ejds

Thanks Ken for pointing out people jumping on top of the door. Possibly some cement and glass shards would do that. I was planning on locating the door midway in the cockpit between the aft seat and a cockpit locker behind the cabin. Hopefully most people would board just behind the cabin where you can step on top of the locker and there will be a handhold on the back of the cabin. I wasn't really thinking of boarding from the water. The door should be able to be used that way also for good measure. One way would be a double duty boarding ladder that can be used at the transom or someway hang on the door opening providing a handhold and steps. Egbert

I am thinking about a door on the starboard side of the cockpit. It would go from the top down to the belt stringer. Reason for starboard side is to use the boat also as an RV when traveling. Also helpful for boarding a dinghy. On the side of the boat there would be plenty of space to add framing around the door to keep the hull curvature in shape before cutting a big hole in the hull. There is a MJM 36 boat that has doors on the side of the cockpit. Egbert

Looks like you are the floating advertising for Tom's Bluejackets. How about painting http://www.bluejacketboats.com on the side. Has been a week since the facebook page is updated, where are you. Egbert

If you really want a bright finish and are concerned about the weight you could use a nice veneer over the plywood. I don't know about gluing veneer with epoxy, Might need a vacuum bag for clamping. I am using some oak veneer inside the cabin and use contact cement to put it down. There is just a thread started on Woodenboat where somebody wants to do this. I am using some oak veneer inside the cabin and use contact cement to put it down. http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthread.php?181995-Veneer-over-wooden-deck Egbert

I'm looking at adding a water heater to my 25 Bluejacket. There are a few different options, each with their drawbacks. Major concerns are safety and energy use. Propane would be the most convenient but also the most dangerous option with an open flame burning away. Other options are electric and solar. They can take heat from the engine but that wouldn't work with an outboard engine. I don't think I would like to rely on purely solar in the form of a black bag laying on the roof. Here is a list of different option I explored: 1.Portable tankless propane heaters that could be installed outside but from what I read on them the temperature control is a problem and it would look kind of ugly. 2. Tankless propane with a forced vent and/or oxygen sensor to be mounted inside the boat. 3. RV propane tank heater. They need a rather large vent opening to the outside limiting the location. These propane options are possibly not approved by any insurance companies but would give a "limitless" supply of hot water until the water tank is empty. 4. 3 or 6 gallon tank water heater running on 120 V. This would need a generator or only hot water in a marina. 5. Whale/Seaward has a new 3 gallon 12 V 300 Watt water heater. They claim it will heat the 3 gallons in about an hour. Lots of battery power and that coupled with the low charging amps from an outboard motor. 6. A 3 or 6 gallon 120 V water heater and possibly changing the element out with a 12 V element. This in combination with a solar panel hooked up to a heat exchanger built in the tank. Heliatos has some interesting solar panels. Each one of these have their good and bad sides and none are perfect. Does anybody have an idea if a 3 gallon size would be enough for two people. Egbert

Thanks for approving the post. It is a lot easier posting pictures directly from the hard drive instead of using a third party hosting site like I described earlier. Flickr, where I keep my pictures, doesn't allow referencing the pictures directly.

Hi all, Thanks for putting this in place. Can't wait to be done with my boat. I hope to be completely done by coming spring. Here is a picture from Tom's Bluejacket 24 for a test I can't seem to get this to work with the pictures I have on Flickr. To get a picture on here have it on some picture hosting site, This one is on Tinypic. From the toolbar in the posting window select the green square icon "Image" and give it the URL from the picture on the picture hosting site. Same procedure as on the Wooden Boat forum. Egbert