More on cabin sole

Most of the work carried out since the last posting has been on the cabin sole it has now had six coats of varnish on the topside and a couple of coats of grey floor paint on the underside which just leaves the lift out section to fit once the sole is fitted.

First two sections varnished

The two sheets of ply that I bought did not have a matching grain pattern it does not show up very well in the above photograph and so it looks as though I shall be putting the Flotex down this can wait until the rest of the internal fit out is a bit closer to completion.

With the sole ready to be fitted I got on with fitting the wooden bearers to the floors these are required as the levels of the floors leaves a bit to be desired in places. Once the bearers were fitted I cleaned out the bilge area and removed all the rust from the keel bolts and painted on some rust treatment once this had dried I gave the whole bilge area two coats of the grey floor paint which makes a vast improvement.

Timber bearers fitted and bilge painted

I dug the saloon table out of the garage and gave it a good clean up yesterday it has a few scars but I think if I try and strip it and refinish it it may look far worse it will have to settle for a clean and polish for the time being. I managed to get it up onto the boat today it really is built like the proverbial brick outhouse.

As the  bilge paint had dried I got the sole down and bolted the table pedestal into place.over the weekend I had made some new stainless plates to go under the nuts and while working with stainless I bent up a small piece to take the bolt on the cooker which locks up the gimbals.

Table pedestal bolted to sole

I then lifted the table top onto the pedestal and bolted it up once it was on I realised that this is probably not the original item supplied when the boat was built it is too big to fit in the dinette to form a double berth as specified in the original brochure I have looked at various boats on the interweb and they all seem to have tables of a much lighter construction I now know why there is no cushion for this purpose either, this won't be a problem as I usually sail single handed anyway. This table also has a hinged lift up top with shallow storage space under.