I’ve done a first rough cut back of the forward wardrobe as you go into the aft cabin.
I’ve also removed the, mouldy, ply lining (to allow us to add insulation) and the ply trip to the underside of the side deck (access to the nuts for a stanchion base – I’m really against having these hidden behind glued in furniture). Just needs a bit of tidying up and then we can have some neat shelving all the way from the chart table to the aft cabin bed.
To complete the open plan look we’ve cut the access hatch into the lazarette. This will allow us to fit the new chainplate backing plates (also for the mooring cleats) as well as all the inside bits for whichever wind vane we end up getting.
We will make it so the “hatch” gets a good watertight seal when we refit it. Fortunately, we don’t have to worry about Butane or Petrol fumes into the aft cabin because we don’t have either on board.
One of less pleasant things we originally found on the boat, when we bought her, were some incontinence pads. We thought they were there to catch water from leaks (we found that mostly these were from the windows, but also some from mooring cleats and other deck fittings).
However, I’ve just removed some plywood that was bonded to the hull as a sloped part of the floor as you enter the aft cabin. The plywood turned out to be saturated in diesel. So maybe the pads that were under the floor of the aft cabin were to absorb diesel.
We think that the diesel tank, on the outboard side of the corridor to the aft cabin, must have had a bit of a leak. The plywood covered a section where the grp covered foam stringer was cut away. This left a bit of a groove that the diesel must have run along.
It is well over a year since we removed the diesel engine and fuel tanks. Hopefully this is the last bit of diesel impregnated wood to remove.
Smelly diesel impregnated plywood Where the wood was.
This morning my fussiness about beds surfaced and is causing more work.
I like my beds level and I like them not to creak 😊 The aft cabin was failing on both counts. As we thought about it we decided that the best option was to remove all the subdivisions for small lockers and put in a strengthened frame for the bed along with a simple large locker for 90% of the space.
Along both sides of the hull there is a bed support, but they are hardly supported themselves. We are going to fix these with some thickened epoxy.
Also several of the bed boards have about 1m² areas that is unsupported and so they feel very bendy if you kneel in the middle. I’ll put some extra frames in, fix the boards and have some smaller cut outs for access.
So I’ve made good progress clearing the space. Just a couple more removal jobs. First, we are going to cut back the remaining wardrobe so that we can create a nice consistent storage right along the corridor to the aft bunk. Second, I’m going to cut the access hatch into the lazarette.
Then ready to rebuild, for that I need some more timber but I’m not going to try and get that on a Bank Holiday!
So today has been focused on the aft cabin and aft heads.
Some demolition see my earlier post. However, we have got a long way with test dry fitting of posts and bulkheads.
So here is the view from the foot of the new bed showing the new headboard giving the longer section, also the new bulkhead to the heads (top section only).
This is the view towards the heads. No door yet or for a long time. Floors need to be changed. You can see the toilet knee space under the headboard, no bulkhead for that yet. Seat and step next on the list.
This shows where the seat will go (somewhere in the middle height wise)
One thing that we have realised is that the actual bed boards are rather weak and not very secure in their positions. Also the framework supporting them needs a bit of work. Explains some of the creaks at night 😂
My grateful thanks to the person at Southern Boatbuilding Company in the mid 1970’s who used less glue to attach the formica laminate on some bulkheads in the aft heads. To their colleague, I’m able to let you know that your copious glue would have survived ww3!
As we work our way through a destruct, design, build and change our minds process around the aft bed and aft heads, we are trying to take advantage of all three dimensions. The key conflict is between knee room while sitting on the loo and length of the bed. We seem to have had a mini breakthrough by realising that the bed is higher than our knees when sitting. So it looks like we will be able to create a bit more knee and foot space slightly under the bed 😊
So we are here for part of half term, arrived on Thursday evening and have had one of our sons staying with us for a couple of nights. So we took some time off (as Jane is still recovering from Laryngitis she needed it).
Then this afternoon we did a full tidy up of all the tools and parts stored in the forecabin, clearly one of the more exciting jobs on the list.
I also started mocking up an extension to the bow roller to support our 30kg SPADE anchor. The main criteria are:
anchor must not hit the bow when being raised or lowered
anchor must end up firmly locked in place so that it doesn’t get moved by waves
anchor must fall freely without human intervention when the windlass lets the chain out
attachment points for the yankee continuous line furler and the the forestay must be far enough apart (forestay approx 100mm in front of the yankee)
anchor and chain must be prevented from ever touching the dyneema rigging
This is what I have so far (shuttering ply mock-up of one side, plus 200mm roller and actual anchor shape)
The rather large “hump” is for a middle roller which is to make sure the anchor and chain can’t go high enough to chafe the dyneema. I’m not sure we need it, if we do, the roller could be quite a small diameter.
The main fluke of the anchor doesn’t touch the bottom of the box roller, instead I plan to have an adjustable rubber pad bolted on. That should allow the whole thing to be easily adapted to other anchors.
The base extends aft quite a lot further. This will allow it to be through bolted to the deck, once I have reduced the size of the opening locker lid. It will also allow a pin to be put in through the eye in the anchor shank (it is big enough for the shackle and a pin) to lock it in place. I’ll also fit a chain stopper so that the pull of the anchor never has to be held by the windlass (it damages them).
We still need to think about how to use what was the port roller as we will want to use that when using a mooring ball and don’t want the line to rub against the anchor.
To attach the dyneema stays my plan is to use stainless steel strops bolted in the centre between the port and starboard roller sides. The forestay one will have a toggle at the top so one of my FR4 tangs can be used for a dyneema lashing to a low friction ring. The furler can be directly pinned to the toggle.
I have more, used, shuttering ply at home so will complete the mock-up on another visit.
Getting the bow roller right is essential to being able to reorganise the foredeck for the windlass and inner forestay.
Sustainable Sailing 