Here are some pictures. They are off to be replaced with new panels made out of marine plywood. These old pieces will be pattern. However, these bunks were longer than needed. The new bunks will still be long at 89" but not quite so long. It turns out these were added later and built on top of lockers. So there was extra stuff to rip out. Even with the new watertight bulkhead all of these aft bunks will be long--around 89". Perhaps I should build a locker at the forward end.
Starboard side--aft to the right, forward to the left in this photo.
Port side--aft to the left, forward to the right.
After this I reorganized the boat some. Moving tools to the forward hanging locker and I cleaned up my work bench.
Two full trash bags later and I started grinding again.
--ground the upper bunk area
--ground the area above the aft bulkhead to prepare for raising that up still higher.
--ground another area where I plan to install some storage behind the footwell of the upper bunks.
--ground out all the loose tabbing on the galley and aft head bulkhead above where I recently tabbed them in. These are the areas covered by the old cabinets and bunks. For the aft head, I did both sides.
Sone issues: The port side bulkhead was two pieces of plywood without any tabbing joining them and now is held on by some roving at the top. So I ground the edges of these two butting panels so these could be tabbed together tomorrow. I'll cleat them flush on the other side, tab them, remove the cleat and tab the other side. I'll do the same thing with a filet applied on one side to prepare for tabbing, and once locked into place, I'll filet and tab the other side. I will have some strong bulkheads after this. I may use fast hardener as I'd like to filet both sides in one day.
It was a long day and even wearing protective gear my firearms are itchy.
I started measuring the space for the fuel tank and discovered that I really need to build a frame to mount the tank, which would also provide the even surfaces and straight lines I need to measure for a tank. All the curved surfaces just make it difficult to make the tank as large as possible. Tomorrow I'll work on that to.
I also decided to tab in two ledger boards to screw in the tank cover boards. That way I can remove the tank in the future, but unscrewing the boards unscrewing the flange on the tank and then cutting the tabbing on the outside edges. This can wait until the tank frame is installed.
My priority is to keep Ron busy.
1) Tank frame so I can finalize and maximize the tank size and Ron can start building the plywood top.
2) Tabbing the two aft head bulkhead panels together--so Ron's wall skins can be painted and glued on.
3) Fillet everywhere I can to prep for the final tabbing, priming and painting--so Ron can screw down the salon seat tops and begin on the seat back.
Good news! It looks like Marco can work with me this weekend. I plan to get him started prepping the topsides for paint an maybe starting the paint job.
My goal is to have all the tasks above complete so Ron is playing catch up to me, and I can go back to finishing off my water tight bulkhead and other tabbing jobs.
One final note. I really like my DeWalt Jigsaw. The only issue I have is there is no light and the blades are hard to lock into place.
