Fo'c'sle campaign
Typical April day: snow, rain and occasionally sun. Moderate and chilly wind. Perfect day for boatyard work.
I started with setting up temporary workbench. There will be quite a lot of sawing today. The plan is to finish templating and cutting temporary fo’c’sle sole boards.
I started with chaining Meritaten to the ground. For sanding and varnishing I removed chains and used side supports instead. Now when the varnish is cured I put chains back - it feels safer when I run back and forth between ladder-boat-ladder-bench many times.
Without auxiliary supports there is more space around the boat.
Dry winds are blowing inside the boat-hall. I started sprinklers under Meritaten’s winter dress (plastic tarp covering her bottom) to keep humidity high.
Moved inside the cabin to measure the final sole board. The time has come to finally remove the smaller valve left after marine toilet. It was in the way of the floor so I had to remove it. Now I have a hole in the hull which needs to be sealed!
Templating for these boards is simple - they do not need to be cut for each rib space. That will come in later stage when I will install mahogany boards on top of these plywood plates.
Hull shape in this part is going up abruptly so some edge shaping was necessary, especially for the board close to mast step.
By the end of the day I have all sole boards ready cut and fitted. Working conditions changed dramatically from this:
To this:
No more crawling in the bilge!
Eventually this floor will match the rest of cabin sole and will look like this:
Most probably I’ll not manage before launching so it will have to wait until next winter. At least we will be able to use this part without breaking ankles. Tomorrow I will start building toilet module.
I have a small problem to solve:
how to properly connect battery terminals to the installation?
I need to connect this:
With this:
Of course, I can just use screw already present in acu-mounts on installation side and fill the gap with washer. Then tape all tightly with self-vulcanising tape. I have a feeling thou that it is not the most professional solution.
I will need to cut this rubber sealing every year to disconnect battery boxes from the main installation.
Any ideas, anyone?
Before leaving I re-installed name plates on newly varnished freeboard. Meritaten wears her name with proud!