Superstructure Infusion

I was a bit late getting over for the infusion. As you can see above, the bag is in place and the lines are filled with resin. They began a couple of hours ago and here it is nearly complete
Patrick (yellow shirt) is inspecting to make sure that the resin is uniformly infusing. You can see all of the tubes that run to various parts of the mold.
Another shot showing the tubes in the resin barrel.
Here is a shot from up on top. The process is nearly complete.
No, this is not a setup at the Buena Vista for Irish Coffee.......these are the resin samples. When a new batch of resin is mixed, a sample is taken to insure that the mix was correct and it "kicks" properly. All of them did. I was afraid to ask what they do if one or more don't.
This is the upper portion and you can see where it isn't quite fully infused. The dark areas are where the resin has penetrated.
And now, just a few minutes later, you can see that the resin is fully infused in this section. The whole process took less than 3 hours to complete. Tomorrow they will strip the bagging material and tubes and let it cure over the holiday weekend. Next Tuesday they plan to laminate the decks in and then pop the part out of the mold by the end of the week.

If you notice in the pictures there is no one wearing a mask. That is because the infusion process does not allow any VOC's to escape into the air. There is a very faint odor of resin when you are in the room. Not totally "green" but so much better for the environment and the laminators.

More Details

In the above picture you can see some of the hydraulic valving, pumps, etc. that comprise the hydraulic system in hull #1. The pump that you see at the left of the picture is attached to the generator and will provide power for the BAT drive "get home" system. The pump is cross plumbed to the main hydraulic system in case of failure.
This is the hot and cold water manifold system located behind the day head. All of the piping is of pex type tubing. All of the hot water lines are insulated. I was impressed with the professional installation that Phil did here.

A lot of progress has been made forward. Here you can see the bulkheads for the staterooms and heads.
The superstructure mold is being "dry stacked" in preparation for the infusion process. Unlike the hull, this mold is very complicated and requires a lot of meticulous trimming of the glass and core material. I expect that they will infuse next week and I will try and catch it on camera.

Big Boat Engineering

The articulating rudder is now installed and the upper support bracket can be seen at the right above. This is one very robust stainless steel structure. When they get it assembled with the tiller arm and hydraulics I will point out why our steering system is superior to most installations.

Almost everything used in the boat is oversized or larger than necessary. This is the domestic water pump. Made by Headhunter, it is a 10gpm at 60 pound rated. On boats this size it is usually a 3.3 or 4 gpm pump that is selected. With this kind of capacity, showers in both heads simultaneously as well as filling the washer should present no loss of pressure or volume. I judge a hotel by the quality of the shower and a boat should be no different. :-)
Another neat thing being done is using 2 hot water heaters instead of one larger. These are 11 gallon heaters giving a total of 22 gallons. Having 2 heaters will mean quicker recovery as well as having redundancy in case one of the heating elements should fail.
















These images are of the TRAC stabilizers. We chose TRAC (by American Bow Thruster) as their system is the most robust and support is outstanding. The hydraulics are very professionally engineered and oversized.
Pardon the dust.....these are the valves (left) that control the thruster and windlass. The thruster motor can be seen to the right. Again, superior engineering.

The bulkheads for the forward staterooms and heads are being installed this coming week. I will get some good photos and post them. If you have any comments or suggestions, please don't hesitate to post them or send me a private email. (peter@nwtrawlers.com)