Change of plans

The plan for the weekend was the New England Boat Show in Boston. My rigger gave me some discounted tickets so I thought I would check it out. I haven't been in a few years and I figured I could find some cool deck and sailing hardware I just had to have. I certainly don't go to look at the boats. I really dislike most modern designs which is why I am putting so much into this old boat.

However, I had to spend some time running errands yesterday afternoon and noticed how unusually warm it was. I decided to spend some time at the boat instead. The boatshow can wait.




















I finally got some of the cherry paneling in place. I did just the easy parts but it really was a pretty easy operation. I quit before I got to the settee backrests because I want to get the backrests in first and then fit the paneling to the backrests.

Some of the details:

I made sure the first strip was as square as possible.



At the suggestion of a finish carpenter I kept the bottom of the paneling off the settee. If any water accumulates on the settee, however unlikely but it IS a boat and tends to have lots of water around, there is a gap under the paneling so that water won't wick up into the strips. I will apply some preservative oil to the cut ends too.



It will come as no surprise to any Triton owner but the plywood bulkheads are neither square nor straight. Mine bow away from the paneling a bit. There was no way around it but to attach screws to the middle of the panels to pull them into the plywood.



To allow for expansion I ensured a small gap between the panels by using some folded over card stock. That gives some gap so that if the panels swell a bit they won't come up tight against one another and buckle. That was another suggestion from the finish carpenter.



A final suggestion from the carpenter was a small amount of flexible adhesive down the middle of the paneling. The adhesive will help hold the panels in place. The small strip down the middle allows the edges to float a bit with the normal swelling and shrinking.



Finally, with some extra time at the end of the day today I managed to cut out some framing that will become the engine cover.



The frames will support the galley table and outline the engine box. The plan is for the galley tabletop to be of equal depths on both sides. The framing is shortened on the port side in order to maintain just over 6 feet of sleeping area on the port settee.

And that is it. It was great to actually spend time on the boat again after a very slow winter. Here is to hoping the weather continues to improve. Unlikely, I know, but I can hope.