That meant that I first had to get the bilge finished. Second on the list was a good cleaning. As usual, it took three times longer than expected. I decided to divide the area in front of the bilge water tank into two sections. The forward section will be general storage but the aft section will be used as 'cool storage' for foods that don't require refrigerator temperatures. This should help out my small icebox situation a lot in Maine and Canada. There isn't enough room to keep a good supply of ice on the entire boat for tropical cruising so I am not even trying to make that possible. Its a small boat.
The picture is a bit tough since I took it right after painting the bilge with white bilgekote . The sun was coming through and making it quite bright. I blocked out what I could with my tubby frame but the picture is still a bit washed out.
I had some small teak strips from a lawn table that I put to decorative use in the aft section.
I also added some braces on top of the bilge water tank. Nothing too stout. I may have to get them off someday. Even if the braces failed the cabin sole will keep the tank where it belongs. The braces are just there to keep the tank from jumping up and down several inches between the bilge and sole if the worst conditions ever imagined occured. That tank isn't going anywhere. It sits on a three inch wide board the whole length of the bottom with a layer of foam to resist chafing. The glassed areas are actually boards on either side of the tank to keep it from flopping side to side. There are a couple of wedge pieces (epoxy soaked fir) down lower on the sides of the tank to keep the lower half of the tank from wandering too. There are heavily tabbed one inch pieces running the full height, front and back, keeping the tank from moving forward or backward. I really don't think the tank is going anywhere. Tough to make a secure tank mount and still give the tank room to expande with temperature. I hope it all works out...
The settees were left a little long since I didn't know how I was going to tie them into the galley at the time. My original thought was to leave the area open to maximize storage depth on either side of the engine. I was also considering putting a top loading icebox on the port side next to the engine like several other Tritons. That didn't work for me because I need to access the port side of my Atomic Four for regular maintenance. Getting sufficient access was diametrically opposed to making the largest icebox possible. I gave up and put the icebox in the hanging locker area. After some more thinking I decided that it made it too complicated for the little storage area I would gain by creating a floor that followed the hull surface so I went ahead and ran the settee surface back to the rear face of the cabin. I have heard of people cutting holes big enough for cooking pots to drop into where they can't bang around. I might do this eventually. In any case, I took the easy route. Of course this meant blocking off the ends of the under settee storage areas so that items wouldn't slide back out of reach. Nothing is truly simple.
In the picture, I haven't secured the rear panels. I didn't have the right assortment of fiberglass materials to do some tabbing first so I am leaving then until later. The cutout on the starboard side is where I have a seacock mounted. This was where I had the engine raw water inlet that kept clogging up. I am keeping the seacock there as a salt water inlet for the galley.
I had some spare time so I started attaching the little bits that will hold the back panels in the storage areas behind the settee backs. Because I am insulating everywhere I can't just use the hull as the back of my cabinets. Have I mentioned that this insulation idea is a pain in the butt? I was lead to believe it would be an easy project (a weekend project according to famed boater and author Ferenc Mate) From my experience it has complicated everything dramatically and greatly increased the workload. I only hope it is worth it.
In the midst of all this was various small patches and tabbings to improve what Pearson had done in the factory. I also added the rear galley countertop support. You can see that in the photos if you look for it. I will be adding the rear panels that seal off the cabin from the under cockpit area "any day now".
Finally, I had about 3 inches of dust/mud in the bilge along with a large assortment of construction waste and a couple of lost tools. I utilized my new garboard drain and flooded the bilge to wash out what I could. The rest I had to slowly suck up with my wet/dry vac. I am pretty rough on that thing and I don't think it is going to live a long life.
Flooring material had to be ordered and is taking longer than I expected to obtain. should be ready for install next week or two. Again, all depending on the upcoming hull and deck primer.
Have a good weekend!
Shalom
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