Following on from the myriad of small jobs started yesterday I pretty much finished the aft bedroom, well not the actual bed area, that still has a couple of cupboard fronts to be glassed in and a shelf, but I have some work inside the front of those 2 before wanting to glass the front on but I should be able to get the back one finished next weekend. But today I glassed the side wall into the aft bedroom, that separates it from the nav cabinet. On that side wall is the other side of the conduit box lid support strip so that also enabled that lid to be fitted and effectively finish off the small room in front of the aft bedroom. Of course there is still all of the actual finishing work, door hinges, locks and knobs, laminates, upholstering including the seat and the wall linings, and light and power fittings and a sink and tap.
I also glued and glassed a second thickness to the front of the curved fronted seat/step top and de-cored the edges all around and filled them. Today I sanded the edges ready for it to sit in place waiting for hinges and a latch. In order to sand a concave curved front you need a convex curved sanding block. That just leaves the side edges of the curved front that will need another thickness to match for finish this section of construction. I am extremely happy with how this room has turned out. It was not part of the original plans but I suggested it to one of the designers and now it is part of the standard plan for all builders so I feel a bit proud of that. But the furniture inside this room is totally self designed and it has worked out to be very practical as well as attractive. Heaps of storage, it completely conceals all of my mechanisms and wiring and manages to look pleasing. Hopefully I can do it justice with good final finishes.
So in just a couple of weeks this back bedroom has taken shape from nothing to almost finished. Sometimes it feels like progress is painfully slow, but this furniture has progressed well and is now close to its final shape.
The only other thing I manage to do was to get started on the nav cabinet box which, as the name suggests, is pretty much just a box built into the top of the nav cabinet, which will have a hinged lid that forms the bench top when the chart plotter is stowed or can swing up and open to allow the plotter screen to be extended out and up onto a stand so that it can be operated through the open window from the helm and of course be very visible from the helm or from the cockpit (it can swivel around to face the port side of the boat so that we can sit out there to watch a dvd if we want) and then when not required it can swing back under the lid. The lid will be able to swing back over to re-form the bench top when the plotter is out also so that it can be used to plot on paper charts should I ever need to use them. The audio for a movie or music will run through the speaker system I will run through the boat including waterproof speakers in the cockpit. I have not settled on a window design yet but a swing open window is about the only option not possible because the steering wheel will be in the way, but I favor a sliding window.
I intend to line the inside of the plotter box with felt for some other soft material as well as foam (as in sponge) so that it sits in a soft case environment. Usually this kind of screen is hard fitted to a bulkhead but as I wont be doing this (I dont have the area for that) I will need for it to be snugly fitted into a safe place for it to travel when not in use, which when underway would be up and in use.
So I got close to 80 hours this month, got a bit done, and I am fairly happy with the progress. There is still so much to do that I at times think there is no way I can get it all done in just 1 more year but at other times I think well there is just this this and this and I am done, so if I can get another 10 months of 80 hours and a couple of 100 hour months then I think I can finish my part of the work (I have a fairer that should start soon but he is very busy with work, which whilst a good sign of his reputation is frustrating because I want to see the fairing get started and another builder that is going to do the windows, internal linings and some of the mechanical stuff, but he is so busy I cant get him to start either.
So a satisfying month for the tangible changes and the progress achieved. Soon the mast posts will arrive (probably not until December but there is a chance they will arrive in November) and work will start on fitting them but next month I plan on getting more work done on the galley furniture. Its going to start to get warm so work will get harder and slower but at least it will still be interesting.
