Boat Plans Pdf | Passage door update

Boat Plans Pdf

All the passage doors are built with three of them hung in the openings.

Like I said in my last post I decided upon mortise and tenon construction for these doors. Just to give an extra added bit of strength to the joint, I through pinned each joint with two 3/8" wood dowels. The day I needed the dowels ( more of my great scheduling skills), I went over to the wood working supply store to get a few things and some Cherry dowels. The store was out of Cherry dowels, and in my haste to get a door assembled, I decided to make the dowel a design element, and went with Walnut dowels. The dowels all but guarantee the joints will never pull apart, and to be honest with you, I like the dark contrast of the walnut dowel. I think the doors will really pop once I have some finish on them. In order to prevent blowing out the back of the door while drilling the dowel, I clamped a block of wood where the drill exited the door.

The door project has put a serious hurting on my pile of air dried Cherry lumber, and Im going to have to harvest a tree or two before too long so I can have dry lumber by next summer. I really do not have enough time to air dry by next summer, so I might be building a solar kiln late this winter to speed things up. In order to save lumber, I decided to buy a sheet of 3/4" Cherry veneer plywood, rip the jamb stock off of the ply, then miter the stock back against itself to make it look like a solid board for the jambs. This worked out well ( more of a suggestion from Captain Ted of LTS Builders), and only took me an hour to rip all the plywood, miter all the end caps and glue and nail theme together. All told I fabricated ten jambs in an hour. I used my brad nailer to pin the miter pieces while the glue set up. You will not see the nail holes as I held the nails away from the miter, and my door casing, with its 1/4" reveal, will cover the nails.

The lumber pile is for sure on the down hill side of the ride, so I had to use some pieces that had a few flaws. My biggest concern regarding lumber quality was finding straight grain, and no cracks or checks. The styles and rails are 4" wide, and while it seems it would be easy, finding ten, six foot long pieces, that I could mill into the correct width with no cracks was a challenge. So given those search parameters, I used some pieces with bad knots. A bad knot is what I call a dead branch knot, meaning a dead branch created the knot. Dead branch knots will fall out or have rot around them. I dealt with the knots by routing them out the same way a dentist would remove a cavity, I then filled the excavation with a Dutchman patch. I really like the character the Dutchman patch gives the piece, and like not having to waste wood. I built five doors and I had to make four Dutchman patches.

Im pre-hanging the doors on my plywood jambs the same way a pre hung doors comes to any building site. I should have the doors hung and cased by the end of the week, then Ill get some finish on them.

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Boat Plans Aluminium Australia | Update on Didi Sport 15 and Didi 950

Boat Plans Aluminium Australia

I have recently added two new radius chine plywood designs to our range and wrote about them on this blog. Here are updates on both boats.

Yesterday I visited the prototype of the Didi Sport 15 (DS15) that is being built by Hunter Gall in Virginia Beach. I hadnt seen it in the flesh for a few weeks and wanted to see how the deck is looking as it comes together. Hunter is doing a really nice job of his project, working slowly but meticulously.

His boat, "Scallywag", is looking very pretty. He stained the hull surfaces blue and the deck surfaces red before doing the epoxy coatings and these colours will be highlighted by areas of clear-finished timber. It all entailed a tremendous amount of extra work to get it right than if he had painted it in the normal way. The final result is very attractive and she will be an eye-catcher when complete. Hunter can be pleased with the overall results.

The deck configuration that I designed is unusual, with a raised mast deck and wave-breaker above a flat foredeck and the open self-draining cockpit. It gives a decidedly retro image to the deck, over the thoroughly modern hull. It reminds me somewhat of the Lightweight Australian Sharpies that my Dad sailed in South Africa when I was a child. That makes it  somehow fitting that Hunter Gall is Australian, I am South African and we have ended up working together on this project in USA.

Hunter Galls DS15 project nearing completion

Other news on the DS15 is that work will start in the next few weeks on moulds to build a composite version in Europe. I will release more information about it after I return from the Cape to Rio Race, by which time the builder may be ready to start receiving enquiries.

The other boat was the Didi 950, for which the prototype kit has been cut and will be delivered to the builder in the next week or two. It appears that this is going to be a popular design because we have sold plan packages for another three boats since announcing the design.

