Between household glamour jobs on Saturday I applied what I hoped would be the mythical "final" coat of varnish to the saloon table and did a quick test cutout for the Ta Chiao ports.
The varnish on the table came out almost perfect; I had finally found a room in the house that was free enough from dog hair that it dried without any unsightly embedded hairs. Unfortunately, there was one small holiday (spot that didn't get enough varnish), despite my care. While most people wouldn't notice it, I know my eyes will go straight to it every time I see the table, soooo......... I'll add some better lighting for applying the next "final" coat to hopefully avoid future "holidays."
Because all the bronze ports I bought have radiused fillets where the glass surround meets the mounting flange, I wanted to do a little experimenting with the best way to accommodate that before actually cutting into the cabin sides. I could either make the cutout a bit larger or round-off a closer-fitting cutout. The former would leave more of a gap between the port and the cabin side, which might actually be a plus for applying the caulking. The later would probably look better if I can cut smooth curves, since I won't be using trim rings to hide sloppy work. I did a quick test of the former approach using my new jig saw. While the approach does allow the flange to contact the mounting surface easily, it was clear that cutting a really smooth and perfect curve by hand is impossible with even the best jig saw. Next experiment: a circle cutter.
Ninety percent of my time on the boat Sunday was devoted to getting the doghouse skylight re-installed. While it doesn't sound like much of a job, it was tough because I had 36 through bolts to deal with, almost entirely solo. I estimate I had to climb up and down off the doghouse 50 to 70 times. And that doghouse is a good 3 ft higher than the cabin top and has no steps or ladder. Last weekend I had filled the existing bolt holes with epoxy thickened with cabosil because I didn't think that the all the holes could possible line up perfectly with the rebuilt skylight. So my first step was to grind off the excess so that the mounting flange would be flush. Next I applied the butyl tape to the inner and outer mounting flanges on the doghouse.
After setting the skylight in place, I started working my way around the mounting flange from the center of each side in turn to the corners. I quickly discovered that each of the original stainless steel machine screws I was re-using had been cut off to be flush with the nuts on the underside of the doghouse roof. That resulted in each of them being a slightly different length. That resulted in some being a bit short in the place I was using them. Soooo....I had to grind off some washers that had been epoxied to the underside of the doghouse roof and get a few more longer machine screws. Of course I also broke a drill bit somehow, so had to get a replacement. SNAFUs aside, the routine was to drill a new hole one at a time, apply a bit of Lifecaulk around the top of the machine screw, screw it into the hole, climb down and screw on the nut from below. When I was lucky, I could snug up the nut; when I wasn't, the screw spun. The climbing up and down routine was repeated at least once for each of the 36 machine screws. I finally had to ask someone else to interrupt their work on their own boat to help me out by tightening the nuts from below while I held the screws in place from above. With the skylight finally secured, I just needed to trim the butyl tape and clean up the excess Lifecaulk, resulting in a pretty neat installation.
After setting the skylight in place, I started working my way around the mounting flange from the center of each side in turn to the corners. I quickly discovered that each of the original stainless steel machine screws I was re-using had been cut off to be flush with the nuts on the underside of the doghouse roof. That resulted in each of them being a slightly different length. That resulted in some being a bit short in the place I was using them. Soooo....I had to grind off some washers that had been epoxied to the underside of the doghouse roof and get a few more longer machine screws. Of course I also broke a drill bit somehow, so had to get a replacement. SNAFUs aside, the routine was to drill a new hole one at a time, apply a bit of Lifecaulk around the top of the machine screw, screw it into the hole, climb down and screw on the nut from below. When I was lucky, I could snug up the nut; when I wasn't, the screw spun. The climbing up and down routine was repeated at least once for each of the 36 machine screws. I finally had to ask someone else to interrupt their work on their own boat to help me out by tightening the nuts from below while I held the screws in place from above. With the skylight finally secured, I just needed to trim the butyl tape and clean up the excess Lifecaulk, resulting in a pretty neat installation.I removed the two hatch covers to bring them home and rework them, cleaned up the worst of the mess, put the tools below, hobbled to the truck and drove wearily home.
Well done Mr. G. I think you should be reminded that you got a lot done last week as well as Sunday, so don't think you didn't accomplish much. You're moving along at a good clip considering the man hours needed for all this, and the patience so 1) you don't mess up 2) you let things cure and dry, and lifting a glass of wine is a necessity so don't neglect it.
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