Cabin ladder finished
Good day of work today in the boatyard. Jim and Lennart were also there, working on their Laurinkosters, so apart from working we could talk boats.
I took my newly made and thoroughly epoxied ladder and went into installing sound&heat isolation. A bit of marking and then cutting with Japanese saw and chisels, to match foam to the backplate.
Before gluing it in place I needed to mount lower step supports. Screw heads will be then hidden under the foam. I used original bronze screws - they were still in decent condition - but needed to countersink them by 8mm to accommodate for the bigger thickness of the base board.
Few strokes with block plane to match supports to the new plate and the job was done.
Next I could attach self-adhesive sound protection. I wrapped it a bit on the edges to improve sound-proofing. Turned out pretty neat.
Next step was to clean old mahogany steps. They were originally oiled, I think, but then left without any treatment to weather into grey-red colour. They needed some love to match other parts. Some elbow grease with 80-grid paper revealed healthy, old-growth mahogany again on the surface.
I kept the surface a bit rough after 80-grid paper - this should keep them from being slippery when wet. Oiling with Owatrol D1 followed, bringing back wood’s natural, brownish-red colour.
As the last bit I needed to make a spacer plank to fill-in a gap behind the hinge of the top step. Last year, as a quick-fix before launching, I put there self-expanding foam strip. It did the job well by shielding the gap from water ingress but now it was time to do it properly, with wood.
A piece of scrap mahogany plank was of almost exactly the right thickness. I cleaned it from old oil and aged finish, cut to size and planed bevels on exposed edges.
Sanded smooth with 240-grid and oiled was screwed into its place, completing the installation.
By tomorrow the oil shall cure and I can finally go down into the cabin in a proper way - not like till now the “monkey way” by using furniture as a ladder.
The next job in the queue is cabin main table.