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Project Log:  Friday, June 24, 2011

To begin, I finished up structural work in the v-berth with the usual round of washing and light sanding of the new tabbing.  After cleaning up, I installed the hatches.  Sometime later in the process, I'd paint the platform, but not yet.


With the platform complete, I could now pattern the v-berth bulkheads, including the chainlocker bulkhead at the forward end.  Using the leftover paper templates from the main cabin, I recut them to roughly fit the bulkheads in the forward cabin, then struck a pattern line 2" in from the edges using a steel rule and dividers as needed.

         

I transferred the patterns to 1/4" cherry plywood.  For the two after bulkheads, I chose my least-favorite piece of the plywood I had on hand, one with a veneer grain pattern that I'd earlier put aside for use in less-visible places.  For the chainlocker, I found a half sheet of cherry left over from some other use in the past; this sheet had a grain pattern more to my liking on this bulkhead that'd be more visible from the after quarters of the boat.

         

Thus fitted, I lightly sanded the panels and applied my usual coat of sealer varnish, setting the panels aside till later.

    

With my work in the forward cabin complete for the moment, I installed the new veneer in the passageway, using clamps and cross braces to hold the pieces tightly in place against the adhesive.

         

I debated my next direction for a while, and eventually settled on the main cabin and the dinette.  While in essence I planned to build a dinette like the original design, in detail I knew that the original design left something to be desired (in my mind); somehow those dead-vertical backrests didn't look very comfortable.  I had some ideas on how to improve upon that, but the realities of the space would be sure to complicate the implementation of those ideas.  The only way forward was to try out the ideas and see how it went.

These photos show the original dinette on another Fisher 30.
    

These photos show my original dinette during our initial viewing in July, 2010.
         

During earlier stages of the project, I'd continually made reference marks so that I could relocate the original structures in the same place, if desired.  Beginning with these basic marks, and referring to some human design information from my vintage copy of Skene, plus some ideal dimensional information from Robert Perry's book on design, I laid out a few marks on the forward and after bulkheads.

Some ideas I wanted to incorporate if possible: 

1.  Angled backrest on the long outboard side, and room for angled back/bolster cushions elsewhere

2.  Seating areas 20"-22" wide

3.  Recessed vertical panels to allow more room for heels and feet

4.  Ensure that the overhanging cabin trunk didn't impede headroom while seated

5.  Probably a smaller table than original, but not too small

6.  Optimized for two people, but with room for four to sit comfortably from time to time

Over a period of a couple hours, I marked out some basics, including the dinette platform and cleat height (top of the platform 17" from the cabin sole), eventual cushion height (4"), ideal backrest location (angled at 10° and keeping occupants' heads inboard of the cabin trunk), and a few other key measurements.  None of these ideas was remotely final, but only represented a start towards the final direction.

In these photos, the arrows drawn on the green tape point to the side of the tape that's representing the finished surface of whatever component. 

As always, click the small photos to enlarge them full screen.  For even more detailed viewing,  click the text links beneath the photos if you're interested in a full size version that enables you to read the notations on the tape.

If none of this makes sense, don't worry.  Eventually it will come together into something tangible.

    
Click this link for a full size version (4320 x 3240)


Click this link for a full size version (4320 x 3240)

It was late, and I left things at this stage for my mind to work on overnight.  Next, I'd continue some basic layout and mark out the footprint of the proposed cabinetry on the sole to help me get a better picture of the ideas and whether this particular version could work.


Total Time Today:  6 hours

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