REPORT #11: Small Ball -- MOA

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Date Posted: - Monday - 04/ 7/08 - 2:09am
Author: Randall ()
Subject: REPORT #11: Small Ball
In reply to: Randall, M31, Murre 's message, "Aft Cabin Bulkhead Replacement" on - Monday - 01/21/08 - 9:56pm

“Opening Day is April 20,” Mike says as we pass on the dock.

This is the third such remark from him in as many weekends and it’s confused me each time. I know for a fact that opening day is tomorrow, April 7.

“You gunna be ready?” he asks.

I am definitely not ready, I think to myself. I’ve been looking forward to baseball season for months, but spring training for the Giants has been … well … calling it “small ball” is being kind. There is nothing that speaks to the promise of summer better than baseball, but the long, long season ahead does not look bright for us at moment.

“Yachting season,” says Mike, interrupting my thoughts.

“Oh, no, I won’t be ready for that either,” I say.

---

This weekend we focused on small jobs in preparation for staining (which I’ve been avoiding for fear of making a mistake that will require starting again) and other final touches.

First we glued the wooden portlight spacer so cleverly resuscitated last weekend. The portlight itself was used to guide and guarantee placement.

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And then we reattached the port grab rail. The old fasteners (#14 x 3 ½”) came out cleanly on this fixture and so were reused. Epoxy was the adhesive, and the piece went right up like it belonged. Didn’t have any spare fasteners in that length for the starboard side (whose fasteners all broke coming out), so it will need to wait.

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Built out the “electric panel” piece, here being dry fitted only. To get it to slide in place requires that its fiddle, and the fiddle next to the sink, be removed. They pop up easily as they are only held in place with a little glue and very old brass brads.

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Please don’t tell Joanna that I bought a new tool this weekend. She would not understand in the least why someone would spend just shy of $100 for a piece of equipment solely for the purpose of making a few round, wood cutouts that could be bought for a couple bucks at a store. I have no hope of explaining this to her, so please, it’s best we just keep this a secret.

Plugs were put in with epoxy.

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Then on to the sides. As originally fabricated back in 1972, the bulkhead was a single unit extending all the way out to the hull and, thus, was installed prior to the deck, at least, and possibly also the cockpit splashboards. I had no such luxury on this job, and in fact, during the deck job in 2003, we’d replaced the very rotten outboard ends of the bulkhead with half inch spacers.

This time around I refashioned the outboard sections. Given the frame of the food locker on the port side, it took three small sections of ply to cover this space, and my carpentry here reminded me of the great precision employed when putting up dry wall. None of these little pieces is relied on for structural strength.

Note the third fastener added to the food locker frame at top. This was to pull the small plywood backing piece flush with the frame, which angles forward at this point.

The starboard side was easier—one big piece.

All pieces of ply were well soaked in Smiths before being fastened up. Then fairing and sanding. Luckily, those pieces that required fairing will be painted.

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Then a final touch-up pass with the sander on the “quarter berth” bulkhead and a roughing up of the other surfaces of both lockers in preparation for first coat of paint. For the establishment of a sense of order and security, nothing beats white gloss.

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Last edited by author: Mon April 07, 2008 02:23:50 Edited 6 times.

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[> REPORT #12: more small stuff and staining -- Randall, - Monday - 04/14/08 - 1:37am

There was time enough this weekend for only a couple half days on Murre. Still, we are that much closer to an end.

We started by cleaning up the plugs installed last weekend. Having not done plug work before, I was pleased with the outcome.

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Then it was back to the hatchway grabrails. The new fasteners on the starboard side were #12 bronze like their sisters on the port side. I didn’t try to remove the old fasteners that had broken in place, but rather lowered the rail ¾” so as to get at new wood. As it turned out, this placement matched the general position of the port grabrail better than the original positioning.

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And more plug work. The original plugs had come out cleanly, due in part to my careful attention but largely to the hardness of the teak wood. This enabled me to stick with the original ½” sizing for the new plugs, which snugged right in. One word of caution: on a thin piece like this, be careful not to tap the plug in too deep as it may split the largely unsupported plug hole.

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Next day both rails were easily taken down to bare wood.

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The next step was to get the slide-out navigation table back in place. Here the bulkhead-side frame is being dry fit. Unlike the grabrails, these plug holes were a mess, so I changed up the fastener size from #10 to #12 and rebored for a ½” plug. Before gluing-up the frame, I tested to make sure the navigation table actually fit (I know, silly me).

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Frame installed, plugs faired.

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There is a small shelf just above the navigation table. The original wood for this shelf was in OK shape until I took the area apart—an action it did not survive—so I fashioned a new piece out of ¼” ply, seen here from below. The original was held in place with glue and small brass brads, but given its location and the fact that I was unwilling to take the deck up just to have a good swing for the hammer, epoxy and clamps were the only option here.

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Attempting to install the fiddle at the leading edge of this shelf caused a good deal of consternation. It was too long and simply refused to slide back into its notch at the top of the forward bulkhead. Only after many attempts did I remember that the disassembly of this area came AFTER I’d removed the old bulkhead, and so by rights, the fiddle and shelf should have gone back in BEFORE the new one. This would have been a clever trick as its aft side rests on the above mentioned frame which itself anchors into the NEW bulkhead. (How this piece was originally installed back in 1972 is a mystery.)

In any case, the situation made in necessary to shorten the frame nearly an inch, as shown in the below photograph. A tiny knee on the backside now acts as support where the bulkhead use to. One advantage of the fiddle space is that it allows for easy cleaning of the shelf.

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And then staining. After many experiments (I now own 12 different cans of stain) I stuck with the original Min Wax Wood Finish. I blended roughly three parts Colonial Maple (223) to one part Sedona Red (222). For the new Luan slats at the extremities, I used more Sedona Red to bring them up to the redness of the original Honduras. The color is a pretty good match as it stands (though it could be a touch more orange), and I’m curious to see next weekend how it takes varnish.

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