Moving More Than The Clocks Ahead

After a long winter of annoying snow storms, a clear signal that Spring is on its way is the ritual of moving our clocks ahead.  While this change essentially shortens one night of sleep, it heralds an extra hour of sunlight at the end of the day.  It is amazing how much that seemingly little change offers such a large space in which to work on things.

Add to that a flirtatious warm temperature and it is amazing how energized one can get.  Our project list has filled pages with a steady stream of set-up steps, but also deep dives into preparing for furniture fabrication in the galley and dinette.  While waiting for the snow to melt, I prepared cedar ceiling strips for inside the galley and dinette cabinets.

While most of the ceiling strips in the boat were originally fabricated out of teak.  The cost of teak today is around $32 per board foot.  Since most of the ceiling strips I need will be enclosed within cabinets, I don't need fancy teak.  I have opted for either mahogany or cedar strips which cost between $5 and $9 a board foot.  Where visible when opening a cabinet door, I have chosen to use mahogany, and, where hidden, I have chosen cedar.

The mahogany strips will be varnished and the cedar will be unfinished.  Unfinished or natural state cedar helps repel bugs.  Hence, the cedar will not be finished.  Besides those benefits, not having to finish the cedar strips saves about 5 days of varnishing!

To make the strips, I purchase 2x4x8 or longer mahogany or cedar studs.  Step 1:  I round-over the corners on a router table.  Step 2:  I rip out a 3/8" strip.  Once that is done, I repeat steps 1 and 2 until the 2x4 has been completely used.  At the end of the process, I am able to produced six ceiling strips out of each 2x4.


Ceiling strips begin as a 2x4 piece of wood

 







The corners are rounded over on the router table

The ceiling strips are ripped to 3/8" thick





This is the process I used to make both the mahogany and cedar ceiling strips.  I try not to make too many at one time in order to prevent the strips from twisting or getting out of shape before I install them.  The mahogany strips require 2 coats of shellac and 5 coats of varnish before installation.  The cedar strips get installed as soon as I am on the boat

While the snow remains in the yard and the temperatures stay in the low 30's despite flirting with Spring, it is a good time to do these set-up steps.  At this point in Harmony's restoration, every project requires a goodly amount of preparatory steps:  hull ceiling, furniture cabinets, electrical wiring, cabin overhead paneling, etc, etc!

But at least the ritual of moving the clocks ahead gives us more light at the end of the day!

Fair Winds and Following Seas

The 3 P's - Plan, Prepare, and Perform

One of the challenges we face in today's fast paced and relatively instantaneous gratification world, is that most good things don't just happen at the snap of a finger.  However, it is so easy to succumb to the desire to have something you want as quick as it takes to click a mouse!

We goal oriented folks very often give scant attention to the journey in our rush to get to our destination just to sprint off to a newly created goal.  As true as this is for us, we need to realize that the journey is many times more impactful and, hence, more important than the destination.  This is certainly true with respect to the restoration of Harmony.

Since we have the opportunity to design our "systems" from the hull up, we get to learn every aspect of them.  Furthermore, we get to think and re-think whatever we thought we have finalized!  With the Winter weather interfering with working on the boat, I get to spend time and effort with the 3 P's of a project:  Plan, Prepare, and Perform.

For example, I redesigned the nav station to cleanly house radios, instruments, and the like.  My vision has all of these goodies neatly flush mounted in a cabinet.  Well, is my mind's eye calibrated to reality?  There are 2 ways to find out:  attack with a sabre saw and find out, or prepare a template to see how it really looks.

Since I recall the invested time and effort it took to fabricate the cabinet, I chose the latter.  So, armed with some foam board and the dimensions of each item being installed I began to layout the face plate of the cabinet.  I would rather screw up my pencil marks on the foam board than deface my nicely finished sapele mahogany face panel.

Instrument Cabinet with blank face panel - varnished sapele mahogany

Obviously my cabinet plan incorporated the basic dimensions of the instruments, but I had not been able to actually see how it all fit.  I prepared cut-out templates for each instrument and played around with where to put them.  After some focused measuring and drawing, I finally came up with the layout.

