January 2025

January 13,

 It's a new year but the goals remain the same. Keep on working.

After adding all of those 5/8"x1" strips along the rafters, I can start putting up the ceiling. This is some old southern yellow pine bead board plywood that I had laying around. It is not really in all that good condition and I won't actually use it but I put it up temporarily so I could work out the finish I wanted to use. The exposed rafters will be varnished so I was going to either paint the bead board or stain and varnish it. I think I'm going to use a golden oak stain and varnish. If I dislike it in the future, I can always revert to paint. 

This is a top view of where the main mast will come through the cabin ceiling. The center (going horizontal) rafter in this photo will have to be cut along with the center 1x2 which would leave the rafter hanging on the starboard (left in this photo) side. The other side is supported by the wall. I added another 1x2 to the left of center in order to support the rafter. I have not drilled for screws yet (in this photo) and I have not epoxied it in place since it was way too cold for epoxy work. Cutting the rafter makes more since than having it in an alternative location because the spacing is essential for where the cabin top plywood will be attached. I hate ending up cutting up sheets of plywood to fit oddly placed rafters. Maybe this is more of personal preference.

December 2024

 Dec. 16.

I finally finished up all those drawers for the cabinet under the sink. I had to wait till it was warm enough for epoxy. Temperatures should remain above 40 F (4.44 C) for at least 24 hours, preferably longer. 

The space at the top is for the double sink that is planned. I may add a small pop-out storage there. I'll have to see what kind of room I have when the sink is installed.

I decided to add more drawers on the side instead of having excessively long drawers in the front. The top drawer is only as long as the front one is wide to leave room for the sink.

The wall on the right is complete. It is only temporarily in place. I'll epoxy it together when I have time and temperature. The end of the wall pillar (black walnut) is attached to the floor using a hanger bolt. A hanger bolt has a wood screw end that is screwed into the pillar and a bolt end that is attached with a nut under the floor.

I've also finished the spacers between the rafters. I think this finished it off quite nicely. 

A close up of the top spacer and the wall pillar. The black walnut pillar will be trimmed at the ceiling. 

The next big step is fabricating and installing the sliding door for the port cabin. It will slide along the wall just installed and close the area off.

End of December:

My nephew forgot to bring the parts I needed for the sliding door. They were purchased in Chattanooga where he lives about a 2.5 hour drive away. Oh well. I decided to put in the dead wood that the ceiling will attach to. Every rafter will have to have a spacer all the way around to screw up ceiling bead board. It is very time consuming. At least now I know what to do with those really warped 5/4" boards I keep coming across.

This kind of board is only useful for building boats. That curve is just what I need for the following work.

All those curved rafters are getting dead wood to screw the ceiling onto.

A close up showing the 1"x5/8" wood strip. There will be a 1" space between the ceiling bead board and the decking. I plan to fill that space with 1" closed cell foam board. This should keep the boat cooler in direct sunlight.

Another view showing both sides of the rafters with the strips of wood. It is a lot of work. 

To complete this work, I also was finally forced to secure all the interfaces between the walls and the ceiling... or rather work out what I was going to do. Next, I will have to add some strips along the perimeter of the cabin roof. These will have to be beveled to match the cabin roof-side wall angle. All of them will be short (between rafter beams) so I'm going to go through all my scrap wood. Actually, I'm running out of oak again but I think there is enough to finish everything. I really don't have a lot more to build with the white oak. 

November 2024

 November 11,

Finished up the last locker in the forward half of the boat. I've move back to the galley sink cabinet. I've worked out all the drawers and cabinets that I am likely to be able to fit in the space. 

Completed locker with shelf on top. I may add a small sub-shelf later.

Galley sink cabinet. 

Rough fitting the rails for the drawers. Note that the back side of the rails have built-in rails for the side drawers that I have not cut out yet.

Rough fitting the fronts.

I have cut out the side drawers openings and I'm making sure that the rails are where they need to be. Even though I carefully measures, some were a bit off. It was easy to adjust them.

Everything rough fit into place. The rails will have HDPE as slides (on the bottom and sides like before) and I'll have to cut those out and fit them as well. Because of the tight placement of everything, I'll have to install the rails one at a time starting from the bottom. 

Drawer rails are temporarily installed to check alignment. It was off and a little work was needed a bit of work.

Nov. 23,

Drawer rails are finally installed. This was a major pain to get all the alignments that were necessary. In the end, I liked the results. 

The drawer slides on the side.

Nov 30,

I have made a lot of progress over the Thanksgiving holidays. All the drawers parts for the Galley cabinet are completely made and tested for fit. The cabinet door parts are also made and tested for fit. No glue yet as it was too cold and will continue to be too cold for the next week or so. I really need over 40 degree F (4.4 degree C) for the entire cure time (roughly 24 hours). The next warm weekend will be a frenzy of epoxy work and some significant changes to the interior. 

 

I cut the remaining part out for the latches and put a few together. They work very well but I'll need a set screw for the handle to ensure that the bolt rotates with the handle. Right now, it relies on friction.

From here on out, all of the rail and stiles will be made out of black walnut. The market for white oak is insane and I can't afford it anymore. Luckily, I have a nice supply of black walnut. It sure is pretty when it is cleaned up and it makes a nice contrast to the white oak and meranti plywood.

How do we fit a square wall into a curved space. You 1) level the floor and measure up and 2) square off a bulkhead and measure down and 3) reconcile the difference.

It fits pretty darn good. There are some minor adjustments that needed to be made but I left plenty of extra for that. 

