a sight glass in the tank to make checking fluid level easy. Due to height constraints, peering down the fill cap would be difficult, a dip stick would be a pain in the ass, so the sight glass, hands down, is the way to go.

I built the tank a couple of years ago, and now that I have the engine room finished sheathed, I can go ahead and permanently mount the tank. I was able to make the permanent connections to the keel cooler from the engine, and also all the connections to the expansion tank.

I mounted the tank to the bulkhead by using studs welded to the framing. I messed up on one set in regard to how far the studs projected and ending up having to use couplings on the studs then bolting the tank to the coupling. I wanted every part of the tank to be higher than the engine coolant tank, and while I was cutting it close, all the elevations worked out fine. The street 90 at the bottom of the tank is 3/4" higher than the street 90 in the engine.

Oh how nice it is to finally see projects going from the shop shelves to their final resting spot on the boat.

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Boat Plans Nz | Sound Proofing the engine room

Boat Plans Nz

The engine room received one more coating of paint on the hull and sole framing last weekend in preparation for starting the sound proofing. Well, I hope its sound proofing, as it will be a real pain in the ass to re do this once the boat is launched.

My system for sound proofing is pretty basic. I foamed the metal ( see the last post), and now Im attaching a 1" thick mineral wool board the the framing. Over this mineral wool Ill attach a perforated aluminum sheet as my finished wall material.

As best as Ive learned, the idea behind sound dampening is to decouple the structure from the sound. Sound travels in waves and the idea behind getting rid of it is to try to absorb it. My system is to provide a barrier between the living spaces and the engine room noise. My thoughts are that the sound will pass through the perforated aluminum then be absorbed by the mineral wool board and also by the foam underneath.

The mineral wool Im getting is discarded seconds that came out of a large sheet metal fabrication shop. Id love to have 3 x 5 boards, but Im only able to get 2x4 boards ( the price is right though). Because Im not able to pick my size, Im having to adjust my framing. In the areas I know Im going to have to attache lots of conduits, or other mechanical items, Im first installing plywood before installing the rock wool board. With the plywood on the hull framing ( 1/2" ply ), I dont have to worry about the rock wool laying out to hit the framing so there is almost no waste of the rock wool. I also have unlimited points of attachment for my future mechanical installations. For the ceiling though, Im going to have to add a firing strip so the rock wool waste is minimized while I keep an eye on the weight Im adding.

Ive got a little of the product up and on the walls and part of the ceiling. Im working in the corner where the generator will be installed, and Im amazed at how well the sound seems to be vanishing from just having that small area installed. Its no longer necessary to wear ear plugs while working in the hull. The only drawback is that the engine room is starting to get hot from the heat from the lights.

The perforated aluminum looks fantastic and gives me just the gear head look I want for my engine room. Once the material is screwed to the wall, it stiffens up nicely. You have to look closely to see the rock wool underneath, so I feel good about the ability of the perforations to contain the rock wool while also letting the sound waves into the dampening zone. The open area of the perforated sheathing is 34%. I picked up some advice from the good posters at Metalboatbuilding.org on how the cut the stuff. Its so nice to be able to start seeing some finishing material finally going on.

Because the rock wool is 1" thick Im going to have to fabricate some corner pieces or trim some areas out with aluminum angle. One of these areas is by the doors as you can see from this picture. Im leaning towards angle in some areas, while in other areas, Im going to try to brake ( bend a corner) the material in to an outside or inside corner.

I took a crack at bending some material into a corner, and it worked out OK. Having corner pieces makes the job look much more finished and I dont have to be as particular on the fit.














I had to add firing strips to the main area of the engine room ceiling. While I hate to loose another 3/4" of head room, Im willing to take the trade as this allows my rock wool to go up with less waste. The frames for the boat are 30" on center, and my rock wool sheets are 24" x 48". I dont have the choice of 3 x 5 sheets so I added the firing strip to make things work better and get the most bang for my buck in regard to how much rock wool I have to buy.

I started out cutting the perforated aluminum with snips, but Ive now switched over to my table saw. I added a board to the saws fence so the 16 gauge material will not slide under the fence. The table saw does an excellent job of cutting the material and it looks like it was done on a shear.

You might have noticed I have some plywood installed under the rock wool. I have plywood over the fuel tanks to protect the paint job on the tank and also to give me a way to easily attach engine room components to the tanks. I plan for some cabinetry and shelving, among other things, to be installed on top of the tanks. The forward and aft water tight bulkheads also received 1/2" plywood. I installed plywood on the aft bulkhead due to the idea that my generator will sit on the starboard side, and my fuel transfer/polish manifolds and pumps will be on the port side. I dont know the exact layout of any of these components, so I put the plywood up to make it easier to attach the various bits and pieces of each system. I went with plywood on the forward bulkhead as this is the area where my work bench will be, and I want dont want to be limited to the bulkhead framing as the only points of attachment for various things.

