SV Seeker | Page 76 | SV Seeker: The Boat the Internet Built

Pilothouse Layout

DougFebruary 5, 2016Pilot_House, Steel Boat

Many many thanks to Monica and Charlie for giving us a starting point for the layout of the pilot house. Frankly and this point I don’t see anything I don’t like. Open, roomy, sleeping for two. Maybe an island with some galley storage and a seat for the helm, but the more I look at it more I like it without the island.

Charlie & Monica’s Pilothouse Design

And what we finally decided to do

Here is how I see it working.

HELM
The helm is dead center and the bench in front of the helm is for a computer or too. The computer is the primary navigation setup. Radar will likely be there too, or mounted above the windows. There is no traditional navigation table or chart table. If we have a paper chat then it gets spread out on the table while a route is being laid out and the folded up and placed by the computer. Betsy has a chair picked out to go behind the wheel. Immediately below the wheel and just off the the port (left) there will be a port hole mounted into the floor. This will give a view into the engine room. A light mounted in the bilge will allow the bilge to be easily inspected from the pilot house. The port hole will also allow for handing tool and such to and from the engine room and pilot house.

EMERGENCY HATCH
Some where in the floor in the aft half of the pilot house will be a hatch. Likely just another 24 inch port hole. This will provide natural light and ventilation to the aft cabin and also serve as an emergency escape from the aft cabin should it not be possible to exit through the engine room.

HAND HOLDS
Aluminum pipe hand holds will be attached to the ceiling and extend between the two door and branch off to the galley.

GALLEY
The galley sinks are frequently where items are temporarily stored and there location next to the helm give the pilot easy access. provide the cook an eyes forward view. A drip dry rack is built in above the sinks and above the window height.

MICROWAVE
A small counter top unit mounted in the corner. The cabinet space under that corner will house two propane tanks and be accessed through a door that opens to the deck. And gas leak will drain through the deck drain and over the side.

Johan Storbjörk’s Pilothouse Design

TRASH
Under one of the sinks.

STOVE
Four burner propane with an oven and mounted in a gimbal.

REFRIGERATOR FREEZERS
Two units both with two drawers each. The drawers can each be configured a refrigerator or freezer. The capacity can be scaled to accommodate the number of passengers. A small wine cooler.

TABLE
The table has an L shaped bench that will double as a single bunk. Storage is provided under the seat and behind the back. And the table has a leaf on the starboard (right) side that can slid back under there rest of the table in order to make it easier to access the bench as bed. The port side of the table has a bench that folds under the table that can accommodate two more crew.

SOFA
Provides seating and a second sleeping location. It can also be additional seating for meals with the addition of a simple to erect and remove table surface. Storage is provided under the seat and behind the back.

STORAGE
There is little easily accessed storage and little space above the windows so this storage area is the primary storage area for the galley.

WET AREA
The area just inside the forward door is where wet cloths can be hung to drip dry.

BEVERAGE COOLER
A beverage cooler is located just inside the forward door and under the navigation bench. This allows easy access to beverages for the crew without the need to access the galley.

– storage under sofas and dinning booth

– the table of the dinning booth drops down to make a bed (much like a camper)

– the sofa folds out into a bed

– “U”-shaped galley allows bracing for whoever is cooking

– counter spaces have drawers underneath

– by moving the wet locker and galley gives you access to port and starboard windows

– drinks cooler is easily accessible from door and helm

– half-walls limit area that objects can shift on counters during rough seas (contain the galley area)

-drawers/storage area by the helm gives you the storage option that you described using the sink for, and limits the water + electronics factor

You may want to include a slightly raised lip around the counter tops to help prevent things from falling off during rough seas.

**Just a side note the drawing is probably not to scale I’ve always had trouble with that :p

Tripp Jacobs

Design by Nick West

Design by Nick West. The wall is half height.

Want to play with it?

Download the SketchUp file: Pilothouse_Marc.skp

Marc Hofmann’s Design

Download the SketchUp file: Pilothouse_Marco.skp

Marko’s Edit

Metal Boat Works – Rudder, Catwalk, Pilot House and more

DougFebruary 2, 2016Catwalks, Pilot_House, Rudder, Steel Boat

Pouring Lead into the Keels

DougJanuary 26, 2016Casting, Keels, Steel Boat

Many thanks for the help last weekend from Jack, Bill, John, and especially Joey who drove down from Wisconsin.

Our Crew

BetsyJanuary 25, 2016Steel Boat

If you haven’t taken a look at our Crew page lately, it’s worth the journey. Slow but steady, the pins in our map are growing. These are people, just like you, that have made the journey to Tulsa to help build Seeker. While the majority are still local, we’ve found by meeting so many great people that the world is much smaller and the people’s hearts much bigger that we ever imagined.

