April 30, 2024

Calliope Girl 114

Tuesday

Happy with the state of the varnish on the interior trim and bulkheads, I removed all the masking tape to complete the job.

I test-fit the new piece of trim profile that I’d milled late last time, and it seemed to do the trick and accomplished what I had hoped.

With that, I turned my attention to the cabin sole for the rest of the day, continuing where I’d left off with a difficult piece at the starboard end of the forward cabin, extending forward along the slope and curve of the hull. This piece required quite a bit of pressure in the form of long braces running to the overhead in order to hold it securely while the epoxy cured.  Similarly, I filled in a small piece of the same plank at the aft end, though this was easier to hold in place with some weights and one clamp at the aft end.

Leaving the starboard side for now, I continued work on the port side, where the shape of the hull allowed full-length planks, as long as I could reasonably torture them into position along the curve of the hull at the aft end.  I installed two planks in turn, using glue and brads where I could on the plywood substrate, and bracing them accordingly against the overhead and with clamped-on boards at the aft bulkhead.

The final two planks to complete the port side of the sole required less bending to fit, but were entirely located on the fiberglass hull, so I had to come up with more creative clamping means to hold them securely in the epoxy while it cured.

Using some offcuts from the longer planks I’d installed, I installed more pieces of the teak sole to finish up around the hatch in the head sole, and cut and installed the final longer pieces against the port side and up on the curves of the port hull, using additional plywood-strip bracing from the overhead as needed.

By now, I’d mainly run out of pre-milled stock for the sole, other than several shorter pieces that would come in handy later.  I’d estimated the requirements roughly when I milled the original batch, but didn’t want to mill more than needed and risk wasting the material.  So from a long teak board (from which I first cut the blanks needed for the cabin side trim), I milled four more 2″ wide by 1/4″ thick strips of teak, and sanded the v-match profile on the corners.  This would give me enough stock to finish the starboard side of the sole.

The pieces on the starboard side that I’d installed earlier in the day had cured enough that I felt OK removing some or all of the bracing so I could continue with the next row of planking.  This one included a long section on the flat plywood substrate, plus a shorter angled piece at the aft end, and a longer one at the forward end, which, like its immediate predecessor, would require quite a bit of clamping pressure to hold it in place on the hull.  Measuring, cutting, installing, and clamping these three pieces consumed most of the remainder of the day, and the various clamping means required blocked access for additional work regardless.

As a final step for the day, I used a small router to trim the planks around the mast step opening, and the bilge access in the head, where I’d let the planking run slightly long for this purpose.  I couldn’t reach my vacuum through the forest of braces, so left cleaning up for next time, when I planned to finish the final pieces on the starboard side.

Total time billed on this job today: 7.5 hours

0600 Weather Observation: 43°, cloudy. Forecast for the day: Partly sunny, 53°