Kaimusailing

The remaining drop leaf was attached to the dinette table. The hinges were squeaky. It was time to move on.

During the wait for the laminate to arrive, the pilothouse sole was covered with tongue and groove oak flooring. The planks were 2 1/4 in wide and 5/16 in thick. The thinness helped keep the weight down ad the narrowness looks a lot better than wide planks. When the pilothouse was done the vanity and crawl space in the port hull were started and the 4 central rows of planks were laid. Work was suspended after the laminate arrived and we continued in the galley.

Now it was time to get back to the vanity and crawl space sole. The work is tedious because each little piece of plank has to be individually measured and cut. The sole has 4 hatch holes which have to be carefully cut and the corners were rounded, so that was another complication. There were hoses, tubes, conduits, all that came up through the sole and the oak flooring had to be shaped accordingly. Because the wood pieces were little, I thought I'd be taking a break from the back breaking rowing of Easter weekend. It turned out that the climbing in and out of the hulls and stooping over the bandsaw while it tediously cut each little piece was back breaking work. The result was worth it, though.

The picture is of the port sole, looking forward toward the forward ladder and the vanity space. In the foreground is the crawl space and the watermaker.

After the vanity and crawl space were done I began in the little chartroom next to the head/shower. Although it was a small space, smaller than a closet, it also had 4 hatch holes and tedious shaping of the little pieces of wood. A day's work produced just 6 planks laid down. The next day was a vision of the end of the tunnel. This time it was the oncoming train and the oak flooring won. I had to come back one more day to lay in just a few pieces of wood on the edges.

I really wanted to get this carpentry work done so we could settle down and go sailing. The remaining pieces of wood were the fiddles for the shelves in the two forward bunks. The shelves were positioned forward at the head of the bunk, one to each side, and one forward that was across the hull. I will post a picture of the completed shelves next time, or so.

A couple other things were ongoing, some radio connectors were ordered and a cable. The tabloid printer needed new ink. I was surprised that I could get aftermarket ink off eBay for 4.99 including shipping! After it came in and I saw the quality of the ink cartridges, I ordered a second set. We had been using the printer for almost 2 years. This is a business printer with large ink cartridges and a set of 4 cartridges cost all together about 1/3 of one cartridge from a regular personal printer. The brand is Brother and I don't know the model number of the current model, but once you go to tabloid size, it will be a business printer.

I began piecing teak pieces together to make one of the forward bunk fiddles. The starboard forward bunk had all three fiddles ready for varnish and maybe a little trimming to fit. The port forward bunk had one fiddle that didn't fit properly. I had enough teak for another fiddle to match it on the other side. The remaining fiddle would have to be made out of Brazilian cherry, and I hoped it would look OK to have an odd piece of wood there.

The cherry was being used for drawer faces in the vanity area and the last remaining piece of wood probably had enough to make the bunk fiddle and the last remaining drawer.

The last remaining drawer. This is an oddball drawer, 4 1/2 feet long and 19 inches wide, under the main bunk. It pulls out forward toward the forward bunk, over the vanity counter. It was supposed to be used for storing charts. We have to make that one from scratch, and I'd like to use the same cherry that was used for the other drawer faces.

The fiddles were made with 3/4" stock, cut out with the bandsaw, edges sanded with the belt sander, and rounded off with the 3/8" round off router bit. The rabbet along the edge of the fiddles that allows them to fit over the edge of the shelf was cut with the circular saw with a guide. After the two sides of the rabbet were cut, the wood in the middle was removed manually with a small chisel. I had tested router bits to cut the rabbets on some leftover wood pieces and didn't like how they came out. Cutting them manually was rewarding, in a way, but took a while. I thought about the old time German carpenters who cut their farmhouse moldings with a whittling knife.

I used 1/2" pine stock and 1/4" ply to make the oddball drawer. The other drawers have the bottom rabbeted into the sides and back. The drawers slide on the sides like two runners or rails, and the sides are notched near the drawer face so that the drawer is kept shut when the notch is centered over the cabinet face. For the oddball drawer I didn't go through the trouble of rabbeting the sides, I just air nailed the bottom onto the bottoms of the sides and back. Then 5/16" hardwood (oak flooring) was air nailed onto the bottom making two rails just like the other drawers, but much easier to make. The hardwood is much more durable than the pine, but the pine is much lighter weight. The result is a light drawer that is durable.

I had to take a break from carpentry to fly out to Hawaii for a memorial service for my dad. When I get back the plan is to organize the dockmaster's garage as a workshop, put all the tools there, and organize the boat for sailing and move off everything that is not destined to be on board for sailing. The workshop will be put to work doing dinghy repair, for one thing. I also had plans to make a hard bimini out of solar panels, but I wasn't comfortable with any of my ideas. I will make the solar panel kits into two 3X3 foot panels that can be positioned in various locations on the boat. That way shade can be avoided and the panels can be angled toward. the sun.