I cut it a little close on my measurements for my fuel tank fill points. I wanted the fill lines to be as close to the outside hull sides as possible, and as you can see I achieved that. I had to hog out a bit of the rock wool, then push the aluminum in to get the two inch nipple to thread in. The rest of the assembly will fit just fine as the hull is leaning outboard at this area of the boat.

Im pretty happy how the material bends and the fact that Im able to fabricate some of the corner pieces I need. This picture is where the ceiling jumps up to accommodate my door. This detail is the same on both the forward and aft sections of the engine room. This detail also gives me three more inches of headroom over my work bench.

The room is about 70% complete in regard to fitting out the aluminum wall and ceiling sheathing, and 100% finished regarding the sole, so I decide to drop in the generator. The engine room is now completely closed off. Im going to miss that large opening as it was easy to drop material into the space, and it also made things nice in regard to ventilation.

The engine room, for the most part, is sheathed. I still have to cover the seams with some trim, but Ive yet to find a source or figured out what the trim will look like. Im thinking I"ll go with a 1" piece with some sort of slight brake on both edges.

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Boat Plans Wooden | Sea Chest Complete

Boat Plans Wooden

I finished the sea chest, and installed it.

Ive been hunting for a used sea strainer, and finally found one on Ebay. The dude I bought if from had purchased it for his boat then had a change of mind. The strainer is in new condition having never seen the water.

I welded a leg on to the manifold that I will screw on to the fixed panel that covers part of the fuel tank. Ill be able to access the fuel tank clean out without having to take the sea chest apart as the panel Im using as a brace is adjacent to the access panel.

The final elevation of the top of the "T" is 1" below the water line ( DWL). You can see a line drawn on the fuel tank inspection cover that represents the DWL. I"ll have to extend a nipple up above the DWL, and put a cap on it. Maybe Im not seeing something in my approach to using a T vs a 90, but I like being able to peek down into the "T" just to see what I can see. I also used a coupling on the end of the manifold that will have a plug in it, so I easily be able to expand my sea chest by adding on to the coupling/manifold. I can also expand the sea chest via the T, but Id have to go with a self priming device due to elevation concerns.

I think Im going to remove the plastic bowl on the sea chest and stash it away while I do more fitting out in the engine room. I also have to cut away the piece of angle under the third valve as it is no longer needed and is sort of in the way of the last valve. I think Ill extend the sole under the sea strainer now that I know what the final elevation is going to be. As you can see from the picture, I have enough room to put the valve handles behind the sea chest. Having the handles in the rear is really dumb luck on my part, but nice in that the handles are out of the way and wont snag one as they move past the sea chest.

Now that the sea chest is complete, I can finalize the generator connections.

I like having all my thru hull fittings in one location that is easy to get to. Every time I enter the engine room, it will be impossible not to look at the condition of the sea chest.

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Boden Boat Plans Australia | Composting Toilet

Boden Boat Plans Australia

As of press time, deciding the toilet type was one of the more thought provoking decisions made on the boat build to date. Every boat Ive been involved with has had a macerating type toilet. Every boat owner I know has a macerating type toilet. Every boat owner in my neck of the woods whom I spoke with regarding composting toilets thought this to be a foolish idea ( I guess old habits are hard to dump). It is for all of the reasons I just stated, and a few ideas of my own, that I decide to utilize composting toilets on the trawler.

Im not going to go into a ton of detail on this toilet, but I will say that it is a simple device that is well thought out in regard to use and maintenance. I was a little nervous about going this route, but after installing the unit and giving it the twice over evil eye, Im feeling pretty confident that this composting toilet is going to make life on board more simple.

I went ahead and installed and finished the toilet area of the bathroom so I could have a working toilet while I build the boat. The toilet has a 12 volt fan built in to power air into the composting bin. The fan only pulls a few mill amps of current, so I decided to power it off of the circuit for the shower sump. I installed a simple set of 12 volt thumb screws in a wall box to make the connection to power the fan. This is a fast, simple connection that is reliable and looks pretty decent. Before I sheathed the walls, I installed a 1 1/2" PVC vent line to vent the composting bin. The vent line will eventually exit the front wall of the wheel house. After one drops a bomb in the composting bin, a stainless steel handle needs to be cranked a few times to mix the material in with the peat composting media. The handle can be used on either side of the unit, but since we are all right handed, I used the right side. Under normal conditions, the unit can handle about 80 events ( gotta love being politically correct while trying to talk about defecating). The science behind this is simple: keep the solids and liquid separate, keep oxygen moving in all the right places, good ventilation and moist composting media. This thing will work.

