We've had a productive few months working on the fly bridge, hull, deck, house, engine room and interior.
See slideshows below for progress photos.
On the fly bridge, we designed a new helm station and Bob is building it (after much prep work--you guessed it, repairing dry rot and termite damaged areas). The dash will house the glass cockpit systems displays integrated with the Volvo engines. There will be switches and equipment panels and storage cabinets and on both sides...and maybe a cup holder or two!
Bob completely rebuilt the flybridge side railings exactly like the original signature Rybovich double rail, and they are stunning! We will send the old helm chair (and fighting chair) to Florida to be refurbished.
We have ordered a new cockpit hatch. We will enlarge the opening and improve the ladder to the bridge for safer climbing while holding beverages for those cup holders.
The house, deck, topside and bottom are ready for fiberglass then paint. We've chosen a soft white for the house and decks and a pale blue for the hull. We will use copper free Interlux Micron CF Anti-fouling paint for the bottom and Awlgrip Polyurethane for the upper hull, topside and house. The paint is being supplied by AzkoNobel--we'll highlight paint in a future blog, when we have some lovely photos to share.
Interior painting and finishing by our very skilled SEA Marine painter, Aaron, will soon commence. Sara has sanded, prepped and painted all the interior closets, heads and lower sections...a big job! We painted the V-berth bright white and decided it was TOO bright white, so Aaron will apply the top coat in a less glossy off-white. Then he'll paint other sections of the interior in Interlux Brightside or Awlgrip, the salon a slightly darker off-white.
Note the front windows--at some point the original windows had been replaced with fiberglass and plywood panels. We have removed the three center sections in preparation for new windows. It's so much lighter in there...and we feel good about bringing her back to the original construction!
The engine room extensive rot removal, bulkhead, stinger and hull side repairs are complete--ala broken record, what a big job!--and it's been painted with Interlux Bilgecoat. It's clean and white and it turned out fantastic. Next we will tackle the installation of the perforated metal panels Pat cut, which were painted in the shop. We anticipate a giant jigsaw puzzle type installation scenario--probably a relationship-challenging experience, kind of like docking a boat! Next projects up for us--tackling the cockpit, sanding and finishing all the brightwork areas inside and out (after painting is done). Most of the purchased equipment is on site and now...drumroll please...we are ready for plumbing, wiring, salon rebuilding and systems installation...more on those installations in future blogs.