Didi 950, bigger sister to the DS15

 One of those boats will result in a variation on the design, with a lifting keel. A lifting keel was part of the original concept for the builder of the prototype but he decided in the end on the simplicity of a fixed keel. The lifting keel proved to be a very viable option, using the same basic keel support arrangement as the fixed keel with no structural redesign. The major difference will be moving the motor aft to a position under the companionway, driving a saildrive rather than a shaft. This is to make room for the lifting keel to rise through the galley central locker unit.

The prototype of this design is to be built in Ohio, USA. The others that have been ordered will be built in Australia, Latvia and Greece. There is interest from other countries as well.

To see our full range of designs, please visit http://dixdesign.com/.

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Plywood Boat Plans Australia | Composting toilet update

Plywood Boat Plans Australia

This will probably be the one and only update on the composting toilet.

I put the composting toilet into service as soon as I had the room ready. After a few days of use and continuing my work in the boat I started to notice an odor. I was working in the forward cabin, kneeling on the floor working on the valve that drains the gray water holding tank. I kept getting a nasty whiff of funk, and after not much investigating, I concluded the odor to be coming from the composting toilet. I kept down playing the funky smell, and telling myself this was the "earthy" smell these units put forth. After a few days of this, I put down my tools and said to myself " this isnt going to work for me". I started looking at the vent pipe, the filter in the outlet and inlet, and put my hand over the inlet to make sure the fan was working. My hands are beat up and calloused, so I really could not tell how much flow was coming out of vent. I decided to get the lighter I keep to light the wood stove and see how much air that fan was putting out of the vent. Holding the lighter by the vent outlet, I determined the flow rate was pretty lame, and for that matter, it appeared that the flow rate was zero. So I moved the lighter to the inlet side of of the inlet to see if I could witness how much air was being sucked in. I now was thinking that the unit was not sealed to well, and maybe the funky smelling vapors were leaking out past the gasket and not making it to the vent outlet. Putting the lighter up against the fan inlet, I was surprised when the lighter was blown out. I re lit the lighter, and damn if the same thing did not happen again... the flame was blown out. I had the fan installed backwards, and the unit was venting into the cabin. The composting toilet is designed to pull air in across the solid waste bin, then vent that air out of the cabin via a 1 1/2" vent line, and I had it working just the opposite.

Now that the unit is plumbed correctly, Im happy to say it is working great. While the usage is light ( two" events" per day), the odor is non existent. There is a slight musty smell when the door is opened, but it is neither offensive nor strong. The unit is easy to operate, and more easy to keep clean. The draw on the battery I use to power the fan is extremely low. The only thing I will do different in the future is to use a more compost friendly type of paper. Paper designed to break down would greatly increase the capacity of the bin. The bin is nowhere near full, but it is obvious that the paper does not degrade as quickly as other material.

This type of toilet is probably not for every boater, but Im going to have to claim this as a success. Its pretty stinking simple, and my first hand experience finds that it works exactly as designed. I doubt very much Ill go back to the old style toilets.

After reading these last posts, youre probably thinking I have too much time on my hand, so Im going to change the subject "matter" now. My next post in a couple of weeks will show some progress in the guest cabins.

Heres a picture of the cabinet I built for above the toilet. The amount of storage in this boat is going to be nice.

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Yacht Boat Plans | Bilge pumps

Yacht Boat Plans

To date, I have three bilge pumps on board. Basically, one bilge pump for each of my three water tight compartments. One pump in the cabin area, one pump in the engine room, and one pump in the lazarette. The pumps in the engine room and cabin area are 1 1/2" discharge, 3700 GPH Rule pumps with Water Witch sensors for the switch. The pump in the lazarette is a 1 1/8" discharge, Rule 1500 GPH. I have also made provisions in my hydraulic circuit to have on board a hydraulic pump rated @ 11,000 GPH. The hydraulic pump will be plumbed in to the engine room and forward cabin compartments, and I will direct which compartment it is to pump out via a valve and manifold. The 11,000 GPH hydraulic pump is a two inch discharge. The pumps all have an automatic float switch along with a manual switch. The pumps will have a control panel at the helm that alarms when water is high and an indicator light telling me if the pump is running. Its pretty easy and inexpensive to install an event counter on the pump, and that might be another handy device to have on board.

