Once the gelcoat has set up in the deck mold, it’s time to put the structural components into the deck layup. Decks are supported by interior bulkheads and so when our engineers are determining panel strength requirements, they must consider the size of the un-supported panels. Consider that in your typical home all framing is done on 16" centers. In some boat applications there are open spans (a main salon for example) which can measure up to ten feet by fourteen feet.) In order to ensure the stiffness of the panels we use both architectural form and sandwich type composite materials. In some hard top sections the coring materials can be as much as 2" thick and the curvature of the deck surface can be crowned by as much as two inches over the span of the panel. There is an added bonus to this curvature too; it creates excellent drainage of the deck surfaces.

Occasionally I will have a question from a consumer about these shapes. In many cases they are thinking about the design and structure of buildings and those rules just don’t work in boat design and building.

Mike and his crew in the deck shop have now laid in the structural E glass behind the gelcoated surface. Then they have added the coring material and to the inside of the coring they have applied additional layers of E glass. Once all of this is ready the part will be lifted out of the deck mold and then rotated over to it’s top side up position. From there it will go to the deck department for the fitting of the deck hardware but that’s a story for another day.

The other day Greg had asked me a question about the method used to put two different gelcoat colors on our deck. I responded to him directly while I was traveling and today I was out in the shop and looking at the deck for the new Sabre 34 Hard Top Express. Greg asked if we tape off and protect the first color once it has set up and the answer is no we do not. Because the non skid gelcoat will block the second color we put in behind it we spray the second color without and cover-up. In this image you’ll note that the mold which is black has it’s non skid area already gelled with the secondary color and Mike’s crew is about to spray the base deck color on top of it. Remember when this is released that the color we put in first is "on top".

I was in Greenwich England at the British Maritime Museum when I discovered the true meaning of the nautical term Hull Ceiling. The museum is incredible. As an island nation, England has such an amazing maritime history and if ever you are in London with time to spare, go to the museum in Greenwich. I found myself wandering the museum for hours and until a guard told me it was closing time. I thought I had only been there for an hour or two. I had in fact been there for an entire day. Any way, back to hull ceilings.

In Greenwich I was aboard the famous Tea Clipper Cutty Sark She is permanently dry docked at the museum. Tea clippers brought tea from China to the markets in London and Europe. The first ships that arrived got the highest prices for their prized cargo and so a fleet of fast clippers was born to serve the tea trade. Tea doesn’t like to get wet (until it’s time to be drunk of course) and so these wooden vessels had to be as water tight as they could be. In the interior of the clippers was installed a secondary hull or “hull ceiling”. Any water or moisture that made it’s way through the exterior planking of the hull came to this second skin and simply ran or dripped off to the bilges. The hull ceiling exists in Sabre motoryachts today but today it is in most part cosmetic

We make up ceilings by laying strips of ash batten face down on a bench. We then tape and fiberglass the back side to tie the battens together into a large sheet, As we prepare to install the hull ceilings we place stand off blocks on the hull side with adhesive and then attach the ceiling to these blocks. By doing so we create an air space between the hull and the yacht’s interior. Any dampness or moisture created by temperature differentials is trapped between the hull and the ceiling. That keeps the interior dry and comfortable. 

And yes we do like a spot of tea from time to time.

This week the biggest sail only west coast boat show takes place at Jack London Square in Oakland California. Sail Expo Pacific is one of four sail boat shows operated by Sail America. The Sabre 386 will be on hand along with models from most major sail boat builders. The Sabre 386 looks fantastic with her dark Green hulll and Sabre white deck. Come on by and take a look and say hello to the folks from Sabre who will be working the show.

While our boat is coming down the Assembly line and all of the internal furniture, electrical and plumbing systems are being installed the fiberglass department is still hard at it, building the deck.

Decks are built upside down due to their shape and the need for gravity to help us keep materials in place while the fiberglass sets up. Sabre decks have a built in anti slip pattern in them and many owners choose to have the anti slip as a contrasting gelcoat color. In order to put the 2nd color on we have to first tape out all of the smooth areas of the deck so that the anti slip surfaces are the only ones exposed. The orange areas seen in this image are the areas we spray first. Once that has been gelcoated, Mike and his Fiberglass Department team will remove the plastic covering the smooth areas and spray the deck’s base gelcoat color on the newly exposed areas. The result is a two tone deck.

More on the actual building of the deck next week.

Many Sabre boats operate in the salt water but even when they do not you can rest assured that our owners will not find the dreaded "green dust" on their electrical wiring in time to come. Why, you ask? Because we go the extra distance and use only tinned wire throughout our boats DC electrical wiring system.

Tinned wire is copper wire just like the stuff that you see in your home and in most recreational boats. But before it is encased in it’s plastic cover, tinned wire is drawn through a bath of molten tin. When exposed to salt air or moist environments, tinned wire does not corrode. So in ten years from now when our Sabre 38 Express is inspected by a surveyor he will not find corrosion on the boat’s DC wiring.

