Category: Cuddy

Interior Details

Quite a bit of finish carpentry needs to be done to complete Justine‘s interior. Both the cuddy and cockpit need a sole (floorboards) and seats. The opening to the cuddy needs appropriate finish carpentry, and canvas edges on the afterdeck and cuddy top need trim pieces.

The cuddy sole is made from four 7/16″ cedar boards that are attached to the floors. Two more boards extend up along each side of the hull, one below each seat and one above. Cedar seats are supported by cleats on the forward and after cuddy bulkheads, as well as a triangular piece under the middle of each seat. The seats are very low to the cockpit sole, so as to provide sitting headroom under the cuddy top.

The cuddy sole in place. The mast step is visible near the forward bulkhead, and supports have been installed for the low seats that will be fitted next. A mahogany header for the cuddy opening has been installed.

The cuddy opening gets a mahogany header, jambs, and sill. Each piece incorporates a stop for the doors. (I’ll describe making and fitting the doors in a later post.)

Low seats are installed in the cuddy, and mahogany jambs and a sill are now in place for the cuddy doors. A mahogany cap for the lower opening of the centerboard trunk (which is below the waterline) has been fitted and bedded with 3M 5200.

The cockpit sole is also made of cedar slats. The sole tapers aft as the hull’s beam decreases. I used small pieces of 1/4″ plywood as spacers when driving fasteners for each piece so as to get a consistent gap between all the boards.

I’m fitting the cedar slats for the cockpit sole. Three pieces on each side of the centerboard trunk will be removable for pumping out any water that collects there, and is also handy for retrieving objects that happen to fall down there. There’s a small “step” between stations 19 and 20, just forward of the after compartment. A cleat that will support the port cockpit seat is also visible.

I didn’t want anyone to slip on the cockpit or cuddy sole, so I purchased some sand anti-skid paint additive and sprinkled it on a fresh coat of paint as I was building up several coats of paint. It was hard to get an even coating of sand, but after two coats of paint over the sand layer, it looked fine and provides a very effective anti-skid  surface.

I gave the cockpit sole slats several coats of paint, and used some sand on a wet coat of paint to make the surface anti-skid. It looked good after two additional coats of paint. The six finger holes allow for easy removal of those slats when needed.

The Flatfish plans offer two options for seats: 7/8″ varnished mahogany boards of uniform thickness; or 1″ cedar boards that have a sculpted profile that are presumably more comfortable. I chose the latter option.

I glued up cedar boards to make a 1″ blank for the cockpit seats.

I made a plywood template to help me gauge how to plane and scrape the profile of the seats. I also made a similar shaped sanding block to smooth it.

Joel White’s Flatfish design allows for sculpted cockpit seats. This is a template I made to help me make my seats close to the designed shape.

The seats are supported by cleats attached to the after compartment’s bulkhead and the cuddy bulkhead, as well as a center column.

Test fitting of the seats after sculpting their top sides to the designed profile.

The center column is a spindle with a shape identical to those used by the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company’s boats. I turned mine from black locust offcuts remaining from the plank that provided Justine‘s stem.

The turned center support for the starboard seat is being fitted, along with a wooden bracket that will hold the cuddy doors when you want to leave the cuddy open. There’s a matching bracket on the cuddy bulkhead.

There’s a significant space between the cockpit seats and the frames and planking. Nat Herreshoff’s design made use of the space for storage by fitting a shelf or tray behind each seat. I expect these will be quite handy. All the pieces of the tray are cedar.

A very nice feature of Herreshoff’s design is long trays that fill the space between the cockpit seats and the frames. Small gaps are left between the seats and trays, and at the outer edge of the trays, for drainage.

There’s a lot of painting to be done as you build out the cockpit. I used only Kirby Paint Company’s products. The frames and planking are “green gray,” the bulkheads, centerboard trunk, and trays are “cream,” and the seats, decks, and floorboards are “putty.”

After painting, the seats and trays are installed for the final time. I’ve also installed a mahogany half-round trim piece at the front edge of the after deck to cover the stapled edge of the afterdeck’s canvas top. The afterdeck’s hatch is in place, secured with mahogany turn buttons. It rests in a groove in the sill piece.

Several pieces of mahogany half-round trim are required to finish off transitions between decking and vertical surfaces. I made these by planing and sanding the edges of mahogany boards of appropriate thickness to get the half-round profile, then cut the molded edge off the board. The moldings are thin enough to be bent to shape as they are being fastened.

