The big doors

The first job this week was to fit the remaining door latches to the locker doors throughout the boat they have all been fitted and adjusted so that the doors are all complete. Over last weekend I glued up the drop in panel for the opening under the cooker and trial fitted it. I have primed the back but the front face required a little bit of filling and fairing, I have done the filling using epoxy thickened with lightweight filler as with the rest of the locker doors it just requires sanding which will be done this weekend.

Thoughts then turned to the two doors for the heads, I have been deliberating on making the door frames for some time, actually as long as I have had the boat, and each time the job has been put in the pending/too difficult tray much the same as that other well known project beginning with a B but I have now decided it is time to get on with it the main stumbling block is the semicircular top part of the two frames, my original plan was to steam bend them this would probably need some air dried white oak, it would then be necessary to make the rest of the frame from the same material and then dye it so I started thinking about plan 'B' which was to laminate the top part of the frame from hardwood using the same material for the rest of the frames. More recently I have been thinking of making the top part of the frame from sections of hardwood glued together and then cut to shape with a jigsaw, finally whichever method I choose I will need to source some suitable hardwood. Over this weekend I hope to come to a decision, I will almost certainly forget the steam bending for the reason previously stated plus it will be necessary to produce a steam box and a source of steam. While I have been thinking about the frames I started on the door openings, on both sides of the saloon bulkhead and the forward side of the forward heads bulkhead where the facing laminate stops well short of the bottom of the door openings.

Saloon bulkhead aft side

Saloon bulkhead forward side

The next job was to cut and fit some strips of laminate and glue them in place these pieces are mainly required to level up the bulkhead before fitting the door frames and the joints will be covered by the frames.

Saloon bulkhead aft side

Saloon bulkhead forward side

It will be noticed that the infill pieces do not extend right down to the bottom of the door openings this is because the doors will not extend that far as the original opening had been extended upwards, I assume that the original openings were a source of bruised heads, and when I reinstated the round top openings I decided to keep the top of the door at the same height and put in an infill piece at the bottom, from a head banging hazard to a trip hazard. The aim next week will be to trim up the laminate on the bulkheads and clean up the openings ready for the new frames and hopefully have a plan for the frames drawn up.