Time on My Side - Floorboard Fitting

I thought I'd be shut down ostensibly until May with a rush to get done by my self-administered June 30 deadline. There's quite a bit of benchwork that has to be done, but even some of that needs to wait until more progress is made to ensure a proper fitting. Now that the heater's installed, I have more time than I know what to do with

The day began with my wife and I taking a knot class from the Captain I took my ASA 105 with. I'm OK with knots and so is my wife, but we figured we weren't doing much (I was supposed to be on a trip that got cancelled), the class was cheap, and maybe we'd even learn something. She also wanted to meet the Captain in case she wanted to further her sailing classes. There were a lot of people there, more than would be conducive for this kind of class, so it was difficult to follow along. The real reason I bring it up at all is to show off my much improved woodworking skills.

The class required a knot jig. Anyone who's taken a sailing class has seen one of these. They would be available during the class, but for "only a few dollars more" one could buy a "deluxe kit" for about $30 which included a knot jig. They wanted $15 for the knot jig alone and another $15 for the DVD. I'm all for supporting local businesses, but $15 for something that I knew I could build from scrap in about 2 minutes? No thanks.Total cost: about $1 in scrap supplies and 10 minutes of time. We didn't buy the DVD, either.

Knot practicing jigs.

As they day rolled into night, we finished up a movie and got ready for bed. I wasn't tired so got up and turned the garage heater on. In about 30 minutes, it was warm enough to start working, and in about an hour, it was downright hot. I finished up the electrical wiring fore and aft by hooking up the bilge pump. I only had a couple more crimps to do but I remember it being around 4 in the morning when I stopped back in November and I was too cold and tired to continue. The next day the temperature plummeted to the teens and that was about the end of the season until Fleet Farm came to the rescue.

With the electrical done, I went to the basement shop and sanded down the cockpit decking with a quick rub with 60 grit to knock off the hard stuff then hit it with 120 to prime for painting. Four hours later, they had the dull matte grey that all boatbuilders yearn for. Fiberglass here is well worth the extra effort and materials for the added strength and stability. I put everything away as it was about 4 in the morning once again.

With the cockpit deck ready for installation and the electrical done for now, at least the electrical that needs to run under the sole, I pulled the finished boards out of hibernation and attempted to redo the puzzle. The padauk darkened somewhat in storage and my pencil marks were difficult to see. I knew, roughly, where things went, but it was still a bit of a chore to line everything back up. I couldn't do this in the garage so my living room served as a staging area while I figured it out. I then labeled with green painter's tape and began fitting them in the boat.

Laid out in living room. Took far too long to do this.

The goal here isn't to put these down permanently right now. I need to figure out where I want the liftouts. Anywhere there's a liftout will also require a little additional cleat for the liftout to sit on. These new cleats will need to be epoxy'd and painted, so that's just more work. Whatever. I also like the idea I saw which had a little hook accessed through the fingerhole. In case of a knockdown, the liftouts won't become flying objects.

In total, I need access to two bays on each side for the ballast, another for the bilge pump, and one towards the back for the electrical access. I also want access between bulkheads 3 and 4, the space right in front of the centerboard trunk. This is a fairly deep bay right under my nose. I'm sure I'll find a use for it. In the back, I can keep these screwed down, but I do need to be able to get them out easily.

While inspecting, I realized that I installed the cabin bilge pump in the wrong bay, one too far forward. This is because I remembered from the manual that the ballast should go "in the compartment closest to the front of the trunk" which to me means between between bulkheads 4 and 5. However, when I went to the manual for something else, I saw that the ballast is actually between 5 and 6, where my bilge pump is on the starboard side. For a few seconds, I thought I'd leave it there and put the ballast around it (the ballast is poured or bagged lead). But I want the bilge pump to work; having 75# of lead on top of it wouldn't be good. I know how I'd feel about having 75# of lead on my head, so I'll have to move it back one more bay.

Starting to lay out the boards. The bilge pump return and electrical conduit is visible back there.

Boards "dry fit." I would've liked to go a little wider but those last outboard boards were really hard to shape.

View of bulkheads 7 and 8. Tickled how well the lines run under this. The middle accent board will be a lift out, as will the two left and right of it. They'll be screwed down as I don't expect to need to get back here often, but when I do, I should be able to get to it pretty quickly.

View forward. One of the reasons I chose padauk is that when it ages, it takes on a darker brown, not grey like teak or mahogany. Should still keep a pretty good brightness for awhile, though.

If one were in the boat facing forward, this would be the view.

Later in the evening, I dropped the cockpit decking on top to see what would be the last bits and pieces I'll need to do before permanently installing it. With the top on, it will be far harder to work back there. The result is I'll need to run a couple more wires now before screwing it down for good. I'm not going to install an inspection port in bulkhead 8 as previously debated because as warned, it was really hard to crawl back there and not worth the effort. I am happy the speakers are back there, though.

PS: I received a note the other day that while the blog is "great" it's hard to find stuff, that they have to sift through my ramblings. That's true; there's a lot of rambling. So a little mini project is to be sure people can find things easier by using the post titles, not just the search function or keywords. If the post isn't something specific to PocketShip, then it's surely not something about PocketShip. The title here is the first post in an attempt to fix the offense.