On past boats Ive owned, bilge pump access has always been one of my pet peeves, and production builders seem not to care about ease of access. On this boat, Ive tried to make all systems components within easy reach, and have avoided burying components to a point that maintenance becomes difficult. The bilge pump in the cabin area and lazarette are extremely easy to access and Im happy with their placement. The 3600 GPH pump in the engine room is a different story, but I think I came up with a good solution to make this pump easy to service.

Hindsight being 20/20, I wish I would have moved the main engine forward in the boat by 8 or 10 inches. I placed the main engine as far forward to the center of the boat as possible, leaving the engine 8" off of the main bulkhead. That 8" separation gives me enough room to remove the belt guard bolts and be able to service/replace the serpentine belt on the front of the engine. The problem is that 8" really does not give me enough room to access the bilge pump which is under the engine, on the port side, and up against the bulkhead. The real problem is that the bilge under the engine mounts, is over 24" deep, and making pump connections will be extremely difficult at best. The other issue complicating this job is that all the hydraulic lines for the steering, bow thruster, and anchor winch penetrate the water tight bulkhead in this area, so access is not only tight, but it is crowded. The hydraulic lines received the premium real estate in the bilge and penetrate the bulkhead at a high elevation which makes them relatively easy to connect.

The solution I came up with for the engine room bilge pump was to make a bracket on a post and mount the pump to that. The pump mounting post then screws to the bulkhead wall. I installed plywood on both engine room bulkheads, and that decision is paying some dived-ens given the amount of equipment Ive attached to the bulkheads without worrying about hitting a nailer. The flexible 1 1/2" bilge pump discharge line is already connected through the bulkhead before I lower the pump in to place. I make the pump to discharge connection while the pump is out of the bilge, make the wire connections, then lower the pump on its bracket in to the bilge, and bolt the bracket to the bulkhead with four screws. Removal or installation of the pump takes less than a few minutes. The thing I like about this way of mounting the pump is that if I event suspect the pump has a chance to get oil fouled due to work being done in the engine room, I can easily lift it out of harms way, do my work, then easily and quickly replace it. I have about five or six hours in making the bracket and tweeking it, but for me, this is time well spent. I know the older I get, the more difficult it is going to be to cram myself in tight places, and being able to easily service this pump will make life on board much more user friendly. Now that Ive had the pump in and out of the bilge a few times, Im totally happy with this set up as its a breeze to make the pump connections while the pump is sitting on the engine room doors threshold.

For the lazzarette pump and forward cabin pump, I fabricated some stainless steel brackets. The pump base bolts to the bracket and the pump snaps to the pump base. I tapped threads the metal the fabricated bracket screws to so I could use 10-24 stainless machine screws to mount the bracket. These pumps are easy to access by so no fancy post contraption needed to be fabricated.

I kind of frown on boats that have a rats nest of wire and wire nuts dangling in the bilge for the wire connections on bilge pumps. I decided that I want all my wire connections in a good junction box, so thats what I did. For me, its all about future maintenance and not having to contort myself for basic service work.

I dont have the hydraulic crash pump installed and probably wont have it for a few years. Ive made all the plumbing preparations for the pump in regard to the bulkhead penetrations, and the hydraulic circuit. This pump, more than likely, will not get installed until we get the boat in to the gulf a few years from now.

The engine room bilge pump and forward cabin pump discharges along side the water tank fill manifold on the port side of the boat. The discharge lines loop 12" above the discharge port then drop back down to the discharge port. The discharge port is 12" above the water line.

Im using a drippless seal for my prop shaft, so Im planning on a dry bilge in the engine room. Given the boat is steel, I feel as having dusty bilges is a realistic goal. And while I feel as if I will probably never use my bilge pumps, I want a good installation that is easy to service and maintain so when the day comes that the pumps are needed, I can rely on my end of the work as not contributing to a failure.

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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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Boden Boat Plans Australia | Fairing the hull

Boden Boat Plans Australia

The phrase "fairing the hull" took me a while to figure out its origin. My interpretation of what is fair is just that... it feels fair. Running ones hand across the hull sheathing reveals more than what your eyes can see and as you keep running your hand across that hull skin you start to get a feel for whats fair. Fair is not perfect and fair is not feeling bumps and gouges in the metal... fair is fair...it feels pretty fair. Sort of like how Manana does not mean tomorrow, it just means not today.

