Engine Installation on the Far Reach

[John Stone]

Very nice job as always, John!

--Jim

Thanks Jim. My hope is this thread encourages others they can do projects like this too. I am not formally trained in woodworking or fiberglassing. Learned as I went. If I can do it, pretty much anyone can....

[John Stone]

Yesterday, I cut the mortises for the brass butt hinges into the lower walnut trim. I cut the entire mortise into the walnut vice half and half. Much easier and if I mess up I am only out the walnut and not the door. “Make the right thing easy.”

Today, I tinkered with the new aft section of workbench top and secured the lower trim to it. I am generally pleased. I need to adjust the right hinge a small amount. Once I am satisfied I will trim in the panel door with bare walnut—about 1/2” on each side and 1-4” on the top. I also need to make the top and bottom rails for the sliding doors and resaw the mahogany for the sliding doors. Once all that’s complete I’ll install the components and wire them up.

To open the panel door I will removed the lift out sliding panels. Then the door will swing open, hinged at the bottom, from top to bottom.

There is some tricky geometry at play here. The walnut side trim which will be secured to the bulkheads allows the door to clear the bulkhead trim—dimensionally the door is is narrower the the framed space. But...as the top of the door swings forward and down it has to clear the rails which hold the top of the sliding door. I don’t know if that makes since but it’s going to work well. It’s has too because...hope is not a plan.

MTF.

[John Stone]

Tonight I added three 15 amp breakers to the empty slots on the breaker panel. No sense in leaving them empty. It will save me a lot of trouble later if/when I add a device to the boat. So, now I have four spare breakers with one of the four that are connected just for the compass light.

I’m adding running lights so I may wire them to the breaker with the compass light. One will go to a depth sounder if I install one. I need to sort out the steaming light. Still thinking about that. I have some ideas....

[John Stone]

It was hot today in ye old boat yard. I’m in a great little yard though. The two guys that own it have opened their wood shop up to me. Essentially gave me a key. How nice is that. My life has gotten so much easier. I donated a new Highland Woodworking resaw blade for their bandsaw. It’s the least I can do. I still do most of my milling and such at home. But I can use their shop for final cutting and trim.

I got most of the trim for the panel sorted out today. It took some test cutting and a little work with a cabinet file and a low angle block plane. I brought the panel home tonight to see how the fasteners would work out. It took a while to figure them out. They need to be painted black. I'll do that tomorrow. Why would you have SS fasteners on black panels? And there is no way to flush mount the battery switch without exposed fastener heads. It’s annoying. I’ll have to think about how to make it look better. Those pan head Phillips are ugly as sin. Painted black they won’t be as bad. Probably need bronze round head for the battery switch though.

Tomorrow I start on the sliding door rails. I have to resaw the mahogany. But now I have access to a band saw.... I need another week to finish this off I think. Then, I can start thinking about the engine.

[Keith]

"And there is no way to flush mount the battery switch without exposed fastener heads."

If you have enough thickness in the wood panel you could switch to flathead screws, counterbore and bung. You will probably never have to remove the sector switch in your life time.

Keith

[John Stone]

"And there is no way to flush mount the battery switch without exposed fastener heads."

If you have enough thickness in the wood panel you could switch to flathead screws, counterbore and bung. You will probably never have to remove the sector switch in your life time.

Keith

Good thinking Keith but in this case not enough wood. The panel is 5/16 thick. And it needs nuts on the other end. You can’t remove nuts without having access to the fastener head. You can counter sink hex head and apply thickened epoxy so the head can’t turn. Then bung them. But again...not enough wood. I could have build a thicker wood “cover plate” and bunged them but then the panel gets bulky and blocky looking. Or I could have glued wood cover plate in back side. But same issue with countersinking FH. Another thing I have to consider is folding the panel down for access with heavy battery cables attached to the switch. Those cables can apply pressure to the switch so it needs to be stoutly mounted.

Definitely there are options. Not suggesting it can’t be done but it should not be that difficult. My mini switch has a snap on cover plate. Seems they should have done the same here. But alas....

And IMO everything has to be replaced...eventually. I don’t want to have to tear the boat apart to access anything. That’s why I made the entire interior removable. Everything can come out—the cabinetry, furniture, cabin sole, overhead, etc. In a perfect world all boats would be built to permit non destructive disassembly.

Bronze round head will be fine I think. I admit, most people would not care one iota. LOL.

[Jim Walsh]

If you are painting the other fasteners black I would paint the fasteners for the battery switch black also just for continuity. I love bronze but they would turn green with verdigris and look out of place...IMHO. If you have the proper sized hole saws you could make a finish ring out of you choice of wood, or laminate, and retain the finished appearance of the rest of the panel.

[John Stone]

If you are painting the other fasteners black I would paint the fasteners for the battery switch black also just for continuity. I love bronze but they would turn green with verdigris and look out of place...IMHO. If you have the proper sized hole saws you could make a finish ring out of you choice of wood, or laminate, and retain the finished appearance of the rest of the panel.

Hi Jim. You’re right. I painted them black today. Still plan on replacing them with RH bronze. I’ll put polyurethane over the heads so they don’t turn green.

How is your refer doing? Are you getting any sailing in this summer?

[John Stone]

Jim
I thought about this some more. It occurred to me there is a way that might not be too difficult to put a cover plate over the fastener heads for the battery switch. I’ll play with it some today and see why I come up with.

