Hi,
Currently I don't have a cockpit floor at all on Aeolis, and work has stopped me making any progress whatsoever. I had removed the rotten plywood cockpit floor and planned to replace with good grade marine ply and epoxy coat. adding a small access hatch and cockpit drains, but I would be interested in any other designs carried out that don't rely on access hatches and allow good access.
thanks
Stephen Moorey
Hi Stephen
During the 19 years we have owned "Tammie Norie" I've had to do a lot of major work on her engine and stern gear.
I can't imagine how I could have done this without the excellent access provided by the two large iroko and marine ply hatches I fitted in place of the rotten cockpit sole.
As well as improved access, it also made available a very useful storage area in which I keep: a 10-litre container of diesel; a very long hosepipe; a 5-litre container of engine oil; a container for waste oil; and, a large funnel!
I reckon this was one of my more successful projects!
(There are some photos of "Tammie Norie's" hatches on this website.)
I don't mind at all. If you want any information about the materials used etc., please let me know
Sealing is achieved by a strip of foam rubber glued around the edge under each lid. You can see this in the fourth picture.
The round socket on the larger hatch cover is a support for a table leg.
Hi Stephen
The foam tape you need is closed cell. I use these people:
http://www.tapes-direct.co.uk/.....;cPath=142
I use this for bedding all fittings and this that I may want to remove...such as trim fittings etc.
VIVEZA has a similar system but less sophisticated. The cockpit floor panels are secured in place with machine screws that screw into either nuts with penny washers [where I can reach to fit the nuts] or metal plates tapped 6mm screwed into position underneath the cockpit sole in the more difficult positions. [When hatch in place.]
Oars [two part] spare fenders and kedge live under the rear compartment. I can reach them from the side cockpit hatches. These I only lift for major access to sterntube. [not easy]
There is a free floating teak grating over the hatches.
Peter
Hi Stephen
There are just short pieces of bronze bar screwed to the bearers. They have a central hole tapped 8mm.
Into these go the 8mm s/s hex-head flanged bolts that secure the hatch tops in place.
There's no need for these to be screwed down hard. In fact mine are just finger-tight. Their only purpose is to prevent the hatch tops floating away if the cockpit were to fill with water (something that has never happened).
Hello Steven, we recently rebuilt the cockpit of Pequita and made the sole with 2 large hatches after seeing the design of John's Tammie Norie. Before this we only had a small navy style metal hatch that meant going head first down into to change the 2nd fuel filter! One slip and you spent the next half hour trying to escape.
We built up a gutter channel with a good flow all around the hatches with the cockpit drains just under the companionway door. The hatches are marine ply, sheathed with epoxy and cloth and with a timber trim, then tan colored Tread-mark epoxied on top. There is a double seal of hard rubber and soft neoprene, side by side, which stops the hatches bouncing and appears very watertight and we used 4 stainless rotary hatch latches on each to hold them down safely. They made an awful part of the boat just great, nice to stand on and looks fine. Access is now great to the back of the engine and stern tube and we have a large storage area under the rear hatch. The old cockpit had a teak grate which would grab sheets and any other rope it could get its slats on, the hatches as they are now don't do that and we left enough room down the sides that you can get your fingers down to pluck anything small dropped. A couple of kitchen sink waste covers go over the drain holes to stop things being swallowed.
Luke.
Hi,
Sorry for the delay in replying, wife is expecting in a couple of days and I have found myself totally preoccupied with daft things like is there a good safe place for the cot in the boat? and how old do they have to be before one can send them into the small nooks and crannies to retrieve long lost tools etc.
Do you mean the white panels either side of the companionway doors? They are ply with a teak face from Robbins, again with a woven cloth and epoxy finish. It didn't look right in timber so we committed the sacrilege of painting them white to! The weave of the cloth on these panels was filled for a flat finish but in the cockpit sole the weave of the cloth and epoxy was not filled, giving a good non slip and canvas/classic texture. I am a big fan of epoxy cloth, it very strong and waterproof and if done right you can not see the cloth if done over timber, we have only ever done this on one side of the ply being worked on so that the timber can breath a bit. The beading trim was done in teak and some of it painted and some in Le Tonkinois varnish. A couple of other things where changed as it was all built back up with the port cockpit locker being made longer and the manual bilge pump positioned in it so as the lid is opened you have full and quick access to the top of it. The starboard locker top was lengthened for better access to the fuel tank and Eberspacher.
The 2 original bronze winches are for the spinnaker, we have more modern self tailing Lewmars as primaries which are much easier to use!
Luke.
Hi Richard
I made a shelter for "Tammie Norie" so that I could re-sheath her coachroof whilst protected from the weather. It had a ridge pole supported on A-frames made of scaffolding tube, and the hoops were lengths of 40mm MDPE plastic water pipe (that's the blue pipe shown in Luke's photo). I used 40mm MDPE pipe so that it would fit over the guardwire stanchions as well as being compatible with the 42.4mm scaffolding tube.
For a cover I used a clear Monartex sheet but if I had to do it again I wouldn't use clear sheeting because the job overran into summer and it was b----y hot working under it!
I wrote an article describing my shelter for the TCA magazine, which was published a couple of years ago. You may be able to find it in the archives, if you're interested. I also have a lot of photos of it which could not be included in the magazine article.
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