Renewed Floor Steering Cabin

June 2017

                                                          Floor Steering Cabin

The floor of the steering cabin looked from the beginning not up to my expectations as well as that some of the wood was damaged and a part was rotten in the corner of the deck drain.
I had some teak left over from the installation of the teak deck as well as some Birch for placing between the teak planks.
As can be seen from the next picture the repairs to the boat also did not add positive to the condition of the floor.

First step was to remove the wood placed on top of the ply wood which was the original floor of the steering cabin.

This wood small pieces was glued onto the ply wood and while removing it some of the plywood was damaged as well while some other parts cam off very easy.

The wood was removed hatch per hatch, at the same time inspecting the conditions of the hatches, good news was that the plywood and the rest of the construction of the hatches were in a good condition, most likely due to the position in the boat, above the engine room, warm and dry.

Eventually the whole floor looked like a plywood floor, interesting concept for a floor in a boat.
When all the wood was removed and the wood on the site of the hatches it was noticed that there were screw holes in the hatches which gives me the impression that the original floor has been one with rubber mats and brass rims around the hatches.

One of the reasons that the wood was removed on the site of the hatches was that the hatches did not line up which I did not like and wanted to improve. As can be seen from the next picture with the  removed wooden strips on the site of the hatches rather large gaps were created,                               

New Hardwood strip were glued onto the hatches and the hatches were modified as much as possible to get better lines in the floor of the hatched when installed. As can be seen from the next picture some of the hatches were not cut straight resulting that they needed to be modified. Left hatch with the new rims on the side while the right hatch did still have the old rim.

Next picture as well shows the difference in the hatches between length and width where they should have been exactly the same.
Right hand bottom corner with the new strip on the side of the hatch.

The first step in the finishing of the hatches with new teak was to install on all hatches the wooden piece on the side of the hatches while aiming that all lines would match up, more or less t\hatches of the same seize having the same outside diameter.

The following step was to cut the teak on the right length as well as the birch pieces between the teak. all was installed dry to find a way that at the end all lines would match up in the floor, except of the small hatch in front of the doors of the aft cabin, since this would make the teak on this small hatch look strange due to a few very small pieces of teak.

The plywood hatch was covered in epoxy glue which was colored close to the color of the teak, this to make sure that if the glue was coming out between the planks that it would not stick out as white epoxy glue. The teak planks and birch strips were placed in the exact same as dry fitted and laid next to the epoxy covered hatch to make sure that they would be fitted in the same position as dry fitted.

The hatch was covered with 100% epoxy with a toothed cam to make sure that the teak planks could be pushed into the glue as well as that with a toothed cam an equal layer of glue is applied

First two hatches finished and as can be seen some colored glue has been added on top to close any gaps if they are between the teak and the birch strips. This is not an issue since the hatches needed to be sanded to end up with a flush floor, Teak planks were made with the help of a circular saw and were not all exactly the same thickness. Although not easy to notice from the below picture the new hard wood trim pieces on the side of the hatches were kept higher than the actual thickness of the glue and the teak planks, this to come to a smooth hatch in the end.

Some of the planks needed to get cut in the length to be able to fit as closing plank on a hatch.
To make sure that the closing plank would have a tight fit the other planks were put in position with small pegs to push them hard against each other and the rims of the hatch.

Then the plank which needed to be cut in the length was marked with a sharp pencil where it needed to be cut, as can be seen two strokes of birch were placed to make sure that the correct with of the plank would remain after the cutting of the plank.

Slowly and diligent continuing the installation of the teak planks the floor started to show the way I wanted to have it as an end product, this type of work requires quite some time and one should not expect that this type of work is completed in a day or two.

 Eventually the whole floor was completed and sanded flush not only each hatch but also between the hatches themselves . As can be seen although not 100% perfect the lines between the hatches do line up much better than before I started with this upgrade.

After the sanding and cleaning the hatches were not varnished but covered in several layers with oil , in my case I used Owatrol Deks D-1, not D-2 since this will make the deck slippery when wet
As can be seen a the teak directly does get its color after applying a single layer.

After the floor was in one layer of oil the hatches were finished with installing the rings for lifting them, also here time was taken to place them in such a way that the hatch could be lifted at one side in the middle while ate the other side they would line up.

In the end the deck in the steering cabin looked as one would expect from an old wooden classic boat, 

The one thing left was to place sound insulation at the inside of the hatches , I placed not only sound insulation but also sound absorption.

Propeller shaft hull penetration

                                                       Propeller Shaft  

Although a long time ago removed it was time to install again the propeller shafts and fix it to the engine coupling.

At the position where the propeller shaft enters the boat gave me the impression that there were issues with this part due to extra screws added into the wood. Also no gasket could be found between the shaft support and the hull.

