Building a Sailing Trimaran - Page 4

The boat is hauled outside again to measure the distance from the masthead to the same point on the starboard and port floats to make sure the mast doesn't lean one way or another. This is also a good measurement to make sure I have been building everything close enough to acceptable limits. The difference in the measurement from port to starboard was 1/8 inch, and I think I can live with that.

Based on Jim Michalak's suggestions, I'm chiseling out wood on the rudder cheek that lies underneath the pintle straps. This way, when the pintles are installed, they can be flush with the rudder cheek surface and not get in the way of the pivoting rudder blade.

All done. Now we can install the tiller arm. The foot pedal control cables will attach to this piece to turn the rudder right and left.

Here is the rudder cheek assembly installed with the pintles and gudgeons.

Since there can be a great deal of force exerted on the tiller arm, I also reinforce the epoxy joint with 4 wood dowels.

The aluminum mast step and both mast partners are epoxied in place.

Right and left rudder foot pedal controls are also installed. These can be adjusted forward and aft for people of varying leg lengths.

Testing out the rudder control motion using twine and clamps. Looks like it will work!

Lots of blocks necessary to get the rudder control cables turned in the right direction.

Here is some extra wood blocking where the aft crossbeam sits to make sure the bolts don't pull out of the side of the gunwales under extreme conditions.

My wife Anna is trying out the rudder controls for herself. I think they'll do...

The rigging for the centerboard uphauls and downhauls are installed with Jon's assistance. Now, simple rope controls can set the how far each centerboard is raised and lowered.

The hatches all get a good bit of epoxy filleting around the corners to make them all strong and watertight.

Time to attach the skeg to the main hull. I opted for a 3 foot long by 1.25 inch high skeg piece made from luan laminated in fiberglass. This should be more than enough directional stability for when the boat is used as a canoe without the sail and floats.

Since I want my rudder to stay down when water is rushing past it, it needs some weight down low. So, I bought some cheap lead fishing weights and a pot I wouldn't mind throwing away after one use. I'll use a camp stove to melt down the lead in the pot, then pour it into the void in my rudder blade, using the piece of sheet metal as a backing so it won't run out the other side.

Here I installed some stainless steel wood screws so when the lead is poured in, it will form around them and be held in place.

The lead has been melted down and poured in place. We'll let this cool for several hours before messing with it again...

These are some double wooden fairleads I made to allow the uphauls and downhaul lines for the centerboards pass underneath the port and starboard jibsheet camcleats. The camcleats will be mounted on top of these fairlead pieces, and the ropes will pass through them. I put a coat of epoxy through the insides of these to keep the wood from rotting and to provide a smoother surface for the lines to pass through.

All the hatches are fit and attached to the floats. That makes a total of nine separate hatches for this 16 foot boat. There will be no lack of storage space!

The fairleads, jibsheet camcleat, and centerboard uphaul/ downhaul camcleats for the port side installed. I think I may replace the wire fairleads on the jibsheet camcleats with more open plastic ones, because I tested the jibsheet controls in them and they tended to bind up on the fairleads. Also, I might replace the centerboard downhaul camcleats with autorelease camcleats, so if I hit a rock or sandbar with the centerboards down, the clamcleat will release rather than break the centerboard or the boat. To the right, you can see I installed my custom-made wire rudder control cables. The boat's almost there!

Here, I begin fiberglassing the rudder blade. The poured-in lead looked very gray and ugly when it was finished, so I opted to paint the bottom of the rudder blade solid black before applying fiberglass. This defnitely looks better, and maybe even like I planned it that way!

To fiberglass the rudder and other underwater control surfaces, I begin by epoxying the fiberglass on just the aft edge on one side first. Then, once that has hardened, I flip it over and pull the fiberglass taut with weights before epoxying the other side. This keeps the fiberglass from bulging out and getting air bubbles underneath the curved leading edge of the blade. This takes longer to do, but the end result looks much better.

