Forward berth and Exterior Prep work

Though I had intended on following a specific set to goals this weekend, as usual the priorities of effort meandered from the path like an Ohio riverbed during a flood.

By the end of the weekend, I accomplished several tasks. The first was the near-completion of the forward berth. The lack of finish work there has been an annoyance to me. It matters little that its unfinished, but every time I look in there, I have felt the pull to put some of the problems to rest.  I also corrected a problem with the cabin and started sanding down the entire topside in preparation for painting.

Cockpit Mystery Indentation

Anyone who owns a Clipper Marine 26 is annoyed to deal with a squarish indentation to the port of the entryway.  It had a purpose of some sort, but no one can figure out what they were thinking when they added it to the design.  It does not hold a beer well, it does hold water so personal items should not be stored here, and its a hassle to clean.   The time has come for it to go.

Using some resin and fiberglass, I fabricate a plate of fiberglass to be used to cover over the hole. First off, I matched the hole to the panel and marked where I would cut. 

The first initial cut was followed by a more precise fitting.  The goal was to get the panel to sit just inside the lip and allow me to pour a layer of strengthening resin over the top.  The end result being a simple flat surface to step on.

I also decided to leave the original bottom in place.  The resulting self will become yet another place to store emergency gear.

As I write this, the resin is still drying.  I must have not put enough hardener in it.

The blue tape was there to keep the resin from running around the panel edges. The tape did not hold in a couple spots to my great aggravation, so now I have puddles of resin pooling inside my self.   If I had gotten the right amount of hardener in, that would not have been a problem.

Next came the cruelest to tasks.  Prepping the exterior for painting.  With the hundreds of times that I crawled in and out of the cabin, I inevitably tracked gobs of resin all over the cockpit.  All these spots now had to be carefully scraped and sanded out.  Not a lot of fun.

 

Also, no one warned me about the hassles involved in pulling hardware.  It's a two man job, and I've got boys who are more interested in Xbox than helping me for several hours as I break down the myriad of locking bolts. There are several things I'm simply going to tape off since they are bolted down so tight that a blowtorch it required to get them free.

On the positive side, I did manage to sand down 90% of the top-side thanks to a nice orbital sander and $10 in pads.   ...and one other thing.   I think this boat used to be bright blue.  It's been painted at least once, if not twice.  I figured this out when my sander bit a little deep when fixing scratches.

Forward Berth: 



 This is a shot of the forward wall (bulkhead).  The bottom-most edge was rotted to paste.  Someone had started the the restoration work and gave up leaving the hole.

One of the unexpected challenges here was the shelves.   Since they butted up against the wall and the wall was toast, I had to figure a way to cut the wall away but save the shelves.  My solution was to chisel everything out and worry about the reconstruction process later....which, oddly enough, worked fairly well.  Besides the shelves, the only thing I saved from the forward berth was that little door.

 Problem One in replacing the forward berth was getting the v-shaped wood into place.  I had to cut angle chunks from the shelves to allow me to slide this piece into place.   This ruined the structural integrity of the shelves, which I resolved with small triangular braces epoxies under each shelf.

Fast forward to this weekend.  Except for painting the ceiling, we are pretty much done with this area.  I'm considering putting some carpet on the walls, which is popular right now.  It will quiet the place down while trying to sleep, but offers mildew a place to start.  I'm torn.

Note that I chopped and reshaped the original teak shelf railing to match the new angles.  That was a pain, just as was getting the 1/4 round to contour to the curve of the hull.

Next up, more sanding down the rest of the topside and priming it for the final coat.