Steel boat build - Almarine 1200fa

[JOHNPEET]

Apologies if you have covered this already, but what was your plan for painting the outside of the hull in the areas where it is sitting on the chocks?

I’m planning to move the boat from its current build location at the end of May, to a local yard where I will prep and complete the epoxy primer to the hull in the locations which are currently obscured by the cradle. There will also be other final assembly work to complete such as reinstatement of the radar arch and wiring, fitting of the props and batteries, which will have been removed for the crane lift and road transport.

 

[JOHNPEET]

Floors, windows and hatches!

So I had firing strips bolted to all the structural steelwork for the floors. The central saloon section of floor is about 600mm higher than the floor in the forward section and that of the aft cabin. Standing headroom within the finished boat is about 6’4” in the forward section, 6’6” in the saloon and 6’2” in the aft cabin.
I already had about 12 sheets of 18mm ply stacked in the boat from prior to welding in the windscreen. This was enough to complete the majority of the floor areas and was used where larger pieces were required. The smaller pieces could be passed through the window openings. The photos show the floors being and having been completed in the various areas. There is no insulation installed below the floor levels. You will also notice in the photos of the saloon area, the separate pieces that would later become the engine hatches and other access hatches to various pieces of equipment such as fuel tank access covers, water tank access covers, tank level senders etc.


Once the floors were laid, I then decided to fit all of the windows, the twelve portholes, two escape hatches (One in the forward cabin and one in the aft cabin) and the two small vent hatches just in front of the windscreen - one of which is above the galley and one in the small mid cabin. All of these items were supplied along with the original steel kit. The windows are obviously custom made and were manufactured by Marex via Vetus. All the other items are standard off the shelf Vetus equipment. All of which I had in storage for five years prior to fitting!

 

[JOHNPEET]

 

[JOHNPEET]

Apologies - seem to be struggling a bit tonight with adding the photos - the one of the air intake is upside down but I’ve tried deleting and re-adding but the same happens each time!

 

[Bouba]

John, you clearly state that you decided not to insulate the floors....what’s your reasoning? And will that extend to the walls?

 

[JOHNPEET]

John, you clearly state that you decided not to insulate the floors....what’s your reasoning? And will that extend to the walls?

Just to clarify - there is no insulation installed on the hull below the floor levels. It seems to be standard practise to only insulate steel boats from the waterline up!

I have gleaned the following from various books and other information sources on metal boats.

Corrosion is the obvious enemy of the steel boat and if not controlled, will often form from the inside out. This corrosion can be caused by trapped moisture originating from condensation. The first line of defence is to protect the steel with a good layer of epoxy. The second line of defence is to prevent trapped moisture from sitting on the steel. So the options are:
1. Prevent the condensation forming on the steel - requires a good layer of insulation in tight contact with the steel with a vapour barrier on the warm side of the insulation.
2. Ensure the condensation can freely drain away into the bilge from where it can be removed.

So, above the floors, I have attempted to achieve option 1.

Below the floors, I have achieved option 2.
It’s impossible to make the floors airtight, so it’s inevitable that some condensation will form on the hull beneath the floor. The engine space is open to the atmosphere, so the space will breathe. Time will tell as to how much condensation will form.

Obviously, from a comfort perspective, insulation is needed around the habitable space of the boat.

In all the books I’ve read on steel boats, I’ve seen no mention of the underside of the wooden floors being insulated for comfort.

All the steelwork above the floors is insulated - photos in tomorrow’s instalment! ??

 

[Bouba]

Just to clarify - there is no insulation installed on the hull below the floor levels. It seems to be standard practise to only insulate steel boats from the waterline up!

I have gleaned the following from various books and other information sources on metal boats.

Corrosion is the obvious enemy of the steel boat and if not controlled, will often form from the inside out. This corrosion can be caused by trapped moisture originating from condensation. The first line of defence is to protect the steel with a good layer of epoxy. The second line of defence is to prevent trapped moisture from sitting on the steel. So the options are:
1. Prevent the condensation forming on the steel - requires a good layer of insulation in tight contact with the steel with a vapour barrier on the warm side of the insulation.
2. Ensure the condensation can freely drain away into the bilge from where it can be removed.

So, above the floors, I have attempted to achieve option 1.

Below the floors, I have achieved option 2.
It’s impossible to make the floors airtight, so it’s inevitable that some condensation will form on the hull beneath the floor. The engine space is open to the atmosphere, so the space will breath. Time will tell as to how much condensation will form.

Obviously, from a comfort perspective, insulation is needed around the habitable space of the boat.

In all the books I’ve read on steel boats, I’ve seen no mention of the underside of the wooden floors being insulated for comfort.

All the steelwork above the floors is insulated - photos in tomorrow’s instalment! ??

I suppose a nice carpet could do the job

 

[Seastoke]

I suppose a nice carpet could do the job

Bouba I have worked out if you built this boat it would take 723 years..

 

[Bouba]

Bouba I have worked out if you built this boat it would take 723 years..

Well...that’s not bad...because if I bought a boat it would take longer than that to earn the money

 

[JOHNPEET]

So tonight’s instalment follows on from the question raised yesterday in regard to insulation. My original plan was to use spray foam for all steel surfaces above the floor levels. I prepped the aft cabin as an initial area to be completed - masked everything that I didn’t want to get spray foam on, had electric heaters running to warm the steel up and I’d had the air temp in the cabin at about 24 degrees for a couple of hours. I’d purchased a kit which should have contained enough product to complete about 3/4 of the total surface area of the boat, thinking once I got that far, I’d purchase a bit more to complete! The product came in two separate canisters complete with liquid lines, spray gun and a bunch of disposable mixing nozzle. So dressed in disposable overalls and a face mask, off I went a spraying!

