June 3, 2019

Scupper 149

Monday

Continuing with the forward cabin doors, after a light sanding and the usual cleanup steps I applied the fourth coat of gloss base varnish to the main side of the two doors.

The main focus of my day’s work was to prepare the companionway door opening as needed for varnish and paint. The bulk of the trim work was complete, but there were  two outstanding pieces that required my attention first, starting with the top edge of the laddor [sic] back panel, which I’d left intentionally short and unfinished during original construction so that I could add in the final trim once the door was hung.  As it turned out, I could have completed this earlier, and perhaps I’d meant only to wait till the panel was installed in the door frame itself, but in the event it was a simple enough piece to cut and fit and install as needed to finish off the raw plywood edge.

The aft edge of the cabin sole, where I’d extended it somewhat into the head and through the door opening, required trim to cover the edge, where there was a small gap and the plywood edge grain exposed.  I started with a simple blank cut to fit the overlap as needed, then shaped the piece to create an appropriate threshold-type trim that wrapped over the edge of the cabin sole, covering the area in question as needed.  Various cuts and test-fits eventually achieved a reasonable fit on both sides of the confined trim area and against the curved shape of the head liner itself.  I installed the trim with glue and brads.

Meanwhile, the upper companionway area required some minor fine fairing to clean up some of the new work in the area, including on the interior face which is not visible in the photos.  All this part of the trim would later be primed and painted to match the interior; exterior portions of the old companionway trim, which I’d also sanded previously, would be finished to match the decks when the time came, leaving no untreated wood on deck.

Now I could mask off all the new companionway and related trim to prepare it for its varnish coats.

With masking complete and other final preparations done, I applied a thinned sealer coat of varnish to all the companionway and related trim.

Total time billed on this job today:   5 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  50°, fog but clear overhead.  Forecast for the day:  Sun and clouds, windy, 68°