Im pretty much sold on this idea, but I still installed a 1 1/2" schedule 40 PVC transport line from the bathroom to the main holding tank of the boat. Getting that line installed was a pretty simple thing, and because I used rigid PVC, the line will last as long as Im on this world. If the composting toilet fails, I got a huge piece of infrastructure in place to use a different style head.

I read every post on every boat cruising forum I could find regarding composting toilets. I could not find one negative thing written about this style toilet. All post Ive read by hard core cruisers and live a boards all agree that those who switch to this style head do not switch back to the macerating, vacuum, or manual style heads along with the associated holding tanks. A large part of my excavating business is installing septic systems form homes, and Im pretty happy that I wont have the mini version of a septic tank on the boat. I now have two gray water tanks for a total capacity of 135 gallons, and 8 fresh water tanks for a total capacity of 360 gallons. It feels good knowing that none of the precious fresh water will be needed for flushing.

As the hour meter starts to tick and time begins to accumulate on the composting toilet, Ill start giving some updates on the performance. A few of you out there might be thinking that Im jumping the gun by getting a working toilet on board at this stage in the game, but the truth is that Im psyched to have another place to sit and ponder.

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Boat Plans Bateau | Guest cabin dressing room update

Boat Plans Bateau

The six cabinet doors are finished and I have two coats of Urethane on all the wood in the guest cabin dressing room. I also have the sink base top completed, but its not installed yet as I changed my mind on the sink. I had purchased a square stainless steel sink for this room, but because the top is an odd shape, I could not get the sink installed in such a way that it looked aesthetically pleasing. A square sink on a trapezoid top just doesnt look right, so I decided to sell the square sink, and buy a round sink. Im still waiting on the round sink to arrive, then Ill finish the sink base install.

I had enough 1/4" Cherry plywood to use for the doors, so I decide to use a flat panel vs a raised panel for these six doors. I used the same style and rail method of door building as the master cabin. Using the flat panels shaved quite a few hours off of the door construction while helping preserve my stock of air dried lumber.

This room, along with the master cabin, are as finished as they are going to get for right now. Once Ive got the boat at the launch site, Ill give all the wood one more coat of Urethane. Ive still got quite a bit of work to do and it makes no sense to me to spend my time putting any more urethane on the wood as its going to get banged up. Theres enough protection on everything to get it through the rest of the build.

Im going to start on the kids cabins sometime next week. Im feeling confident that Ill get all the cabin wood work finished this Spring.

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Boat Plans Aluminium | Scrap yard finds for the engine room

Boat Plans Aluminium

My excavating business is as poor as Ive ever seen having been self employed for 20+ years. With my revenue down so low and my not wanting to not work on the boat even though I have much less cash to throw at the project, Ive taken to visiting scrap yards looking for some material.

This post still reflects my working in the engine room, but I want to look at the value of utilizing used material.

Given the down turn in the economy, I had my mind set that I was going to have to sheath the engine room floor in plywood and probably paint it. While down at the scrap yard today unloading the fruits of me cleaning up around the shop, I noticed some aluminum diamond plate getting ready to be processed. The material was a double diamond plate pattern 3.5 x 7.5 x 1/4" thickness. There were 20 sheets, but from what I could remember five sheets would be plenty, so I went ahead and struck a deal for six sheets. We agreed on a price of $.80 per pound. For the six sheets my total costs were $300.00. The pattern of the diamond plate was nothing Id ever seen before, and as you can see from this picture, it is a double diamond pattern. From here on out, Im going to call it "Double D", or "DD". Personally, I am partial to "DD", and it just makes me happy thinking about it.

I also needed a 2" stainless ball valve for my sea chest, and a 1.5" stainless ball valve for my holding tank pump out station. This scrap yard had a large bin of stainless valves and it only took me a couple of minutes to find two I thought looked good. I paid $1.00 per pound for the valves so my total cost for the valves came to $18.00. Both valves were 316 grade.

Once back at the shop I took the valves apart, applied some lithium grease, re-assembled them, then air tested them to 40 psi. I only used 40 psi since I was using PVC for my air test, and in all honesty, the valves will see no more than a two or three psi of pressure.

I also made a call to my local metal supplier to see what the costs were on new 1/4" diamond plate aluminum sheets. I was quoted a price of $3.75 per pound. The sheets of diamond plate I purchased weighed around 375 lbs. With the new cost of $3.75 I figured I got $1400.00 worth of diamond plate for $300.00. Im also going to estimate the value of the valves @ $175.00 and $150.00 respectively, for a total valve value of $325.00. By purchasing used material, I think I can figure the new value of the material at about $1700.00, but my total outlay for this material was only $318.00. Quite a nice savings in my opinion. I should also say that the scrap yard paid me $249.00 for the 2700 lbs of scrap I dropped off.

One more thing I should add about the valves is that they are rated at 1000 psi, and I think they are sch. 80 or sch. 120. I can say with confidence that these valves are what I would call "beefy" valves, and have what I would guess double the duty rating as any valve one might buy from a marine catalog.