In a Sabre 38 Hard Top Express there is over one half mile of wire! (2,803 feet is the number in the bill of materials). I had to go to engineering to get that answer and they had to look it up but it’s a staggering number. The wire weighs 350 pounds! Here’s an image of the electrical department at Sabre Yachts where our electricians prepare the wiring and electrical devices such as inverters for their installation in the hull.

Every hull’s electrical systems (they have a DC and an AC system) are planned out here in the electrical department and in the engineering office. Some wires are included in harnesses and others are run and then enclosed into conduit running throughout the hull. So that owners and service yards know which wire is where, the yacht is supplied with a lit on wires with a numeric designation for each purpose. The owners manual and the electrical panel both have this listing available. The electrician will attach the number to each end of the wire so that it is visible both at the device end and at the circuit breaker panel. For example #15 on this list is the engine room light wiring.

Quality electrical wiring is critical to the integrity of the yacht’s systems and the yacht’s reliability, today and in ten years or more from today. At Sabre we take it very seriously.All of our electrical systems are built to ABYC (America Boat and Ship Council) and CE (European Community) standards.

While Jim and his fellow woodworking associates are busily preparing wood components such as this bi-fold door, the folks out in the first assembly bay are performing the alignment. This is a critical step in the assembly process. First they ensure that the stringers are all on the same plane so that everything starts on an "even keel"  (pardon the pun). Once the large cabin sole part is in place, bonded to the stringers and taped around it’s perimeter, the larger pieces of furniture can all be loaded into the hull. 

None are "taped" into their final position until the critical alignment dimensions are checked. The deck is a very complex shape and when that deck comes down onto the hull, each interior component must be in precisely the right place for the deck installation to go right. High volume production builders who do not "stick build" like we do, avoid possible errors by, in some cases, assembling interiors to the deck and in other cases, building furniture which does not extend up as high as the deck within the interior. The gain for them is time but the loss is strength and integrity. They cannot "tab" (attach with fiberglass tapes) the interior components to the deck or hull sides. Tabbing is the best way to get a strong assembly of all of the parts. In Sabres, each interior component is attached to the hull with fiberglass tapes and becomes an integral part of structure. I’m rambling on this topic. I may swing back and visit it again later. It’s important.

Once the alignment is done the mechanics start their very important work. Here’s Les installing the major drive train components. He has just placed the two Cummins 425 HP QSB series electronically controlled diesel engines on the stringers and done a first alignment of the engines using a laser and target located in the cutlass bearing. Exhaust hoses are hooked up, the PSS dripless shaft seals are installed and things are looking good. Note the platform between the two ZF gears where the Onan EQD gen set will be installed next.

We’re at a really complex stage in the build now. There are things going on in virtually every department as our 38 Express starts down the assembly line. Interior accommodations are being built in the wood shop, electricians are getting ready to install wires for everything from lights to bilge pumps. The mechanics are installing engines and gen sets and the fiberglass department is laminating our deck.

So over the next few weeks the blog might seem a little disjointed but believe me, out in the shop, there’s a well orchestrated symphony being played out.

Today I want to talk about woodworking and the excellence of Sabre’s wood shop. These folks are very talented and love the work they do. Few items are production built but one example is our teak (exterior) and cherry (interior) hand rails. All of our handrails are made from solid pieces of hand picked wood. Pam has worked in Sabre’s wood shop for over 30 years and is proud to say that she has worked on most of the hand rails that our clients have relied on for their security over the years.

Another interesting piece of woodworking is laminated trim. As we build our furniture designs, plywood edges need to be trimmed for beauty and for function. These parts are created by laying down individual wafers of cherry each coated with adhesive to create a stack of between ten and fifteen layers. Because the wafers can easily bend before the adhesive sets up, they are laid in a jig that has been built in the form of the part to be trimmed. He two piece jig is then clamped closed and once the adhesive sets up the part is released and a very interesting piece of wood has been created. Here’s an example

As our Sabre 38 Express hull starts down the assembly line the first items installed are the stringers and the main engine room bulkheads. These components form the skeleton of the structural reinforcement of the hull and the stringers will also be the supports for the engines. And since the engines are as big as 480 horsepower each and weigh about one ton each with their gears attached, you want to be sure the stringers are well built.

Stringers are made of two materials. The parts which are both forward and aft of the engine room are made of foam, the parts under the engines are built up plywood laminations and the spots where the engine is going to be bolted to the stringer have steel caps. The reason for going from foam to wood is to stop vibrations from traveling down the stringers to the rest of the boat.

The internal material is a form over which multiple layers of structural Eglass is laid, overlapping from side to side. The foam is closed cell so that water cannot penetrate the stringer and Sabre places PVC tubes in the limber holes for further assurance against water penetration. Most important to remember here is that the overlapping fiberglass is the structure, the foam is simply the form.