It all started with a wine rack.

I took today off from "real" work and spent all day down at the boat. First thing I did was put a second coat of varnish in the forward cabin. It's coming along up there. The plan was to coat it so it dries while I work on other projects, then re-coat one more time after lunch.

I spent a bit of time cleaning up then put the starboard settee together. I had been thinking a lot lately about just how I want the storage behind the settee to be. I also plan to mount the flat screen above the settee. I had seen a boat at the boat show that had settees with small storage areas behind the back, but rather that having the storage space go all the way up to the top of the seat back, it only went up 3/4. There was a shelve here. I like this for two reasons. It gives you a sea-rail to keep stuff from falling off, but the boat show boat had a three bottle wine rack here too. I like wine, I also like little details so this was my inspiration.


As it turns out, the settee back already had this 3/4 shelve. Score! but it didn't really fit the curve of the hull well. I was planning on just fixing this but you know how one project leads to another.... The settee base has some wood that is de-laminating. I was thinking it could be fixed with a bit of epoxy, but the more I started to look, the more I convinced myself the whole thing should just be rebuilt.


I started by removing the face trim. Next out came the grinder and I cut away the tabbing that held the outboard edge of the settee bottom to the hull. I don't really see that it needs to be glassed in. There are a dozen screws that hold it in along the sides and front. Glassing it in also makes water tank maintenance impossible.


The base was then lifted out, and eventually out came the lower face/frames. I used all the old pieces as a pattern and picked up a 4x8 sheet of mahogany marine ply (3/8) and cut out the new wood. I only had time to do a quick fit, but so far they seem like a good fit.



Starting with new wood does mean a little more control over the final look. I no longer have to worry about trying to make old wood look nice, in the forward cabin it's coming out OK, but the main cabin has had a little more abuse. I little bit of sanding and a few coats of varnish and I'll have a main salon that looks brand new.

I put a final coat on the forward cabin wood just before I called it a night.

Tomorrow I'll finish up the starboard settee. But not until after I hit the boaters swap meet. I'm hoping to find a 2-3 burner over. Once the starboard settee is done, I'll rebuild the port one. The port side doesn't have any of the back rest stuff so I'll have to make templates for that.

Oh yeah, if there is a former Yankee sailor out there that lost a shoe 20 years ago, I found it. It was behind the water tank.


Stay tuned. Pictures are not loading. I'll figure that out tomorrow.