Parts is Parts

I've been busy making sailboat parts

To the left is the port main bulkhead replacement section. The two similar piece to it's right are the two parts of a fold out table. It folds down from the main bulkhead on a hinge on the bottom as you see it here and the smaller section unfolds from the larger section on a piano hinge if you want a bigger table. This will get white Formica except for the bottom of the main section that will show when the whole thing is stowed up against the bulkhead.

This is a partition/locker for behind the head. The port main bulkhead will form the left end and the V-berth bulkhead will form the right end. The top will sit on a few cleats and be a lid to the area below. The partition part will actually come up about four inches higher than the lid/shelf when installed and will have piece of teak trim on the top edge from the piece it replaces. These pieces get white Formica.

This was just going to be the bulkhead repair project, but once you get into something...
It turns out that most of the lavatory cabinet was rotten and it's a whole lot easier to work on with the bulkhead out. So off I went in that direction. There was a lot of wasted space to the right of the sink above an area where there was a hole in the bulkhead for feet to make the settee/berth on the starboard side long enough for an adult to sleep in. I added a shelf above the foot area. Should be handy for wallet, watch, glasses, etc. I still have to cut the doorway in the face of the cabinet for the storage area under the sink. More white Formica on the cabinet front and door and the counter top. The funny shape piece in the foreground is another bulkhead replacement section. On the starboard side the business end (the top) of the main bulkhead that holds the chainplate was fine but there was some rot on the bottom.

The boat didn't have one of these when I got it. It's a removable piece to fill the hole in the aft end of the V-berth. Lots of sailboats have this feature. It gives the option of either having an area where you can put your feet on the floor and sit up in the V-berth or you can use this piece and have a solid bed all the way across. It makes perfect sense if you see it in a boat.

This is where it goes. You can see the slot molded for it. The trifold door goes in the opening starting at the level of the insert and goes up. I removed the ridiculous piece of 1/4" plywood across the opening. The previous owner attached his anchor rope to it! Unbelievable! He must have never anchored in anything but absolute calm. It's amazing that it wasn't ripped right out of there. Quite a few things on this boat were not set up very well.

These were a lot of work: tri-fold doors for the V-berth and for the head. They also took 15 hinges. Fortunately I found an on-line source for stainless steel hinges direct from a manufacturer. Otherwise these would have been way too expensive. They fit up nicely and should work well, but after I got them trial fitted I got to thinking about the finger pinch hazard they poze. Mmmm... May have to rethink this. After all, I'm hoping that this boat will be a grandkid magnet, not a source of pain. Maybe I can come up with a safety system. (btw, no grandkids on the horizon yet. But by the time this boat is ready to sail?...)

The parts such as these that are going to be left with the wood showing are going to first get water based stain (per West System tech support suggestion) to try to match the original interior teak veneer plywood, of which there will still be quite a bit in the boat. I bought three colors hoping to mix up something close. Then the pieces will get a coating of epoxy for water and rot protection. Then marine spar varnish will go over the top of the epoxy. (Epoxy must have UV protection, UV breakdown being it's Achille's heel.)

This is a new base for the 9 gal. aft water tank. It's upside down. The original one was rotten and in a pretty dumb spot. It wasted a lot of area in the starboard locker behind the galley. There was an area under the galley next to the cooler that was completely inaccessible and unusable. I'm moving the tank to that area and, lucky me, the existing hoses all still work. This new base will be epoxied and tabbed to the hull. Also will be coated all sides with epoxy to hopefully not suffer the rot of it's predecessor.

Previous tank location. New location is in the foreground next to the cooler chest, the foam insulation of which is visible to the right. The tank will come to just aft of the galley sink through hull visible in lower left. A former owner put a plywood bulkhead in the locker thus closing off this entire area from use. I removed it. It's a huge amount of cubic space. Plenty of room for an inflatable dingy, a couple of outboard motors, and still room for lots more. This picture was made holding the camera down through the hole in the galley counter top where the stove top would normally drop in.

This is the original galley backsplash. It's removed to get, you guessed it, white Formica. If you hadn't figured it out by now, the galley top is going to be white Formica too. the old reddish brown Formica was just dark and dreary looking. The white should freshen up the galley and the head nicely and make all brighter. It's hard to believe that my little 27 foot boat is about to swallow up two 4x8' sheets of Formica laminate, but planning indicates that I have enough for all the parts but there will be very little left over.

There was a funky smell in the boat when I got it. Not horrible, just mildly annoying. I thought it was in the old cushions but taking them out didn't change anything. I scrubbed the inside of the hull and everything with diluted Clorox bleach. Still the smell was pretty much the same. Now that I've removed basically all the rotten wood from the boat, the smell is almost gone. So if your boat has a musty scent that you can't get rid of, look for some rotting wood. The smell is the least of the problems associated with rot, but I never thought about smell being an issue with it. It is!

Boat Progress at Last

Main bulkheads as they were when I purchased the boat. Note rot surrounding port side chainplate bolts in upper left of picture. (For you non-sailors, this is the attachment point of the shroud (cable) that holds the mast up. Pretty important that the wood NOT be rotten.) The leak that caused the rot was where the chainplate penetrated the deck - a common problem on most sailboats. On the starboard side, the wood in the upper part of the bulkhead was sound, but the bottom was rotted from a leaking lower shroud attachment point aft of the bulkhead.

Section of port side main bulkhead cut out and hull ground in prep for new fiberglass tabbing.

Same port bulkhead cut out seen from front side.

Starboard side main bulkhead with rotten section cut out. Also the lavatory cabinet has been removed. Some of the parts had rot so I made all new parts for it.

Bulkhead section of 1/2" Okoume marine plywood ($80/4x8 sheet, Lloyds certified, imported from France - quite hard to come by!) trial fitted into place. Rotted section along bottom of rest of bulkhead also being replaced. Epoxy and fiberglass materials showed up today so it shouldn't be long until this is epoxied into place. (Buying the stuff online saves a ton of money.) Per West System tech support's suggestion, I plan to use a water based stain on the bare wood first to try to match the teak veneer original plywood as closely as possible. (You can't put oil based anything under epoxy.) Home Depot has a line of water-based semi-transparent stain (Lowe's didn't have any). It's only available by the gallon but at $20/gal. that's less than oil based stains. The guy there said he could custom color it to match for me. I'm taking some wood samples of the old finish and some scraps of the new bare wood. We'll see how that works out. Then the pieces will be coated entirely with epoxy. Then I will install them in the boat. Later they will get a coat or two of spar varnish for UV protection of the epoxy.