Building of the Tiki 46 n°2 "GRAND PHA" Part 1

[Bertrand FERCOT]

Building of GRAND PHA

Tiki 46 N°2   Part 1

November 2009. Since a few months  I spend almost all my time 7 days on 7 to build our Tiki46  until the 9-9-2009 when I have broken my left arm in descending too quickly a ladder.
During this last month I stay completely disconnected from the building, using my time to read and to learn more about the Linux system on my laptop and net-book which is a marvellous alternative system to Windows based on the sharing and cooperation instead competition and domination.
Now I can reuse slightly my arm, I wish to share a digest of my building experiences here.

In 1971 with my brother we rebuilt a 8m old gaff sail boat "Equinoxe" :

In 1974-1975 just after to get married we built (too) quickly in plywood a 9.7m mono hull sail boat "Piniouf" :

In the begining of the nineties I rigged my self in old gaff ketch an old classic wood work boat of 15m. It was a very hard work and from this experience I decide to have a boat free junk rigged with no shrouds :

 

 

After all these experiments we wanted a big cat for our big family and during the Summer 1998 we visited the Wharrams and bought the Tiki46 plan n°2, after we visited Anne & Nev who have built the bottom hulls of their Tiki46 n°1. After we drove to the Skye island to the PCA Wharram meeting and on the return we visited Robin Blain of Sunbird Marine to decide which junk rig we'll put on our Tiki46. When returning at home, we continue the building of the workshop :

During the Winter and Spring I finished the workshop and began to cut the bottom bulkheads and keel parts. In August 1999 we went to the PCA Wharram meeting near Plymouth with our Hitia14 and a model of our Tiki46 and after our return athome we began the building :
Puting epox on bottom bulkheads

Keel building

How to fix the tube for the propeller shaft

The propeller shaft tube is glued in the keel

April 2000 adjusting the stringer notches

May 2000 stringers ready

May 2000 children sanding the hull before the first hull ply

June 2000 preparing the first layer

June 2000 children putting off the staples

July 2000 visit of James and Hanneke when the second layer is glued

August 2000 third ply done and beginning of the last layer

September 2000 Bertrand and Marie-Helene when glassing the keel

September 2000 after to have put several glass layers around the keel preparing the complete hull glassing

September 2000 glueing an extra timber over the keel, after a stainless strip will be screwed

October 2000 turning the bottom hulls

December 2000 beginning of the upper hulls

During the winter I prepared the stringers with scarfs in glueing them in our living room.
In April 2001,I began to work in Martinique (West Indies) and so the Tiki46 building stopped until my next holidays in Brittany from mid July to mid August.

July 2001 fixing the upper bulkheads

July 2001 glassing the keel fillets in the hull bottom

July 2001 adjusting the bottom stringer with the upper stringer with a curved guide fixed on the planner

August 2001 epoxying the hull side panels. End of 2001 work.

July 2002 glueing the upper hull panels. This until the end of my holidays mid August.

July 2003 cut of the bottom hull side panels with a guide

July 2003 detail of the guide to cut the bottom hull sides

July 2003 how are putting the buoyancy foam panels

July 2003 all the inside lashing reinforcements are extended until the chine stringer

August 2003 building of the beam troughs. End of 2003 work.

In 2004 I got extra holidays July + August, so the work progress has been good.

July 2004 doubling the upper stringers

July 2004 t is possible to put out all the buoyancy foam panels from the hull

August 2004 the stringers on the upper outside side cabin panels are glued inside the cabin instead outside as on the plans

August 2004 glueing outside hull cabin panels

August 2004 glueing the back side stringers

August 2004 stern buoyancy area

August 2004 front buoyancy ready to be closed

August 2004 glueing the first layer of the front deck

August 2004 the stern is closed

August 2004 inside the starboard hull before to fly back in Martinique

I used all my 2005 holidays to sail back from Martinique to Morgat in Brittany in 29 days during June 2005. So no progress this year. I began my new job in Brittany in October 2005 and due to a lot of different little works to do with the house, cars, garden etc. the building of our Tiki46 restarted only in Spring 2006.
Year after year the help of our children go down as they have to live there own path and Marie-Helene who broke her foot was not really helpful before a long time.
To keep a good training level, each year we participated with our Tiki30 PHA to junk rig rallies in UK. The building of PHA in Martinique has been a good experience and her sailing tests help us very much to improve her big sister PHA#.