It's starting to look like a hallway. Actually this is just temporarily installed. I still, at this time, need to notch out for the overhead beams and put in a footer trim. The notching is so that the plywood extends enough to notch into the trim spanning the overhead beams. Both of which have been done but I don't have a picture yet.

The aluminum rectangular tube needed for the sliding door has finally been ordered. It's pick-up in Chattanooga (about 2 hours drive) but I haven't heard that it is ready. My nephew just bought a house in Chattanooga so he'll grab it for me. Earlier in this blog, you'll see a picture of him working on the boat when he was about 10. Yep, he's all grown up now.

October 2024

 Oct. 10

The weather is getting much nicer and I'm itching to do more work on the boat. Last week I finished the jams for one of the lockers (closets) and mostly finished the other. I completed the putting together doors for both. I'll upload some pictures when I take them. I've also worked out some custom made hardware for the latches.  I'll probably make these out of black walnut to contrast with the white oak.

The drawing on the left is an edge on view of the door with the door jam on the right. The right drawing is looking from the inside (door not shown) with the latch (gray oval) engaged with the jam. I'll probably replace a bit of the jam with HDPE so as not to wear out the wood. The bottom drawing shows that I'm planning to use some bearing material (sleeve) for the stainless steel (SS) bolt. 

My wife took a few good photos that I'd like to share below.

That is yours truly.

Me and my wife hanging out and dreaming.

Now some recent work. I hung the locker doors. I used half pin barrel hinges so if you open the doors up all the way, you can lift them off and get them out of the way. But really, they open flat against the cabinets so I only expect to do this when outfitting the boat for a voyage.

Eight door latches for the design at the top of this page. The only question is: Is eight enough. These are made from some black walnut that I've had for awhile. I always wanted to have black walnut accents to counter the white oak and I think this will be a nice start. These will be nice and shiny when they are clear coated. 

Oct 19.

I had to drill the 1/4" hole for the bolt and the slightly larger hole for the bolt head and I wanted to do them all in the same place. So, I make a jig. Drill the bolt head hole first which only goes in about 3/8" and then drill the 1/4" hole all the way through. That way I can quickly drill all of the handles.

A view showing the hole.

I do not have the hardware complete on the inside yet but I needed handles so I could open the doors. 

This is the locker door. I was pretty sure that the door would clear the casing for the cabin door so it would lay flat. I did not know it would be this close. The light (on the right) coming through the edge of the door is extremely uniform. This is how square and true this cabinetry turned out. I am rather surprised it was this good.

I finally got some screws for some of the cabinetry that I've been putting off buying for awhile. I was able to glue up a lot of the cabinetry in the main salon and finish the trim on the berths. Everything is feeling more finished. I'm still basically working from the bow of the boat to the stern but nothing is linear. 

Finishing up the bulkhead end trim for the last locker. It still needs some significant sanding and finishing.

There will be a locker below where the pex for the shower comes out and I'll put a shelf above.

Long view.

This will be the header for the locker with two handles. It will be partially morticed into the jams. It will match what we did on the other two lockers (see photos above). Since I have a rounded corner, I choose to bring the header (with the handles) down below where the curve starts on the left. 

September 2024

 September 15,

Working on some trim and figuring out how to finish some of the closets. 

Vee berth from above.

One of the closets with hand grips. There will be a door here and open storage on top where the hand holds are. I spent quite a bit of time working this out so that it looks good. This photo doesn't really make it look good but it's much nicer in person. 

The Vee berth seat in the raised position. This section will drop down making a nice seat. When raised, like it is now, it makes a nice sleeping area for two. 

All trim rough fit. There is a bit of sanding and fitting that still needs to be done.

I finally figured out what I'm doing here. The inside of this "cabinet" is the lavatory for the guest bathroom on the starboard side. I need access, hence the opening at the bottom. I'll put a cabinet door over that later. There will also be open storage at the top. 

August 2024

August, 3

 Oh, the hot, hot, dog days of August. A good time for some cabinetry. 

There will be four hatches in the Vee berth to gain access to all that space underneath. Here is one laid out but not installed. The hinges are half pin-barrel type so when opened you can slide the hatch off the hinges and remove altogether when loading the hold.

Here, I am clamping in the support for the hatch. The support is just doubling up the plywood around the edge of the hatch with a rim the hatch can sit on without falling through.

August 10, 11.

Half of the "Vee" berth laid in showing the two hatches with the rim.

Hatches fitting tightly.

Additional support for the "Vee" berth bed.

"Vee" berth in without hatches. 

Removable insert for the "Vee" berth. This drops down to make a seat.

Under the seat of the insert, I have added a drawer. 

I've been cutting out these hatch holes and making new hatches from additional plywood. This has worked well for the various size hatches that I've needed in the "Vee" berth. It's also a significant waste of expensive plywood. I decided for the salon where all the hatches (or access panels) can be about the same size, I've decided to make a nice router pattern and use a 1/8" router cutter to cut out the hatch hole and hatch at the same time. This saves time and significant amount of plywood. It took longer than I expected to make the pattern, and some trial and error, but ultimately the results were pretty good. I've cut all the access panels or hatches in the salon area; two in each bench and two in each crew berth bases above the benches. I'm going to dress the edges of the hatches with laminate tape using heat activated glue. This will result in a 1/16" gap between the hatch and the hatch hole. Very acceptable. 

The router pattern cut 2 3/4" larger (radius) than the actual hatch. The radius needs to be almost perfect because any defects are magnified (like a lever arm) to the much smaller radius of the hatch. The large PVC pipe section with 80 grit sandpaper glued to it (purple cylinder on the right) really came in handy cleaning up the radius.  

Starboard side bench in the salon. Adding the lip around the hatch hole to support the hatch cover and add strength to the bench.