This and that…and back to school

I started school last week, so it will be interesting to see just how much time I have to keep the project moving. The goal for the summer was to finish up major portions of the temperature sensitive work - i.e., fiberglassing - so I can still keep things happening over the winter. I still have a fair bit to do, but I feel good about the progress I made this summer. I bought my third gallon of West System epoxy on Friday, and I have a roll of biaxial cloth to keep me busy for a while.

Today was a hodgepodge of tasks, most of them fairly small but all part of moving ahead. I glassed in the vertical supports for the settee backs and cut a bulkhead for the under-sink galley area. Glassing it in had to wait because I have some sanding to do in that area first.

On the opposite side of the galley, I cut and removed some old cleats that supported the original shelving. I'm not sure what I'll do in that area, but I'll figure that out after the countertop is in.

Forward, where I plan to install a bifold door for the head, I temporarily installed the starboard doorframe, a leftover from the previous owner. For the port side I had to glue two pieces of framing - again from the previous owner - together to make a piece long enough to fit. Why? Because the PO was trying to put the boat back together on the cheap and used existing cabin structure, which had been carved up by another PO, as the foundation for new material. If I remember correctly, about a foot of doorframe was still intact on the bottom of the starboard side when I got the boat. The PO had used Gorilla Glue to attach a new piece of doorframe to the top of the old piece - yes, very sturdy. I rummaged through the pile of "spare" wood that came with the boat and found enough new door material to build the port side frame. I drilled a hole in each end of the doorframe pieces, then inserted and epoxied in place a wooden dowel. Both lengths were then joined with thickened epoxy and clamped to dry.

I'd planned on painting the areas under and behind the settees today, but decided to wait until I had more areas ready for paint so I could get it all done at once.