Face Panel template with layout of instruments - left to right
Fusion IP600 Stereo, SiriusXM Radio (T) & 12v Outlets (B), Wema Running LIght Monitor, Standard Horizon GX2150 VHF Radio, Raymarine i70 instrument

With Harmony's restoration there are so many elements that take a lot of ground work to get to the finished stage.  We have been hard at work on the project for over a year, and it still looks like we've barely scratched the surface.  However, the 3 P's (plan, prepare, perform) apply to everything on Harmony. 

As much as I want Harmony in the water and ready to sail right NOW, I am truly thankful that I have the opportunity to experience the 3 P's.  It not only gives me the control over what we're doing, but it provides a healthy amount of therapy for the stresses of everyday demands.  It is amazing how calming it is to get "lost" in working through all the P's. 

However, as much as I respect the benefits of this journey. I still can't wait to raise the sails and head toward the horizon!

Fair Winds and Following Seas!

Winter Snow Storms - Hove to, but not Drifting

Living in the Northeast has both its blessings and its curses.  Of course we get to experience climate change at least 4 times a year, see colorful Fall foliage, and enjoy wonderful Summer sailing.  However, we do have to deal with Winter weather with all of it's bitterly cold streaks, snow storms, and power outages.  All in all, its still a great place to live and enjoy life.

BUT, Winter's many eccentricities does make a boat owner's passion a challenge to satisfy.  With the boat on the hard, one can't get away to sail for an afternoon, and the cold and snow make it very difficult to keep a steady of stream of projects going.  Our restoration of Harmony has not wavered, but has made some course corrections because of the recent winter storms.

We've turned our attention to projects we can do in the basement workshop or in the woodshop when it's too inclement to drive to the boat or too cold to warm up the boat.  Since Harmony has a forest's worth of teak both on-deck and below, we have a lot, no, A LOT of refinishing to do.

There is the stripping off the old finish, repairing split seams, and applying several coats of varnish to summarize the process.  There are roughly 30 cabinet doors, 18 drawers, 7 dorade boxes, 5 cabin doors, 3 hatches, and a number of storage boxes and assorted furniture panels to refinish.  We also have a 36 inch diameter teak wheel complete with white bungs and turned spokes.  All of these have to be refinished to bring Harmony to her former glory.

All of this has to get done now or later.  Given the impediments to getting on the boat during the recent series of storms, we began the methodical process of bringing a little "Bristol" back to our nautical home.  In the last few weeks, we tackled the ship's wheel, some of the galley drawers, and the teak companionway boards.

The wheel is a wondrous teak creation that had been become a mottled mess of old varnish and assorted other finishes.  The drawers contained a putrid poultice of paper towel linings and filthy facings.  The companionway boards featured a crazed complexion of failed varnish and mold.  After stripping away all of the old finish, we began a slow process of sanding and scraping the teak back to a silky smooth surface.

Our teak wheel taking a spin on the couch!  Well, at least the varnish is dry!

We stripped the wheel, repaired any split joints, and finished it to a luster.  While we'll cover the binnacle with a Sunbrella cover at the mooring, the wheel will get UV exposure while underway, so we wanted many layers of protection yet still be able to see the wood.

The bigger drawers are from the galley, while the little ones are from the forward head vanity - the white interior is mold and mildew resistant paint

The drawers were stripped, cleaned, and sanded.  In order to keep the insides of the drawers clean when on-board, we primed and painted them with mold and mildew resistant white paint.  This should allow us to keep the drawer contents clean and minimize the chemicals we have to use to battle the mold and mildew monsters.

Teak has some beautiful graining.  Two coats of while shellac under 5 coats of gloss varnish helps bring out the depth of the grain pattern

The beauty of teak shows through on the drawer fronts.  The finish is 2 coats of white shellac and 5 coats of gloss varnish. I'll do a posting about our recipe for interior finishing down the road, but the shellac helps seal the wood and add depth to the grain.

The Teak Drop Boards in their restored glory

We have 2 sets of companionway drop boards:  a set of 3/4 inch lexan panels for visibility and a set of teak boards for nice looks.  The teak boards were in horrible shape when we purchased Harmony.  However,  after some repair, and careful sanding, the boards came back to life.

