All boxed in

The engine that is.







Somehow the fiddles that support the removeable panel were positioned an inch or so too far forward. The easy fix will be to extend the lower step an inch or so forward...


For the time being, I am going to keep the old repaired lower step in place so as not to damage a new cherry step with my clumsiness. The middle step will be mounted permanently on the removable panel. The basic geometry of the stairs will remain as per original. I like the original and I am used to it so I am going to keep it.

I also managed to install fiddles to support the starboard settee back against the galley structure and the forward lip that will support the 'trash hatch'.



While I have this picture posted, there was a discusion on last week's blog comments about the shape of the settee locker area. On the original Tritons, the biggest turn in the bilge is right around the bottom of the locker area. That combined with a more sloping settee back positioned further outboard means the lower portion of the locker is larger than the top opening. This creates a problem when there is a full bag of stuff in the locker and you need to pull out through the top opening.

On this installation, there is an inner liner (ceiling) covering the hull insulation. Rather than make it too complicated and follow the curvature of the hull, I made the inner liner out of one piece of plywood that effectively 'cuts out' the curvature. I think I may also have slightly less slope to the settee back. I am not sure about that. In any case, the bottom of the locker is smaller than the top.

There is still an issue with the aft trash bay. The top opening is clearly smaller than the rest of the locker and getting a full bag of trash out would be impossible without emptying the contents of the trash bag a piece at time. Not a great design in my opinion. To correct the problem I cut an access door in the front of the settee panel. I can dump trash down the small opening on top and I can remove the full bag from the front opening door.



That's the plan anyway.

If I don't squeeze a blog in next week I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas or whatever else they chose to celebrate over the coming solstice period.

All the best wishes for the coming year. -BC

Great Expectations

not my favorite Dickens novel actually but probably his best known one. I think David Copperfield might be my favorite, "poor boy makes good after some hard lessons" but that is just me...

Anyway, the pattern for this blog lately has been to list the excuses for why boatwork has not happened.

That is going to change. Suffice to say that Real Life reared its ugly head and Boat Life cowered in a corner.

The most interesting item accomplished is that the settee locker door openings were cut out. I have been obsessing for months about how to build the doors. It seemed like every other day I had a new idea. Well, in the end I got sick of thinking about it and just cut the damn holes. At least now I can install the panels which will allow other work to progress. In fact I do have a plan for the doors but I can spend three paragraphs explaining it or just show pictures when it gets done. I am voting for the latter.

First, I laid out where the openings were going to be and clamped a straight board onto the panel to act as a guide for my skilsaw:




Since I couldn't cut the corners completely with my circular blade I had to finish the cuts off with my pull saw. I love that pull saw. When my old standard push saw(as in I got it when I was 10 and it expired when I was 41) was finally judged too dull to live and too cheap to sharpen I decided not to replace it. I haven't missed it.




Two panels, cut and ready for the next step(s):




If I had equally spaced doors on both panels I think it would have been easier to build the backrests out of solid wood. It would have looked a lot nicer to. As it is, the starboard panel only has one door in it and plenty of flat space. For that reason the plywood panels seem reasonable. In my opinion though, from an aesthetic view, the less plywood the better. On the port side there really wasn't much panel left after cutting out three door holes.

Other than that.. I bought some solid cherry and ordered some door hardware - twice - since I changed my mind about how to build the doors after I ordered the first set of hardware. Oh well, I can use it somewhere else.

Last week, I found the boat pretty dark under the tarp and went shopping for some lighting. I bought an extension cord with outlets every six feet along its length. I ran that down the boat - bow to stern- and attached hanging lights in various locations. Its nice and bright inside now and I don't have to figure out what to unplug to use a power tool any more. Plenty of available outlets now.

Now I have to go and try a homemade mushroom soup recipe.

Em tasol wantoks ;-)