Slowly building the interior of my power boat

[Todd D]

During the restoration of my 32' power boat I had to rip out the interior. In July I started building the new interior of the main cabin. Progress has been slow, but things are finally coming together. The pictures below show the starboard settee and hanging locker (first pic) and the cabinet/chart table at the aft end of the cabin as they look today (second pic). I am using MDO plywood for the furniture. It will ultimately be painted semi-gloss off-white and will have gloss varnished mahogany trim. Although the pictures don't show it, I have started painting the forward furniture on the starboard side. I discovered that while MDO has a nice smooth surface for painting, that it LOVES paint. The first coat of paint pretty much disappears into the MDO. It generally takes three coats to get a decent finish.

http://www.todddunnmicroyachts.com/tortuga/Interrior-Phase-2-1.JPG

Starboard side settee and hanging locker. The area under the settee is divided into three compartments.

http://www.todddunnmicroyachts.com/tortuga/Interrior-Phase-2-2.jpg

Chart table with drawer cabinet taking shape. The chart table will be to the left of the cabinet and will be 20" deep with a swing out seat.

You can see the details of the interior project at:

http://www.todddunnmicroyachts.com/tortuga/interior-1.html

and

http://www.todddunnmicroyachts.com/tortuga/interior-2.html

[Todd D]

Here is a link to the entire project and a pic of the boat.

http://www.todddunnmicroyachts.com/tortuga/rebuilding_tortuga.html

http://www.todddunnmicroyachts.com/tortuga/tortuga.JPG

[donald branscom]

Very well planned and executed restoration job.

Good workmanship too!
Thanks for sharing your photos.

[Todd D]

What a difference five days can make. I have now finished building the structure of the starboard side main cabin furniture. I have also put the first two of three coats of paint on the furniture. What remains is to sand out the paint after it cures for a week or so and roll the final coat on. After that I will put the counter top on the chart table and add the mahogany trim. While I am waiting for the paint to cure, I will start building the port side furniture, which includes the galley.

http://www.todddunnmicroyachts.com/tortuga/interior_phase-2-5.jpg
Starboard side furniture looking forward. The locker is a hanging locker. there will be a mahogany fiddle around the top of the hanging locker. The top of the locker is painted with Interlux Brightsides Sea Green.

http://www.todddunnmicroyachts.com/tortuga/Interior_phase-2-4.jpg
Looking aft at the settee/berth and main bulkhead. There will be a mahogany trim piece on the top edge of the berth's inboard panel and mahogany trim on the edge of the bulkhead.

http://www.todddunnmicroyachts.com/tortuga/interior_phase-2-3.jpg
The chart table/drawer cabinet at the aft end of the cabin. The counter top will be gloss varnished birch with a birch fiddle. There will also be a swing out seat for the chart table.

[Todd D]

I have now made some progress on the port side. I started at the aft end of the cabin where the galley will be.

I decided to install the Racor 500MA fuel filters under one of the galley cabinets to make access to them easier for element changes, changing from one filter to the other and changing tanks. So Friday I painted the bulkhead that will be under the cabinet where the stove will be and then installed the two racor fuel filters. Incidentally, the boat will be diesel powered when I put the new engine in. Yesterday before we went out sailing I framed up the cabinets.

http://www.todddunnmicroyachts.com/tortuga/interior_phase-2-6.jpg
Framed cabinets with racor filters under the midships cabinet.

Today I cut out the MDO plywood panels for the cabinet sides and fronts. The open cabinet end at the right side of the picture is where the main bulkhead will be. I also built a platform and installed the water heater. The large opening allows easy access to the fuel filters, bilge pumps and water heater and allows the water heater to be removed.

http://www.todddunnmicroyachts.com/tortuga/interior_phase-2-7.jpg
Panel sides and fronts on and water heater installed.

Finally, I temporarily put the cabinet doors on for a picture.

http://www.todddunnmicroyachts.com/tortuga/interior_phase-2-8.jpg
Cabinet doors temporarily in place.

The next stage will be to install the main bulkhead and to paint the galley cabinets.

More detail is at: http://www.todddunnmicroyachts.com/tortuga/interior-2.html

[Paul Girouard]

What type of counter-tops do you plan on using? Wood? Granite? other?

I might suggest a bit more top "cleating" be added to give you something to attach the counter-tops to, either from below , hence hidden fasteners , or wider cleating than exists now to glue the tops to , depending on the exact materials you end up using. Generally I make top cleats about 3" or 4" wide.

Nice job other than that, and you may have some other idea in mind for attaching to or thru. Nice work!

[Todd D]

Paul,

Right now the plan is to use 3/4" birch plywood (with epoxy sealed edges) for the counter tops. I will varnish thenm with 6-8 coats of epiphanes two pary urethane varnish. The plan is to screw the counter tops from underneath. I would use wider cleats if I was glueing them. The 1" cleats I have now are adequate for screwing the tops down.

[Paul Girouard]

Paul,

Right now the plan is to use 3/4" birch plywood (with epoxy sealed edges) for the counter tops. I will varnish thenm with 6-8 coats of epiphanes two pary urethane varnish. The plan is to screw the counter tops from underneath. I would use wider cleats if I was glueing them. The 1" cleats I have now are adequate for screwing the tops down.



Excellent!

[Peter Malcolm Jardine]

Really great work.:)

[Todd D]

The end is in sight now. With the exception of the galley counter top all the cabinets and other furniture is now in. Monday I cut out and installed the counter top on the chart table. I decided to go with 3/4" maple plywood. After I cut the panel out for the counter top I epoxy sealed the edges and then screwed the panel down. I wimped out and screwed it from the top and put maple bungs in over the screws. I also installed a maple fiddle to cover the inboard edge of the panel. The trim strip is 1-1/16" high and creates a 1/4" fiddle. I made it so that it overlaps the top of the counter by 1/8". I intentionally left small gaps around the perimeter of the counter top to allow it to be caulked so that any spills won't seep down into the cabinet. The caulk will be covered by varnished maple trim.

http://www.todddunnmicroyachts.com/tortuga/interior_phase-2-9.jpg

Here is the chart table as it looked this afternoon after the first coat of varnish. The door to the bin on the right side of the cabinet will be installed tomorrow when the hardware to keep it closed arrives.

I have also been working on the port side furniture. The picture below shows the port side cabinet that is directly across from the hanging locker. This cabinet has three shelves. Aft of the cabinet is the port settee/berth. I put the water tank under the forward end of the berth and the water system pump under the aft end. I also installed the wiring for the cabin lights, water pump, windlass and mast light. Today I put the plumbing in to connect the water tank to the system pump, the head sink and the galley sink plus the water heater. All that remains is to fill the last few screw holes, do a bit of painting and then install the mahogany trim. The inside of the berth is fully painted.

I will start work on the galley counter top tomorrow after I change the oil in the engine of my sailboat and double the mooring pennant for this weekends nor'easter.

http://www.todddunnmicroyachts.com/tortuga/interior_phase-2-10.jpg