Month: June 2014

We redesigned and rebuilt the galley.

On the Saturday before Christmas, my brother and I disassembled & removed the galley from the boat. We also removed the bulkhead that separates the cabin from all areas aft.

Original galley with new “King Starboard” counter we put in, in 2012.

In the middle of disassembly & Removal

Old galley is gone. Need to clean up 47 years of crud that had accumulated behind and under the old galley.

I used the original sections of the galley and bulkhead as templates and documented their dimensions. I then rebuilt the original galley using cheap plywood in my basement as a start to the redesign process. Once we settled on a new design I bought special ordered marine grade plywood from the local Menards.

Tracing the original bulkhead onto the cheap plywood

The original ICE-box was not a really effective use of space.

We are planning to add a stove, but don’t like the idea of it sitting on top of the counter and being so close to the cabin top so I redesigned the counter with a recess so that the stove will sit 4 inches below the countertop.

The area under the stove was the original icebox and was redesigned as storage shelves.

Also moved the sink to the corner of the counter top, were the ice storage top was located.

The area where the sink was located is now another storage area.

We cleaned up the area and fiber glassed pieces of mahogany on the hull to mount the new bulkhead to.

Dry fitting the new bulkhead

New galley is installed

We are planning to cap the new galley with a stainless steel counter top and back splash.

My brother and I decided to give the sails a cleaning.

We setup a cleaning process that started with a 32 gallon trash can with water and Oxyclean. We let the sails soak for 30 minutes then pulled them out of the can onto a table a small section at a time and brushed them with a soft brush. Once one side was done we turned them over and put them back into the can and repeated the process.


We spread the sails on the driveway to rinse them with a hose and then setup a drying rack using several ladders.



We have 3 sails (main, genoa, work jib) and cleaned all three. It took a total of 6 hours to clean/rinse/dry them.

The first 2 sailing seasons we didn’t have any cushions as the original cushions were dry rotted when we got the boat and we tossed them out.

A new set of cushions just isn’t in the budget, so I have been looking into various options. In the spring of 2013 I saw 4” patio chaise lounge cushions at the local Home Depot that were the right size for the settee, a good color and weren’t too expensive at $44.00 each. Each settee includes the cushion bottom and a back.

I did not move forward though with the patio chaise lounge cushions in the spring/summer, but in October Home Depot was having a patio close-out sale and the same cushions were on sale for $10 each. So, I bought 6. 3 for the Settees and three for the v-berth cushions.

The foam in the cushions is not high density foam, but more like polyester batting. So I decided to add 2” high density foam on top of the 4” polyester.

I had read that the best and least expensive way to cut HD foam is to use an electric carving knife. So I bought one at the local resale shop for $5.00. I made a jig to attach it to a folding table we have so I could set the cut width. It worked perfectly.

Foam Cutting System


Polyester batting onto of 2″ HD foam

Original patio cushion sitting on top of new boat cushion

New boat cushion

The back cushion is 8” wide, so I had to cut one of the Home Depot patio cushions in half, length wise. My electrical knife setup worked great. I cut the whole thing foam and fabric in one cut.

I “hired” my oldest daughter to sew the two halves into the cushion backs and to sew Velcro on the bottom of each cushion.

New cushions in place on the boat.