Friday

To finish up the cabin sole, I removed and cleaned up the excess bungs, after which I could button up the interior.

To finish up the work, I installed the new winter cover for the first time, securing it as need be and adding soft chafe gear where necessary.  Afterwards, with the project complete, I moved Arietta outdoors for storage.

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Total time billed on this job today:  2.75 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  Overcast, 29°.   Forecast for the day:  Patchy freezing drizzle, rain showers, 37° (actually it was nice and clear all day, but hey, they were close)

Thursday

I removed the masking from the top surface of the sole for now, after removing a few drips of epoxy from the edges, though I’d want to remask it before installation for protection from the sealant; however, I didn’t want the crusty tape to contend with during final installation, and in any case I needed to lay out the screw holes for installation.

With a router, I trimmed the overhanging teak plywood from the bilge hatch, then cleaned this up and trimmed slightly more as needed for a good fit in the opening.  Then I did one more dry fit in the boat to make sure the sole still fit as expected.

Using the old sole as a rough guide, I laid out screw holes in the new sole, slightly changing the position of a couple sets since the originals had not been placed as well as they could have been near the aft end and near the smaller opening at the forward end.  I bored for 3/8″ bungs, and drilled pilot holes for the screws.  Afterwards, I remasked the sole, covering the entire thing once more for protection.  The owner planned to leave the sole bare, and sealant could easily stain the wood without protection.  Up in the boat, I masked a double-width around the entire perimeter as well, to make cleanup easier.

Before installing the sole, I took care of one small job.  The buss bar in the electrical locker had come free sometime after I’d installed it in epoxy a year earlier, and though I’d re-adhered it (this time with polyurethane sealant), and it seemed secure, we decided to add some insurance, since if this buss happened to hit an exposed positive terminal on the nearby panel, it could be a dangerous short situation.  Earlier, in preparation, I epoxied small teak blocks to the fiberglass above and below the buss, and now, with those cured, I added small blocks to overlap and “pinch” the buss at each end, screwing these to the wood beneath.  There was no way to directly screw the buss to the fiberglass since there was inadequate thickness.  I also added a plastic buss cover, which protected the terminals and probably should have been in place long before.

After final cleanup and preparations, I installed the sole by applying a good bead of sealant all around the edges of the recess, then pressed the sole into place and secured it with 15 screws.  I cleaned up the excess sealant, smoothing a clean line at the seam between the sole and the fiberglass, then removed all the masking.  A little later, I returned to install teak bungs in all the screw holes; these would require trimming, but I’d await that till the next day to allow the sealant time to cure.

I removed the bronze lifting ring from the old hatch, and installed it in the new one to complete the sole.

With the work list essentially complete, during the afternoon I lifted the mast back aboard and secured it in the position it needed to be for the winter cover, adding a little support amidships at the mast step to keep the mast from bowing there when under cover.  I removed the protective sheeting from the cockpit and cleaned up the boat, leaving things ready for the final steps on the morrow.

Total time billed on this job today:  5.25 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  Overcast, 28°.   Forecast for the day:  Patchy wintry mix, 35°

Wednesday

Now that the laminated cabin sole had cured sufficiently, I unclamped it from the bench and with a router trimmed the teak veneer around bilge hatch opening, matching the accurate cutout in the substrate.  Then, I prepared the underside of the sole with a tapered edge all around to allow it to fit comfortably into the molded recess in the boat.

After several rounds of back and forth and fitting and additional sanding to fine-tune the sole and its fit in the boat, I eventually got it to sit properly and flush all around.

Now I worked on the hatch opening and the hatch cover, starting with lining the opening with strips of 1/4″ teak to cover the edge grain.  Then, I cut a piece of the 1/4″ substrate to fit the hatch accurately and, after some layout to line up the striped wood colors on the teak veneer top layer, cut and epoxied in place a section of the top plywood, leaving it slightly oversized along the edges for final trimming later.

Using the old teak support cleats as a guide, I built a new cleat support from materials on hand, in this case white oak, and glued the assembly together, maintaining the opening size the same as the original. The side pieces are slightly longer than the cross pieces because I realized after I cut them to the original length (based on the old teak) that my stock was slightly less wide than the original and therefore the overall length should have been correspondingly shorter. The only net result of this was that for the opening to remain the original size the cross pieces had to be slightly offset from the cut ends; there was no reason to bother recutting the side pieces since this assembly would always be invisible till some future version of someone like me 40 years from now puzzled over it when replacing the sole the next time.

In the event, later, when the glue had cured enough, I set the assembly in the molded trough in the boat, and with the sole installed over it made reference marks all around on the supports so I could align them properly during installation down on the bench.  I used thickened epoxy adhesive to secure the cleats to the underside of the new sole, clamping it securely and cleaning up the excess all around, but particularly inside the hatch opening.

To round out the work for the day, I epoxy-coated the edges and bottom of the plywood and new cleat system for protection.

Total time billed on this job today:  4.5 hours

0600 Weather Observation: Partly cloudy, 26°.   Forecast for the day:  Sunny, 33°

Monday

When I hooked up the new solar panel a few days earlier, I’d forgotten that the small, existing, after solar panel, which the owner had previously used wired directly to the battery with an adapter and alligator clips, needed to be incorporated into the new solar charger/controller as well.  Now, removing the alligator clips from the adapter, I wired the after panel in along with the new panel on the sea hood, using some pin butt connectors that would allow the two wires to fit neatly into the pinch-style terminals on the solar controller.  By still using the adapter, which plugged into the wire leading from the solar panel, one could, without affecting the hard wiring of the controller, easily detach the solar panel when the battery was not on board, since the solar panels would always be live when exposed to light.    Similarly, on deck I unplugged the cables leading to the forward panel.

