Woodworking

Jul 18th, 2021 James The Build

The wooden flooring and walls are starting to go in, and as a result it’s getting easier to visualize the inner layout of Scout. The electronics network has been started, and there have even been a few important developments up top.

After weeks of trying to picture the heights of the flooring across the main part of the cabin…

…it’s much clearer what will go where. You can picture the galley down the left-hand side, with the white sink drain, and space for fridge-freezer, crockery and trash beneath.

Further forward are two bays - one for the microwave and one for a second fridge-freezer - and below those is a floor-level ‘sea-bunk’ for a single person to sleep when on passage.

In the center, just forward of the mast, is the anchor chain locker (of which more shortly). The left of the two door-shaped openings is to the master cabin, and the right one is back from the cabin to the en-suite bathroom, which will be closed away behind the navigation station. Coming back to the right from there, the dining area is on a raised floor, under which are the fuel and water tanks.

Here’s another shot of that starboard side of the saloon:

The cutaway on the left (where the two large clamps are) will be a raised bench with lots of storage beneath, and the three holes under the dining area are for access to the tanks. What looks like a white wall is actually more flooring that has been lifted up - there will be yet more storage under the sofa on the starboard side of the saloon. Hopefully at some point we will be able to marcher!

Coming back from there on the starboard side, the floor drops down some steps, over the battery banks:

This next view is from the nav station looking backwards over the saloon floor:

The water heater tank is on the left, and will be behind the far corner of the sofa. The left door is to the starboard technical room and the right to door is to the port-side second cabin:

The bed itself goes all the way to the aft bulkhead, where a watertight hatch provides access to the steering mechanism. This photo is not so great, but there are two window hatches further forward that make the main part of the cabin more light and airy than this looks. I promise! If you come and stay with us, this will be where you sleep :)

On the starboard side, we’ve opted for a technical room rather than a third cabin:

This room has a lot of built-in of drawer storage (already in!) for the endless tools and spares we’ll have to have onboard to stay self-sufficient. The top of the shelves can be used as an extra bunk if needed. The watertight hatch at the rear of the room provides symmetrical access to the steering gear.

One small luxury… in the space on the right, behind the engine, we’re installing a small washer-dryer: useful for those times when the salt-encrusted t-shirts have started to take on a life of their own.

Before we go up top, a quick bit of electronics geekery. The network has started to go in! This is a panel that is mounted behind the navigation station:

All of the navigation, instruments, and sensors run on an NMEA2000 backbone throughout the boat. If the router and cables look unfamiliar, that’s because regular Ethernet isn’t well suited to marine environments. And one thing we’ve noticed is that when something has the ‘maritime-grade’ prefix, expect to pay quite a bit more than the domestic equivalent…

Outside, another new addition!

We’ve opted for a rigid railing around Scout. So instead of just the vertical posts with wire lifelines between, you can see there is a firm ‘fence’ (in protective wrap for now) to hold onto all the way forward. The space below the railing will have regular wire lifelines.

And up on top, a seminal moment! Scout’s first lines:

This is the mast step, but notice that these two lines go down into the boat, since these are for the adjustable centerboard. It’s raised and lowered from the cockpit, so these lines go aft, through the tubes you can just see, to clutches near the helm.

And the hollowed section on the left of the photo? That’s where the windlass (or technically the ‘capstan’ since the drum is vertical) pulls the chain from the front of Scout down into the locker below the mast. If that doesn’t make sense, check out this part of Pete Goss’ walkthrough.

That’s it for now. We suspect the French yard is probably racing on work before the August holidays, so expect a few more posts of hurried progress soon!

Read the previous post: Lots of Progress

Read the next post: Top and Tail