January 17, 2024

Calliope Girl 45

Wednesday

My first task, as is the usual way of things, was to lightly sand the new tabbing securing the settee backrest divider bulkheads.

I installed some pre-cut cleat stock to the upper back edges of the two plywood settee backrests with glue and screws, and set these aside to give the glue a chance to set up.

I’d used up all my cleat stock, so I took a few minutes to mill a new supply, as well as milling some wider pieces that I planned to use for support beams in the galley.

Now I brought the two backrests up into the boat for a dry fit.  The pieces fit well, with just a bit of minor, final reshaping on the starboard side.  I secured the backrests with several screws to hold them tightly to the support cleats for the next process, which was to fit and determine the positions of several additional support cleats:  one on each divider bulkhead; plus four per side along the top edges of the dividers and fore and aft bulkheads to support the horizontal shelf above.  I measured and cut these cleats to the sizes required, then, for the divider cleats, held them in place so they were tight to the backrest and marked the bulkheads accordingly.  For the short horizontal shelf-support cleats, I used a level and the cleats themselves to mark lines on the bulkheads for their final positions.

I removed the backrests for clear access, then installed all the support cleats–six per side–with glue and screws, aligning them to the marks.

With that, I cleaned up the area and applied epoxy-based 2-part primer over the tabbing inside the settee lockers, and also around the galley stove surround, my extra step to hedge against curing issues with the locker paint.

Total time billed on this job today: 8 hours

0600 Weather Observation: 14°, clear, 4-5" snow down from yesterday. Forecast for the day: Sunny, 26°