Spring on Quetzal
Posted: Thu May 17, 2012 12:15 am
So, I started on April Fools Day preparing Q for the season. The stated goal was to wood and Cetol all brightwork topsides, paint the bottom and go sailing. The project morphed into: 1, remounting the winches and replacing the associated Teak, some structural and some trim, in a way that would allow easier subsequent refinishing. 2, eliminating the Teak donuts around the instruments, remounting the instruments so that the dog could sleep in peace w/o blocking the depth meter. 3, wooding and refinishing the interior of the cabin at the aft end and repairing delaminated plywood and the rotting companionway sill. 4, rewiring the instruments more neatly and eliminating the mares' nest of wire. 5, Oh, yes, wood the Teak on deck and Cetol.
Memorial Day Weekend is one weekend sooner than I'd thought so Q's going in unfinished. Here's where I am on 16 May: Above: The uuuuugly donuts.
Above: A piece of McMaster-Carr's 1/4" fiberglass shaped and Brightside Polyurethaned.
Above. A piece of the Home Despot's Equadoran plywood, shaped and epoxy-coated. Through-bolted to the fiberglass outside. Covers all the previous instrument holes. No point in repairing the house at this time, since those Datamarine instruments probably won't last forever!
Above. Casework reinstalled. Since the Makore was originally pretty reddish and was badly sun-bleached, I stained it before finishing with exterior satin polyurethane. The plywood over the instruments was delaminated and discolored at the bottom edge; I reattached it with epoxy and sealed the bottom edge. The door over the instruments was a cheaper plywood and was veneered in Makore, probably using contact cement. When I used a heat gun to remove the original varnish it delaminated. I took the veneer off, cleaned the glue and veneered it anew with Makore (see next).
Above. Yup, that's the door under those lead ingots. Pressing the veneer and plywood between sheets of plywood protected with polyethylene film.
Above. The new companionway sill is 1-1/8" thick solid Makore with a strip of White Oak for the actual sill. I went to a sign shop and had Q's USCG documentation number routed in. It is now epoxied together and I'll dadoe it tomorrow to fit the existing exterior Teak sill the same way that the original Makore plywood did.
I've got the new winch bases well under way and the old holes in the coaming repaired with Teak dutchmen and bungs. More pics to follow.
Memorial Day Weekend is one weekend sooner than I'd thought so Q's going in unfinished. Here's where I am on 16 May: Above: The uuuuugly donuts.
Above: A piece of McMaster-Carr's 1/4" fiberglass shaped and Brightside Polyurethaned.
Above. A piece of the Home Despot's Equadoran plywood, shaped and epoxy-coated. Through-bolted to the fiberglass outside. Covers all the previous instrument holes. No point in repairing the house at this time, since those Datamarine instruments probably won't last forever!
Above. Casework reinstalled. Since the Makore was originally pretty reddish and was badly sun-bleached, I stained it before finishing with exterior satin polyurethane. The plywood over the instruments was delaminated and discolored at the bottom edge; I reattached it with epoxy and sealed the bottom edge. The door over the instruments was a cheaper plywood and was veneered in Makore, probably using contact cement. When I used a heat gun to remove the original varnish it delaminated. I took the veneer off, cleaned the glue and veneered it anew with Makore (see next).
Above. Yup, that's the door under those lead ingots. Pressing the veneer and plywood between sheets of plywood protected with polyethylene film.
Above. The new companionway sill is 1-1/8" thick solid Makore with a strip of White Oak for the actual sill. I went to a sign shop and had Q's USCG documentation number routed in. It is now epoxied together and I'll dadoe it tomorrow to fit the existing exterior Teak sill the same way that the original Makore plywood did.
I've got the new winch bases well under way and the old holes in the coaming repaired with Teak dutchmen and bungs. More pics to follow.