The three half-round pieces shown below are installed around the edge of the cuddy top, covering the stapled edge of the cuddy top’s canvas and concealing it.

I made pieces of half-round trim for the edge of the caddy top. One piece had a bit of a dog leg, but it was easily bent straight when I fastened it in place.

I bedded the moldings with Interlux Boatyard Bedding Compound as I fastened them down with #6 oval head screws.

The cuddy top looks sharp after the canvas’s ragged edges are hidden under the trim pieces.

The picture above was taken on July 2, 2016.

Cuddy Top

Justine’s cuddy top is supported by four deck beams that in turn are supported by cleats fastened to the inside of the coamings. It also gets support from the deck beam atop the cuddy bulkhead at station 12. The cleats are 3/4″ mahogany and have essentially the same curvature as the coamings to which they are fastened, so I was able to steam-bend them using the same form I used to bend the coamings. The cleats are notched to receive the ends of the deckbeams, and they  also serve to make more room for driving fasteners at the edge of the cuddy’s plywood deck.

A notched mahogany cleat is installed along the inside of the coaming to support deckbeams for the cuddy top. I steam-bent the cleats using the same form I’d used to steam bend the coamings. The unfinished edge of the plywood foredeck is visible between the carlin and the coaming. This will eventually get covered by a mahogany trim piece.

I’d read several articles about deckbeam curvature over the years but didn’t fully appreciate the subtleties until making Justine‘s cuddy top. From the Flatfish construction plans it would appear that all the cuddy’s deck beams would be cut to the same curvature, so that’s what I did initially for the cuddy top. Once I tried setting the deck beams in place, the result was not pretty: viewed from the side, there was a distinct dip in the cuddy top’s profile. A straightedge placed at the centerline of the deck beams and forward to the point where the coamings join showed a big gap on the forward-most cuddy deckbeams. The cuddy top’s profile should be straight or perhaps even have a bit of a crown, not have a dip. (The same is true of the foredeck, but because of the trajectory of the Flatfish’s sheer line, the foredeck profile is pretty straight even when all the foredeck’s deck beams are made with the same curvature.)

I first made all the cuddy top deck beams with the same curvature (specified in the plans set). I discovered that this would have resulted in a distinct hollow in the deck’s profile, which would greatly detract from the finished boat’s appearance. Back to the drawing board…

What to do? I actually tried trimming down the forward part of the coaming a bit but quickly realized that would not be a good solution, so I built the coaming back up. I realized I’d need to make a new set of deck beams, each with its own curvature, such that the deck would have a straight profile. I’d have to calculate the curvature required for each of the deck beams.  This required measuring the span of each deckbeam, and the intended height of the cuddy top’s crown at that deckbeam location. With that information—chord length and height at mid-chord—you can calculate the radius of each of the deckbeams. I made the new ones and the cuddy top’s profile was nice and straight.

I made a new set of deck beams after calculating what each one’s curvature should be. A also found it necessary to add a thin shim on top of the deckbeam at station 12, above the cuddy bulkhead.

The cuddy top is 9 mm marine plywood, and it’s got a enough curvature that I was a little concerned that it would not be easy to spring into the correct shape as I drove fasteners into the deckbeams. I started a row of fasteners along the boat’s centerline, and worked outward, spacing fasteners about 4″ apart, and had no problems. I first drove all the fasteners into a piece of plywood that was a bit oversize, scribed a line around the perimeter, then removed the plywood and trimmed it to size.

9 mm marine plywood piece temporarily fastened and ready for scribing and trimming to shape.

I painted the underside of the cuddy deck and then installed it, again using some 3M 5200 along the joints with the deckbeams and coaming. The edges of the plywood were treated with epoxy to help prevent any water from working its way in over Justine‘s lifetime.

I started fastening the cuddy top along the centerline, then worked my way outward driving fasteners into the deck beams, then into the coaming along the edge of the decking. I’ve filled over all the fastener heads and sanded the surface smooth in preparation for laying canvas.

I laid canvas in Titebond II, used a squeegee to smooth it and work out excess glue, and stapled the perimeter around the edges of the plywood.

I used the same technique for canvasing the cuddy top as for the fore- and afterdecks. I spread the glue and laid the cuddy top’s canvas in two stages.
Giving the cuddy top a coat of paint.

After painting the canvas, the only remaining detail to finish the cuddy top is installation of half-round mahogany molding pieces over the three edges of the plywood deck.