Great Ideas in Action

Hmmmm.....I can only offer apologies for not including everyone sooner. I ran across this great idea to build a medicine cabinet for the head in "The Finely Fitted Yacht". It's really quiet simple and didn't require many tools which naturally appealed to me. I don't have a lot of tools so I'm always looking for the easy, quick projects that fit my restrictions. Anyway, we only have a small upper cabinet and a somewhat larger bottom cabinet on Sea Wind. The forward facing bulkhead was asking for a bit of decoration so I thought, why not? I could have fun in the shoppe and increase stowage on board. (R didn't seem too enthusiastic about the idea, I think he really thought I was going to ask him to cut a piece of wood!) After I laid out my plan to get the support from Captain Ron (AKA "R") I was off. Built from mahogany it would be in keeping with all the other wood below, so I was on good ground.  

In his book, Ferenc Mate outlines a medicine cabinet that is slightly deeper than what I built, only by .25 inches......we sailors always improvise to suit our particular needs. I did not put a solid back but instead let in two pieces of wood about 1.5 inches wide across the back. The bright white of the bulkhead will increase the illumination of the interior light through the stained glass front....oh I haven't mentioned that yet...it's still under development upstairs.

Anyway, I spaced the shelf support holes about two inches apart. This allows Capt. Ron plenty of latitude to adjust the shelves to suit his "what nots" so all will be happy.

We measured for a good fit by sitting on the head and determining the amount of space we would have left for the cabinet, we also had to take into account the side to side dimensions as we have mast wiring to run in an artistic fashion, this will take up some space. The overall dimensions are 16 inches tall by about 12 inches wide.

I am on finish coat number 6, the mahogany is filling in beautifully and the cabinet is starting to take on that reflective, glowing quality that we like so much. In a finishing situation like this, where I am putting finish up against a 90 degree surface I always use the foam brushes sold by West Marine, they have angled sides and allow for getting into corners without messing up the finish on the upright side.

Tomorrow I will be ripping teak for the cap rails, getting ready to make the scarfs. Feeling excited because this is the first time I have done this, I have the shoppe set up as best I can, I'll get Capt. Ron out there to shoot a few photos so we can make the mistakes together!

Toe Rail Removal

     We are beginning the process of replacing Sea Wind's toe rails.  Currently, due to previous damage,  she has mix of teak and aluminum.  As you can view in the above photo, we opted to use a hammer and chisel to remove what is left of the original, the nuts on the underside of the SS bolts were buried in 40 years of yuck and difficult to get at. 

     We are going to replace to original specs (As much as we can determine).  The teak is in the shoppe and waiting for us to make a decision on what type of scarf joint we will make. This decision has become rather lengthy as we have gone from a traditional 12 to 1 through the thickness of the teak to a more decorative 12 to 1 joint that is somewhat self locking. 

     We were able to purchase nominal 1 inch thick by 7 inches wide stock; to make the best use of the teak we plan to rip it into the desired width and then to the desired thickness. It appears that the original cap rail was about .5  to .75 thick, hard to be exact due to the numerous cleaning the teak had over its 42 year life thus eroding its thickness.

     We installed a thin kerf blade on the table saw and will move forward with that blade to avoid unnecessary waste of this valuable wood.  We will document our trails and tribulations as we move out on the task.

1966

We are restoring a 1966 Allied Seawind built by Allied Boat Company, Catskill New York. Here, Stuart (her original owner) and SeaWind are making way with the help of the mule. Join us as we tell her story and those of her crew.