“I cannot command the wind and the weather”
– Horatio Nelson
To see all photos from this post, please see the google photo album HERE
The seasons turn, and winter sees Selkie and I stuck on land. This off season there are several projects I mean to see finished – like setting up for the Anchor windlass (remember that?) and finishing off closing the holes from the old instruments I removed.
While I’m at it, there are some internal projects I want to work toward, so it was time to get going while the weather was still decent, and then into the maker space.
Once I had a backing plate behind the holes I am filling – two from old instruments and one from the anchor chain hawspipe – I can fill them with a combination of epoxy and chopped strand mat (a not as structural fiberglass mat that is made of bits of short glass fibers all felted together) and then fairing compound (the green stuff)
It’s coming along quite well, tho eventually it needs painting, and that’s a whole new challenge.
Down below, I took a leaf from the example of Kika and Dan on Sailing Uma, and bought a hunk of jib car track, bolted it to the settee back, and built a sliding fold-down table. The wood is that sapele plywood I’ve had for ages (bought it for the last boat) and have been using for various projects. This one also uses the old original table’s removable leg as it’s prop.
I can slide the table anywhere along that starboard settee, fold it up if unwanted, and bring it all the way next to the galley as an additional prep surface if I want.
Also in these photos, you can see the new paint job Selkie is getting on the inside. The original wall materials are a formica in wood grain, which is dark and not really my style, so the very light sand color paint brightens up the interior a LOT.
While I was painting out all the walls, I decided to replace the fold down doors over the port side cubbies with more of the sapele plywood. I am a member at a Makerspace in Lynn MA, and used the tools and time there to craft these lovely new doors.
I’m MOST proud of the inserts you can see that go with the holes. The doors need to latch closed so they don’t open in seas, so there’s a catch you reach a finger in to trip. The original doors had a wooden insert there, which I wasn’t sure how I was going to replicate, but I took a piece of scrap mahogany (from the boat) and used our CNC machine to create the overall shape of the insert, then chucked them into our wood lathe and hand rounded the outer edge with sandpaper. Came out GREAT!!!
The real moment of joy with new woodworking and painting projects is seeing them with finish… and this was no exception, check it all out:
The old outer hull walls were covered in a rubber burlap material which was pretty nasty by this point. I pulled it all down, cleaned up the old foam insulation, and wound up installing YOGA mat, of all things. Adhered with spray foam insulation. It looks great, is easy to clean, and is both sound and thermal insulating.
Despite the terrifying disaster that is mid-project, once everything was put away, it starts to look so nice and clean!! The lighter walls make it much brighter inside.
Finally it was time for a good hull sanding and new paint, so I hired some help and we spent three days sanding down the hull and getting her painted up.
This visual change from “oof” to “oooh” is getting rather familiar at this point, but it’s still gorgeous every time.
Once Selkie was ready to paint, I added the blue bit at the bottom of her keel to indicate where to place her keel block… we had an incident putting her away this year where the keel block went too far back, under the part of the keel that is just fiberglass, and there were a bunch of cracks and crap I had to deal with. Not thrilled, but hopefully this will help in the future.
Wild fact… those tall stands you see in the photos? Those are literally just to keep the boat from tipping over. 90% of the weight is on a single point on the bottom of the keel where she rests on a big wooden block. WILD.
Time to get her back in the water where she belongs!!!
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