The aluminum diamond plate I purchased was obviously used as a cat walk or some other industrial application. This is a great example of why metal is such a good building material. While this material could have been in heavy service for 20+ years, a little work on my part and it will clean up and look just like new. I also think that the aluminum diamond plate will make my engine room floor as fine as any of the so called high end production plastic yachts on the market.

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Boat Plans Australia | Engine room sole

Boat Plans Australia

The engine room sole is sheathed with 1/4" aluminum diamond plate.

I was planning on using plywood for the sole due to cost concerns on my part, but having found this plate at the scrap yard has allowed me to go with, what I consider, a more attractive sole. Because of being in the engine room, and also I believe it could be a common event to have to lift pieces of the sole off for maintenance I bolted wood firing to my steel framing and then attach the aluminum sheathing to the wood. If I had screwed the aluminum sheathing directly to the steel I had visions in the not to distant future of broken screws, corrosion where screws penetrated the steel, and just more difficult maintenance in general. Having wood to screw the aluminum in to will also give me a little vibration dampening in my opinion. Im using #12 x 1.50" stainless steel wood screws that Im countersinking as my fastener. The sole is complete as I write this post, and to date, Ive used 150 of the stainless screws to fasten the aluminum down.

I wanted as much level area in the engine room as I could build, so I stepped the sole framing up as the sole moves aft in the engine room. These steps, while some might not like, give me places of access underneath the sole, and also give me a place to sit while Im in the engine room. Whenever I give friends tours of the progress, almost everyone sits on one of these steps. This picture to the left shows the platform I built for my tool box, and my hydraulic system reservoir.

I think the largest piece of material Ive used for the engine room sole is a finished cut piece of 24"x 24". I dont want to be having to man handle large pieces when Im I have to access under the sole. I would rather be able to lift smaller pieces, to gain access and still be kneeling or sitting on the level sole. The down side to having all these smaller pieces is I used quite a few screws.

Im getting a pretty good feel on how the engine room is going to layout and I think Ive found locations for the various equipment Im going to need. Im going to dedicate the port side of the room up against the main bulkhead at frame #9 as my area for my work bench. While the head room is around 5"4" in this area, Ill be able to use a short stool with a lower work bench to be able to work in a comfortable position. Ill post more about the engine room as a whole once I begin to install the various components.

The last piece of the sole for me to build is the area over the stuffing box. Im almost out of aluminum plate so I have to give it some thought on how I want to treat this area so I dont waste any material. I think Im going to hinge a part of this area so I can gain quick access to the stuffing box for maintenance, daily checks for leaks, and stuffing box temperature.

I have 4 10" of head room on the starboard side of the engine, and 5 2" on the port side of the engine. I have more headroom on the port side by my design as I knew this area would house my work bench. Id love to have a stand up engine room, but on a boat my size, I think that would be almost impossible. I think once you get into the 50 range, stand up engine rooms start to appear. Im totally happy with the size of the engine room, and very pleased with the head room I do have. Ill be able to easily do all my maintenance work in this space in comfort.

The scrap yard aluminum worked out great. There are some blemishes, and some cleaning that will have to be done. I know as construction progresses, the dings I put in the sole, will blend in to what was there. Ill probably never do much more than clean up the messs I make. I have to say that I love the way the engine room is shaping up.

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Boat Trailer Plans Australia | Guest cabin dressing room update 2

Boat Trailer Plans Australia

The last few weeks have found me getting the Carver boat ready for its new owner so not much has been getting done on the boat build. Now that the carver is finished and out of the shop, Im back working on the boat build.

I received the new sink so I was able to complete the installation of the top, the sink, and the faucet. All the cabin plumbing connections are now complete. If I had the pressure pump and a couple of days work, Id be able to use the sinks.

I installed a new valve for the through hull fitting under the guest cabin sink. The valve I had originally installed was a cheap gate valve that was probably doomed for failure. I installed a more corrosion resistant ball valve in place of the gate valve and hopefully saved myself a future headache. I had read on another forum that gate valves have no place on boats, and I agree.

The through hull fitting under this sink is the only through hull fitting for the cabins sinks and shower. This through hull fitting is a stainless steel piece of pipe, welded in to the hull that is threaded on the inboard end. The ball valve threads on to the pipe, and that is my basic through hull fitting. If gray water needs to be held, the red handled ball valve is shut, the black handled ball valve is opened, and the sump pump selector valve is moved to the holding tank position, then all the gray water goes to the holding tank. If we can discharge gray water, the red handled ball valve is opened, the black handled ball valve is closed, and the sump selector valve is moved to the discharge position so all gray water is either pumped or gravity flow overboard.

The galley sink, the clothes washing machine, and the half bath above will have another holding tank and one through hull fitting to deal with that gray water.

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