BELOW
DECKS
Looking
at your Explorer16, it’s not easy to see how it was put together to determine what's under the floor if you ever need to trace a water leak. These
photos, taken back in the 80's at Botterill’s yard during the assembly of a “new one”
show some of the secrets.
The
first one is that there are really only THREE “BITS” that fit together to form
the hull, cabin, tanks, lockers, bunks, floors etc.
THE “FLOAT BIT”
Looks sleek, doesn’t
it? Could almost be an 18-footer
stripped down! With just the familiar clinker lines on the mould, the outer
hull is pretty floppy at this stage.
THE “SLEEP BIT”
With the second or inner mould in place, things start to take shape. This inner mould sets up the bunks, lockers, cabin floor, cockpit tanks (which will end up supporting the cockpit floor), and part of the bulkhead. The blobs in the cockpit floor are leftovers from foaming the buoyancy tanks. Note the last moulding in the background.
THE “LID BIT”
Lowering the third and
last moulding. This one provides the cockpit floor and seats (and storage
under), coaming, bulkhead, and cabin roof.
Add the gunwales and
the forward hatch cover, and you’re nearly there. Note that a lot of the
fittings are already in place before the separate moulds are put together.
Now that you know a bit more about the construction of your Explorer 16, we invite you to join the Explorer 16 Association to enjoy the company, friendship and experience of maintaining, cruising and/or racing your Explorer.
