March 1, 2024
Calliope Girl 75
Thursday
After a day away on unrelated business, I was looking forward to the final installation of the new propane locker. As a first step, I did a rough installation of the solenoid inside the locker to test the concept and pre-drill and thread the holes to make installation easier once up in the boat. I awaited final installation of the solenoid now because I wanted first to paint the inside of the locker, but this would also wait till after the locker was permanently installed.
After final cleanup to prepare the bonding surfaces, I applied polyurethane adhesive sealant (5200 fast cure) liberally to the support cleat, and both faying surfaces on the box. Then I messily pressed it into place and wedged it tightly with a pre-cut support stick before final alignment and clamping all around the opening in the deck above, with good contact and squeezeout all around. I cleaned up excess sealant where necessary.
For a final reference check before I located and installed the vent/drain through hull, I measured, from inside the starboard locker, the position of the old vent using the interior of the hull/deck joint as a reference, then transferred this measurement to the inside of the port locker (top mark). Then, with a level, I marked across from the vent fitting in the bottom of the propane locker: about 1″ below the reference mark. This still gave the vent ample clearance above the waterline, as the old starboard fitting was 6-7″ above the DWL according to the paint. Boats are never perfectly symmetrical, but this was as good a check as any.
From there, I drilled a small pilot hole from inside at my chosen through hull location, to mark it on the outside so I could make the final hole with a 7/8″ hole saw. In the closeup photo of the hole, one can see the blur of the black vent fitting nipple on the propane box inside the boat. I installed a 1/2″ Marelon through hull with plenty of sealant, secured from inside with the fixing nut, then installed 1/2″ vent hose to complete the installation.
After receiving a delivery of five more sheet of plywood with which to complete the various remaining new construction in the cabin, I spent the afternoon on some smaller tasks that would help advance several other portions of the project, and because I didn’t want to get into the battery locker construction this late in the day and week–that would be my fresh start next week. So with the ceiling strips from the forward cabin all laid out and prepared for this sort of eventuality, I applied a base coat of gloss varnish to the 26 pieces. I hoped to do the single gloss base coat, and then a coat of the final finish of rubbed-effect satin varnish. As there were a few old coats of varnish already on these strips, and given their overall condition, I didn’t see the need for more than this as long as I was happy with how the base coat turned out. This was in any case a nice change of pace from the past weeks of work.
Though I still had new work to complete in the forward cabin, mainly the new water tank installation (tank was now complete, and I planned on picking it up in the next few days) and new platform, I could go ahead and paint out many areas of the space now, including the hull (to be hidden behind those ceiling strips) above the general location of the new berth platform, and portions of the hull beneath it on the port side, where the holding tank was already in place. As always, painting out these spaces makes an immediate and significant impact on the feel of things and the sense of progress. Before painting, I installed some wire mounts along the upper port side to secure those wires leading forward later, and some additional ones to help secure some of the wiring led through beneath the berth platform too.
Finally, I applied a coat of primer to the last piece of the refer compartment that hadn’t yet received it–the small after section of the inboard side of the locker. I also cur off the excess bolt length from the forward stove bracket in the galley, so now that bulkhead would be ready to receive its cosmetic staving.
Total time billed on this job today: 6.75 hours
0600 Weather Observation: 12°, clear. Forecast for the day: Sunny, 35°