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

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!