The Dude

Here it is February 28th already.  I've made some progress on my projects, instruments and a DC sub panel, but at this point I only have one weekend to finish up before the boat is scheduled to splash, March 15th.  I lose one weekend because we're heading out of town for a few days to visit with family.  I still need to paint the bottom which includes raising the water line and repainting the boot stripe.  The weather has not been cooperating and now I'm starting to stress out.  We looked into staying at the Inn for an extra two weeks and they can accommodate us for most of it but we'll hafta move around.  It's not easy being homeless.

I talked to the guy doing the cabinetry and he's relieved to have some extra time.  The business with the rudder really held things up so apparently the stress is universal.  It's nice to have company.

So far we've got the rudder repair completed and the auto pilot linear drive is in place.  I'm doing the wiring on that so it probably won't get completed for a while.  The genset is in place and the work on that is expected to be completed by the end of this week.  The unit for doing the oil change is mounted in the starboard cockpit locker.  That space is filling up.  That's where the linear drive is mounted as well as the controllers for the auto pilot and the depth sounder (what I've been calling the sonar).  This space also houses the two compressors for the fridge and freezer, the exhaust for the engine and the exhaust for the genset and the drain for the cockpit.  This locker is really deep and the floor is actually the inside of the hull so it angles down towards the centerline of the boat at about a 45 degree angle.  It's not too bad getting in but for an old geezer like me it's a challenge getting back out.  I need to run the return air duct for the diesel heater and I'm thinking of putting it through here.  As if there's room for that too.  I could build a step over top of it and then it'd be easier to climb in and out.  Another project for me to do in all my copious free time.  Or I could just keep filling it up with stuff.

The weather on Wednesday, 2-27-13, was supposed to be really nice, clear with mid 50's temperatures.  I decided to play hooky and try to get something done on the boat.  I could let everything else go except for painting the hull so I concentrated on that.  I got the new waterline taped off and started sanding the hull.  It took me four hours to do just one side and most of that was spent bent over, twisted around and kneeling in the mud while holding the sander over my head.  I had my mini shop vac hooked up to the sander but I forgot to wear a dust mask.  At the end of four hours I had to quit because every time I blew my nose it came out 70% copper.  What a dummy.

The galley is coming along now that the genset is in place, now that the linear drive is installed, now that the rudder is repaired.  The upper cabinets are starting to take shape and we're getting a better feel for how things are going to look.  Even better, you can get a feel for the amount of storage space we're adding here.  I'm just talking about the cabinets above the counter top here.  The old cabinets used to go up about six inches and then had a shelf above them that was limited in height by the underside of the deck.  We pushed the front of the cabinets out about 1.5 inches and ran them all the way up so there's no wasted space.  The cabinet dude built these so all the walls of the cabinets are vertical so we can have an adjustable shelf inside.  He's concerned about these shelves rattling so he's making them semi-permanently installed.  If we want to change the height we can but they'll be screwed in place, not just resting there.  There'll be pre-drilled holes for other positions.  This guy has all kindsa good ideas like that.  The first two pictures show the galley right before work started and then where we are now.  Check out the old double sinks (muy pequeno!).  The second shot shows the cutout for the new sink (muy grande!).  The cool-man new faucet will be at the lower corner near the plastic container.  There will be a shallow cabinet behind the stove, maybe for spices, and back in the corner to the right will be a cabinet for the coffee maker with a dedicated AC outlet built in back there so we can just hit "go" and have our fix.  Woohooo!

Cheri wanted to have a slot in the counter where she could store her knives.  The cabinet dude suggested having the counter raised about a quarter inch in that area so water wouldn't go down the slot if something got spilled.  This knife slot has the knives hanging down into the aft cabin so he boxed it in and made the bottom removable for cleaning.  To open it you press on one of the pieces of trim and it pops open.  That's it above the 5 quart plastic bucket.

The drawer we added beneath the oven is built with the back panel following the contour of the inside of the hull so there's no wasted space.  The cabinet guy also added a lip across the back of it so nothing can spill out when we heel over to starboard.  He also built in a latch that prevents the drawer from sliding out all the way on it's own.  The top picture shows how the drawer will fit under the stove.  It's designed to match the factory drawers.  In fact, he did such a nice job you can't tell one from the other.  Even the color of the stain is identical.

I've also asked him (the cabinet dude) to build a small cabinet above the nav station to house the radios (VHF and single side-band).  I'm re-organizing the gear located here and adding a DC sub panel to give me eight additional, breakers.  Moving the radios to their own cabinet will give me the space I need and leave some spare for future additions.

This guy is very talented and above all, very nice.  He asked me not to use his name here so from now on he's "The Dude".  Like, Dude!  That's a compliment!