April 29, 2024

Calliope Girl 113

Monday

I began the day in the cabin, lightly sanding the head bulkheads and trim to prepare for the final coat of satin varnish later in the day.   Since I’d spent time over the weekend, the remaining bits of brightwork I’d been working on most recently were now complete and resplendent in their satin glow.

Once I’d finished that work, I took a few minutes to glue hardwood cleats along one side of each  galley locker door opening, where it would remain to help locate door catch hardware later.

I spent most of the day working on the cabin sole to install the 1/4″ x 2″ teak planks to create the final surface.  Working on the bench, I started with the two bilge access hatches, which ran down the centerline of the boat and would form the layout basis for the remainder of the sole.  The hatches were six planks wide by design.  Once these planks were installed, I used the hatches to finish up some basic layout in the boat, particularly just forward of the hatches where I laid out the planks to determine where they’d fall on the mast step recess so I could then cut some water drains on each side where the slot would be covered by a plank later.

I didn’t take any incremental photos of the planking, but worked throughout the day to install all the long, straight planks on either side of the bilge hatches, and then began installing some of the shorter planks where the sole met the curvature of the hull at the corners.  The layout from the hatches continued nicely and neatly past the battery box with a full plank, and then beyond on either side. I installed all the planks with glue and brads, and a thickened epoxy mixture on the exposed hull as needed.

I might have liked to continue a bit more, but it was growing late in the day and I needed to stop in order to clean up and get ready to apply the final coat of satin varnish to the interior trim and head bulkhead, along with the port side galley shelf.  Finishing the varnish now was important to keep other aspects of the interior moving forward as well.

With about 30 minutes left at the end of the day, I prepared a second prototype of the trim for the lower edge of the cabin sides.  The first attempt was good in concept, but the way I cut the angles made it visually clunky.   Now, I more or less replicated the cuts, except I started with a slightly narrower blank (1-1/4″ vs 1-1/2″) to better clear the ports forward, and cut the 14° angle on the short bottom leg, with the taller leg cut at a vertical, so that when installed, the  trim would visually follow the angle of the cabin trunk.  I didn’t test-fit the piece in the boat now as I didn’t want to introduce dust to the curing fresh varnish, but all in the fullness of time.

Total time billed on this job today: 8.25 hours

0600 Weather Observation: 55°, partly clear. Forecast for the day: Mostly sunny, 63°