More pre-launch projects

(Saturday 2-May-2015)

On Saturday my brother and I did some more pre-launch projects.

We crawled into the deepest darkest bowels of Thanks Dad to wash areas with Simple Green that may have never been washed before or in a very long time.  My brother wiggled his way into the lazarette to clean it up and I wiggled my old tired bones into the starboard quarter berth to clean it up.  We also clean the spaces under the cockpit sole. There was a noticeable difference after we were done.


Scrubbing the lazarette


A clean quarter-berth

We also installed a new Chain Locker cover in the v-berth.  We got the idea while at the Chicago Strickly Sail show in January.  I bought 1” x 6”mahogany from the local Menards and edge glued several pieces together.  We bought an access door from Kendore Boat Supply.  I took dimensions of the area and designed the chain locker cover using AutoCAD.  I printed a full scale drawing and used it to determine the opening size and shape.  I used this as a template to determine the cut lines.  After 6 layers of varnish it was ready for installation.


1″ x 6″ mahogany edge glued


Creating template


Transferring cut lines to board


Cut to shape


Access door opening cut and fit


Varnishing


Chain locker before


Chain locker after

We also filled several holes that were in the cabin top with Marine Rx Epoxy.  The largest was about 1” in diameter and was for an old power connector used for the Tiller Pilot.  The others were for lag bolts used to mount the forward parts of the cockpit coming to the side of the cabin top.


Old power connector hole


Filled with Marine Rx Epoxy

I had varnished the companionway hatch boards over the last several weeks and we installed them this weekend.

We brought the batteries and installed them in the new battery box fabricated last weekend.