As you may have read in my last article about the companionway ladder concept I have finally found some time last weekend to visit the shipyard and checking the building process at the Omega 42. Judging from the situation there and by the chats I´ve had with the guys, not much happened since my last visit. But there´s a reason for this, of course.
First of all, spring season is always the craziest time of the year in the boating business. That´s the same everywhere and it applies also for myself. The reason for me not visiting the shipyard in months is exactly that: Springtime is delivery time. For the shipyards this means commissioning the boats, handling and rigging, antifouling refreshing and finally bringing the boats to the water. And I am talking about literally hundreds of winter storage boats to handle. Anyways, I´m not saying that nothing has been done, because we do have some interesting details to look at …
Rough Floorboards finished
Inside in the salon of ALPHA I´ve discovered that the floorboards had been made and fitted. That´s not a big deal for a production boat: A CNC machine will cut out the floorboard (as seen and documented in the Bavaria shipyard lately) and it takes a matter of minutes to make a complete set of flooring. It is of course different with the Omega 42.
There are no plans anymore left over from the Omega 42 by Peter Norlin. Everything the shipyard does has to be made by hand. A very elaborate and time consuming effort. For a piece like the floorboard this means making a gauge model for the principle measurements and then fit the board by hand multiple times. To sand down the exact crook to make the board cuddle form-closed to the curvature of the hull. Also, making the individual floorboards form-fit to each other with no or at least the least possible gap in between. It looks just awesome, even in the rough here!
In the end, these are ten individual boards which I take with me in my car. After the visit at the shipyard I deliver these boards to Christian, a friend and skilled carpenter. This is the guy who makes those magnificent Teak gratings and rubrails for my company. For the Omega 42 he will be the one making the decking, both inside (in form of those floorboards) and up on deck (you´ve checked my initial article on the deck concept of the Omega 42 already). Mid to end May the floorboards will be finished, I guess.
Ready for the Diesel
What else has been done? Apparently, all bulkheads have been fitted and laminated to the hull now apart from the head. This means that especially in the stern section of the boat all is ripe to start with engine installation. Heiner, boss of Mueritz Bootsservice, the shipyard that builds the Omega 42 evo, thinks that end of May till mid-June all of the big machinery will be installed. That´s a very, very special and delicate part, at least for me.
I am eager to document the engine-fitting, hole cutting for the saildrive and all of the auxiliary stuff like fuel-tank and such. For now, one can clearly see the principle bunk-area for the pilot berth (to the right hand side of the picture above), the large “free space” in front of it with a maintenance hatch to the Diesel-engine and the “storage room” to the left hand side of the picture. It´s just huge: This aft section alone is more than 4 meters long …
Bamboo in the Boat!
More and more decisions regarding fitting details are due to make. For example, the countertop material to be used in the galley, the “mini-nav-station” and the saloon-table. I don´t want Corian as I find this material is too much “at home” and too little “at sea”. It always reminds me of my parent´s kitchen on land. One another reason is the weight: I want my boat as lightweight as possible. So Heiner came up with the idea to utilize Bamboo.
That´s a cool thing: It is a natural material, has this wooden looks as well as it is “kitchen approved”. It´s much more lightweight as Corian and can be processed much easier. There´s already a large Bamboo panel in the shipyard waiting to be cut to fit the galley. Nice. Well, that´s all for now. As I said, not much has happened, but pacing will increase in the coming weeks and lots of interesting things will happen. Stay tuned!
More information on the Omega 42-project:
All building reports here: #buildingreport
This is the Omega 42 sailboat
Sailing the Omega 42