[Ben Miller]

I'm late with this suggestion, but hindsight being 20/20 and all that...Could you have fattened up the panel where the battery switch mounts and then used wood screws from behind the panel? Maybe that wouldn't be as secure as nuts and bolts, but it doesn't seem like it would have been an issue here. Just wondering.

[John Stone]

I'm late with this suggestion, but hindsight being 20/20 and all that...Could you have fattened up the panel where the battery switch mounts and then used wood screws from behind the panel? Maybe that wouldn't be as secure as nuts and bolts, but it doesn't seem like it would have been an issue here. Just wondering.

Hi Keith, lots of ways to do it. Some better than others. I would have had to glue a thick block on the back. There could be wood movement issues with that approach. The panel floats in the slots in the rails and stiles to accommodate horizontal wood movement across the wood grain. All solid wood moves of course so I want to keep the panel harmonious so I don’t induce movement stress. Plywood does not have this problem.

You are right it would have to be a substantial block of wood glued to the back to secure the fasteners.

A simple cover trim plate, as suggested by Jim, could work. But I would secure it with brass escutcheon pins so it would be removable but not interfere with wood movement. It’s an extra step I would prefer to avoid but it could work. Means I need to cut and shape the trim and apply 7 coats of varnish to the trim.

[Steve Laume]

The closer you try to get to perfection, the more effort it will require and it is never to be achieved.

When you spend days deciding what color or how to hide a couple of screws, you may have lost sight of the prize. I am all about good craftsmanship and design but there comes a time when it just doesn't matter and the extra time and effort are only keeping you from enjoying your boat for what it is and where it can take you. The switch is mounted. Check. Next. A year from now, when you are sailing in some beautiful spot, I doubt those screws will bother you all that much. If they do, you could change them then.

Get that engine in and launch the boat so we can see pictures of your adventures. None of us are getting any younger and we all have a finite number of years left to sail, Steve.

[John Stone]

The closer you try to get to perfection, the more effort it will require and it is never to be achieved.

When you spend days deciding what color or how to hide a couple of screws, you may have lost sight of the prize. I am all about good craftsmanship and design but there comes a time when it just doesn't matter and the extra time and effort are only keeping you from enjoying your boat for what it is and where it can take you. The switch is mounted. Check. Next. A year from now, when you are sailing in some beautiful spot, I doubt those screws will bother you all that much. If they do, you could change them then.

Get that engine in and launch the boat so we can see pictures of your adventures. None of us are getting any younger and we all have a finite number of years left to sail, Steve.

Oh hardly perfection. The truth is the boat is not the only project I am working on...it’s just the only one you know I am working on. My motorcycle suspension is apart in the garage while I wait for parts. G wants a 12x12 shed in the back yard. I need to do something about that. We are designing a cargo trailer conversion for summer camping—that’s going to be a fun project...you are going to love it. I’m still figuring out if I can get the boat to Europe next or maybe back to the Caribbean. And should my kids go back to college in a month or is it better to keep them home till the virus resolves itself one way or another.... I’m reading A.B Guthrie’s saga of westward migration in the early 19th century. My truck has to go into the shop....

Regarding the FR...it’s a 70 mile round trip to the boat yard and it’s hot as you know what here. Even if the FR was in the water it’s too hot to sail here in July and Aug. Too hot do much of anything. Hurricane season is in full swing in Sept/Oct. So I am in no huge hurry. Don’t worry...my eye is on the prize. It’s never off my mind. I can’t wait to get back to sea....

I resawed 12” wide mahogany a couple days ago and left the wood to release tension before milling it further for the sliding doors. I glued up some walnut yesterday for the sliding door rails. I plan to cut dados today.

Onward....

[John Stone]

Enough philosophizing....

The rails are ready for dadoing. But first, this morning I glued up the mahogany I resawed Saturday. It’s about 1/2” thick. I used a technique called edge less joinery I learned from an article in Woodenboat magazine years ago. It’s pretty easy. Just takes a router with a straight bit and clamped guide bar. I’ll unclamp tomorrow and providing they are flat enough—they should be—I’ll plane them down to about 3/8 or perhaps 5/16” thick. After planing I have a couple decisions to make.

The first is do I want router V grooves in them so they blend in better with the interior. I’m trying to hide it, not draw attention to it. And what will the V grooves do to the wood tension? It’s quartersawn so that’s good. My friend Kaj, a boatbuilder and certified Swedish furniture maker thinks the grooves might even release tension and better stabilize the wood. But, as he told me, wood is a funny thing. You just never know till you try it.

The second decision is how I want the rail slots and sliding doors to work. Depending on the final thickness of the panels I can slot the rails so the whole panel drops into them or cut the bottoms of the panels so they have tongues that fit into the slots. I have made panels both ways. Just depends on what I end up with when they come out of the clamps.

Should be interesting....

[John Stone]

I was able to get a bit more work done on the sliding doors. Each sliding door needs to be 13.25” wide to cover a 26” wide span. For some reason I though my planer was 13.5”. But is is a 13” panel. So I had no way to plane the mahogany. I thought about it then I ripped a small section of the door and ran the door now 12.5” door and the section I ripped through the planer then carefully glued it back on. Today I unclamped it and used a flexible card scraper to smooth out the joint. Looks perfect to my eye.

Next, I used a guide bar, my trim router, and a V groove bit to cut V grooves in the panel. What you do to one side you should do to the other. So I offset the grooves on the opposite side. The idea is if you relieve tension on one side you should do the same to the other so the tension on the wood remains in balance. Took about 45 min.


Last, I glued a small strip of iroko on the Top rail to make it a little bit wider. Tomorrow I will cut the dadoes