Head lining

With the inclement weather again this week I have been making further progress with the head lining the first job was to complete the plywood panels I had enough contact adhesive to finish the panel for the aft cabin behind the companionway originally there was no lining panel in the centre as there was an enclosure for the original exhaust water lock the reasons for the replacement of which I have already covered in a previous post. I find that various brokerage sites are useful for photographs of the original fit out a particularly useful one has been an outfit called Yachtgrot which has a video of a Moody 33 mk1 for sale on Youtube this gives a good scan of the interior of the boat either go to Youtube and search Moody 33 it will come up on a list of videos or use this link https://youtu.be/MeNEjU_EjTg.

Headlining under the companionway

The two stainless steel rings are lashing points for the berth lee cloths I spent some time cleaning up the original lee cloths these are PVC type material they still have some rust stains on them which I will attempt to remove with oxallic acid. It was at this point that I had used the last of my stock of spray contact adhesive I had ordered further supplies from Harrisons Trim Supplies on Monday evening dispatched on Tuesday and delivered on Wednesday which is pretty good service.

I spent today covering the panels that fit under the side decks in the forward cabin and then fitting them in place

Starboard side

Port side

This weekends homework is make a start on the cleaning up and painting the locker panels for the forward cabin I brought two of them home with me as I don't think that I will get very far as it will probably be far too cold for painting but if the weather is fine I may be able to get outside and start on removing the old contact adhesive. 

I managed to glue the lining carpet to the port side lockers in the aft cabin and also cut to size the lining carpet for the starboard side of the saloon which will be a job for next week I still have to clean down all the old loose paint and or old adhesive.

Lining on port side aft cabin

Starboard side saloon

You will note the hanging cables the intention is to wrap them with spiral wrap to tidy things up they will then be concealed above head lining panels under the side deck I finished up the day by making a start on wrapping these cables its a bit of a slow laborious job as the spiral wrap comes in 25 metre lengths and it gets tangled and also needs untwisting at regular intervals as the spiral tends to tighten up during the wrapping process I am reluctant to cut it as it is a bit difficult to judge the amount required particularly if the bundle of cables is larger or smaller than the spiral wrap as received usually one is left with it too short or with lots of short offcuts which have no practical use. 

Various bits and pieces

I started this week by completing the clean up of the forward cabin internal moulding once this was done I started on the saloon internal moulding this was not as bad as the forward cabin but after a good going over with some fine wet and dry it looks a lot more presentable.

Saloon moulding after clean up

There are still some outstanding areas of headlining to complete mainly in the forward cabin under the side decks and now that the locker front panels have been temporarily installed I made a start on producing the ply panels using up various offcuts of 4mm ply I have also made a panel for the port side of the heads under the side deck and panels for the starboard side of the saloon under the side deck. The only outstanding panels are for the aft cabin under the companionway and the main panels for the heads. The aim is to make as much as possible from the offcuts that I have I will have to obtain a sheet of ply for the two panels in the heads but it looks as though I have enough for the rest I shall do the same with the lining carpet before deciding how much more I need to order.

Various bits of headlining panels

I also finished the engine hatch covers by fitting the latches which had arrived last week unfortunately I had run out of small stainless wood screws these arrived yesterday it seems that the local DIY establishments do not see a need to stock this sort of thing I like to use raised head countersunk screws which I obtain from a firm called Precision Technology Supplies the only problem is there is a minimum order of 200 but at £4.98 plus VAT I can live with that I am bound to need some more in the future, they also previously supplied some raised head countersunk self tappers for fixing the headlining very prompt service ordered Tuesday evening dispatched first class post Wednesday arrived yesterday. 

Engine access panels all complete

Just to finish off the week no2 daughter had been doing her bit with the engraved panels again this time an aid memoir with SSR number, MMSI number and the vessel's call sign mounted adjacent to the VHF could be very useful in a panic when things are going pear shaped, especially at my age, or if someone who is not totally familiar with the boat is left to call for help.

New aid memoir

Moving forward

I started in the aft cabin again this week fitting the cleats for the starboard forward locker front panel which is now in place temporarily.

Starboard forward panel in place

Over the weekend I made some stainless steel corner pieces to hold the top of the engine space access covers in place the job will be completed by fitting latches on the bottom edge of the covers these have arrived today, I hope, from ASAP Supplies I will find out later when I open the box.

Access panels with stainless corner pieces

That is about all I can do in the aft cabin for the moment I need spray adhesive for the lining carpet and plywood for the shelves in the lockers so I have moved on to the forward cabin on Wednesday I fitted the locker front panels in place so that I could measure for the plywood for the base of the lockers I will also require some more lining carpet and spray adhesive, the locker front panels require a good clean up to remove the old adhesive and the plan is to paint them white in a similar manner to the aft cabin.

Forward cabin locker panels

The companionway steps in the aft cabin and the saloon are made up of stainless rails with wooden treads bolted on the rails are bolted through the cockpit bulkheads at the top of both sets of steps these bolts have been sealed to prevent water ingress so when I wanted to get the locker front panels into the aft cabin and the batteries into the battery locker in the saloon I had to remove one of the treads rather than taking out the whole ladder with the subsequent resealing of the bolts at the top. The bolts securing the treads were an odd mixture of stainless machine screws with brass nuts and some were difficult to remove so I had the idea of replacing all the bolts securing the treads with stainless bolts with stainless wingnuts to make the job easier in the future this will also make access to the after end of the engine space much easier as can be seen from the photograph above. After collecting the required bolts and wingnuts from the chandlers yesterday I set about replacing all the nuts and bolts securing the treads as the first job this morning.

Wingnuts securing treads

For the rest of today I set about cleaning up the top of the internal moulding in the forward cabin removing all the over painting, adhesive splashes and other staining.

Inner moulding before clean up

After clean up on starboard side

There is still a bit more work to do on the port side which will be the first job next week, but before the forward cabin can be completed I need to finish the wiring to the navigation lights on the pulpit I left some draw wires through the pulpit when I fitted it but unfortunately they seem to be jammed  which will mean unbolting the aft feet of the pulpit and possibly modifying the cable opening through the deck so that it lines up with the opening in the pulpit foot a bit better, but that will have to wait until the weather gets a bit warmer.

Further work in the aft cabin

No post last week as I had a week off suffering with a cold or could it have been man flue so very little was achieved although I did manage to paint the two doors for the openings in the aft engine space bulkhead.

I started this week by fitting a frame round the stern gland access opening in the aft cabin sole, in a similar manner to the engine access openings with the idea of stopping the cover going walkabout when the boat heels once this was complete I gave all the frames a couple of coats of grey paint before cutting out and painting the cover for the stern gland access opening. While cutting out ply I used a hole saw to make a blank to fill the round hole in the bulkhead above the engine seacock access I will glue this in place with some thickened epoxy once the weather has warmed up sufficiently.

All the openings can now be closed up

To complete the job I just need to obtain and fit some catches to hold the the access doors in place I have some thoughts for this just need to pick up the bits.

I finished up the week by cutting and fitting the cleats so that I can secure the forward front panel and fit the shelf in the port side lockers which is about all I can do on this side at the moment until I obtain some more adhesive for the lining carpet. I did spend some time cleaning up the cabin sole forward of the companionway I removed all the paint and glue splashes and gave it a bit of a sanding, the moulding does have a number of scratches in this area which I intend to have another go at sanding out if possible, they don't show up in the above photograph.

Port side forward locker panel in place