Painting the bulkhead

Its been a long term wish of Janet's to make the interior more homelike. Over the last year and a half of One Love ownership we've spent our time getting to know her. Now we're more comfortable with the basics we're starting to make her feel more like our own boat.

The first move on this is refurbishing / replacing the upholstery. All our cushions are at the shop right now (UFO in National City, CA) getting new foam edging, new fabric and in the case of the V-Birth all new foam (a layered firm foam + memory foam approach).

While this is underway we figured that it was time to embark on painting the bulkhead. Of course like any boat project it turned out that there was plenty of scope for even the simplest task to extend itself.

The new upholstery is going to be blue and we (Janet...) decided that painting the bulkhead yellow would be a nice combination and that by keeping the yellow quite pale we'd be able to accent the wood and make the cabin appear lighter.

Step one involved masking off the area to be painted.... well actually no, step 1 == strip  off the layer of water damaged veneer around the edges of the bulkhead. In the following picture you can make out a section to the left that is already stripped and a section at the bottom awaiting the knife.

Step 2 involved getting too high to remember to take pictures of Step 2. Actually Step 2 involved sanding down the bulkhead with 220 grit, Step 2.5 involved mixing an epoxy paste and filling the exposed plywood surface. It was raining hard outside so we couldn't ventilate as much as I would have liked and the effect of the epoxy setting in such a confined space was a good warning for future work. I certainly wasn't thinking straight by the second coat.

Having finished with the epoxy we primed the surface and were ready to paint, here's the primed bulkhead already looking so much lighter in comparison with the above picture.

Of course, in boating nothing is that easy. Here's a picture of me looking at the adjacent shelving, which we now realized wasn't quite straight.... as I looked closer it became apparent that the central section was supported by a couple of screws that had pulled through the end grain they had been embedded into. If you look you might be able to see that the middle is lower than it should be.

While we discussed this new problem Janet pointed out that she could never fit things through the doors and I pointed out that it looks quite easy to remove and next thing you know....

As you can see boat life continues and this step exposes the crappy headliner left over when someone had done work on the deck. At some point soonish expect a post on fixing headliner problems. 

Anyway, once this was out of the way we were able to prime the rest of the bulkhead (more had een exposed) and get to the painting. Here's the first color test going on to make sure we really wanted the one we'd selected.

And after deciding we really did we rolled and brushed on a couple more coats and here's the nearly finished wall:

Janet will return to the boat this week to remove all that tape and I'll post a finished picture when she gets back. We won't get the new upholstery until Christmas time though so meanwhile onto other projects!

New woodworking project

As the seat wraps up its time to move onto the next project. Originally I had intended this to be a new set of swim steps but recently we purchased a new compact RIB inflatable (310 from West Marine). This needs a decent place to live on the deck.

The intention was to mount the RIB in place of our old life raft and I've got to admit we got really lucky. I didn't measure the space available prior to buying the RIB but guestimated the fit and when we did a trial run it turns out we only have about 2" to spare on a 10 foot dingy, not the 6" or so I was expecting.

While on the boat this weekend I measured up both the deck and the dingy under belly. On the way to the boat we stopped at a woodworking store looking for something unconnected and a slab of Mahogany caught my eye - just the right size for my next project!

Not having any other materials handy I transcribed the RIB and hull shapes right onto the wood. We're going to have a V shape for the forward section that will be attached to the forward through bolts that were holding the life raft. The rear section goes over the hatch which will need to slide under the dingy. I'm going to build a bridge over the hatch with the aft hull section embedded into the top.

On both cases I'm still not quite sure how its going to fasten to the deck. Hopefully the forward section will be able to utilize the same bolt holes the lift raft did but the aft bridge will require something new.

The picture above shows the mahogany slab and some tracing paper that I'm using to create a plan for the new piece.

Almost there

I'm going to delay varnishing the base for a few days. In this time I'll mostly be working but when possible will continue to sand down the rough bits. I'm also going to fill some of the gaps with a wood dust / epoxy mix that will them need a little sanding. If all things go to plan I should be starting to varnish this next weekend.

