Reinforcing a Doorway Bulkhead: Beam Theory in Practice A doorway bulkhead looks like a small, unimportant piece of structure. Get the engineering behind it wrong, and it isn’t. Why this small section needed real reinforcement This particular bulkhead section sits on the outboard side of the boat, carrying a genuine structural job: supporting a real […]
Reinforcing a Doorway Bulkhead: Beam Theory in Practice Read More »
Prioritising Solar Over Shore Power: Setting Up Our Victron System An electricity bill from the marina prompted a real question: why is Paikea drawing power from shore when there’s a full lithium bank and a growing solar array sitting mostly unused on the roof? Flipping the default relationship As standard, the boat’s electrical system worked
Prioritising Solar Over Shore Power: Setting Up Our Victron System Read More »
Key Message: A professional finish is 90% preparation. The glamour of a new paint job is entirely dependent on the meticulous, unglamorous work of surface preparation and problem-solving that happens first. Author: Anna and Shayne Introduction On social media, boat refits are often condensed into satisfying “before and after” reveals. What they skip is the middle—the thousands
The Not-so-Glamorous Work of a Boat Refit: Fairing, Filling, and Fixing Leaks Read More »
Hull Weight Reduction & Flush Hatch Installation: Paikea Refit Update Watching the waterline creep down, tide line by tide line, over the better part of a year is one of the more satisfying kinds of progress on this refit — slow, cumulative, and now finally starting to show. Why this started as a repair job
Hull Weight Reduction & Flush Hatch Installation: Paikea Refit Update Read More »
Fitting Composite Hatches: Installation, Alignment, and Converting Portlights to Hatches Building a hatch is one problem. Cutting a hole through a proven, watertight deck to fit it is a genuinely different one. Cutting into a deck that already works The original hatch arrangement had one real advantage worth preserving rather than cutting away entirely: a
Fitting Composite Hatches: Installation, Alignment, and Converting Portlights to Hatches Read More »
Building Composite Hatches: From 3D-Printed Mould to Finished Part Every hatch on this boat starts the same way — not with fibreglass, but with a mould nobody will ever see once the part comes out of it. Why 3D-printed moulds, and why not always Building tooling for a job like this runs against a genuine
Building Composite Hatches Using 3D Printed Molds Read More »
