Day 357

Ho Ho Ho! Christmas is apon us and so is some time off! We will be using the few days to "catch up" on some much awaited wood work. Working one day into the next seems to yield better results although it feels like we're getting nothing done - that is until after the time off and we look at where we were before we started.

Dulcie-Darlene, the name of our vessel, was aptly adorned with some power efficient LED Christmas lights. Not much to look at but they did provide some extra light for my work up front ha ha!

To the left is the gift, now finished, I made for Gena. See it here in a new window. It took 3 weeks of hiding and sneaking around buying parts and explaining what I had been doing up in the boat so late at night. That of course required actually doing some boat work as well, which isn't all bad!

Vent I made last evening in 3 hours for seat

"Mega tornado in a box"

Last night, after a heated discussion on ventilation under the seats and how my little wood grain hand painted plastic vents wouldn't be enough, I decided to go on a constructive anger rampage. A frame was made with 1x1 oak inset to mount in the plywood on the side of the end seat, arrrr!

I took some 2 1/4" x 1/14" oak base board and split it into 1" wide lengths ten routed slots inward by 3/4". They needed to be pounded in but were glued anyway, grrrr!

The seat box was cut out to hold 2 fans. This are 6" diameter fans that at 12 volts only draw 1.8 amps together, but are so powerful they will levitate off off a table! I powered them up with a drill battery and they move an incredible amount of air. Enough that they might suck our little dog, Poutine, into the grill ha ha!

Guess I better put a speed control on there, perhaps a 5 watt 47 ohm for a more quiet mode on one side of the switch.

Feel better now :)

The forward end of the boat, now well lit by Christmas lights, has been my area of choice today whilst I wasn't assisting Gena. I want to continue with the curvy theme started with the side molding. It's going to be quite a contrast to the aft stateroom, which might be modified to be more "bump friendly".

	A good use of space is a must in this area, and lockers under the deck will provide lots of storage for bedding, extra pillows, clothes etc. We want the whole berth to appear to be a single unit, ( cozy and comfortable as mentioned before ) but leave a feeling of spaciousness. The flow from the overhead locker to those along under the deck is accomplished by leading the frame down. Right away Gena was concerned about head bumping but I assured her it wouldn't be a problem.

	The long smooth curve ( photo left ) cut most of that sharp point off. The strange shape was not only to accent a bookshelf that will be to the left, but also to avoid a rather nasty knot in the board! It won't really be visible from anywhere but inside the locker next to it. You may notice that all of the wood is coated before it is finally put in. This is to coat areas that will be inaccessible after in place and won't have glue in those areas. After seeing what heavy moisture can do to exposed wood in a very short time (ugly black streaks) it seems to be a good move albeit things are constantly delayed waiting for pieces to dry.

Gena made great progress on the floor today! As can be seen in the page top photo, it's almost done. The sections of bamboo must be staggered for maximum strength which was a bit of a challenge as well as the "hard way" to do it. Because of all the hatches, lining them all up would have been easier.

Near perfect alignment and a lack of a good working radial arm saw at the moment ( yes, it packed it in last week! Of course. ) meant each piece had to be measured and cut with the miter saw. She did well.

Day 357:
7 hours - Put in 3/4 of floor in dining/galley area, made vent (madevent!) and continued berth enclosure.