The old bolt and nuts were removed and it was clear to me that there must have been water ingress into the boat, they were completely corroded.

These were still the original bronze bolts and nuts.

Everything was removed and the area completely cleaned from any debris, condition of the wood was checked.

As one can see from the next picture there is wasted wood and the condition could be better. Since the boat is this long ashore and has dried out completely, gaps between the planks, I decided not to change the wood in this area, due to the fact that I might end up with an issue when the boat is put in the water. For example if the new wood is wider than the removed wood the gap between the planks might not close.

The plan is now that after one or two years in the water the wood in this area of both propeller shaft penetrations will be replaced.

The penetration through the hull was protected with several layers of anti-fouling paint from inside out as well as from the outside.

The holes not needed anymore for fixing the hull penetration were closed with plugs.

The actual bronze propeller shaft hull penetrations were fully cleaned and sanded to remove any dirt or high spots.

Thin rubber sheeting was placed over the bronze piece and with a round hammer the contour of the bronze was taken over onto the rubber. One has to make sure that the rubber does not move during this process also the holes although not seen on the pictures are marked as well.

Next step was to prepare the new bolts and nuts.

It was decided to use stainless steel bolts and nuts and make them flush with the hull.

Actually threaded rods were made on the correct seize and the nuts were on one side fixed with thread lock, to prevent them from moving.

A small recess round was made in the hull at the positions where the nut would be positioned.

The threaded with nut rod was fitted with washer and small O-ring, to prevent as much as possible water ingress in the hole for the threaded part.

Before installing the fixing bolt it was protected with Sikaflex also to fill the hole where the bolt passes through with protective material.

The bolt was inserted by rotating the bolt by the nut to make sure that all the wood inside would be covered with Sikaflex.

It was made sure that all extra Sikaflex was removed from around the nut and the hole where the nut would fit in.

When the nut was pushed the last few mm at the same time two component epoxy filler was added around the nut and over the nut making it almost flush with the hull.

The nut and thread are now completely sealed from the water, while at the same time the nut is fixed in place giving me the opportunity when the boat is in the water and the wood expands to tighten the nuts on the inside when required.

Nuts are now only slightly tightened.

On the inside two extra holes were drilled in the bronze hull shaft penetration on the aft side to make sure that the whole unit would be flat on the surface and still be tight in place.

This way I do not require to tighten the bolts and nuts to much until the wood is expanded when the boat is placed in the water.

On the inside the stuffing box did get new packing as well as that when the shaft was connected to the engine that the rubbers of the couplings were replaced.

As described with the rudder stock the packing was cut with an angle to get a good connection between the ends so preventing that water would go through and one needs to tighten the stuffing box too much.

Installation of Deck Hardware

                                    

                                             

                                       Installation of Deck hardware

In my case the first part was to go through old pictures with measurements to where to install the     re-chromed hard ware.

Pictures are from different installed pieces of hardware.

The measurements were placed on the deck and it was rechecked if the items were in the correct position from center line and forward or aft.

Next it was checked if the holes for the mounting would end up in the supports installed under decks.

Although this is somewhat time consuming it was good that I did do this otherwise one of the holes would have ended up very close to the edge of the wooden support under decks.

The holes in the deck were drilled first small pilot drill to recheck the correct position, followed by the largest drill for housing/fitting the bottom part of the deck bolder, than the last drill slightly larger than the thread size of the mounting threaded rod.

The  deck bolder was fitted to check for a flush mounting, I needed to take some small pieces of wood away to get a flush mounting, the deck, the bolder is made from cast bronze and those are not 100% smooth at the bottom side.

The holes were cleaned and protected with epoxy to prevent water ingress in the future.

The bolder was than placed in position and carefully tape was placed onto the deck around the foot of the bolder.

Tape was also placed onto the bolder itself to prevent that caulking would get all over chrome parts.

Seal and Glue caulking was added to the bottom of the bolder as well as into the holes in the deck, I used far more caulking than would be required but I rather waste some caulking than having the chance that a tiny hole in the caulking will create future issues, like water ingress.

The nuts were tightened to fix the bolder into place and as can be seen from the pictures a lot of caulking is pressed out between the deck bolder and the deck.

The excessive amount of caulking was removed directly; do not let the caulking become dry out.

Then the tape was removed pulling it away from the deck bolder, this way preventing that caulking would end up onto the chrome or onto the deck.

As can be seen from the next picture one has then a clean deck with minimum caulking between the chrome parts and the deck.

Following picture is from the installed bolder seen from the aft side.

Bow before with Painted chrome parts.

Bow after installation of re-chromed parts.