110 Cookson Lane | Whitefield, ME 04353 | 207-232-7600 | tim@lackeysailing.com
In the forward cabin, one of the sections of original cabin sole had become detached from the hull some time ago. In order to provide a consistent base for the new sole, I decided to reinstall the old section, which was structurally sound but cosmetically lacking.
After chipping away old adhesive from the hull and sanding the bottom of the plywood panel, I cut the piece slightly smaller to account for the extra thickness of the plywood veneer over the adjacent bulkheads, then installed the panel in epoxy adhesive, weighting it down till the adhesive cured.
After spending part of the morning in preliminary meeting with a canvas and upholstery contractor for the job, I milled and finish-sanded a new section of solid cherry trim to create a fiddle around the shelf above the hanging locker in the passageway. The fiddle projected 2" above the flat surface of the shelf. While I couldn't permanently install the fiddle yet, since the aft-facing section needed to go over the bulkhead beadboard, I could cut to fit the two ends where they met the end bulkheads, though depending on the trim detail between the wood-paneled main cabin sides and the molded liner forward, this cut might change somewhat. I let the ends run wild for now pending final installation, when I'd join them with a miter joint at the outside corner.
The main reason I chose to work on this trim now was so I could fit a piece of corner trim where the hanging locker met the narrow bulkhead at the starboard side of the forward cabin. With the fiddle dry fit in place, I installed corner trim up to the bottom of the fiddle. For this job, I'd prepared several sections of 1/4 round trim that I'd use elsewhere as well.
Back in the main cabin, I made final preparations and then installed two of the three final cherry plywood panels, on the port settee front and the small section within the footwell of the starboard berth. As before, I clamped and braced these pieces tightly in place to set into the polyurethane adhesive.
Since my focus had been on the forward section of the boat, I turned to additional trim details, beginning with drawer fronts. There were two drawers in the forward cabin, three in the passageway/hanging locker, and a final drawer in the galley. The original plywood drawer boxes appeared to be in good condition and, other than minor cleanup, I planned to reuse them as is. However, the drawers featured teak fronts, which had matched the original trim. Since the front panels were secured to the boxes with nails, it looked feasible to remove the teak fronts and replace with identical ones made from cherry.
I found that the old fronts were easy to remove, and was pleasantly surprised to find that all six drawers were the same height, which streamlined the milling process for the new solid cherry fronts. I chose two cherry boards that offered enough clear stock from which to cut the new fronts.
I ripped the boards to the correct width, then cut the new drawer fronts to length according to the originals. The day was nearly done, but before knocking off I milled a 1/4" roundover on the exposed edges of the new fronts to match the originals; I'd complete the remaining milling steps next time.
Total Time on This Job Today: 7.25 hours
