Tuesday, March 3, 2009

The last of the battens and insulation

Things are starting to look more finished.

This weekend I was able to glue in the last of the battens in the Vee birth. The last few were the short ones that go above the shelve. These will hold the horizontal strips of finish wood, most likely 1.5" mahogany, I was thinking ash, but the milling is more difficult. I'm not going to need any below the shelve because it has a liner. Someday if I wanted to ad them in I could, but that would be simply aesthetics.

Once the last of the battens were in I finished the templates for the cork and then cut them out and used the Super77 to hold them in place. For an extra layer of protection I picked up a cork sealer from the local green home supply, Eco Haus. All of the cork got a liberal coat on all exposed edges and faces.

I was also able to make templates for the finish coverings for the overheads. I again used the MDF bead board. MDF isn't the most waterproof material out there, but over 2 years and no problems on the Westerly. On the Westerly I coated the backside with latex paint. To go one step further on Winterhawk, I used 2 part epoxy. For the hell of it I'll paint them too. The edges will also be epoxied and painted and the faces will all get a coat of finish paint. These should last for a long time.

Now I can temporarily fit the overheads and make my templates for the sides. I'll do the same epoxy/ paint treatment to them. Then everything can get a coat of finish paint, if the weather holds. If it's raining, or snowing as of late, I'll do them in sections. There is only so much room when the boat is the workshop. Having the forward area "done" means I can have a clean area for painting the faces where they won't have dust setteling on them.

This week should have the paint applied, front and back and hopefully all the overheads and faces installed. I'll plan to spend a couple evenings working, apply a coat of paint and then head home while it dries overnight. This coming weekend I should be able to start on the overhead battens for the main cabin. With the wood core to screw into, these should go up fast.

It's really nice to finally see something getting close to finished. After weeks of prep work this is just the boost I needed to keep up with the long weeks.

i still think that the 1st of June could have the boat in the water.































1 comment:

  1. The blog is really nice one and full of information we appreciate the kind of information you have provided in this post. The information are so useful for all of us and we would like to thank you from the bottom of our heart for this wonderful information.
    =======================

    ReplyDelete