Galley Trim

Finished up the galley trim. Notching, shaping, sanding, and mitering the corners followed by a few coats of Satin Goldspar varnish. Nice to have this area finished since it's the first thing your eye is drawn to when you go down below. Also did a little more work on the dinette. Next up here will be storage under the benches, trim work, and (eventually) some proper cushions.

Wrapping up the aft cabin cabinets

Made some significant progress on the aft cabinets over the weekend. We fitted and installed all the doors and drawers and got a coat of finish on everything. The drawers were especially challenging because the area behind the face frame was basically just a big open, strangely shaped space with nothing square or straight to tie into. I ended up building a kind of free floating frame that ties into the shelf above, and is then secured to the face frame with the drawer slides. It's hard to describe... just check out the pictures and it should make sense. The cabinets above the drawers can be used for storage and also give good access to the steering gear. Their is a hanging locker to port with cedar lining, ventilation from a solar vent on the deck above, and a short length of copper pipe inline with the hydronic heating system to keep the space dry in the winter. The lowest panels are for access to the aft water tanks, plumbing, and heating equipment. This "wall of storage" has been a long time in the making and it was nice to finally see it closed up. Sue is definitely stoked to get her clothes out of boxes for the first time in the last year. The two young ladies modeling the cabinets for us are neighbors here in the harbor, and were in charge of quality control...

Some paneling and veneer work

Here's some pics of some more plywood panels being installed. This half inch stuff and will probably be painted. The bulkhead around the engine room door was kind of tricky because of hinges and hardware. Also the door probably weighs over 400 pounds and I did not want to remove it. Still need to do some finish trim around the door, but right now, I'm just trying to make some progress getting stuff closed up. We also decided on a treatment for forward bulkheads. I still had a few nice rolls of Lyptus wood veneer, so we decided to use this to make the wainscoting. I was originally going to use vertical tongue and groove fir for this, but decided it would be too many lines (with the overhead and side shell planking already looking very linear). We'll install some nice molding between the upper, painted panels and the lower veneer panels and call it good. Should be a nice look.

Cleaning out the forepeak and some aft cabin trim

I have decided that it is time for my guitars to come home. I kind of made this a necessity by reserving a slot for myself and some old bandmates at this years Maritime Day Celebration in Sausalito this August. Must practice... We started by clearing out a years worth of misc wood cutoffs, insulation, surplus electronics, and all kinds of other boat building stuff that had been living in the forepeak. I should have taken a "before" picture, but I was too wrapped up in the clean up to pick up the camera. Trust me, it was a mess. Once the space was empty, we finished out the floor where the chine meets the side-shell, and roughed in some shelves for storage. I had to do cardboard templates for everything- lots of strange shapes and compound angles at the pointy end of the boat. The end result is lots of room for guitars and other music stuff, a place for my wife's massage table, and still space leftover. We'll have to get back in there to build a ladder to the overhead hatch and do some finish paint, but for now I'm happy with where we're at in the forepeak. Also moving along with the aft cabin cabinets. Added the trim for all the cabinet openings that I put in last week, and finished off a tricky little piece of carpentry that covers the bit of exposed transom steps near the overhead. Next up is to measure the openings for drawers and cabinet doors. Sue will be very happy when thats done. Also, for no particular reason, here's a picture of our cat sporting a stainless butterfly vent. We don't have TV so she sometimes has to fill in for our entertainment onboard.