Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Installing The Inner Cabin Sides

Most of the detail tasks I've been completing on the boat have had little visual impact and things have looked much the same for many weeks. Yesterday, I changed this when I installed the inner cabin sides. I've been holding off on this until most of the interior work was completed, as these will make it harder to get in and out of the hulls with my low shed roof overhead. But at this point it was time to get them on so as there is a lot of finishing work to be done on the inboard sides that can only be done after the sides are on. Having the sides on will also discourage my cat from hanging out in the hulls, (I hope) and cut down on the amount of dust and other trash getting in there.

Here's a view from the inside of the port hull, looking through the drop board opening towards the starboard hull. You can see the top shelf/step under the opening, and just forward of that, the lower shelf where the two-burner stove will live.

Here's another angle looking forward inside the port hull, the corner of the sink barely visible in the foreground, stove shelf on the inboard side, and the unobstructed inner cabin side in the bunk area. I'm thinking that instead of a fixed shelf on that side, I will make custom canvas storage pockets.

Here's a view from forward in the port hull, looking aft into the galley and main companionway area.

A similar view from forward in the starboard hull shows the companionway steps and the hinged attachment point for the drop-down chart table on the inboard side.

I'm a step closer to having enclosed cabins, but there is still much work to be done before the cabin roofs go on. I will be ordering hatches for the forward ends of the cabin tops and portlights for the aft bulkheads in the next few days.

When the closing in of the cabins is complete and hatches and ports installed so that the hulls can be closed tight against the rain, Element II will at last emerge from the tiny shed I'm building here in so I can spread her hulls to their assembled width and put the beams in place.

1 comment:

tsunamichaser said...

Scott - she looks great! Hope you're sailing by this summer. I will be very interested in seeing how cooking inside will work. I use my 2 burner up on deck and a handheld jetboil down in the hull for tea coffee and the likes. In the Pacific Northwest anything that makes water vapor immediately becomes condensate and then "The Good Rain" as Timothy Egan calls it. How I love sleeping in damp clothes in a damp sleeping bag in a dripping boat but that's what heat packs and bivy bags are for!!!