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Project Log:  Friday, September 10, 2010

My immediate goal over the coming days, as time allowed, was to remove everything from the boat that was going to be removed.  So I continued in the cabin, this time focusing on the head and forward cabin.

The head still contained a number of little bits of hardware, a soap dish, a couple handrails, and old cleats that had once supported various panels or whatever.  I removed all these pieces, along with the remaining nasty vinyl from beneath.  Then, I unscrewed the molded head sole/shower pan and removed it.

Beneath the pan was more of the expected silt and debris, plus an oven mitt, which I'd no idea how it might have managed to end up beneath the head.  Later, I'd clean this mess out, and I also planned to remove the three through hulls and patch the holes, as I like a fresh start when it comes to through hull fittings--both for layout and to ensure quality installation.

         

Next, I removed a series of old shelf cleats and hardware (hooks and curtain rods) from the hanging locker opposite the head, and removed the center bulkhead, which was secured with light tabbing against the hull and came out easily.  Whatever our plans for this locker space, they didn't include reusing any of the old shelves and dividers.

 

The anemic tabbing that had once secured (in a manner of speaking) the old galley bulkhead came out with minimal persuasion from a 5-in-1 tool.   Sorry for the blurry picture.

 

In the saloon, I removed remaining cleats, light fixtures, wires, and anything else that was still attached to the various bulkheads, leaving clean surfaces behind.  I planned to cover the bulkheads with new material, as the original teak veneer was in poor condition, scarred and full of holes from old hardware.  Plus, I wanted a cherry-trimmed interior.   I continued to uncover more silt that even my relatively thorough cleaning a couple weeks earlier had missed, reinforcing my belief that removing as much as possible from the interior was important.

     

We planned to reconfigure the forward cabin into a full-width berth, with no walk-in space or divider.  Also, the original design left much to be desired in terms of storage space and access to same, plus overabundant wasted space--something one can't afford to have in a 30-footer.

So during what remained of the day for me, I removed the teak trim (reserving all solid teak for some future use), and all the remaining structure aft of the half bulkhead holding the water tank in place.  I removed some tabbing that had helped secure the edges of the original v-berth platform, the front panels that had formed the "v" (secured only with a few screws and easy to remove intact), and the intermediate shelving. 

The new-found space, which would eventually be hidden beneath the new full-width berth, would provide for additional tankage, sewage treatment placement, and bulk storage--the details of which all would be determined later.

          


For the moment, I left the last bulkhead in place, the one aft of the water tank.  I wasn't yet sure what to do with the tank.  At a minimum, I wanted to clean it out, which would mean installing some access ports in the top.  I hoped the tank would be salvageable, but wouldn't know till I could get a look inside.  In any event, I doubted the tank would fit through the opening into the forward cabin, though it might be possible to twist it out in one piece.   While I contemplated the tank's ultimate fate, I left the bulkhead in place, though I cleaned off some really ugly excess foam--which had been used to secure the tank in place--from the top of the tank, amazed that such ugliness could not only depart the factor, but also remain untouched all these years. 

 

Of similar unacceptable ugliness--not to mention insufficient future functionality--were the plywood strips someone in the past had installed along the inside of the hull in the forward cabin (the "ceiling" in proper nautical nomenclature).  These plywood supports were intended as screw-accepters for a wooden ceiling, the material for which came with the boat (though I didn't like the material and planned to use something else when the time came). I could have lived with the ugliness of the plywood, knowing that it'd be covered later, but the support strips weren't evenly or symmetrically applied, which would mean that screws holding the ceiling strips in place would have to include misalignment and asymmetry--unacceptable.

Also, I wasn't sure how the previous person had intended to handle the four round ports installed in the hull--two per side--but I had a method in mind, and the little blocks surrounding each port wouldn't fit in with that plan.  So, at some point soon I'd have to remove all these support strips--but not today.

     

To round out the day, I removed the final bits of trim from around the chainlocker bulkhead.   I would have liked to continue, but I had a mid-day appointment which, despite being a short appointment, ate up the remainder of the day with travel time.

 

Total Time Today:  2.75 hours

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