Lockers & Stowage


Project Logs

February 7th, 2012

Interior locker building has been on halt as I moved to the exterior of the boat.  My main focus out there has been deck lockers and the cockpit.  I look forward to moving back into the interior and seeing how the rest of the lockers take shape.

December 29, 2011

The stern chain locker is complete.  The stern chain locker is built into the lazarette and will allow me to easily stow 1 – 2 anchor rodes.  Having anchors on the stern  is required in some anchoring situations, so I view it as important to have immediate and easy access to the rodes.

Originally, the stern locker was going to be a bit larger to accommodate the cockpit drainage channels draining through it, plus allow bilge pump outlets to drain via this locker and out transom drain holes.  However, as the lazarette came together and I found that routing the bilge pump outlets through a stern chain locker wasn’t going to work very well (due to pipe-to-hose connection sizes as well as too long of a run from the pump to the outlet).  So, I cut down on the size of the chain locker and now have it draining via a PVC drain into the cockpit drain channels below.

For the stern locker enclosure, I used 1/4″ meranti marine plywood placed between 2, 1/2″ meranti marine plywood pieces.  The 1/4″ piece was glassed heavily with 1708 biaxial and then faired smooth so that mold, mildew wouldn’t accumulate and water would drain easily.  I’ll be uploading some final images of this chain locker before long, but for now here’s an image of the stern chain locker nearing completion:

Image showing the chain locker prior to fully glassing in the 1/4" piece of meranti and the wiring run for solar panels below.

Image showing the chain locker prior to fully glassing in the 1/4″ piece of meranti and the wiring run for solar panels below.

December 27, 2011

Work continues on both cockpit lockers: the lazarette and sea lockers.  The lazarette is essentially complete, but I’m putting the finishing touches on the drain channels before I can glass in the shelves for this locker.  The sea lockers have been my main focus for the past week or so.  The key projects in these lockers include a wiring run for the solar panels and stern light (created with PVC), engine room ventilation (created with ABS pipe), jerry can stowage, plus stowage for other miscellaneous items (such as paint, epoxy, diving gear, etc.).

The wiring run and engine room ventilation are covered in other posts (see previous links), so for this page I will be focusing mainly on the stowage I built in these lockers.  At this time, I’ve built the shelf supports and initial wall for the jerry can stowage and will be glassing in the final pieces later this week.  Once complete, I’ll put together a full run down of how both the lazarette and sea lockers were built.

I also faired the chain locker a few weeks ago. By fairing the forward chain locker, I hope to make it very easy to keep clean and free from any mold or mildew that might grow since the locker will often be wet.

 October 25, 2011

Work progressed in the lazarette locker this past weekend. I decided to install supports for the port and starboard locker soles.  Installing the soles also means creating the small lockers that will be below the soles.  I then cut the lazarette port and starboard soles out of 1/4″ meranti.  I decided to go with this size of wood in order to keep weight down in the aft portion of the boat.

Once the soles were templated, fit and cut, I cut the openings creating lids and access hatches for each of the below sole lockers.   I then installed the lid supports, thickened those into place and fiberglassed the entire underside of the soles with some 7 oz. finishing cloth to add a little strength and full waterproofing.

I also took the chance to install the drainage for the lazarette lockers.  I used 1/4″ PVC for the starboard and aft lockers and 3/4″ PVC for the center lazarette locker.  I fiberglassed the PVC into place on both sides of their bulkheads so that the water would have no where to drain besides the PVC tubes.

September 24, 2011

I’ve finished patching the final two holes in the lazarette.  I’ve also cut the lazarette bulkheads which will form the basis for the sail stowage and aft cockpit drainage.  Look for this area to be updated soon, because I’ve now shifted my focus from the interior of the boat to the exterior.  The reason for this shift is because as the winter draws near, it will be more difficult to keep the deck heated for epoxy work.  Hopefully I will be done with the bulk of the work on the exterior of the boat before it gets too cold this winter, but we’ll have to see about that.

June 24, 2011

I officially have 4 bins for storage in the boat now; pretty cool!  They are behind the icebox and I’m calling them the “wardrobe”.  They don’t drain (perhaps a bad decision?) and are very deep.  I imagine that I will be stowing vacuum sealed winter clothes in the lowest parts of the lockers.  You can see a few photos of how I worked to fair the lockers.  The photos I just uploaded (IMG_8386, _8387, _8324, _8325) are all showing the initial layup I did.  Since that time, I’ve sanded, scraped and re-faired these lockers a number of times.  That being said, my access to the very lowest corners is quite dodgy, so I’m doing my best to make the interior of these lockers as smooth as possible, but since no one will see the inside of these lockers I shouldn’t be too-too worried.  I just want to make sure there’s no sharp edges or pockets were dirt and grime might collect.

May 2, 2011

I was able to finally begin construction on the boat again with the research phase complete; it felt great! At this point, the major construction is complete in this area. Here’s where I’m at currently:

Working in this area proved to be quite difficulty as the hull has such a steep slope, making positioning quite difficult. Further, this area holds heat well so the epoxy was really cooking while I was working, meaning that I had to work quickly.  Overall, I’m happy with the current state of things and I’ll need to come back to do the next steps of the project in the future.

Research

Lockers
Lockers – Bin, Door, Drawer & Shelf
Lockers – Deck
Lockers – Hardware
Stowage

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