Corner trim

Apologies for not posting last week but I took a day off on Friday and went sailing, I did an Isle of Sheppey circumnavigation with number two daughter who was keen to see the Kingsferry bridge lifted from the wet side. However I did finish the fake teak on the heads bilge access hatch which has made a major improvement.

For the remainder of last week and this week I have been making some corner trim pieces from the laminate used to cover the bulkheads to tidy up the corners where the bulkhead meets the side of the coach roof. I have completed the two forward corners in the saloon and the starboard forward corner in the heads, the port side was done some time ago, and made a start on the two aft corners in the forward cabin. The previous owner had already lined most of the bulkheads when I  bought the boat but there was still some final trimming to be carried out particularly on the bulkhead between the heads and the forward cabin as it bridges the single window that runs between the two spaces. My original plan had been to use teak but as I had a large amount of laminate offcuts which would probably been binned at the end of the job I put on my environmental hat on and recycled or upcycled it instead.

Saloon corner trim

Aft corners of the forward cabin

The above photographs show the aft corners of the forward cabin and the gaps that need to be covered can be clearly seen. I have cut out the port side trim piece and profiled it so that it makes a good fit where it abuts the window it still needs some final finishing unfortunately the photograph is not too clear because of all the light colours and the sun shining through the window.

Port side trim piece in place

Fake teak

I put several coats of epoxy on the underside of the heads bilge access hatch and then started with the fake teak, the first stage was to make the edging this is just four pieces mitred together at the corners with some top hat section caulking strip.

Edging

The edging is made up of two pieces of Tek Dek the two long sides, and two pieces of Dek King they are slightly different in surface texture but when it has been walked on a few times I doubt the difference will show, One problem with mixing the two is that the tongue and groove does not match very well it leaves a difference in levels on the top surface, however both types are the same thickness so butt joints are not a problem. The next stage was to cut and solvent weld together the pieces for the centre section, this is all Dek King. I always cut the pieces a little over length and then trim down both sides to leave a nice straight edge.

Centre section all trimmed

The two parts were finally brought together ready for glueing to the hatch which I shall do over the weekend as once it has been glued down I shall put lots of weights on to hold the whole lot flat until the adhesive has cured.

All ready for glueing

Just as an aside these days professional installers of this stuff use a welding process to build the panels rather than using solvent weld. I never did get to the masking tape residue on the deck this week the weather was not conducive to outside working that will have to be a task for next week 

Back again

Apologies for the lack of a post last week but I was away on a sailing trip again and for several reasons this week has been a bit disjointed hence the late post. I started off the week by refixing the piano hinge that joins the two sections of the cockpit sole, when I originally put it back I had not put all the screws in and they were a bit of an odd collection so I removed them all and replaced them with matching raised head countersunk self tappers.

Hinge properly fixed

I obtained some more deck paint this week so the main aim was to finish painting the non slip areas of the deck, the two remaining areas were given a good sanding and a wash down then allowed to dry which did not take long this weather then after masking up the two remaining areas I applied a good coat of deck paint and then removed the masking tape.

Port aft deck painted

Deck in the anchor well painted

I finished up the week by making another attempt at removing the masking tape from the port side deck, this was the area where I didn't remove the tape straight away and it had really stuck, however while I had been away the elements have been helping so I got most of the tape off it has just left the glue behind which seems to respond to acetone, that will be next weeks priority so as to get the deck complete.

I have made a little more progress on the bilge access hatch for the heads I managed to get a coat of epoxy on the top this weekend I hope to epoxy the bottom so that I can start applying the fake teak.