Lackey Sailing | Calliope Girl 93

April 4, 2024

Calliope Girl 93

Thursday

Just what everyone wants in April, especially after a winter with essentially no snow: A big spring nor’easter, with lots of heavy, wet, sticky snow, high wind gusts, and almost guaranteed power outages, since now half the state gets knocked out every time there’s a bit of a blow. I’d hoped to get at least part of a day in (hopefully more), but alas, the power went out at 0600 and I imagined that was that. Disappointing, even though it was expected

Past history, including two other times this very winter season (one just last week, when fortunately I was away), suggested that I settle in to wait out a likely days-long outage, given our globally-owned power company’s abysmal maintenance and performance record over the past number of years and the exponentially-growing number of outages reported with this storm. But, great miracle of life, the power came back on after only 4 hours, at 1000, and somehow stayed on, despite a few worrisome flickers throughout the day.

So by 1030 I was at the shop, and chose to work mainly on smaller jobs that I could theoretically continue and/or finish up should the power go out again. I started back in the hanging locker, test-fitting the three shelves again and making final adjustments and marking them for final depth, which cuts I then made down on the bench. Then, I milled and installed hardwood fiddles on the shelves, gluing them in place and holding them with brads. I left the forward portion of the lower shelf un-fiddled since I’d left room there for the passage of various hoses and wiring that had to run up from the lower portion of the locker.

With the hanging locker painted, now I could run in some of the hoses and wires I’d staged earlier, including the power supply to the fresh water pump that I’d relocated to the v-berth. I led these utilities along the bottom edge of the locker, where I’d previously installed some wire tie mounts before painting. This wiring connection wrapped up the work required in the v-berth, which meant I could reinstall the platform, which would be my next task. First, though, I installed the potable water filter in the hanging locker and connected the supply hose leading from the pump to the galley sink.

The removable end panel and step for the v-berth required two additional cleats to finally be ready to accept a step platform. I installed these cleats with glue and eventually pan head screws and washers for extra fastener strength beneath the step, attached to some sub-cleats I’d installed earlier. Then, I cut a temporary plywood step to fit and to help with access to the berth during the remainder of construction. Eventually I planned to build a solid teak step.

While the glue was setting up, I installed the remainder of the berth, now fully painted. The water tank fill hose required a bit of a relief on the underside of the panel overhead to provide the requisite clearance, which took a few minutes to lay out and cut with a router. By the time I’d finished up with the other panels, the glue on the new cleats had set enough that I could install the end panel and step as well.

Next, I worked on masking off portions of the new galley upper cabinets, ostensibly for primer and paint just ahead, but more immediately so I could apply a skim coat of quick-dry filler over the bungs and panel seams as needed, just to fill any minor voids in these areas before sanding the panels before paint. I also masked off the exposed countertop edge around the sink so I could paint that at the same time. The plate and drinkware storage area at the forward end behind the stove would get finished off mainly with teak trim details, other than a shelf at the appropriate height to allow plates below, and bowls and possibly mugs above.