April 16, 2024

Calliope Girl 102

Tuesday

I began with a quick, light sanding of the epoxy around the cabin sole.  This was the last work required for now, till it was time to install the teak planking.

Next, I finished up the wiring in the galley, including installing the propane vapor alarm and wiring at the base of the galley cabinets, along with the solenoid wires and propane system power supply, plus the fuel gauge, where I was able to pull power from a repurposed circuit left over from the original propane system, but not required with the new setup that combined alarm and solenoid control in a single unit.  Later I’d come up with a cover panel to close off the wiring area inside the upper galley cabinet.

I decided it was time to start some varnish work on the bulkheads and trim in the main cabin so far.  I liked to keep finishing work underway and in manageable amounts, and though there was more trim to come, there was nothing stopping me from moving forward the existing staving and fiddles.  So after cleaning and masking around the wood I planned to varnish (all of which was already sanded and otherwise ready), I applied a base coat of gloss varnish to these areas.  I expected to do 2-3 additional build coats of the gloss varnish on the wood before switching to the final coat of satin varnish thereafter.  I also did the fiddle trim on the v-berth step, along with the new teak step itself.

In the meantime, I had plenty to do in the woodshop, continuing with the companionway ladder.  I started by cutting two side rails to 6″ wide and long enough for the job, with some extra at the top end so I could finalize the height to match the fiddles later.  I confirmed the countertop height with one of the side rails in position in the boat to ensure the top step/platform ended up exactly where needed.  To provide for this top step, I glued up a blank from two narrower pieces of teak to give me the dimensions I’d need for the final piece.  Then, I figured and laid out the positions for three dados required in each side board to locate and support the treads.

I milled the shallow dadoes with a small router, first building a simple jib from plywood to align and guide the router to make the required slots.   Of course the jig didn’t work for both sides of the ladder, as they were reversed, so I had to reconfigure things to do the slots in the second board; I should have anticipated this but didn’t. The slots were just wide enough to accept the 3/4″ treads.  This left me in good shape at the end of the day so next time I could cut the treads and top platform to size and assemble the ladder.

Total time billed on this job today: 7.5 hours

0600 Weather Observation: 33°, clear. Forecast for the day: Sunny, 61°