March 31, 2011

Serious work begins in the aft port berth

Taking the old headliner out of the port aft berth was just the beginning. The next thing that was done, was removing both portholes and sealing them with butyl tape, then reinstalling them. That sealed them very well. But the water damage over the years had taken a serious toll on the wood. The vertical wall at the aft-most portion will have to be removed. Yesterday, Barry used a jigsaw to cut out and remove the badly rotted horizontal portion at the aft-most part, an approximately 26" by 39" section. (Since it narrows toward the stern, it's 38" wide in the back and 40" wide in the front.). Here's how the berth looked before his work yesterday:


Here's the plank he removed ... notice that someone (another liveaboard neighbor) actually had put his fist through the wood, it was so rotted! The rotten area was right in the middle. The cutout circle was where the viewport/access port had been. Barry saved the port fixture (called a screw-in deck plate) to re-use with the replacement wood he'll install.


Here's how the berth looks after that cut-out. We debated whether to change the configuration and use of that space. But it seems to be an intentional bouyancy chamber, which can be very important of course. So we'll keep it that way. We plan for Barry to install a replacement piece of wood by using exterior grade 3/4" plywood (same thickness as the original), slightly larger than the space. He'll paint the bottom, cut out the circular hole for the access port, then screw it into place. We decided to accept the difference in height of that surface (especially since it'll be used as a workroom and utility room rather than a berth), in order to get the greater stability and strength from the support at the edges. The alternative of trying to inset the new piece would be too challenging to do with enough support, without more complication (new support pieces, for example). (There already is a mini-bulkhead support wall underneath the horizontal platform, slightly aft of where the water tank storage area sits.). Once it's in place, he'll do the final install of the access port, and seal the whole new board with a little Fiberglas and resin, so the bouyancy chamber can be airtight. (Then the whole platform can be repainted, as the starboard aft berth was!)



April 1 update: as the below photo shows, Barry bought the new plywood, cut it (including the circle in the horizontal board), and both the horizontal and vertical boards are positioned as shown here. This weekend we'll be painting, putting up insulation on the outer hull wall, and installing the painted plywood. Oh - and doing some sailing of course! As a side note - we are using exterior grade plywood. It's much better than standard interior plywood, which should never be used onboard. It's less expensive that outright "marine grade" plywood. The book, "This Old Boat" says that exterior grade plywood can be used in most boat applications, so we're going with it for these interior spaces. The difference is the marine grade has no spaces at all within in; the exterior grade does have protection against rot in the inner layers, unlike interior grade which doesn't have that protection built into the inner layers. We're mitigating risk by using either polyurethane or paint on the wood/plywood that's in the boat (both new and existing).

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