Cruising World article on C44

Sailing review of C44

Spinsheet review of C44

Delivered April 2008.

The boat starts with the fiberglass hull.

The actual layup of the fiberglass is done at a shop specializing in fiberglass work.

Here is the view towards the bow. The board at top maintains the beam. The tabs fiberglassed into the sides facilitate lifting onto delivery vehicles.

Here is the stern view of the hull.

The Cherubini 44 is ballasted with 12,000 pounds of lead, put into the very bottom of the fiberglass molding.

Lead comes in roughly 40 pound ingots. The lead had previously served for fifty years as ballast in a naval ship. Each ingot had to be cleaned of decades of bilge oil and dirt, so that when the ingots were heated, nothing would burn or introduce impurities to the melt.

Two at a time are heated and become molten.

When properly positioned, Jeremiah lifts the bottom of the pot with a steel rod and tilts the pot; molten lead flows into the the cavity of the keel. The new lead is quickly cooled by the lead below it, so the fiberglass is not damaged by this process.

Looking aft, preliminary bulkheads for the aft cabin are in place, roughing out out a quarter berth to port and lockers in front of it.

The engine bed is being installed.

Looking forward, bulkheads for the lockers in the forward cabin are going in. So are the forward deck beams

The sub-floor is also in place

Looking aft, bulkheads define the aft cabin and the quarter berths are more evident.

Deck and Head

The head compartment was molded on the shop floor as a single unit in fiberglass. This photo from above shows the location of the sink on the forward side, the floor to which the head will be secured, and the inserts in the floor for a shower grating.

Further inboard in the bilge is, the gray water tank is being installed.

Tanks will fit between two timbers; they will be relatively easy to remove for servicing. We know that everything on a boat, no matter how well built, will need servicing in a few decades

Interior bulkheads, dividers, and cabinets are being built and installed.

Here we are looking from the starboard side, through the double doors for the head/shower area into the galley area. The cabinet on the left is in the aft cabin

Cabin sides are fitted

A lot of work has gone on to flesh out the interior cabinetry and to install plumbing and electrical systems.

The dust-free varnishing room in the corner of the shop is filled with interior parts.

It's hard to photograph all this progress, but it is moving forward.

On the shop floor, large mahogany boards have been glued together in a jig with the right curvature to make the solid mahogany cabin sides. They are being fitted now, prior to final installation.

The decks have been fiberglassed. The cabin sides are bolted, screwed, and glued to the deck with 5200.

The insides of the bulwarks are also being fitted.

The electrical panel is being installed in the forward port corner of the aft cabin.

The unfinished pieces of wood on the left are temporary cabin top beams, to help define the location and shape of the deck that will be built above them.

Looking at the outside of the boat, there is little change. But inside, the various systems are being installed. The electrical system is elaborate, and will mostly be hidden behind beautiful cabinetry.

Navigation instruments are mounted on a board that hinges up in the navigation area above the engine (protected from dust), behind and to the side of the companionway. This area has its own complex electrical wiring.

Similarly, air conditioning units and their large ducts are carefully installed and will be hidden behind the elegant woodwork.

Basic plumbing is mostly installed. The head is looking more and more like a head, again with an elegant counter surface.

Both a holding tank and and a sewage treatment unit are installed.

Forward cabin is looking very cozy. On the extreme right of this photo is a hint of the emerging bureau of drawers. A hanging locker is further aft. Similar stowage is on the port side.

Under the vee-berths, the bow thruster with its elaborate wiring has been installed.

The bulkhead behind the thruster is waterproof and sits several inches above the waterline. If some freak accident were to rupture the bow, water would be contained by this bulkhead.

Around the shop, parts for the boat have been constructed and are waiting for installation.

Many locker doors have been built. They are almost all different sizes and most of them have rounded or oblique doors. Few if any are simple rectangles.

Dorade ventilators and battery boxes are being prepared.

All exterior wood parts are teak, and varnished with highly durable finishes.

The bowsprit is under construction. It is built of laminated mahogany boards, fiberglassed for a durable finish.

A few ingots of lead help squeeze the layers of the cabin top together.

Within a few hours, the new boat has a cabin top, and seems much closer to the water.

A genset is installed in the space below where the cockpit will be.

Within hours, the cockpit is lifted off the shop floor and lowered into place. It presumably must be fitted before it is bonded permanently into place.

The gen set and water heater will be able to be extracted through the cockpit seat lockers when they need major service or replacement.

The new cabin top has been faired, primed, and faired some more, the old-fashioned way, with long-board hand sanding.

Cherubini yachts have lots of storage space, including lots of drawers.

Our master carpenter Ziggie has focused on building the drawers now. The drawers are made of plywood (mahogany faced on the bottom) and have lovely mahogany faces.

There are several cabinets of drawers, and, not surprisingly, the drawers are of different sizes.

With the cockpit in place the steering pedestal can now be installed. It includes a large display for all navigation data.

This is also a good time to install the autopilot. A Simrad system activates a hydraulic drive, that has its own supplementary tiller on the rudder shaft. (This provides redundancy, should there be a failure of the normal steering system or quadrant.)

The cylinder, as well as its hydraulic pump, valves, hoses, etc., are being fitted now. They will be installed in the lazzaret, right near the top of rudder shaft. This location is easy to service and the components can be kept dry.

The cabin top and sides are painted, so now the the port holes are cut in the cabin sides and the hatches, coamings, grab rails, skylight, eybrow moulding, main sheet traveller bases, etc. are secured.

Below decks, lockers, drawers, and counters are being installed in the galley,

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Pete is sealing the bottom edge of the rail cap with 5200. He shows the most sensitive, precise tool -- the index finger.

Note that chocks have been installed. Further aft, deck scuppers have also been cut in the bulwarks. Portlights are dry-fitted.

The sampson posts were laminated of clear ash. They are now fine-tuned and prepped for painting.

The sampson posts not only provide the attachment points for docking and anchor lines; they also transmit the compression of the bowsprit to the deck and hull structure of the boat. They are absolutely critical components of the standing rigging.

The elegant sprayhood and main traveller have been installed.

Note that the special Cherubini ports have been installed also.