November 13, 2023

Calliope Girl 12

Monday

To move forward towards the goal of removing the settees to make way for new construction, the next step was to remove some of the electrical system beneath the port berth.  Here, the owner had located a large panel containing various battery switches, buss bars, and other components.  There were several wires connected here that I’d have to remove from one end or the other so I could remove the panel for safekeeping.

Over the course of the morning I labeled and removed all the wires required, being sure to carefully note each wire’s location with additional tags and lots of photo documentation along the way.  These photos are representative of the various steps leading to the ultimate removal of the panel itself.  I installed plastic bags over some of the disconnected wire ends to help protect the masking tape labels I’d installed.  This was a complex electrical system, quite newly installed, and my goal was to disturb it as little as possible while still allowing the new work to go on around the remains.

Next, I moved on to the nav station.  The staving on the bulkhead face pinned in the settee and would be in the way of removal and replacement, and this area was due for significant reconfiguration in any event, so to start I removed the bulkhead trim and then the staving.  I labeled the staving for possible re-use.  I found that the staving was installed with small nails and adhesive, making removal somewhat more difficult than expected, but it mostly came off without damage.  Then I removed the trim and short pieces of staving from the after bulkhead (not bothering to save these small bits), and along the inside edge of the forward bulkhead as well, though I left two panels of the staving near the electrical panel on both sides since this area was to remain undisturbed.

I continued disassembly of the nav station by removing the hinged top, then, eventually, the remainder of the top and front (inboard) framework.  At the outboard edges near the electrical panel, I measured out 4″ on each side and made a perpendicular cut, leaving the wood closest to the panel intact.  In the final analysis, all this would become incorporated with the new construction later.  I also removed various cleats from the interior, and unmounted the battery charger and inverter, both of which would have to be relocated to allow room for the new refrigerator.  Anticipating this, I’d previously removed the battery cables from the inverter, and in the near future I’d make adjustments to the other related wiring–and that of the nearby battery charger–to allow for their relocation.  My initial thought was to build a vertical panel outboard in the space, allowing room for the new refrigerator, and mounting these components on the new panel.  But that would all fall into place presently.

In the immediate term, there’d be a bit of housekeeping and wire-tidying in this space before I continued the preparatory work in the galley, after which I could start removing interior panels as needed.  That would be the focus next time.

Total time billed on this job today: 6.75 hours

0600 Weather Observation: 21°. clear. Forecast for the day: Sunny, 35°