Well, to say I was disappointed was an understatement!

Despite me getting the steel temp up and the air temp pretty high (weather outside was a pretty nice day in Sept), it was a disaster! The foam just didn’t want to expand as advertised! So I ended up using all of the product that I’d purchased, just in the aft cabin in order to get the thickness and cover that I wanted!

This stuff wasn’t that cheap to be honest, so it was time for plan ‘B’

Plan ‘B’ was to use 25mm thick Celotex. In order to ensure that there is no void behind the boards, each board is bedded on the full surface with expanding foam. I can hear the groans now! “He should have used closed cell foam”.

Well I didn’t! But I have formed a vapour barrier on the warm side of the insulation by sealing all of the joints in the Celotex to each other and to anything adjacent with self adhesive aluminium tape. I’ve seen plenty of chilled ventilation ducts insulated in the same way so I am hopeful that what I have achieved will be successful. I’m actually quite happy with what I have done in the rest of the boat and consider it to be at least an equal of the aft cabin!

Time will tell!

 

[Bouba]

Again excellent work ?. Don’t forget to spare no expense in sound deadening insulation in the machinery room...it’s a decision you will never regret...

 

[JOHNPEET]

So, with the firing strips fitted and the boat insulated, it was now time to line all of the ceilings with ply. Everywhere apart from the lower part of the forward section we’re lined with 8mm ply. The lower part of the forward section was lined with 18mm ply, then 8mm higher up.
All of the ply was cut to size, trimmed to fit and then glued and screwed to the firing strips with stainless steel screws. In fact, all of the fixings used throughout the boat are stainless steel.
Just after starting this phase of the build, I invested in a small good quality bandsaw which fitted through the cabin entry and stayed in the saloon area until just recently. It saved so much work and was worth its weight in gold!

Just for info - the internal finishes are all around American white oak. It’s not ultra modern - more a traditional style I would say! All of the cabinetry is American white oak and all ceilings that were being lined in the photos below, were further lined with 4mm American white oak veneered ply. The aft cabin en-suite, forward heads and galley areas are all lined with laminate to provide an easy wipe, waterproof surface throughout.

 

[JOHNPEET]

So the boat‘s ceilings are now lined out with ply - time to make final decisions on the internal layout and put some stud partitions in!

It’s taken eleven years for me to complete this build - I’m sure that at least one of those years was spent trying to decide on what I wanted to get in and trying to make that work In practical terms! The aft cabin was pretty straight forward. All I had to do there was decide on the size of the en-suite compartment and the position and orientation of the double berth. The forward section of the boat was more difficult to decide on. To cut a very long story short - I have a forward double cabin with vee berths. Just behind that on the starboard side, is a ”guest” heads but no shower in there, and then behind that on the same side is the galley - which is down from the main saloon area. Opposite the forward heads and galley on the port side, is a small mid cabin with two single bunks - one above the other. The interior helm is on the port side with a double helm seat. The saloon area has the usual large U shaped dinette with another double seat opposite.

A few photos of the stud work which was subsequently lined on one side with 8mm ply so that electrical conduits could be fitted in the voids where required, prior to the lining being fitted on the other side.

There’s also a taster for how the internals are finished with a photo of the helm when I was part way through oiling the oak!

 

[westernman]

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Looks very nice.
It would be a shame to leave it outside to get wet and dirty in the rain.

 

[JOHNPEET]

Looks very nice.
It would be a shame to leave it outside to get wet and dirty in the rain.

The thought had crossed my mind!

 

[Bran]

Much admiration to you sir, your attention to detail and skill set is incredible. I thought I am a good all round engineer but no way I could achieve what you have.
Hope you have great success and lots of relaxing time onboard.

 

[Hurricane]

I know how long and how much effort it is to post these threads.
Please keep posting - I am enjoying every word and photo.

 

[Sticky Fingers]

I know how long and how much effort it is to post these threads.
Please keep posting - I am enjoying every word and photo.

Hear hear one of the most interesting threads for ages this one.

 

[JOHNPEET]

From this point onwards, there wasn’t a clear sequential process in that the same activity was completed throughout the boat prior to moving on to the next activity etc. different things were happening in different parts of the boat and this was mainly due to having to wait for materials that had been ordered to arrive and sometimes having to order additional items or fittings which had not been foreseen. So the trick was to ensure that I had materials or equipment available to me so that I could continue work in at least some part of the boat and not be in a position where I was completely held up.
At this time, a lot of the mechanical services were installed and in particular, the fill lines and vents from the various tanks. In keeping with my aim of not having lots of fixings or holes cut into the steel, I chose to put the fill points for the tanks into the small outer lockers that I had created at the back of the fly bridge. The port hand locker has a fill point and vent for the port fuel tank and fresh water tank and also the electric hook up point for shore power. The starboard side locker has similar points for the starboard tanks plus the vacuum discharge outlet for the black water tank.

 

[Greg2]

A very neat job with the pipe work ?

As we have already said, this build is seriously impressive but I think what really impresses me is your ability to do what a number of ‘trades’ would do and to make a dammed good job of it!

Noting you early comment about doing it your way I am guessing that you have considered the risk of putting the wrong fluid in the wrong filler by locating them next to each other? In reality probably a low risk because you will be conscious of it every time you fill up with water or fuel and it probably says more about me that I take some comfort from the water being on the transom of our boat and the fuel fillers midships on the decks ?