| Circe
| Wednesday, March 10, 2010 The new position of the tiller head and termination of the rudder post required a differently-shaped tiller than the one that had been with the boat upon her arrival here. Hoping to streamline the process, I ordered a stock tiller that I thought had approximately the right shape, and, with the tiller in hand, I tried the fit first thing; unfortunately it didn't work out at all. I'd have to work out a custom design. Setting that problem aside for now, I turned to the lazarette hatch. The raw opening in the deck required a small frame to hold the hatch and provide a water-resistant lip to the opening. I used 1/4" fiberglass sheet to create the frame pieces, and secured them in place with epoxy adhesive. I took some measurements of the opening so I could create a hatch to fit. |
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I wanted to get a start on the companionway swashboards, which would require multiple coats of varnish on two sides, extending their final completion time for nearly two weeks once constructed. Using some raw measurements of the hatch opening, I cut four boards to fit, and then worked at creating the edge profiles required to allow each board to overlap the one beneath, and cut the angle required on the bottom board to match the angle of the companionway sill. Then, I trimmed the topmost board to fit the shape of the sliding hatch. |
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With the boards cut to fit, I sanded them smooth on all sides to prepare them for varnish, and applied the first coat of varnish. Late in the day, I applied a second coat. |
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Following a longish lunchtime appointment, I installed the running lights on the pulpits: the correct lights had arrived. This was a straightforward process, requiring two spade connectors at each light. |
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I needed to squeeze another boat into the shop later in the week, so I wanted to remove the staging; I'd completed all the deck work for which it was necessary anyway. Before removing it entirely, however, I decided to throw in a cove stripe, which I'd been thinking of for several days (or really since the hull was painted). I just decided the boat would look better with one, and was happy to provide it as a little extra. |
 
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Afterwards, I broke down the staging, and at the very end of the day applied more varnish to the interior companionway trim and swashboardds. |
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