I bought my steel wheel abraded, primed and plasma cut. The wheel abrading removed the mill scale and left a good profile for the primer to stick to. Im building inside so rust has been a non issue for me and my original primer has remained intact. I started the fairing process ( above the water line only) by grinding all welds smooth. I also hit some of the "weld through" with a grinder if the bumps felt abnormally high. Weld through are areas where the metal pushed out from the welds I created welding the longitudinal stringers to the hull sheathing. After I had all the grinding done I spot sand blasted all the grind marks, rub rails, and any spot that had rust blooming. I then gave the whole hull a light blasting to tooth up the existing primer. I blew off the hull with compressed air and applied three coats of epoxy primer alternating colors between the coats ( white and gray). I then began the process of mixing epoxy ( Gougon Brothers) fairing compound and filled all the areas I had ground such as weld seams and deep weld through marks. After multiple applications and sanding of those areas I sprayed one more coat of epoxy primer then gave the hull two coats of high build primer with the tendency to lay it on thick.

High build primer is like liquid filler putty being extremely easy for one to sand. Using a 30" flexible sanding block and rolls of self adhesive 80 grit 2" wide sand paper I sanded the hull. The high build primer shows every little dip and doodle in the hull. While "long boarding" the hull Id find areas where Id sand back into the metal ( very high spots). If these areas were really high Id hit it with a the grinder, re blast, re prime with epoxy, more filler if needed, more high build, re sand. I really did not use much filler as the hull was very fair when I began. Most of the filler was used up creating a smooth transition from the hull skin to the rub rails, around the port lights, and in the area of the freeing ports and hawse holes. Once I was pleased with the long board sanding I blew off the hull, vacuumed the hull, wiped her down with tack rags and applied two more coats of epoxy primer to seal the high build primer.

I faired the hull one side at a time, working at a pretty steady rate since I was doing this over the winter in the shop. Each side took two months to complete and has landed on the top ten most nasty jobs to date.

Having now looked up at the hull thousands of times in varying light I have found a few areas that will need more a little more fairing before I apply the topcoat. Id guess Ill have two more days in fixing some of these areas so I dont consider them a big deal as most will just involve some sanding and high build primer. My future plan for the top coat is to scuff the few areas that need attention, epoxy prime, high build, sand and repair, more epoxy primer. The whole hull will get a good washing, a scuff with 80 grit, one more coat of epoxy primer, then Ill spray the top coat.

I only have a few pics of the faired hull. For the most part all the body work is finished and shes ready to paint. Ill be able to topcoat a few areas of the hull in the shop prior to attaching the wheel house and salon, but Ill probably save the bulk of the hull topcoat until after the wheel house and salon are attached.

Conall

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Boat Plans And Kits | Update on DS15 Bateleur

Boat Plans And Kits

Jim Foot launched his Didi Sport 15 (DS15) a few months ago. After initial photos and reports Jim went quiet. I suspect that he busied himself with regular sailing to learn the characteristics of his new boat, to understand how she likes to be handled in a range of conditions.

Today Jim has sent another report, detailing his sailing this past weekend. He sailed on Algoa Bay, off Port Elizabeth, sailing in sportboat mode with the lead bulb on the keel. Starting with light breezes, it rapidly changed to 35-40 knots, as happens pretty regularly in this part of the world. Unperturbed by the gale force conditions, Jim and his crew Thomas Ochabski put in a reef, left the big asymmetrical stowed in its bag and carried on sailing. Jim says that there was a keelboat in attendance in case of mishap, which gave him the bravado to carry on sailing.

DS15 "Bateleur" about to get wet for the first time.

 Here are extracts from Jims own words about his experience with "Bateleur" in these conditions.

Beat back to harbour (from about 2 nm offshore) and then had a blast reaching around for about an hour or more.   Great fun.   Naah, understatement, awesome, awesome fun!

For the first time really felt that things were a step up on the speed stakes.   When I was building the boat I imagined a mini Volvo 60 with associated responsiveness and upwind speed. And this is what I felt the boat was achieving.

He promises some GoPro video by the end of the week.

And what about light wind speed? More words from Jim.

The other thing, the boat is incredibly fast in very light winds with weight forward. Everyone who has sailed her in light conditions (<6 kts) has remarked about this characteristic.  Thanks Dudley for a great design.