So while the winter weather rages on, we can heave to and let the snow drift while we continue to make progress toward our goal:  launching and sailing Harmony!

Fair Winds and Following Seas!

A Flurry of Activity - The Blizzard of 2013

As is usual, things we enjoy in life often get interrupted by, yep, that's right, LIFE!  Well, living in the Northeast offers a robust variety of sailing, seasons, and weather.  In the Winter its always a challenge to pursue a full agenda of boat work.  We have been lucky so far this year and have made decent progress on Harmony.  However, this past weekend was another story!

The Blizzard of 2013 arrived Friday, February 8, and gave us a great excuse to stay home.  Small note:  the entire state of Massachusetts was closed to traffic, and, besides, who in their right mind would venture out into the raging storm - not us.  Our work agenda focused on projects in the home shop, which do need to completed.

Anyway, before we could even think of epoxy, varnish, or teak, we had to shovel out from the roughly 30 inches of snow we received Friday night.  The wind blew in gusts over 30 mph causing significant drifts.

A 4 - 6 foot snow drift on the side porch

Thank goodness that the power stayed on.  However, our generator would have kept all systems operational and the house warm.  When we got up in the morning, the storm was still raging.  So we cooked a hearty breakfast and enjoyed our coffee watching the snow accumulate.

The snow stopped and the sun came out briefly around 10:30 am.  OK, time to attack the mess.  Thank God for the snow blower, but I still had to shovel the walkways, porches, and, of course, the access to the shop.  The snow was powdery, but there was still a lot of it!

An access "tunnel" to Beth's farmers porch

The front door and snow over the window sills

After about 6 hours of snow duty, I called it a day.  My arms were so tired from shoveling out the roughly 6 foot drifts on the porches and around most doors, that I had no desire to sand epoxy fillets on the sea hood (a.k.a. turtle hatch) I had started the day before.

The driveway cut into 30 inches of snow

So, I made a symbolic check of the metaphorical anchor, shut the companionway, and wrapped myself around a soothing glass of wine.  Watching the sunset from the cockpit of Harmony will be wonderful!

Fair Winds and Following Seas!

A Cold Day, but Progress Made

Finally, I was able to return to Harmony.  It had been far too cold to make the 90 minute drive to the boat worthwhile.  My experience has shown me that when the temps are below 25 F, it takes too long for the electric and propane heaters to warm the boat up.  Not that I don't have enough other boat tasks scattered around the basement, but it does feel good to visit Harmony and make some progress.

With the temps expected to be in the mid-30's, I set out to get a several things done.  I had to make final adjustments to the sea-hood mold I had constructed prior to starting its final construction.  The ceiling strips I had fabricated out of mahogany and varnished had to be put on board.  I needed to install insulation and ceiling strips in the navigation station, and, lastly, take a bunch of measurements to fabricate vital part to various systems:  water maker drive pump, engine control panel, and stove alcove in the galley to name a few.

Not bad for a normal day, but it was still cold as I arrived at about 9:00 am!  However, I made good progress, and by 11:00, I had finished with the final fitting of the sea-hood.  This will be a posting of its own, but suffice to say, everything fits great.  The ceiling strips made it up into the boat fairly easily, and I was able to get the heaters fired up to make working inside tolerable.

New desktop being installed

I started to apply the insulation and ceiling strips to the navigation station.  The insulation went up quickly, as the spray adhesive seemed to work just fine in the cold. Next, the ceiling strips went in quite easy, after I got the drill and screw driver set up properly.

Mahogany ceiling strips partially installed

I had chosen to fabricate the ceiling strips in mahogany instead teak because of cost, and, given the limited visibility these new ceiling strips will have, I am happy with the results.

Completed Desktop and Ceiling

I finished up with all of my tasks at around 3:30 pm and the cold was getting to me.  The temperatures never got above 30, so I had reached my limits. 
 

The "Old" Nav Station in original condition

 

The "New" Nav Station in the midst of restoration

However, good results were had.  The nav station is one step closer to completion, and so in Harmony!

Fair Winds and Following Seas!