Finding Closure?

 OK, this morning (01-24-11) it was pretty chilly.  Inside the boat we've managed to keep it pretty comfortable, around 75 F.  It was 7 degrees F outside this morning.  Brrrr!  I'm pretty sure that's the coldest it's been so far this winter.  In fact, since Saturday it's been in the 20's and lower each day.  The creek froze over solid in two days with the water temperature at 32.4 degrees.  We're in the thick of Winter now.

On my walk to the gym it was so cold the decking on the dock had shrunk up and each step I took pushed the boards back down on the nails, giving off a loud "CRACK".  My first couple of steps had me thinking I was gonna go for a swim.  The things you think at 4am.

For the last two weekends Cheri and I have been working together on another project for the boat.  We're building an enclosure for the cockpit that will be similar to putting up storm windows on your screened-in porch.  We already have a Dodger/Bimini that stays in place year round (see the picture to the left).  It's made out of a canvass product called "Sunbrella" that holds up well to marine conditions and provides protection from the sun and rain.  The rear section is the Bimini and the front is the Dodger, which also has a windshield built into it.  Last Spring we had North Sails build us a screened in enclosure that ties into the Bimini and Dodger and this has made it possible to sit up in the cockpit in the Summer evenings when flies and mosquitoes would normally be forcing you down below at gunpoint.  The screens also act as a windbreak and we've used them several times to help make life bearable when we were underway in cooler weather.

Unfortunately, the screens don't keep out the cold.  We were going to have North Sails also build us a Winter enclosure that uses a clear 30 gauge vinyl called "Eisenglass".  This is the same stuff the windshield is made of but not as thick.  The guys at NS quoted us for this project and it was "out of scope" for our budget, especially after the Great Holding Tank Escapade (click here for more dirt on that). We re-prioritized our wish-list and moved on to other things, like the Espar heater (more info on that project).

In the meantime we invested in a Sailrite sewing machine so we could do some of our own canvas work and maybe even take on sail repairs some day.  This has opened up a whole new creative world for us.  The Sailrite machine is a real beast (check this out), very heavy duty, and can sew through stacks of tin cans if it needed to.  We probably won't be needing that but now there are new projects being added to the list such as winch covers, hatch covers, wind scoops for the hatches, etc, etc, etc.

We visited Sailrite in Annapolis to get some materials for our first project and the owner, Dan, introduced us to a very cool design for a cockpit enclosure.  The basic idea is to make panels of Eisenglass that will attach to our cockpit screens with a zipper across the top and snaps down the sides.  This is opposed to seperate panels requiring their own Sunbrella frames with zippers on three sides and snaps across the bottom.  Because it's a simpler design the cost for materials is considerably less, about $700 versus (approximately) $1.2 gazillion.  Instead of doing hatch covers we decided to make our cockpit enclosure for our first project.  Other than a complete Winter cover for the boat or making our own sails, this is probably the biggest canvass project we'll ever take on.  What were we thinking?

OK, so it's not really that big of a deal.  The screen enclosure is broken up into seven panels so we can just do a little at a time and not feel so overwhelmed.  We started in the center of the three panels across the back. There's a couple of tricky features here.  The top has a curve to it and the zipper follows this curve.  The panels on either end also go around the rear corners of the cockpit.  Where the zipper attaches across the top of the screen we didn't have much material to work with so Cheri added a strip of Sunbrella here and the zipper attached to that.  Down each side of the Eisenglass we sewed in pull tabs for the snaps.  These were also made with Sunbrella and are simply strips about 1" x 5" folded in half so they're about 2.5" long.  These overlap the vinyl by about an inch and this provides some extra strength for the snaps.  The socket side of the snap is inserted through the tabs and the button side goes through the frame for the screen.  Check out this short video to see our cool-man snap installation tool in action(click here).  We spaced the snaps about 10" apart down each side.  For right now we're leaving the bottom of the Isenglass unattached.  It hangs down below the cockpit coaming and is a little difficult to get at.  If we really need the extra tension we can add snaps there too.

We're averaging about one panel per day.  We could probably do more if we were really dedicated or if we didn't have laundry to do and meals to make or if we were getting paid.  Maybe.  This is a good pace for us and it looks like we could finish up next weekend.  As of now we have all three panels across the back finished and the larger ones on each side.  We have just two more to go, the ones that are the most forward and attach to the Dodger.  The one on the Port side is used as the main entrance to the boat while we're at "Home Port" so after we finish the Eisenglass panels we're going to make an extra panel for here that will replace the screen and make access easier.  This will be made of Sunbrella with maybe a window in the middle of it.  It'll be hung like an entrance to a teepee so you just have to flip it out of the way to get through.  We'll use this during the Winter while we're tied up for the duration.  We don't have the final design fully worked out yet but the idea is to keep it simple and provide easy access.

When the weather warms up we'll take down the Eisenglass panels and store them flat in a zippered pocket made with Sunbrella.  That'll be kept in the aft cabin on a narrow shelf above the foot of the bunk.  Our aft cabin doesn't get much use so we're trying to design some changes that'll make better use of the space.  It's where Bella sleeps but she doesn't take up much space.  When we have guests staying overnight this will be their room so we need to keep it useful for that.  But we're thinking it would be really nice to set it up as a workspace where the bunk will convert to a settee and have a worktable and more storage.  We're working with a cabinet dude on some ideas and we'll share them with you when we figure out what we're doing.

The cockpit enclosure has been a great project.  It gives us something we can work on together.  We found that we can do that and we don't scream or fight or anything.  It's fun.  This has also given us something we needed for the boat at a pretty hefty savings (gazillions).  I'm hoping that the enclosure will give us more time out on the water in the Spring and Fall but it'll also make life aboard more comfortable at the dock.  We got a new fondue pot that'll be great to use in the cockpit now that it's closed in.  C'mon by and check it out.