New Floor step 2

We found the teak and holly plywood at World Panel Products, their office is in Florida but they happen to have a warehouse 2 hours away at Windsor, NC.  I needed three sheets of 4 x 8, that I would cut to pattern for the floor.   The marina here was concerned on me cutting wood and creating a lot of sawdust on the boat, so an alternative needed to be found.   I asked World Panel Products in NC if  they had space where I could cut to my template.   They said yes so off I went with my patterns, having a large flat area to work in sure beat working in the cockpit.

1st cut on the new teak and holly plywood

New Floor step 1

With the water leak "taken care of" it is time to move onto replacing the floor.  The old rotten wood has been replaced with new plywood and the low spots have been filled with leveling compound.  It looked like I would have to make 5 seams to work around the island and the cabinet overhang.  Several people suggested trying to bend the new plywood length wise to get it under the cabinet overhang.  Figured it was worth a shot so bought some 1/4" birch plywood at Lowes to try.

Made a paper template, transferred it the plywood and then cut out the shape.  I had to do some sanding and adjusting but the plywood did go in with it bent length wise, :).  I did not get all the layout perfect so with the plywood now on the floor I can use it to make new and improved templates.  Once I am happy with the templates I can get the 6mm teak and holly plywood, transfer the layout and cut for the finished product. 

1st paper template for the kitchen area.

If at first you don't succeed, try and try again

When we bought the boat  there had been a long term water leak that affected the salon floor and we traced it to the mast support post.  Water does get into the mast at a few of the openings and most of it drains out at the base of the mast.  Some water happens to follow the electrical lines into the inside the salon through the mast support post.  There is a drain at the bottom of the post to allow any water a path to get out of the boat but somewhere the water found a new path.  That path was along the seam lines of the teak and holly plywood floor which resulted in the wood joint becoming soft and rotten.  So cutting the seams out replacing the wood with new wood and fixing the leak was the project.  The covering of the salon floor with new teak and holly plywood is another project that will be talked about later.   

Dry rot in old plywood

Salon Window Visors

On our Manta 38 "What If" we did not have the visors on the boat so we had shades on the outside to keep the sun from heating up the boat.  When we started to look for the new boat we decided that the visors were something we wanted.  So Charm has them but we didn't really want them painted blue, which is how they came.  Since we had to remove the visors to replace the salon windows it is a good time to swap out that blue.  Looking from the inside of the boat the visors were painted black and we wanted to change that as well, since we did not go with tinted windows, and used clear to allow more light in.

Ladder, Generator, Grill

In an effort to clean up unused items and free up space went ahead and listed our Generator, Magma Catalina 2 grill, and our 6 foot ladder on Craigslist.  Sold the ladder in the first couple of days.

The generator only had 70 hours on it, per the hour meter.  It ran but we did not think we wanted to deal with issues and didn't think we needed the power from it.  Would rather go with more solar panels, lithium batteries and possible higher alternator on one engine.  Had a person, Sam, come by and he wanted/needed a small generator so on Saturday we disconnected it, raised is out of the port locker, moved it to the starboard side and lowered onto the dock and onto a cart.  It was only 250 lbs. but the only way to move it was using the jib halyard and then the main halyard.  The electric winch made it nice as well.  Getting out of the cart into his vehicle was another story.

Generator ad photo

Reuse, Renew, Recycle

So some people, even myself, will tell you I am cheap.  Actually Kris and I are both cheap in different ways - that work well together.  We rarely buy new, if used is available. W have saved some items from being thrown away and have repurposed items as well.   Today when I happened to find something floating by the boat I thought lucky me.  I did inquire at the office if someone had lost the gas jug they could have it back but they said "If it is in the water it is yours".  I had already taken two  2x6 pieces of wood out of the water and set them by the garbage in case someone else could use them.  So this time I have saved the 5 gallon gas jug for us, or I could sell it if someone wants to offer me a good deal :).  I know it is only $10 to $15 but we are cheap.