| Bolero
Project |
Monday, April 14, 2008 I continued work on the forward section of the settees. With the transitional trim pieces that I milled last week now cut to the proper length, I secured them to the existing portion of the settees with glue and screws. This allowed me to measure for and cut the two angled forward sections from more of the cherry plywood; these sections would run from the trim to a point just aft of where the mast step block (the second one that sat atop the longer one) would end. With a few test fits and additional marking and cutting them to appropriate size and shape, I got the pieces ready to install. I also cut the transverse center section that would join the two sides at the forward end. |
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I made a mistake and had failed to paint out the bilge beneath the long mast beam before today. I had meant to do it Friday, but Friday didn't turn out as I'd planned, and obviously the short chore of painting the soon-to-be inaccessible bilge and underside of the mast beam slipped my mind in the meantime. Since I couldn't proceed with the final installation of the settee sides before the mast beam was permanently installed, and since I couldn't install the beam until I painted the area beneath it, I had no choice but to go ahead and paint the area in question; I thought that if I left the paint for an hour or so at lunchtime that I'd be able to continue work afterwards.
Before painting, I vacuumed and cleaned
the bilge area, and also bored a hole in the mast beam directly over the
one keel bolt that would be hidden beneath after its installation, and
also cleaned up and sanded the secondary mast step block to prepare it
for paint. It may be helpful to reveal that I'd determined that instead
of using the surface of the mast beam as the finished sole height in
this area, I'd decided to install the sole above the beam--this for a
variety of reasons, but mostly centered around the fact that the bolt
holes in the beam, which I'd copied directly off the original beam that
it replaced, were asymmetrical and looked terrible; I hadn't originally
planned on the beam being exposed at all since I thought the whole area
forward of the main cabin sole well would be hidden beneath the berth,
so it didn't matter when I made the beam in the first place. And
the fact that I needed to allow for access to the keel bolt in the
future was only the icing on the cake in this decision. |
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I secured the mast beam in place with eight 5/16" bolts, nuts, and washers, securing it to the fiberglass floors as original. Then, I secured the mast block in place with four lag screws, again as original. Now I could continue the installation of the final part of the settee sides and front. Using glue and bronze screws, I secured the sides and front in place. Note that I added some mahogany cleats to the area as needed to help support the cabin sole later. |
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Next, I worked on a couple small transverse dividers and supports, one on each side of the boat about even with the forward end of the main cabin sole well. I needed these to help support the berth top later, and also to segregate separate storage compartments beneath the berth. Using a level, I transferred the height of the settee sides out to the hull in the areas in question, and then, in the usual way, I made cardboard templates of the pieces which shape I then transferred to some of the 12mm structural plywood that I'd used elsewhere. I epoxied these in place with gentle fillets, and while I was at it I also filleted the insides of the after settee sections to prepare those areas for fiberglass tape shortly. I also applied a cosmetic fillet to the inside (exposed) edges of the settee sides, where they met the hull running down towards the cabin sole. I left the various epoxied installations to cure overnight. |
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