To see more of this and our other designs, visit our main website or  mobile website


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Boat Plans African Queen | Fuel system update fuel transfer

Boat Plans African Queen

The fuel transfer system resides in the engine room on the port side of the boat against the aft water tight bulkhead. Ive put a huge dent in the amount of work building the transfer system, and there is enough of the system completed for me to blog about. I want to use JIC fuel fittings on the lines between the intake manifold, the filter, the pump and the distribution intake, so I have to wait until Tuesday to get the lines made. Once I run the wire for the disconnect switch and get those lines fabricated, Ill be able to pump fuel from tank to tank.

I have four fuel tanks on board for a total of between 1300 - 1400 gallons. Three of the tanks will be used for storage, and the fourth tank will be a 200 gallon "day" tank that will be used to feed the main engine and the 10kw generator. The fuel transfer system is completely independent from the fuel delivery system which feeds the machinery out of the 200 gallon day tank.

Every day we are traveling on the boat we will manage our fuel by transferring fuel from tank to tank and making sure the day tank is full. As the fuel is transferred it will be filtered through a 1000 series Racor filter that will also remove water. The fuel that leaves the day tank to feed the machinery, will again pass through another Racor filter before being filtered by the factory filters on the main engine and generator. I have a mechanical flow meter in the transfer system that will be the primary way we keep track of how much fuel we have left and how much we are using. Once I fill the tanks and have some sort of base line for tank capacities, well use a log book to track fuel usage along with a flow meter on the main engine and dip sticks for the tanks.

The transfer systems pump is a rotary vane pump driven by a 120 volt 1/2 hp motor. The motor is continuous duty rated motor so I dont have to worry about run time. The pump and motor can move 220 gallons per hour which exceed the 180 gallon flow rate of the 1000 series Racor filter. I dont know if I need to put a gate valve on the pump to choke it down or if the Racor will do that for me. The motor pulls about 7 amps, and Ill have it wired in to the inverter circuit so I don have to worry about having shore power or the generator running if I want to transfer fuel. The rotary vane pump is self priming and is pretty close to bullet proof. This is very long life pump made by Procon that should give me a long life of reliable service. If for some reason the pump or motor fails me, I have a manual pump plumbed into the system that will handle our fuel transfer needs. I got the idea of the manual pump from a careful builder doing a fine job on building their 55 footer. You can check out Peter and his families boat building blog here: building koloa . If the manual transfer pump fails me I can use one of the four drain valves and another type of manual pump to move fuel. If I dont feel like doing that, I can block the vents and carefully use my air compressor and a regulator to push fuel from tank to tank using the transfer manifolds.

When transferring fuel,the fuel is pulled for one of the four tanks via a four port manifold. After the fuel goes through the filter, pump, and flow meter it is then pushed through a distribution manifold with five valved ports. Depending on what combination of valves is opened is how the fuel will find its way to the desired tank. On the five valve distribution manifold, four valves are for directing fuel to any of the four tanks, and the fifth valve is used for pumping fuel to some place else. If I ever have to give fuel to a stranded boat or get fuel off of the boat for some other reason, the fifth valve will be the way to do it. I actually have a sixth port of the distribution manifold since I did not know from which end I was going to be feeding the manifold. I have the sixth port plugged. All the flexible fuel line Ive been using in the engine room is Coast Guard approved marine fuel hose.

This was a pretty involved project, but Im for sure on the tail end of it and will have it operational within a few days. If I were to do it all over again, I would have paid more attention to how I was going to run the piping while I was building the tanks. A plan would have been nice, but you know how that goes. Stainless steel pipe would have been another good thing, but since Im on a shoe string budget, painted steel pipe will have to do. All the piping has been air tested from the manifolds, through the tanks to the deck fills and vents. Ill probably put 30 gallons of fuel in the system and start moving fuel around to clean the tanks. The next part of the fuel system to build is the delivery system and returns for the main engine and generator. Ill be starting on the delivery system this week.

