Head and Hanging Locker Renovation

One of the projects that has been looming since we bought the boat is the sprucing up of the head compartment. The head was full of peeling paint, and was generally just sort of yucky. Additionally, after sailing with the boat for two seasons, it became very clear that the hanging locker was basically a useless waste of space. So after some thought about what to do with that area, I decided to rip out the hanging locker and build in some nice cabinetry—storage drawers and lockers—thereby making the space useful for storage.

Initial Destruction

The hanging locker consisted of a chintzy half bulkhead with a pathetic louvered door. The bulkhead was simply a 3/8 inch sheet of ply tabbed to the hull and forward bulkhead. Removal was pretty straightforward, requiring a few cuts with a sawz-all, and some judicious blows with a hammer.

As you can see in the photo, there was a marelon sea-cock installed in the hanging locker area. I assume that at some point in the past, there had been a sink installed here. I had toyed with this idea at one point, but decided that one sink was sufficient for a 28 foot boat, and that more storage was really a more useful use for the space. I toyed briefly with the idea of just leaving the thing in place, but quickly rejected that idea. And once I got started on the removal, I was doubly pleased that I decided to go ahead and remove it—the installation was simply horrible.

Another Quality "Upgrade" by a P.O.

Closer inspection showed that the "sea-cock" was actually just a marelon ball valve, with no flange. The installation consisted of a marelon mushroom fitting installed through the hull, with a nut on the inside, and then the ball valve threaded onto the mushroom fitting. I was able to easily unthread the valve and the nut by hand! The fitting was apparently installed with a bit of sealant/adhesive, but after just a few minutes of alternately pounding from the inside and prying from the outside, the fitting popped out.

Once the fitting was out, I took advantage of the unseasonably warm weather to fill the hole. I ground a shallow bevel on the outside of the hull, then covered the hole with duct tape. From the inside I troweled in a thick mixture of epoxy and cabosil, then taped over the inside. Later in the day, after the epoxy had gelled, I removed the tape from the outside and layed on a couple of layers of 17 oz biaxial fabric.

Nastiness

Once I had the through-hull filled, I turned my attention to the nastiness of removing the head and associated "sanitation" system. A previous owner had fitted the boat with an 18 gallon Nauta flexible holding tank, and whether due to poor installation or inferior materials, the sanitation system has always had. . . an odor. Heather and I had decided that we needed to start fresh in the head, so the old tank had to come out. I'll spare you the details, but suffice it to say that I hope I never have to remove another sanitation system in my life.

Grind and Paint

The next step was to get all the old flaking paint ground off. I concentrated on the hull, lockers, and head platform at this point, as I wanted to be sure that I could get bilge coat on these areas right away to take advantage of the warm weather. Grinding proceeded without notable incident, and took about an hour with a right-angle DA sander and 40 grit paper.

I didn't worry about getting down to bare fiberglass everywhere, but I did make sure that I got all the loose and peeling paint ground away.

After cleaning up the grinding mess, I was ready to paint. I had decided to use Bilgekote in this area, as I simply wanted to have a nice freshly painted surface, and the Bilgekote is reputed to be a very durable paint. Obviously, areas inside of the lockers won't be inspected closely, but it will be nice to have them clean, fresh, and bright. The painting proceeded without incident, and the final result was a remarkable improvement.

Grind, grind, grind. . . Oh, Never mind

The plan was to simply grind the loose paint from the bulkheads and overhead in the head compartment, then lay on fresh paint. So, I got down to business grinding with the DA and 40 grit paper. After about an hour and a half of grinding, I had gotten the worst of the loose paint removed, and also had gotten the mast beam support posts nicely stripped down to bare wood. I decided that the posts would look great varnished up along with the mast beam, which I had been meaning to varnish for 2 seasons already.

During the grinding I found a burgee-shaped sticker lurking underneath a couple coats of paint. It had held up remarkably well, and was partially decipherable. It clearly reads "visitor 1970" along the hoist edge, and has a crest with some text surrounding it. I think I can discern the word "Mystic" in there too. If anyone recognizes this and can offer any insight into what the sticker is from, or is all about, please email me at nathan@dasein668.com.

