110 Cookson Lane | Whitefield, ME 04353 | 207-232-7600 | tim@lackeysailing.com
Snow Lily | Friday, November 9, 2012
Next on the head's agenda was the countertop. From cardboard, I made a template of the shape of the top, scribing it to fit the curve of the hull at the outboard side and any other special cuts.
I transferred the template to a sheet of 12mm marine plywood and cut out the shape, leaving the inboard edges slightly oversize so I could mark the exact dimensions in place.
The initial fit was good, so I marked the overhang and made the final cuts.
Final installation of the countertop--and the construction of the upper cabinets--would wait a little bit till I completed some other work, including tabbing the bulkheads and painting out the lockers within. But to prepare ahead, I measured and made some reference marks on the adjacent bulkheads to indicate the position of the upper cabinet face, leaving room for a nice shelf behind the toilet area, then roughly measured the area so I could cut and set aside the plywood required, as I needed other portions of the same sheet for other tasks lying ahead.
Meanwhile, I cut and installed 6" biaxial tabbing to secure the transverse head bulkhead, and also the toilet platform, to the hull.
I thoroughly vacuumed the deck areas and toerail to prepare for the next coat of toerail varnish, then, after other final preparations, I applied varnish to all areas.
One lingering question all along had been what to do with the in-hull running lights on the bow. While this sort of lights is no longer allowed in new construction, in this pre-existing case we could keep the lights there, and this had been the owner's preference from the beginning. The boat came with a new set of el-cheapo in-hull running lights that matched the originals, but these were nothing special and we hoped to find something better--a somewhat tall order, since these lights weren't widely use any more.
Eventually, I located in-hull running lights from Livorsi, which featured LED bulbs. The lights were much smaller than the originals, but Livorsi helpfully offered adapter plates for this very purpose. I ordered a set, and was pleased when they arrived; the fit would be a good one, and these lights were more attractive than some of the other choices we'd been contemplating.
Total Time on This Job Today: 4.5 hours