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Boat Plans Aluminium Australia | Fuel transfer system complete

Boat Plans Aluminium Australia

The fuel transfer system is complete, and I dont have to do any more work on it. Well, I guess a persons definition of "any more work" should be discussed over a beer sometime. I do have to decide which electrical circuit I am going to use and make that connection. I only have one circuit ran to the engine room so far ( lights) , but Im going to be installing some more circuits in the next week or so as I am beginning to do some design with Kevin Morin ( www.metalboatbuilding.org) on the electrical system.

I backed my service truck in to the shop and pumped 30 or so gallons of fuel into tank #4 . I temporarily wired a plug end on to the fuel pump transfer switch and once I made sure I had the correct valves open ( I need to label the tanks), I turned the pump on. It took a about a minute for the pump to pick up the fuel, but once the the fuel hit the flow meter the sound of the pump changed and the flow meter started clicking off tenths of gallons. It felt good to finally have a system up and running.

To make sure things were as they appeared, I checked the amperage draw on the pump. The pump is only pulling 5 amps, which is lower than its full load rating. I also ran the pump for five minutes to check the flow rate. The flow rate of the pump is just about 220 gallons per hour based on my five minute run time. The flow rate I measured is is exactly as advertised by the manufacturer. The 1000 series Racor filter is rated at 190 gallons per hour maximum flow, so I have to figure out what is happening with the measured flow rate of the pump and the maximum flow rate the filter is advertised as capable of. At a first glance, I would have figured that the filter can only physically allow 190 gallons per hour of flow through it given the micron size of the filter media. I might put in a call to Racor and ask their opinion. A gate valve would choke down the flow rate and give the pump some head to work against. Ive always felt that pumps live longer if they have some head to push against.

I want to install a vacuum gauge on the filter to monitor when it begins to clog. I think Ive seen Racors with a vacuum gauge in the "T" handle, and given how Ive plumbed things, that looks like a good option.

After I had ran the electric pump for a half hour or so, I closed a valve, and opened the two valves for the emergency manual transfer pump. I pumped about five gallons to see how it worked, and Im pleased to say it worked fine. I will say that whenever one of the kids makes it to ye ole shit list, they can meet me in the engine room to manually transfer a 100 gallons of fuel.

It really feels good to finally have a system up and running. Because I now have all the fuel pipe work completed, some of the smaller jobs will begin to fall in to place. I can now install the generator in its final resting spot vs rolling it around the engine room on 3/4" pvc pipe. Once the generator is set, I can finish the conduit run for my AC in the engine room, and so on and so on....

Now that I have fuel running through the tanks, I will continue on my schedule and build the fuel system for the main engine and generator. This is not nearly as complex or costly as the transfer system, so hopefully Ill have that up and running in a week. Ill fire the engine once I have all the fuel parts in place.

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Dinghy Boat Plans | Bathroom update

Dinghy Boat Plans

All the foam in the bathroom has vanished behind the finish work.

I had some green bead board left over from the kids cabin and installed that for the ceiling. I think Ill tone the green down a little and paint it a more neutral color such as a tan. The access panel for the 4" exhaust fan is finished along with the port light trim ring. I also finished the trim work around the cabinet. Its so nice not to see foam anymore.

Since the ceiling and ceiling trim is installed there was no reason not to install the shower fixtures. The shower is now functional including the wiring of the shower sump. I still have to address the faulty sump switch, but someone told me Rule has an excellent replacement policy and as long as the switch is less than a couple of years old, theyll replace it with no questions asked.

I have the hatch framed in out of Cherry, so Im ready to fabricate the hatch that accesses the shower sump and valves that direct the sump discharge. Im going to install a new floor in the bathroom as Im not happy with the Cherry plywood I have under the composting toilet. The fit is less than great, and it bothers me. I ran into a hard wood floor installer I know the other day and he has enough scrap of Brazilian Cherry in his shop that will do my floor. I only need about 15 square feet and the few dollars a square foot I"ll pay him is extremely fair to me.

I installed one 7 watt LED can light in the bathroom. In a perfect world, another light would be ideal, but the one light does the job and gives the room a nice glow. All the lights on the boat are controlled by wall switches, and I prefer that much more than having a switch on the light. The can light pivots, so we can direct light either in to the shower or in to the cabinet above the toilet.

I think the next move after I complete the bathroom is to do some DC electrical work on board. I want to get the battery cables installed along with the battery control panel for my three battery banks. I can now install the lower air conditioner along with the duct work and then button up the starboard chase way.

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