Note: I received the following info in an email from Mark Whipple, owner of Triton 59, Tikvah. Mark writes "You may have already received this info, but regarding the burgee sticker you found in #668 - I can make out the words Charles W. Morgan, which is the whaling ship that is berthed at Mystic Seaport. There could have been some special event in 1970 surrounding the Morgan, or they could have simply been using that ship as their logo."

As I stood back to assess the situation, I really started to get depressed about the thought of just slapping more paint on the rough bulkheads and raw fiberglass. . . Clearly a different plan was in order.

Measure and Cut

While I pondered what to do about finishing the bulkheads and overhead, I decided to get started on construction of the lockers that would occupy the former hanging locker. The goal was to have one drawer suitably sized to hold my growing fastener collection, so my measurements were built around that. Above and below this drawer, the plan was to have simple lockers. Once I decided where the various shelves and drawer runners were going to be placed, I marked guidelines on the bulkheads, and installed poplar cleats to hold the plywood shelves.

The next step was to construct the face frame, which I planned to build up out of solid mahogany stock. I measured the angle of the hull with a bevel guage, and cut the rails slightly long so that I could get an exact measurement once they were temporarily installed. Installation was done with stainless screws—into the mast beam post on the forward rail, and into the bulkhead on the after rail. Once the rails were in place, I marked them for length, removed and cut them, and then reinstalled them.

Next I measured and cut the stiles. I brought them to the boat and marked their final positions on the side rails, after ensuring that they were square. I also cut and fit the toe-kick. This was a little challenging due to the compound bevel that was required. I roughed the cut with a jigsaw, and adjusted the fit with a hand plane. Finally, I measured and cut the top stile, which also serves as a fiddle.

Once the whole face frame was fit, I removed the arrangement from the boat and took it into the shop. I spent some time cutting a rabbet into the top stile, and shaping the roundover for the fiddle. Then, after deciding how best to clamp the whole thing, I glued it up with resorcinol glue, and left it clamped to cure.

After the face frame was finished, I took measurements of the openings for the drawer, and the locker fronts. The doors were built simply, like a picture frame, with mitered corners. Once the frames were glued up, I cut one rabbet along the outside edge of one face using a dado blade on the tablesaw. Then I cut a second rabbet along the inside edge of the opposing face, to accept a mahogany plywood panel for the front. I squared up the corners with a chisel, and planed the ply panels to fit.

Over the holidays I got a couple of preliminary coats of varnish on the face frame for the lockers. I then installed the face frame, drawer runners, and birch ply shelves in the boat. Installation was simple, with just screws without adhesive.

Time to template

Once the locker assembly was in place, I turned to the task of covering the bulkheads with beadboard. The process was not complex, but took some time, as the templating process was a bit fiddly. As things progressed I did get more comfortable with the procedure, and things moved more smoothly.

The basic procedure was to create a cardboard template and use this to transfer the shape to the actual material. For each surface, I cut a piece of corrugated cardboard slightly smaller than the area to be templated. I tried to leave about a one inch margin between the edge of the cardboard and the perimeter of the area to be templated, but this dimension was neither critical nor consistant.

I then fastened the templating material to the bulkhead using a couple of screws to keep it securely in place. I then traced an offset from the edge of the area to be templated onto the cardboard. I would have used a nice compass to do this if I had one available, but instead I used a small block of wood as an offsetting tool.

Once the template was created, I placed the template on the beadboard, carefully aligning it so that the beading would be perpendicular to the sole, and transfered the offset line back to its original position using the same block of wood. A few moments with a jigsaw and PRESTO! A perfect fit every time! Yeah, right. I did get better with practice, but I found that I needed to do a little trimming here and there occasionally to get things to fit.

Preliminary finish work

Once the panels were all cut, I pulled them from the boat to paint them. With the panels removed, I took the time to get a preliminary couple of coats of varnish on the mast beam and compression posts. Although it was quite cold out, the combination of the sun on the cover and a small ceramic disc heater made it quite cozy inside the boat, allowing for at least early coats of varnish to be applied.