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Equinox Project | Thursday, January 29,
2009 I continued work on the cabin sole. To complete the preparation work, I sanded the various pieces with 120 and 220 grit paper to remove the last vestiges of old finish left behind by the stripper, and to clean and smooth the surface. While I was at it, I sanded and cleaned up a few additional pieces of the interior woodwork that I had not previously addressed. Up in the boat, I carefully measured the location of the new forward cabin sole hatch, which I'd installed during the bilge reconfiguration earlier in the project, so that I could make a cutout on the teak veneer to allow access to this locker in the future. After double-checking the measurements, I laid out an area on the sole veneer in the appropriate location, and a bit larger than the actual hatch opening. I chose to keep the new cutout symmetrical in relation to the "holly" strips in the sole, even though the actual hatch beneath was slightly offset to one side, since this would look better than centering the new opening directly above the hatch beneath. I cut out the area in question, and checked the fit with the pieces temporarily in the boat. Later, I'd glue the piece of cut veneer directly to the underlying hatch, but to ensure proper alignment I'd need the sole installed, so I left that for a little later. |
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Afterwards, I vacuumed and solvent-washed the pieces, and applied a first sealer coat of varnish, one of several to be applied over the next several days. |
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During the afternoon, I began the process of cleaning and buffing the deck areas to improve the appearance of the original gelcoat. In the first step of several to come, I compounded the deck areas forward of the cockpit, including the cabin trunk and sidedecks, which restored the color and shine of the gelcoat. There's more work on the deck cosmetics coming soon. |
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