Custom chart racks designed, built, and installed

SCAMP has a ton of storage in front of bulkhead 3, though I expect it will be best for lightweight items like sleeping bags, pillows, clothing.  And if out on a multi-day trip, it would be good to have some reading material along.  Rather than let maps, books, and magazines fall to the floor I thought it would be good to have some dedicated storage for those items.  Inspired by builder Dan from British Columbia, I decided to build some racks.

I started out with a cardboard prototype that I modified a number of times.  It was very difficult to get all the angles to look right and fit the hull.  I eventually decided on something like this.

I then built the prototype again, this time in some light plywood from some old panelling.  The cardboard flexes and lets you cheat a little with the fit, so using more rigid material let me finalize the angles and fit of the pieces.  Masking tape works fine to hold the pieces together.

Once I had all the pieces fitting right, I disassembled the shelf and transferred the dimensions to extra ply from the boat.  The bottom of the shelf is 9mm, and the sides and front are of 6mm.  

One of the benefits of making a good pattern was that I could reverse all the pieces and make a mirror image, so I did that and made a chart rack for both port and starboard. 

I taped the parts together again.

And ran a fillet of epoxy on the inside.  I didn't make any effort to glue the pieces together except for the fillet, and that works fine.

Next I taped on the front pieces.

And filleted them in place.  After the epoxy cured I used the 12" disk sander to sand all the overhangs flush.

Here's a shot of the progression from cardboard prototype to finished item.

The angles look a little funny here, but they all make sense in the boat.  Nothing is square on these, and all the compound angles made this a challenging little project.  I spent more time designing and building this than I care to admit, but I'm happy with the result.

I decided to let the wood shine through on these parts, and applied 2 coats of epoxy to finish them off.  No need for varnish or anything to protect from UV as they will be in an enclosed area of the boat.

I lined up the shelves and marked their position, then fired two pin nails from the inside of the boat through the hull to mark where the bottom of the shelf was.  I then buttered up the edges of the shelf with thickened epoxy and held it in place while my wife helped out by firing two pins from the hull exterior into the bottom of the shelf to hold it in place.  One strip of tape held the top of the shelf against the hull. 

I then filleted around the shelf/hull joints to finish things off.  I'll touch up the paint that I had to scrape off to mount these and the installation will be complete. 

Steam bent 'glovebox' shelves installed

A while ago I saw on the Scamp forum an idea another builder had to include some shelves under the seats to store little things like car keys, wallet, etc.

I decided I wanted to do the same, and I realized the time to do that was now, since it's almost time to install the seat tops.

I first contemplated and measured and picked a size for the shelves.  They are about 1 foot long and 5 inches wide.  I cut stock to rough size and fit it to the hull.  The edge that joins the hull needed to curve front to back, and bevel top to bottom.  This was pretty easy to do with the 12" disc sander.  I decided I wanted rounded corners, so I cut and sanded those, too.

I determined I wanted an edge to the shelf about 2" high, and fit around the curves of the corner. A little steam bending seemed to be in order.  I glued up some scrap for a form and traced the profile of the shelf, then cut it out with the bandsaw:

Look for my earlier post on steam bending to see the steam generator/plastic bag 'steam box' that I used.  Same technique here.  After each piece cooled a bit I clamped them against the shelves to dry out and fully cure overnight.

I then coated the inside of the sides with unthickened epoxy to seal the grain, and let that cure.  Then used thickened epoxy to glue the edges on and glue on some little bracket supports.  I used the 23-gauge pin nailer to hold the parts in place while the epoxy cured.

I then ran a fillet around the inside, and trimmed the overhanging ends of the side pieces to fit the hull.  

To install the shelves in the boat I placed them against the inside of the hull and traced around them.  I then shot pin nails through the hull from the inside near the ends of the shelf and bracket outlines. I then connected the pins with lines, showing me where the centerline of the shelf pieces would be.

I then coated the mating surfaces of the shelf with thickened epoxy and held it against the hull, while a helper shot pin nails from the outside of the hull into the edge of the shelf and the bracket.  We were able to hit the target with each of the three nails we used per side.  No further clamping was needed.

Here's a view of the starboard shelf looking through the access hatch in B4.  After this photo was taken I also added a fillet between the shelf and the hull to reinforce the shelf and finish off the inside.

And here's the reverse view of the shelf with the first coat of paint.  It's a bit tricky painting the bottom surfaces upside down and backward using a mirror to see what's happening.

This little project took some time, but I'm pleased with how it turned out, and I think these shelves will be really handy.