This photo was from the end of November, 2023. Our goal is to install it this March or April. In the meantime, we have plenty of boat projects. I have to make support lips for the access panels and fascia strips as detailed in post #29 here. There is a fascia shown there under the table which I was able to replace with a tiered overlap. To accommodate creating a separate panel for the head I put an angle on the foremost access panel.
We haven’t dealt with the head sole panel yet. I’ve got these visions of building a teak grate insert. As a place holder I’ll probably start with marine plywood with some non-skid.
All end-grain, including that in pre-drilled holes, was treated with a couple applications of penetrating epoxy. However, I will have to drill more holes around the perimeter and at the athwartship seams to properly secure the panels. I haven't decided whether I'll try to seal those.
The old access panel trim was salvaged and we were able to reuse most of it. I only had to make a few strips. The shorter pieces are only held on with epoxy. Something I didn’t understand at first was the importance of cleaning with solvent before epoxying teak and didn't do so on earlier pieces. They feel solid, so, we'll see. On the longer strips I used brass screws along with the epoxy. Total Boat epoxy was used throughout for bonding. We were also able to reuse the original mast trim and ladder pads.
The finish on top is Epifanes Polyurethane 2-Part Yacht Coating, using 4” rollers. Seven or eight coats as I recall, sanded between coats. We bought the poly two years ago at the last-ever (#sadface) in-store Defender spring sale after talking to the Epifanes sales rep. I don’t remember the logic, but it convinced us at the time. We wanted the final coat to be satin to reduce slipping. The rep recommended putting on gloss for the first coats so it didn’t get too cloudy. In retrospect I wish we had finished with gloss. I really don’t think satin will make that much difference in traction and the gloss was so much more attractive.
By the way, Donna and I had a bet about how to pronounce Epifanes. We were told by the company representative:
ɛp ɪ fɑn ɛs (ep as in
set, i as in
sit, fan as in
father, es as in
set)
I won’t say who won the bet.
The bottom surfaces were coated with Total Boat 2 Part Epoxy Primer. For any panels that are removable, I also put on white BilgeKote.
I’d wanted to avoid encapsulating everything in epoxy. My thoughts on this are in post 33 of this thread, with some interesting followup from others. I thought an oil base coating would be semi-permeable so got the BilgeKote thinking it could be put on the raw wood. Reading the (extremely) fine print I found it needed a primer, which was epoxy based. I even called Interlux to confirm and the response was something like, ‘BilgeKote only keeps stuff from getting in but doesn’t seal/stick to the base.’ I threw in the sponge at that point and covered all under surfaces with TB epoxy primer.
We were able to salvage all the perimeter trim, which we have yet to refinish. We haven’t decided whether to leave exposed screws there or put in bungs.
This pretty much brings things up to date on this project.
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