August 2006 reinforcing the junction with the cabin sides and upper hull sides with fillet + glass

August 2006 making the center part of the beams

August 2006 preparing the beam timbers

August 2006 glueing the triangular stringers on the beam frame

September 2006 beams ready to be glassed

October 2006 glassing the beams

March 2007 making the scarfs on the rudders

April 2007 making holes in the same time in the bulkheads and beams

April 2007 positioning the template to cut an elongated hole in the bulkhead instead in the beams

April 2007 the grinder is following the template to cut the elongated hole in the bulkhead

April 2007 preparing the glueing of reinforcement stainless plates on the slot sides

May 2007 elongated bulkheads holes with fillets in the corners and glass on the front

May 2007 a stainless tube is glued in the beams holes to avoid the pin damages the beams

May 2007 the pine crossing the bulkheads and beam

May 2007 handling the beams

August 2007 reinforcing the bulkhead where will be implanted the free masts

August 2007 reinforcing the bulkhead where will be implanted the free masts

August 2007 entrance of each hull with toilet and shower room

September 2007 the first roof stern cabin layer is ready to be glued

Retired in December 2007, I have now more time to work. The main limitation is the temperature to use epoxy (minimum 15°C for my epoxy), so I can work at full time from May to September.
During the winter I spent a lot of time to study and improve the efficiency of the advanced junk rig of PHA and to build new wishbones.
The main job in 2008 has been to finish all the sandwich decks (foam + 2 layers of biax 600g/m²).

May 2008 glueing foam panels on the front port cabin deck

May 2008 glassing the front hull cabin

May 2008 center hull cabin roof ready to receive the foam between the wood reinforcements

June 2008 center hull cabin roof finished

June 2008 different phases to get full glassed lashing rails

June 2008 how to oblige the glass to stay against the piece during the epoxy cure

June 2008 making holes to receive bolts and screws

June 2008 ready to hold lashing ropes

August 2008 glueing a half rounded stringer at the stern end in order to get a constant thickness from bottom to top

August 2008 adding epoxy and after glass to get a smooth surface at the stern edge

August 2008 making a large fillet under the chine stringer

August 2008 to get a good alignment of the beam support pads a lot of glue has been put before to apply the beam on the pad.

August 2008 result after to have put off the excess of glue and made fillets

August 2008 glueing several heavy glass layers under the skeg bottom to reinforce it

October 2008 glueing reinforcement wood on the main cabin pod sides in my live room

October 2008 glueing foam on the main cabin pod sides

During this winter I study again how to improve our Tiki30 "PHA" Swing wing rig and I made new wishbones. All this R&D work will be apply for our Tiki46.

February 2009 making the main bulkhead of the cabin pod

April 2009 front face of the cabin pod

April 2009 sides of the cabin pod

May 2009 assembling the cabin pod

May 2009 glueing the cabin pod bottom

May 2009 first part of the cabin pod bottom

May 2009 cabin pod bottom ready to receive the foam

May 2009 foam glued on the cabin pod bottom

May 2009 preparing the first glass layer on the cabin pod bottom

May 2009 Second glass layer on the cabin pod bottom

May 2009 glassing the second layer of the cabin pod bottom

June 2009 making a hole in the bottom to be able to stand up in front of the kitchen

June 2009 all the cabin pod bottom is glassed

June 2009 Glueing a streaming shape foam in front of the hole

June 2009 the foam is shaped in front of the bottom hole

July 2009 visit of Susi and Tom owners of the Tangarora AORAI rigged with a junk rig on each hull en route from Berlin to Quebec we met in Alderney when sailing back from the Junk rig meeting near Southampton at the end of June.

July 2009 glueing rubber pads on the beam bottom

July 2009 rubber paddle glued

July 2009 first step to make a lashing stop on the beam top

July 2009 fillets and glass to avoid all possibilities of moving the rubber pads

August 2009 painting the beams

August 2009 the pod and 3 back beams are painted

August 2009 beam in its beam trough

August 2009 one another possibility to hold the beams

August 2009 ready to turn over the pod

August 2009 the pod has now to be climbed on the2 central beams

August 2009 the pod is ok on the beams (after a little incident)

August 2009 now we have to glue the top pod parts

August 2009 at first making the top of the anchor lockers with adding plastic tubes around the openings

August 2009 the plastic tube is glueing

August 2009 openings on the hull sides have been made with a template and a grinder

