The Re-assembly Begins

Today was a good productive day for the re-assembly of the owners stateroom.  We made a lot of trips between the storage unit (where we have our wood working tools and room to spread out and work).  We had someone come by and give us a quote on replacing the headliner.  I was a bit surprised at the cost.  The guys were great and do really good work, however for just the owners stateroom (about 5 yards of material) was going to be$1200-$1400.  We really wanted to do a wooden ceiling and thought that would be a problem because it wouldn't breathe, but these guys confirmed that is not an issue if we want to use hard board or wood.  We were going to put "Bead Board" on the ceiling but we really struggled to get each panel so that the slat lines line up, it didn't look good, so we scrapped that idea  We will end up still doing wood, but likely going to do knotty pine varnished 4" wide planks instead.  We can do a tongue and groove on each one to help hold them together and if we start in the middle, we are hoping that it will look better since we can get the planks to run the full length in single sheets with trim to hide the fastening screws that will hold it up against the ceiling beams.

Curved wall on Port Side of bunk

Today we really got quite a bit complete.

• Ran wire for 2 wall lights and 2 reading lights

• Installed port and starboard curved hull walls from the bunk to the deck

• Installed the rear curved wooden wall around the 2 fixed ports

• Installed the port coach roof panel along the opening port

Curved wall around the 2 fixed ports

• Installed the starboard coach room panel along the 2 opening ports

• Installed / replaced some rotted plywood

• Installed the bead board above the bunks

• Installed 1/2" insulation across the whole ceiling 

Adding Insulation to the roof before re-assembly

We still have to dry fit the ceiling planks, and we are deciding if we will remove them and varnish them out of the boat or attempt to varnish overhead on the ceiling.  We will install all of the teak trim everywhere except the ceiling trim until the planks are all mounted so that the trim covers up any small gaps between the bulkheads and the ends of the ceiling planks.  After that is complete, we will install the rest of the ceiling trim, install bungs and sand them all smooth.  Then it is Varnish, Varnish, Varnish.  We always think we will do 10-12 coats and usually quit after about 6 because we are satisfied with the look.
After all the varnish is complete, we will re-install the refurbished/cleaned/polished Beckson opening ports, but are waiting so we don't have to tape around them when varnishing.

Owners Stateroom Refit update

The work that started as a simple replacement of a few flooring panels continues to grow.  It is not turning out to be too very hard to do this work so it just makes sense to get it all done while we are taking teak trim and bungs out to access parts of the boat where we will be replacing panels.
In the last couple weeks we started with removing a small bulkhead wall that forms the front of the owners bunk and vanity seat (it had a little rot at the bottom).  We were also replacing the plywood panels that go up the slight curve of the hull on the outside of the Teak and Holly sole.

We knew we wanted to refinish the wood and stain and varnish it to a high gloss for the look that we both really like.  We removed all the drawers and doors in the owners stateroom and took them to our storage shed to do the sanding, staining and varnish.  Turns out 6 coats of varnish really gave them a very good looking finish and we will stick to that number of coats for our interior woodwork.

Curved wall panels removed

Before reinstalling them we decided to bite the bullet and get it all done at one time.  We removed all of the bungs in the teak trim, removed and labeled all trim (including storing screws and small diagrams of where they came from in separate baggies to stay organized.  We removed the 3 opening ports in the owners stateroom.  (See the "The Projects" tab for video on restoring visibility to your port lenses).  We removed the curved mahogany plywood that went up the curve of the hull from the bunk to the deck.  We removed the side wood panels from the deck to the top of the cabin roof.  may be replacing the headliner as well (at least the lower headliner over the sides of the bunks.

Cabin top port panels removed

 
We measured and drew out all replacement parts, but more importantly tried our best to retain some of the original shape of the panels to use as patterns for the new ones to be cut.  These are unique shapes given the curves involved.  3 of the pieces have serious curves in the wood to give it a rounded shape to either align with the hull or the rear part of the coach roof.

Port Curved Wall panel dry fit

The panels were cut, and brought back to the boat to be dry fit.   There were several minor adjustment cuts to be made after the dry fit, and the once the port light panels were in place, we were able to trace through the port openings from the outside of the boat to be sure the holes lined up.  Most of the pieces are now stained and we will varnish everything in place given the need to install teak bungs and sand them flush with all the trim.

Dry Fit panel with ports tested for fit before staining

While everything is out, we have planned where we will install replacement lighting.  The ones that are on the boat are the old late 70's square lights and there is no way I want to put those back up on the walls after we spend the time to upgrade all the wood and finish back there.  Right now we are thinking of accent lighting, 2 small lights for the cabin (brass with shades) and potentially 2 goose neck reading lamps over the bunk.

It has been a fun project and is not over.  This weekend I really felt like we made serious progress.  All new wooden pieces have been cut, adjusted, dry fit and are ready for staining and installation.  We still have to sand down all of the teak trim pieces but that will be something I can take back to the garage to do once the stain work is done and brought back to the boat.

Before we can complete the work, we will run some wiring and pain the hull with white bilge paint while we have easy access through all of the bunk hatches.  While down there I visually inspected the steering cables, the auto pilot hydralics and the new steering quadrant.  Everything looks good back there.