Hi Everyone...
Its been a while since I have posted---so here is where I am in my build:
http://lumberjocks.com/matt1970/blog/27132
As you can see: the deck, and bulkheads are now all it...everything but the lazarette.
I am really thinkning about extending the cockpit a few inches further by pushing the laz back...since I will be using a tiller and Not a steering wheel...cant the compartment be smaller? Also...in the plans the sides of the lazarette DONT extend to the edge of the boat---wouldnt it be better to make this an air tight compartment...also this would allow the spaces under the benches and under the deck to be air compartments as well...
Ok...thanks for any help...
Matt
I made my lazarette a separate compartment and am not sad that I did. I also made the seat backs and the under seat compartments water tight between them. The rear compartments are not sealed through the doors so water can get in them, but for floatation I pack my foulies and bumpers and other misc. gear in there in water tight bags. I also cut an inspection port into the bulkhead from the cabin to allow for air flow behind the seat backs unless I seal them with water tight hatches that I use during dicey conditions. During my build, maximizing floatation was a big concern for me. Before spring I intend to make water tight hatch covers for the forward compartment to be used in dicey conditions. My deck hatch is gasketed to be pretty tight so I figure that should about do it without going too nuts.
Al
Greetings Mike,
My understanding is that
Air Tight on a wooden boat is the equivalent of
Rot Inducing. In every wooden boat I have ever sailed in, seen in person, or looked at photos of on the internet, the designers and builders have gone out of their way to make sure that fresh air can circulate around and get into every part of the boat to help prevent mildew and rot. Cabinet and locker doors are vented, ceilings are not contiguous from floors to shear clamps, and limber holes allow water to drain into the bilge from every part of the boat. If you are going to cut off the fresh air supply to a portion of a wooden boat, then you have to cut off
all of the air, which means complete epoxy encapsulation of each piece of wood before assembly and then filling the space with inert foam floatation.
If you build her to the plans, the materials used to build the average boat should weigh at almost 300 lbs less than the water they displace, so a swamped weekender will not go to the bottom unless you hang more than that worth of outboard and battery on the boat. But if you want her to sit upright in the water high enough to bail her out after a complete swamping then where you put the floatation is as important as having it. It needs to go high up in the boat, ideally just under the deck. There have been several threads on this. So a Search: [ floatation ] and start reading. Eventually you will find posts like this one
http://www.byyb.org/forum/index.php?topic=2455.0 which pretty much cover the important details. But the rest are entertaining as well.
Cheers,
Tom
In my case I did allow for fresh air into all compartments, unless I seal them up for short periods of time. As far as the seat backs go, I also am looking into using them to store my fishing gear, and tent poles for the boom tent. When I got water intrusion into the lazarette from wave action, I was glad that I could keep it there so that I wouldn't have to wipe out the storage compartments too. It was a pain to fit the adjusted lazarette front to make a good seal, but I believe it was well worth the effort.Â
Al
Thanks Tom and Al...
I will check out the link Tom...
Al---do you have any pictures?
Matt
I do have pics, but I can't seem to upload them. I got the idea for the inspection ports from Gianluigi's boat. He has some pics here in the gallery I think, but he also has some on the builders pages of the Stevenson site. Your build looks good. After I got that far, there was only two times that I needed an extra pair of hands. The hull sides are awkward to position and having a partner is handy to say the least, and anything that gets mounted through the hull sides, like the shelf or the lower rub rail.Â
For me, once I got the hull assembled and was sure everything was nice and straight, the pressure came off and I was able to go about my business pretty quickly. Even though I was working in the dead of winter, I got the hull put together in about 6 weeks. I had to take three months off of building after that in order to get my second hip replacement. Once I got back in the shop, I was really surprised at how long everything after the woodworking took to accomplish.Â
Keep plugging away. The end result is well worth it.
Al
Matt: As long as you HAVE a lazarette, shortening it won't make a differance. The "eggcrate" it creates is critical to the structural integrity of the stern, so you need to keep it. I ran my tiller thruogh the lazarette, which simplified rigging the mainsheet, and added an access hatch on deck, forward of the taffrail to store things in there. That's where my tool chest is, along with extra line, anchor, hardware etc. BTW I did extend the lazarette front to the sides of the boat, mainly because of the open cockpit design I used.
Dave
Thanks everyone...
Here is what I have so far...the new lazarette is dry fit...and I will create a hatch...I have some deck plates...but now I am thinking of a larger opening as a square rectangle...
I did NOT bend my lazarette...decided to keep it flat...but it is in 1/2 inch ply and runs all the way across to the sides which I will trim back...
There are some new picts on my blog---but you have to scroll DOWN into the comments section to see the laz pictures...
http://lumberjocks.com/matt1970/blog/27132
matt
I don't think the lazarette is necessary nor desirable on a small boat. None of my small designs incorporates an aft deck or lazarette. This said, the stiffness lost with it's removal can be replaced with a seat box; a sort of wrap around affair would look and function well. This seat would increase the length of the cockpit, still provide dry storage and if truly boxed (some deck plates for ventilation) a considerable amount of floatation too. Because the seat box would wrap from topside planking across the transom to topside planking, no lose of torsional stiffness would be seen.
The reason I don't install aft decks on small craft is two fold. First it's a pain in the butt to have to climb out on one to operate, start and fiddle with an outboard and second it eats into cockpit space unnecessarily, which can be preciously slim in small craft. There's no reason for an aft deck other then looks, which to me is a a contrivance I can live without. The argument that a boarding wave can be fended off by an aft deck is silly, as any wave big enough to climb over the transom is going to wash into the boat in spite of a little aft deck.
In short, make your cockpit 20% longer and skip the aft deck, by lowering it to seat top level and boxing it in, to retain strength. You'll get a lot more use from a bigger cockpit then an aft deck. You might even be able to stretch out, on the newly enlarged seats and get a tan, which isn't possible with the lazarette in place.