August 2009 positioning the pod front face

August 2009 positioning the upper sides of the pod

August 2009 glueing the upper pod side

August 2009 the upper pod sides are glued

August 2009 adding fillets and glass to reinforce the joinings

August 2009 first step to adjust the variable top sides angle

August 2009 second step to adjust exactly the variable angle with a grinder

August 2009 detail of how is transformed the grinder

August 2009 how is adjust the top of the front side

August 2009 fixing temporary supports to build the pod roof

August 2009 glueing the first layer of the pod roof

August 2009 roof viewed from the handling cockpit

August 2009 inside the cabin pod during the building of its roof

August 2009 Marie-Helene looking at the job to do

August 2009 reinforcing the pod roof

August 2009 glueing the foam panels on the roof

August 2009 first glass layer on the pod roof

August 2009 second glass layer on the pod roof

The 09-09-2009 in descending too quickly one of the ladder of the building, I broke the top of my left arm! So during 3 months the building has been stopped.

February 2010 building of the engine room :

April 2010 building of the stern beam :

April 2010 climbing the starboard engine on the deck hull :

May 2010  supports for the stern cockpit floor :

May 2010 -putting the stern cockpit floor :

View under the stern cockpit floor :

May 2010 supports for the stem cockpit :

Putting the stem cockpit :

View under the stem cockpit :

May 2010 making the bottom floor between hulls and pod :

The space between the double floors is used to put the tanks of fuel, drink water and waste water :

 Building the top floor along the pod :

 Hatches in the floor to reach the tanks :

June 2010 the engine rooms are ready to receive a diesel engine Beta 25 in each hull :

Descending the engines in the hull :

 Putting the engine in the hull :

After the gear box a pulley is added  to be driven by an electric motor and behind the pulley a clutch shaft in order to be able to use the diesel engine as an electric generator at anchor :

The engines drive 17x11" fixed propellers :

Support for the steering system using only these 2 pulleys which will be bolted under the support :

The steering chain system :

Support for the controls of the  diesel and electric engines :

July 2010  finishing the fillets in the pod :

 Shaping the rudders :

 Glassing the rudders :

Drilling holes in the rudders for lashings :

 Drilling holes in the skeg for the lashings :

 Drilling holes in the hull for lashings :

 10-8mm copper tubes have been glued in the lashing holes to receive 8mm lashing rope :

 Lashing the rudders with a 8mm rope. Details of the holes protected with copper tubes :

The rudders lashings are completed :

 Making the support for anchors on the fore beam :

 Support for anchors on the fore beam :

 Glueing modified stern beam supports :

  August 2010 pre-cutting the escape hatches in  the hull sides :

Cutting the part of the stringers where will be the escape hatches :

Adding plywood layer on the place of the escape hatches to keep the shape of the hull when cutting the hull side :

Now after to have be thickened from the inside of  the hull, the part of the hull which will become the escape hatch is cut ( this thick part will become the escape opening panel) :

The hole is reinforced inside the hull  :

 View of the hole edges after to have reinforced the hole :

 A second reinforcing layer has been glued inside the hull to receive the rubber joint :

August 2010  4 Batteries Odyssee PC1800FT 12V- 214Ah will be fixed in each hull :

 Installation of the batteries and main control box in each hull :

Control desk to use the diesel or electric engines at the helm position :

 Diesel engine with the electric motor-generator and the additional shaft clutch :

 View of the main control box in the starboard hull  :

 Linch electric motor with a maximum of 10KW under 48V :

 Finishing the bow-head :

September 2010  Painting the hulls with  two  pre-coat epoxy layers :

 First layer of Coppercoat :

Second layer of Coppercoat :

Third and forth layer of Coppercoat

For further, look at the Part 2  from October 2010 to April 2012  and at the  Part 3  from May 2012 to her launch the 17th September 2012.

[Ann and Neville Clement]

Amazing and beautiful photographs. Congratulations on your fantastic work and innovation. Ann and Nev

[luis]

bertrand., despite I wish for you endless years of good health.... it seems nice if you from time to time breake a bone so we all (the rest of the members of this group) have benefit from you sharing so extraordinary and marvelous consolidated material regarding the building of the T46 and the process of your boatbuilding along the years! :-)
thank you so much for your time and effort in this.
all the best.
luis

[George Ray]

Thanks for sharing! Wonderful and inspiring and educational. Very close to launching and sailing photos. !!

[Bertrand FERCOT]

Thank you for your kind compliments. As I have to wait 8 days more before to begin the reeducation of my arm, I'm preparing the PHA's story blog : building and sailing and later I'll refresh this PHA# building blog, regularly time to time, according the building progresses until her launching. So it will be not necessary I break one another bone to take the time to share more informations.