110 Cookson Lane | Whitefield, ME 04353 | 207-232-7600 | tim@lackeysailing.com
Snow Lily | Friday, February 1, 2013
First thing, I finished up the reinstallation of the overhead. I'd already screwed the final two lights, one on each of the smaller aft panels, into place, so all that remained was their final wiring.
To hold the panels in place now and during any future servicing, I installed some short lengths of wire equipped with ring terminals attached to small screws in the back of the panel and underside of the deck to suspend the panel beneath the overhead. This freed up two hands for making the final wiring connections to the terminal blocks, which would be next to impossible without some means to hold even these relatively small panels in place.
I left plenty of slack in the wires, and carefully folded the wires beneath the panel as I raised the panel into position to ensure that the wires wouldn't be pinched on one of the support strips, then secured the overhead in place, one side at a time, as before.
Next, I applied a coat of varnish to the eight cabinet doors currently underway.
Picking up where I'd been forced to stop during yesterday's long power outage, I finished trimming the outboard edge of the starboard cockpit locker lid so I could install the hidden piano hinge. Once I'd trimmed sufficiently, I dry-fit the assembly to note the proper location of the hinge, then set to installing the hinge with machine screws.
Because the top leaf of the hinge had to be screwed into the underside of the lid, the screws had to be very short. I'd begun with 5/16" long #6 machine screws, but after installing the two at the ends found that even these were uncomfortably close to penetrating the top of the lid, so I left the top leaf like this--it was enough to hold it--and installed the lower leaf permanently with longer machine screws (which had no depth restrictions) and sealant. I ordered 1/4" screws with undercut flat heads (for longer thread length) to complete the top section
Next, I continued with the companionway hatch which, along with its various trim components around the opening itself, had to qualify as the most labor intensive few cubic feet on the whole boat. I couldn't do the vertical hatch trim--interior and exterior--till the sliding hatch was in place, so I was anxious to get the hatch done. Now that the first section of the trim was in place, it was time to lay out and install the next portion, which would trim out the aft end of the hatch and provide a handgrip for operating the hatch. Though I wasn't completely copying the original trim, I also wasn't reinventing the wheel here, and kept the overall design similar, with minor changes as I deemed appropriate.
Before gluing in the earlier trim, I'd used its shape to mark a second piece of teak with the proper notch locations at the sides, and had pre-cut those notches. So with those already in place in the proper position, I could easily set the hatch on the opening and place the oversized trim blank in place, properly aligned with its counterpart. Clamping it, I scribed the shape of the hatch on the new piece, with the compass set at 3/4".
After cutting the trim to size, I tested its fit, then milled the edges as required, and sanded it smooth before installing it permanently with epoxy and screws driven into the back side of the trim from inside. Then I bunged the screw holes. With the epoxy within, the screws were more like clamps at this point, allowing me to continue to work on the hatch and install pieces of my 1/8" Delrin wear surface on the recessed areas of this trim. I held the screws, which I mounted just beneath the surface, as far t one side as I could to minimize any bearing they might have on the metal tracks, but I couldn't keep the screws completely off the surface as I did with their counterparts on the opposite end of the hatch. I didn't think epoxy would hold this slippery material in place, though I considered trying.
To hold the hatch onto the metal rails, keeping it aligned and preventing it from being lifted off, I required additional trim on the sides. Again, I turned to the original design for inspiration. Though the original pieces were in terrible condition, I had enough of the old trim to figure out its concept and operation: basically a rough L-shaped piece that secured to the sides of the hatch and wrapped the short leg of the L beneath the overhanging portion of the metal track.
From 7/8" teak stock, I prepared two blanks of appropriate size, then made cuts as necessary to remove the inside portion of the L shape, using a piece of the original trim to help with basic dimensions and angles.
With tight clearances to work with, I test-fit the trims alongside the hatch, which brought me back to the table saw to cut a sort of taper on the outside of my original trim to reduce its thickness towards the top, like the originals. (In these photos, I see that I used the wrong piece of original trim for the visual comparison, as the piece in the photos has its top broken off; the proper piece can be seen in one of the photos above.)
Milling complete, I sanded the new pieces smooth and eased edges as needed. Before installing these pieces--and the hatch--permanently, I wanted to get some varnish on the back sides of the side trim, which I'd do later in the day.
first, however, I had one other piece of teak trim to mill and also pre-finish: the aft end of the cockpit coaming, spanning between the two sides. From scrap 1/4" plywood, I prepared a template so I could cut the proper angles at the ends to meet the coamings, and also to get the length just right. I seem not to have taken pictures of the template.
With the template providing me with the length and vertical angles, I determined the second angle required at the ends--about a 10° angle where the sides of the cockpit splayed outboard--and cut the compound angles on the teak board I prepared earlier. I started the cuts intentionally oversized, and trimmed the piece till it fit tightly. Then, I scribed the camber of the deck on the back of the trim, and cut the required curve, after which I eased the exposed edges and sanded the piece smooth. I intentionally kept the new trim lower than that which had been there originally, since I thought that looked awkward and served no real purpose.
With the coaming section complete, I applied a sealer coat of varnish to it and to the companionway hatch pieces.
During what remained of the day, I did some additional layout and measurements required to complete the dinghy davits ordering process, then applied additional tung oil to the forward cabin ceiling, along with some other miscellany as I prepared for a new week ahead.
Total Time on This Job Today: 8.75 hours
