More Step Work

Ive been modifying the steps in the boat.  This came about at the front because the water level sender gauge needed recalibrating now its on the water.  Previously it was done when it was on dry land during the tank testing etc. It was necessary to remove the front steps to do this and a timely visit from Graham of Matilda Rose fame made the calibration easier as he called out the reading as I twiddled with the adjustment screw 45 feet away.

While I had the steps out I decided to make the top and bottom step liftable as well as the middle one which was already done.  Then it dawned on me that I could take the ply floor out under the steps and and have a cooler area to draw cool air from the bilge when its warm in the bedroom.  A quick temperature check revealed the base plate (black area) was 12.5 degrees while the inside of the room was 23 degrees.  I also changed the 5 micron primary water filter which was visibly quire grubby.  Next time the tank is empty I will move the main stop cock as removing the floor has made more room to position it in a better place right out of the tank.

Then it was on the the rear steps.  For ages now I have been intending to fit the rest of the of the tiny LED plinth lights. This has made such a difference to the appearance of the kitchen area and of course the steps.

Without Flash

With Flash

I am undecided about taking the floor out under the rear steps.  It would make a nice
pre- cooling area for beer and wine, but as the inverter is now under them this adds heat and makes the box area quite warm so I thinking this might be a source of condensation. 
I will consider it again one I have put some additional fans in the side of the steps to dump this heat out.

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Side Work

After 6 coats of varnish, I was tired of that operation and needed to get the sides done. The plan was to do some paint graphics to hide some fiberglass reinforcement tape at the plywood butt joints on the sides and at the side to transom junction. The tape at the bow seemed to fade away sufficiently to ignor it. I tried to get a graphic designer to work on a design with me, but he must be busy as he was not returning my recent calls. So my wife, Vicky said "Lets grab some paper, colored pencils and work out our own design"....and so we did." I added a beer to the operation to loosen up the creative juices. Then we went to an art supply store to get some 1/4" wide artist tape to do the masking in the curved areas.

After the curved areas were done another pass of wider tape was put down and then some masking paper over all the varnish areas to protect from the roller and splatter. I used 3/4" wide tape to define the boot stripe and then masked above and below it and then removed it. The butt end of a x-acto knife was used to burnish the edge of the tape to prevent paint bleed. (This worked well but I would recommend that the burnishing be done twice as I had a few areas where I got some bleeding where I must not have gotten the tape edge down tight).

After putting down a coat of primer and sanding, a coat of white was painted on just using a foam roller. The bubbles did not pop as the paint can said it would, so after sanding, the second coat was applied with a roller and tipped off with a foam brush - much better. Then the blue portion was masked off and painted. I decided that the blue areas will probably be finshed off with a border of 1/4" wide white vinyl tape as masking off a consistent narrow band seemed impossible. The blue dried overnight and a second coat applied. Next day it was mask removal time to see what was under the mess of paint, paper and tape. Looks pretty cool I think.

Later when I talked with the graphics guy, he showed me how to mask out a border band so I could paint it so I would have a perfect color match. He showed me how to mask using 1/4" vinyl tape that he gave me that bends easily without puckering. A couple of hours later I had another white strip outlining the blue areas.


Final side work was a 1/4" red-orange stripe put on by the graphics guy and the word "Squirt" done in a 50s retro script lettering.

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Headoard Kitchen Work

The custom made headboard was collected from the makers last Saturday.  I needed to finish making the bed base and once that was done I could fix the headboard in place.

The bed base lifts up to access a storage space.  Once I have the mattress  (Next Thursday) I can weight it and the base then I can get some gas struts made to the require lifting force to assist with and hold the base up when required.

I have been preparing the kitchen for the breakfast bar, while doing this it became apparent the island unit was pretty mobile at the end section.  This, in a stationary house is no problem but on a boat which moves about could be a problem especially as the weight of the worktops would act as a massive lever if the boat were to thing anything head on, or indeed if while being transported the lorry had to break suddenly.

A solution was needed.  Screwing through the end unit base would not be strong enough the load needed to be transferred through the vertical walls.  

I knew one day I would have a use for the really long screws that came with the engine crate.  

The head is 17mm AF to give it scale

I made a bracket to transfer the load through the vertical panel and some filler blocks to bear down onto once the screws were done up.

Glued and screwed

Stop blocks and 3 screws into the floor

The island end is now nice an rigid now. I will make a nice cover the the metal bracket to hide it in due course. 

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Aluminium work boat plans

Aluminium work boat plans one photo Aluminium work boat plans WORK BOATS - FISHING BOATS - PASSENGER BOATS Free Boat Building Plans Welded Aluminum Work Boat Wooden Jon Boat Sail Boat Building Plans

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