The centerboards get done the same way as the rudder. The rudder cheek assembly also got a coat of fiberglass on top of the surface that will be in contact with the rudder blade, mainly for abrasion resistance. I decided it's always a good idea to put fiberglass anywhere wood is contacting a moving part or on any constantly submerged surface.

My aft hatch and new rudder control cables. The cables are the really good 316-grade stainless steel and they'll support over 1000 pounds; hopefully I won't need them to be that strong...

Time for finish work! All three hulls are coarsely sanded, and Jon and I go to work on applying the first coat of epoxy to the outer hull surfaces.

One coat on the main hull down, lots of epoxy coating to go...

Here's a coat for the outer hulls of both floats, and one side of both crossbeams. My boss from work, Eric, helped me out with these.

After a coat of epoxy inside and out everywhere, I sand it all down for another coat. My, this is tedious.

Another coat on the outsides. Each time, it gets a little bit smoother and shinier.

Let's not forget the hatch covers and other parts - anything wooden must get finished.

The top decks get another coat of epoxy.

Another view of the finish work.

Here is the boat lift mechanism I contrived. It allows me to pull one rope cleated to the wall next to the door to raise and lower the main hull, crossbeams, mast, and boom. I also use pulleys to get a 6:1 mechanical advantage so it isn't so hard to lift.

The floats get stored on a rack right underneath the smaller "Toto" canoe.

Since the boat can now be stowed out of the way, this is the first time I've parked a car in the garage since the boat building began. Now, we're going to Argentina for a couple of weeks, so boat building will be on hold for a little while.

The trip down to Argentina was great fun, but now it's back to some boat building! Unfortunately winter has finally caught up with us here in North Carolina, and the days are getting much colder. Kind of a drag coming back from summer in the southern hemisphere to freezing temperatures. With the garage doors closed and the lights on, I can keep it just above 50°F so the epoxy will set up. Here, I sand down the main hull for another coat of epoxy.

Since the view wasn't changing much between coats of epoxy, I decided to hold off on the pictures until it was time to varnish. Here, the decks and inside of the main hull has their first coat of varnish. You can already see the improvement in the wood's shiny appearance. And, you can almost smell the varnish fumes on this picture. Thank goodness for personal respirators, or I would probably be insane from brain damage now.

All the hatches and other wood pieces get varnished as well. There's a total of 20 separate pieces of wood that get attached to this boat. Quite a bit more complicated than a simple canoe.

That's the third and last coat of varnish for everything. Here, we're looking from the sterns up towards the bows. You can see my little hull ID number plate I epoxied in place on the upper starboard corner of the transom on the main hull. This is kind of like a VIN for a car; a number that can be used by the authorities to figure out if a particular boat has been stolen, or to contact the owner if it is recovered. You need one of these if you plan to register your boat. Since North Carolina law requires sailboats over 14 feet long at the load waterline to be registered, I need one too.

Here's my 5x12 utility trailer with my new custom framework for holding the boat. This is all treated lumber, galvanized bolts and screws, and indoor/outdoor carpet. The little funny stair-step looking pieces on the right side are there for securing the boom and crossbeams. The mast gets propped up against the angled piece at the rear, and sits up at an angle which just clears the top of my tow vehicle when put in place. Since at the front it is 9 feet off the ground, I won't be going through many drive-throughs with the trailer attached, but at least I know I won't be hitting any bridges on the highways.

The registration numbers and expiration decal go on both sides of the bow. I know they're ugly, but what can we do? It's the law.

The hardware is now all attached again, and epoxy was put down all the wood screw holes for greater strength and waterproofing. I used paraffin wax on the undersides of these pieces, so one day I might be able to remove them when I strip the varnish and reapply new coats of finish.

A look inside the cockpit. The instrument console contains an Eagle sonar unit, a hand-held Garmin GPS on a marine mount, and a small marine compass.

The aft deck and rudder control cables.

Looking forward from the sterns of the floats. All the hatches on this boat use compressible neoprene foam hatch tape along the inside edges to provide a watertight enclosure; you can see an example of the forward hatch that's open on the port float.

Side view of the floats and main hull.