Interior
We needed a comfortable and warm boat that met our liveaboard cruising needs. That meant:
- Comfortable and reasonably sized bunks and wardrobe
- Inclined backrest with a right seating height
- Spacious galley with good storage lockers
- Chart table and wet locker
- Heads
- A spare bunk
- Warm space with sea views
Although most of the time it would be just the two of us, we also wanted to be able to invite the occasional guests to join us and spend time with us in reasonable comfort.
To meet our needs much of the boat interior needed to be rebuilt. With the exception of the main bulkheads, the two bunks, and the spiral staircase, which came with the boat, everything else was built new.
The process:
- Remove most of the existing interior, apart from bulkheads etc
- Sand – Epoxy x 2 – Sand
- Undercoat x 2 – Sand – Paint x 2
- Build cupboards, wardrobes, insulation structural support
- Insulate and finish off with plywood / tongue and groove / carpet / cork
Forepeak
- Install plywood hanging knees to reinforced deck – port & starboard of the mast
- Reinforced windlass support under deck
- Reinforced frame support on 2nd frame – forward of mast
- Forward frames epoxy filled and drain holes drilled to stop water collection
- Built covers and draining system with inspection hatch – to prevent water log and rot
- Built mast step support, fibreglass hull and build up base with drain hole
- Drilled mast hole in the deck
- Built 2 bulkheads for chain lockers & chain chute
- Built shelves and workbench
- Watertight barn door
- Exhaust outlet for Wallas heater
- Install foot pump to drain anchor chain well
Heads
- Removed existing cabinets
- Built barn-door to forepeak
- Built composting toilet
- Built sink and draws, sliding doors
- Block bilges draining holes & stringers on bulkhead holes (making it watertight)
- Installed Wallas hot air oil heater
- Drilled through the hull a sink drain hole (above waterline)
- Drilled shower tray holes in the floor
Cabins
- Blocked two doors that served a corridor on a port side to create a master cabin
- Lowered bunk level on both bunks
- Built shelves and lockers on a port side
- Added diesel tanks supports for 2 tanks (oil cooker and heater)
- Wardrobe shelves and doors
- Sand-undercoat-paint- insulation
Galley
- Remove existing galley
- Blocked the door
- Built kitchen lockers, shelves and cupboard above
- Through the hull sink drain
- Installed Dickinson Bristol diesel cooker – with foot pump and day tank
- Installed wood burning stove
- Water base for water jerry cans
- Heating outlet for Wallas hot air heater
- Diesel day tank and foot pump for Dickinson stove
Saloon
The biggest and most complex, time consuming carpentry work
- Removed existing saloon
- Added two windows aft and two on each side, 2 in ceiling / cockpit
- Added two vents – located inside cockpit locker
- Frames around side windows
- Added insulation structure for finishing panels/ ceiling & deck ceiling
- Made finishing panels/ ceiling
- Insulated from stringers upwards
- Insulated deck head
- Made a shelf and lockers behind saloon seating
- Made seating lockers & lids
- Made structure & floor board for floor level around the table/engine
- Made engine box with removable panels
- Made table with two folding leaves, covered with Marmoleum
- Drilled 2 holes for piping and cables to the cockpit
- Cladded deck head
- Rounded / bevelled all deck beams
- Build / made 2 side lockers & doors
- Made curved backrest
- Made shelf behind curved backrest
- Flooring – sepilea 4 mm x 75mm strips, glued with flooring glue
- Saloon upholstery – made by Jake
- Made oil box under the engine
- Built engine beds
Insulation
Cabin, decks & hull (down to the stringers) was insulated. It was like building another hull inside the outer one. Patterns between the frames and the deck beams had to be taken for insulation cutting. Framing around the insulation for the finished layer plus the pattern for those had to be made. The insulation was covered with either tang & groove, thin plywood or cork / carpet.
Different types of insulating material were used for the entire cabin and the topsides down to the bilge stringers level.
- Cabin deck: 2.5 cm polystyrene
- Side deck: 2.5 cm polystyrene x 2 layers. Size of the deck beams allowed for this depth of insulation.
- Cabin sides: aluminium bubble wrap x 3 layers
- Hull sides: self adhesive aluminium faced foam 12mm x 2 layers
What & How
- Insulation was done by making paper patterns against the hull
- For cabin and deck head insulation a 1” wood strips had to be made and glued to create a framework for outer panelling & T&G
- For the hull, insulation was spray glued to the hull and covered with a carpet (spray glue)
Finish:
- Cabin – tongue and groove for cabin side and deck head
- Saloon – panel facing on a side of the hull, tongue and groove for deck head
- Lockers (except saloon): carpet
- Locker Saloon: cork