Beginning work on the replacement cabin sole, I began by removing the cleats around the bilge opening; these were glued and screwed in place but came off without too much difficulty.  Then, using the old sole as a guide (always using the top edge), I laid out the shape on a new piece of 1/4″ (6mm) marine plywood, which would become the substrate for the 1/4″ layer of teak and holly veneer plywood chosen for the top surface.  I cut out the new plywood and carefully cut the bilge hatch opening, adding 1/4″ to the opening on each side to allow for solid teak trim to rim the opening, like the original.  Then, after a test-fit in the boat to ensure the new panel fit properly (just a bit oversized for now to await final trimming later), I used the new substrate to lay out and cut the teak veneer plywood for the top layer, though in this case I only rough-cut the hatch opening, leaving a bit of excess to be trimmed later once the two layers were conjoined.

Next, I masked off the surface of the teak plywood for protection, then wet out the bonding side of both layers of plywood with epoxy before returning with a thickened adhesive batch, which I troweled on with a small notch before clamping the pieces together on the bench.

There was no more I could do for the new construction at the moment, but up in the boat I cleaned up the remnants of old sealant from the edges of the fiberglass recess and made other preparations there so it would be ready for the new installation when the time came.

Total time billed on this job today:  2.5 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  23°, mainly clear.  Forecast for the day:  Sunny, 33°

Thursday

I’d held back on one last item on the owner’s to-do list till I worked through all the top-priority projects.  Now, with the rest of the list expunged, I felt I could address the last item, which was to replace the cabin sole.  The existing sole, original by all appearances, had deteriorated over time and the veneer was in poor condition in several areas.

The sole fit into a molded recess in the fiberglass cabin liner, and I thought (hoped) removal would be straightforward.  I’d investigated the installation a few times earlier in the project to get a sense of how it was put together.  There were 12 or 15 screws, hidden beneath bungs, that appeared to hold it in place, and I just hoped there wasn’t any adhesive as well.    Fortunately, once I removed the screws I could easily remove the sole, which was 1/2″ teak cabin sole-veneer plywood.  There was some sealant around the edges from the original installation, but this wasn’t a permanent adhesive and didn’t impede removal.

Once I had the old plywood out, which had been my main goal for the day so I could (firstly) know that removal was possible and (secondly) to assess the replacement options, I scraped up most of the old sealant from around the edges of the fiberglass recess.  This area would require a bit more cleaning and minor surface prep before I installed the replacement sole.  The owner and I discussed a few options for the new sole, and I planned to start the new construction after the holiday weekend.

Total time billed on this job today:  1.5 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  19°, clear, windy.  Forecast for the day:  Sunny, windy, 24°

Wednesday

To run the VHF cable up through the deck, I needed a 3/4″ hole to accommodate the diameter of the end fitting.  Hoping to get this final cable through the deck without needing to further expand the opening in the liner below, I drilled at an angle towards the centerline, which then allowed me to succeed in getting the cable through from below.  With the final and largest hole drilled, now I could install the base of the new deck gland fitting, securing it with machine screws in tapped holes, and the included adhesive gasket beneath.  Because the VHF wire itself was 1/2″ diameter, this left some space around the cable where it passed through the deck, and even though the rubber seal of the new gland would be the main waterproofing here, I filled the hole around the cable with butyl sealant before finalizing the installation.

Using only the existing screws securing the sea hood, I secured the built-in wires leading from the solar panel with rubber-lined clamps; this worked out well in terms of securing and neatening the wires, and gave me the space for the connectors to the through-deck solar wires.  With that routing figured out, and finalizing the amount of each of the four cable sets that came through the deck, the final step to complete the gland was to install the rubber insert, which I drilled to fit the various wires, slit as needed to install, and then, with some effort, got it clamped down and secured within the upper piece of the gland assembly.  I wrapped the mast wires and VHF in plastic for weather protection.

In the cabin,, I taped the solar wire pair to the VHF cable, and used this to pull the solar wires through the narrow space behind the liner and out the same opening in the forward cabin.  Then, with ample slack still available in the VHF cable, and since the other end of this cable was already through into the main cabin, I again taped the wires to it and pulled them through the tight space above the galley.  Then I installed split loom over the three-wire bundle and secured it along the top edge of the bulkhead in the forward cabin.

I pulled the solar wires through to the after part of the boat along the gunwale, securing them as needed, and then out into the battery area beneath the cockpit, where I led them to the solar controller the owner had provided and which I installed on the starboard side of the bulkhead where there was room and access both.  I made up the wiring connections, adding cables to lead to the battery when installed.  Then I finished up the VHF cabling, securing any excess length up behind the liner near the radio.

To finish up the mast wiring, I made up the connections between the new mast connector I’d run through the deck and the existing wires running through the liner beneath, then tucked the wires up beneath the liner out of the way.  Finally, I made up some new teak trim to cover the wiring opening and replace the trim across the passageway opening.

With the wiring work complete, now I could reinstall the shelves in the main cabin.

Total time billed on this job today:  6.5 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  29°, freezing rain.  Forecast for the day:  Freezing rain, sleet, maybe some snow (probably not, alas), and rain, delightful, 35°