Right now I've got the teak finished and down to 320 grit sand paper. Its going to get to 600 grade by the weeks end and then I'll lightly oil it to seal it off and bring out the grain. The fir is going to be finished to 220 and then covered in about 5-7 layers of a decent UV resistant varnish. The Fir is very light when first sanded but turns red when exposed to sunlight. I have no idea what color its going to end up at!

Here's where we're at....

Lightening the load

Part of the original design of the seat was for space to be available underneath it so we can tidy up some of the mess that collects on the flat deck while sailing. When all was put together it became apparent that the left and right sections were extremely heavy and would make it very tricky to open the lazerettes. I decided to go to town discarding needless wood from the base. This would also give water more exit routes and make it easier to clean under the seat.

This next photo shows the marking out and guide holes (actually these were a mistake in the end I used a drill piece that didn't need them) for cutting curved corners.

Once the corner holes were cut out I took out excess wood with a chisel, hammer and sand paper. Managed to cut myself a few times, got a nice blister and some aching arms but after about five hours of work had all the cutaway sections roughed out.

I also put in the teak plugs over the screw holes. At least most of them. I had planned on reusing the loose parts of the teak bungs in other holes but it turns out they have a fairly close tolerance and a wedge shape. My efforts to cut costs mostly led to frustration so I'm going to have to get a few more to plug the central section. Here's the first row in and waiting trimming:

Once I got the plugs in I started sanding the side units. Finally it feels like we're getting close to a usable product. Several hours more sanding to go and then a week of varnishing the fir then its ready to try out for real! Here's what I've got so far - as you might be able to tell I've started rounding off the corners, all part of making it ergonomic and lighter too:

Last weekend we were on the boat looking at the various near term projects. Took the chance to remove the current rusty and dysfunctional fishing boat chair and dry fit the new seat, here it is in place

Tomorrow we're going to be continuing some interior work and look further into building some dingy chocks for our new compact RIB which is taking the place of our out of date life-raft (which will be replaced with a newer lighter version, probably stowed below).

Attaching the teak deck

The teak deck is attached to the base using a layer of epoxy (the same west system 105 + 206 hardener used earlier) and two brass screws per piece to clamp it down tight.

The screws needed to be bedded into the wood so that they could be covered with teak plugs sanded to a smooth finish. Using a drill press with a guide setup so I would get even spacing on the screws I drilled a guide hole of about 3/32" and then the parent hole (3/8"). Doing this by hand would have been a royal PITA but using my simple Ryobi drill press it was a breeze. While here I should mention that this drill press is probably the most solid Ryobi tool I own and while not as accurate as a the industrial tools we had at school is good enough for my home projects.

Here's a side by side picture of a piece where the teak had just been attached and one that had a quick sanding.

And here it the whole piece put together. Now the process shifts from putting things together to starting to remove material from the seat, partially to add access to the space underneath and partly to reduce the weight  on the lazerette lockers so we'll still be able to open them.

Since taking these pictures I've actually got quite a bit further in  construction but right now I've got to go and ride my scooter with Janet for sunset!

Bevelling the slats

Because of the curved base the slats of teak end up with gaps between them.

Other than just being ugly these will also help water run down to the play base. While this layer will be sealed when I add the teak decking the less water that makes its way in to sit there and fester the better (actually, one of the final steps will involve caulking between the slats to try and avoid this even more).

To try and reduce space for water to move and sit the trick is to plane down the edges of the slats so they fit better, heres that same area a few minutes later:

While this is a big improvement I'm going to take another pass at the gap to the left to try ad reduce the remaining gap further.

Trial run of teak seat top

Today I cut the slats of teak that will top off the seat. Just putting them on the top in a dry fit run transformed the look and its going to be exciting to shape them for a better fit and get them fixed on.

Heres the full deck on

And a closer shot of the central section

Next up I'm going to trim the edges of the pieces so they slot against each other firmly, then they get screwed down into a bed of resin and the screws get hidden behind teak plugs. I might have to invest in a drill guide or small drill stand to make sure I get the screw holes accurate, not much room for error in the 1/2" teak.

Once its all fixed together I'll cut away the holes and perhaps some of the extra wood on the interior to lighten the outer parts (which will be on top of locker lids - still the most worrisome part of this, though I have a backup plan if they prove too heavy).

Best get back to work!