March 6, 2020

Scupper 257

Friday

The paint work on the liner cover plates was complete, so to begin the day I installed the various pieces throughout the boat.

Afterwards, I cleaned up the whole interior so I could get to work on installing the upholstered backrests/locker doors in the main cabin, and installing the other interior cushions to complete the work in the cabin.  The backrests went on quickly with four bolts each, since they’d already been fitted once before, so it was simply a matter of the final installation this time around.

Before completing the cushions, I reassembled the cabin table down in the shop, as it was still in pieces from the refinishing efforts earlier, then installed the table on the cabin sole, securing it to its original brackets that allowed quick removal of the table to access the bilge beneath as needed.  Because one of the brackets landed on the new, larger bilge hatch I’d built, I secured the bilge hatch with a pair of screws to ensure that everything was as stable as possible.  The old pull rings for the table top storage compartment were in overly-weathered condition, so I chose not to re-use them and ordered replacements that I’d install once on hand.

The table installation brought to light an unwelcome surprise:  the companionway ladder/head door didn’t clear the back of the table by about 1/4″.  This might be because the new ladder assembly was slightly larger and different in shape than the original, or perhaps the table was in a slightly different position than its original, but whatever the cause, it required me to cut away and shape the offending corner of the door/ladder so it would clear the table and operate properly.  With the table out of the boat for so long, and basically no experience in the cabin with the table in place (I’d removed it forthwith at the beginning of the project because it was so much in the way), it hadn’t even occurred to me that clearance would be an issue.  Education never ends, nor do the continuing surprises that small boats hold in store for the unwitting.

Fortunately, it was just a small modification, after which the door operated as needed, but I’d have to touch up the finish at the newly-changed corner.

With the table in place, the protective floor covering and masking tape out of the way, and the whole cabin vacuumed and cleaned up, I could now put the cushions in place to bring the whole cabin together for the first time.

This all took surprisingly long, but the project list was nearly fully expunged by this point.  I had a short list of small jobs to complete over the next week or two, but expected this to be my last day working full-time on Scupper.  After unloading most of my tools and other supplies from the boat–they’d been briefly repurposed to the cockpit from the cabin, but now it was time to clean house–I finished up by painting the new reinforcement on the locker lid, so that would be ready for reinstallation next time, along with a few other minor tasks before the boat was truly completed.

Total time billed on this job today:  7 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  22°, cloudy. Forecast for the day:  Mostly cloudy, snow showers, 40°