Thank you to everybody who has helped with “The Boat the Internet Built” and welcome aboard to those who plan to make the journey in the future. For those of you who can’t make the trip for one reason or another, we still value your friendship and support.

Helpful Links

For more details on our crew, Meet our Crew
If you’d like to visit, Welcome Aboard
Want to see who’s coming and what we’ll be working on? Calendar
If you can’t make the journey but want to contribute, visit our Junk Shop

Basic Google Maps Placemarks error: JavaScript and/or CSS files aren't loaded. If you're using do_shortcode() you need to add a filter to your theme first. See the FAQ for details.

River of Lead

DougJanuary 24, 2016Casting, Keels, Steel Boat

We had a awesome weekend. Two more more 1000 pound pours and we are getting our process down. And pouring it is amazing to watch. I am almost delighted that we have 17 more of these to do. 🙂

Joey Weichmann from Neenah Wisconsin

Joey feeding the pot.

About an in of dross on the top, but that goes in too.

River of Lead

All gone in 40 seconds.

1000 pounds of lead, 2 1/2 hours, 10 to 14 pounds of propane,

Pouring Aluminum and Lead

DougJanuary 19, 2016Aluminum, Casting, Keels, Steel Boat

Lead Lead Everywhere

DougJanuary 18, 2016Casting, Keels, Steel Boat

1000 pounds, the first of 20,000 pounds. Besides a small leak in the old melting pot our Harbor Freight dual burner propane stove converted to lead smelter was doing good. 1000 pounds ready in 5 1/2 hours having burner 14 pounds of propane. So now we know we are going to need 280 pounds or about 66 gallons .

Once the pot was completely molten the plan was to heat the drain pipe up to melt the lead plugging it and then let the entire contents flow into the keel. The problem was that there was not enough flow and heat to overcome the chilling effect of the 8 feet of 1 1/4″ pipe that the lead had to flow through. So after about 10 seconds of flowing, it choked off at the bottom of the 6 foot pipe dropping down into the keel. It then quickly filled the pipe and started over flowing at the top, as the down pipe was only hanging on the end of the pipe from the melting pot.

So then it became a beautiful waterfall of lead. It really was something quite interesting to see. 1000 pounds of molten lead cascading into the keel and freezing instantly as it came into contact with the steel as it splattered.

Cleanup begins tomorrow night. Fortunately the lead has no interest in sticking to the steel. We think the best plan going forward is to put a pour spout on the pot as the pot is already designed to be tilted. So once it’s melted we will simply pitch the pot over and very quickly pour the entire contents before it has any time to cool.

Actually clean up began tonight. It tool me an hour to pick the majority of lead splatter off my pants and boots. 🙂

Step by Step Aluminum Casting with Sodium Silicate Sand

DougJanuary 11, 2016Aluminum, Casting, Steel Boat

There is just something incredibly fulfilling about the heat, the noise, and making something from liquid metal.

Sodium Silica Sand Casting Rocks!

* Fewer Failures

* Faster Results

* Bigger Castings

* Less Equipment

* No storage

Resources:

Foundry Practices http://movingimage.nls.uk/film/1529

Building a Furnace https://youtu.be/f10hqYGIJCE

More Furnaces: https://svseeker.com/casting_furnaces.htm

Building a Burner https://youtu.be/P-A8uoWdBB8

Casting Propellers: https://svseeker.com/casting_boat_props.htm

Like Molasses in January

DougJanuary 8, 2016Steel Boat

Somebody mentioned the molasses treatment for steel. There are lots of YouTube videos with car parts sitting for weeks in fermenting tanks of molasses and water, 1:10. I dismissed it, as I sure as hell am not going to turn the insides of Seeker into a fermentation tank. But then I found a bottle of molasses in the pantry today. Hmmm, so lets see what smearing it onto the steel does. At least until the rain washes it away.

All this is because we are seriously looking for a path that avoids sandblasting the interior of the boat. That would be a horrible job. And now that we have it on good advice that modern paints like POR 15 can deal with light rust without blasting we are hopeful. The trick is to remove as much of the rust as possible. Hence the molasses test. And I am not going to put this anywhere inside the boat till I can see that it works to some degree on the outside. This stuff stinks. And it’s not even started to ferment yet. But the dogs like it. What they don’t lick it off they let it dip into their hair before coming back inside the house.

Apparently molasses contains a small amount of phosphoric acid, and phosphoric acid is commonly used to clean rust. But the amount of phosphoric acid is also dependent on the production process, so it may depend on the batch. However it might be that adding phosphoric acid to molasses would work better than just spraying phosphoric acid on, as it would hold the acid in contact with the vertical steel.

Here is the main post about PAINT. Recommendations and suggestions are welcomed.