January 2012 Progress Report

Here is a completed navigation station. Unfortunately, this is on one of the other Mumby catamarans at Tim's Beach Boatyard. Our nav station is under construction , seen here on the left.

The interior fit-out continues slowly, but the finished product is stunning with hard wood floors and shiny panels with rattan cupboards.

Steve writes a good summary of the boat progress through December:

Work on Silver Tern is going as fast as can be expected, but still slowly. After foaming the interior, the foam was cut back to be flush with the interior aluminum framing. Then, strips of thin plywood are glued to each other to make a template which is used to cut a fiberglass sheet to the exact size needed.

A panel is then cut to match the pattern, with the edges sanded down to allow the panels to be joined together.

The panels are then glued to the foam and aluminum interior.

Ceiling panels must be propped up until the adhesive dries.

After being glued in place, with the joints being perfectly aligned, the joints are then taped with fiberglass tape in order to make the interior a one-piece fiberglass shell.

The taped joins are then faired out with a gelcoat filler, and then sanded with sandpaper starting at 220 down to 1200 grit, then polished. This results in an essentially perfect joint (completely invisible), but requires hours of work per inch of joint and there are several hundred meters of joints on the boat.

Right now, most of the walls are done, ceilings in the aft cabins started and the shelves for the lockers have been made. Next will be the faces for the lockers (the doors are almost done) and the countertops for the galley and workshop.

We put the fridge into the galley simply because there was no place to store it. It is far too large to carry up our fire escape. So, to the left in this photo there is a space for the kitchen sink, across from that will be the stove/oven. We think the galley will be really functional.

Just forward of the galley is the “Executive Cabin”. To the left in this photo is a double bed and forward of this cabin is the starboard head with shower.

On the Port side, instead of the galley there is a workshop and forward of that is the laundry area which has a small washing machine, the watermaker and hot water heater. Forward of the laundry area is the port head, also with a shower.

Aft on both sides are aft cabins with nice berths and lounge areas over the engines.

The saloon area is yet to be started, nor have the floors. but we are assured that all of these things will go rapidly once underway. We have yet to start exterior painting or deck rigging, but that will all have to wait until the two boats in front of us have their exteriors finished.

Silver Tern Launch Day

Pre-Launch Days

In preparation for the launch, we have worked 7 days a week, 8-10 hours a day for the last 3 weeks (we used to take Sundays off). We are tired, sore and apprehensive. We assume that Silver Tern will float, that the local customs officials will be cooperative with the move to another boatyard, and that she will not get dropped or have her mast broken during the launch. We are also excited, but it is hard to get too excited while sleep-deprived. She does not look that different, but much of the infrastructure is now functioning and she is ready for phase II.

During this time we (mostly Pat) have applied 10 coats of paint to the bottom of Silver Tern. We (mostly Steve) have plumbed, aligned and wired the two Yanmar diesels. We have also installed bilge pumps, anchor windlass, deck hardware and a million other things. We now understand why boats cost so much new, there a just a whole lot of little pieces that have to go together in a very small space.

Launch Day

Our initial launch day was postponed a few days due to a typhoon that passed by north of here and made the seas too rough to work. This gave us a few more days to attend to last minute details. After days (months) of preparation, all was as ready as we could make it. Engines were started, the mast was rigged and much of our gear was stowed inside or lashed onto the deck. Silver Tern was finally launched September 29.

The launch itself took most of the day. It started with two huge cranes, one of which came into the boatshed so that one crane was at each end of the boat. From there, they attached straps around the boat and each picked up one end of the boat allowing a large flatbed truck to back underneath. Blocks were carefully positioned on the bed and she was lowered down onto the blocks. The truck then took the 48’ long and 24’ wide boat along a dirt road to the water. They maneuvered around tight turns, over really rough sections, and through some very narrow spots. At one point all stopped until another large crane could move a huge trailer that had been parked so as to leave only a 23’ wide spot in the road and allow us to pass.

By mid-afternoon she had been picked up off the truck and lowered into the

water alongside a very rough seawall across from a busy shipping dock. We tied her off, organized the gear, and arranged for one

of our boatyard workers to spend

the night on her.

After that, the truck went back to the boatyard and picked up the mast which we set down on the seawall next to the boat.

The next day Tim Mumby (designer of the boat) came down from his boatyard in Carmen and we stepped the mast. All went well until we found out that the pieces for attaching the upper shrouds and forestay (the stuff that holds the mast up)

were the wrong size. So, what should have been a 1 hour job turned into a 3 and a half hour hassle. We have had to jury rig the shrouds until we can get new pieces. For those of you who are familiar with this stuff, all of the lowers are fine, so the mast is stable for now.

In any case, we still had time that day to motor the 16 miles up to Carmen where we beached the boat. We are now waiting for the high tide at one thirty tomorrow morning to pull her up on the beach where she will sit for the next few months.