Escape Hatch Bow

                                   Escape Hatch forward bedroom

August 2016

 

The original escape hatch was mounted on plywood which was screwed on top of the deck.

Since I had some thick mahogany left I decided to make the wooden support for the actual escape hatch from mahogany instead of marine plywood.

One of the reason was that I did not have to paint the marine plywood in a wood color on the outside as well as that the mahogany is in my opinion better resistant against the weather than marine plywood.

The first step was to get the exact dimensions of the too be made wooden ring from the actual escape hatch.

 I used an old trick to get a perfect circle, small plank nailed to the center of the ring and a nail on the outside of the small plank for scratching the circle into the wood.

 

 

 

This was done twice, than the scratch was followed with a pencil to get a good visible line.

 

 

 

The next step was time consuming with an electric jig saw to cut circles and ending up with a round wooden circle, support for the escape hatch.

 

 

 

The actual escape hatch ring was placed on the wood to check for roundness and to predrill the holes for mounting.

What I noticed is that the holes are not all on the same position from each other resulting that the escape hatch ring can only be placed in one position onto the wooden ring.

 

 

After the hatch ring holes were drilled the holes for mounting the wooden ring onto the deck were drilled and it was made sure that these screws would not stick above the wood.

 

 

The whole wooden ring was than sanded and protected with two component epoxy varnish.

 

 

It was made sure that the holes were filled with epoxy varnish as well to protect them from water ingress.

 

 

The ring was then left alone for almost a year to make sure that the wood would not crack or would show hair line cracks.

 

The next step was to mount the wooden ring onto the deck; this is a slow process since a measuring the center of the escape hatch takes time.

If it is not measured correctly the hatch will not be in the middle of the underdecks support wood and in the middle of the deck beam which needs to be cut.

Although from outside it will not be visible that the hatch is not exactly in the middle from inside it will be very clear.

When the middle of the escape hatch was decided a pilot holes was drilled and in the inside the position was confirmed.

Then with a jig saw the round holes was cut out of the deck, very slowly to make sure that in the end we do have a round hole.

 

 

It was then checked if the hole was under the right angle but when one holds the jig saw straight onto the deck than this should be no issue, all was straight in my case.

 

 

 

This cut out hole for the hatch gives at the same time the opportunity to check if the installation of the teak deck was done correctly and as it shows on below picture all was as expected.

 

 

 

The ring was fitted again on deck this time positioned and screwed temporarily onto the deck.

The cut holes in the deck was checked and sanded to get a smooth surface and some high points in the cut as a result if sawing the hole were sanded as well.

 

 

 It was then looked in how to cover the inside of the round circle of the deck opening, original this one was painted white.

My idea was to place veneer onto the complete inside opening covering the new wooden ring on top of the deck and the actual opening in the deck.

After several attempts which did not look good it was decided to paint the opening in the deck white and this was done with several layers two component epoxy paint.

The wooden support ring onto the deck was kept the same.

 

 

The next step was time consuming which was placing protective tape onto the deck inside deck and around the wooden ring to protect them from caulking when the ring was mounted onto the deck.

For this purpose the ring was screwed again onto the deck.

 

 

To make sure that there will be no water ingress between the wooden support ring mounted onto the deck and the deck a small rim of the wooden ring was left unprotected to be able the have the ring where it meets the deck been glued with caulking.

 

 

The wooden ring and deck where then degreased and the ring was screed with caulking onto the deck.

 

 

After all was set and inspected that for 100% the caulking was coming out between the wooden ring and the deck inside and outside the extra caulking was removed as well as all protective tape.

 

 

The caulking was left a week to dry and the escape hatch was temporarily closed with some Plexiglas.

 

 

In the meantime the actual escape hatch was mounted together from all loose parts which were re-chromed.

A new Plexiglas window was fitted.

To protect the inside form excessive sunlight as well as from preventing that people will look inside a mirror foil was added to the Plexiglas before it was fitted in the escape hatch frame.

One can look from inside to outside but not from outside to inside as long as there are no lights on inside.

 

 

The escape hatch frame was degreased and mounted with caulking onto the wooden rim; follow the same procedure as described before.

 

 

 

What I noticed is which was not possible when I bought the boat is that the actual movable part of the escape hatch can rotate 360 ° this way it is always possible to catch the wind for cooling down on a warm day the forward sleeping cabin.

 

 

 

Last picture of this part of the project shows the installed hatch with some other installed hardware onto the deck including the railings.

 

 

 

Propeller Shaft Bearing

                                             
                                                   Propeller shaft Bearing

As expected the Propeller shaft bearing outside was deteriorated and needed replacement .
Since the bearing is tight in the bearing housing which is bolted against the hull it is not sensible to try to hammer the bearing out of the housing, In the first place when on add force to the bronze part of the bearing by hitting the metal it will expand and the actual bearing will get tighter in the housing. The other way is to remove the complete housing from the boat and then press the bearing with a hydraulic jack out of the housing, but then there is a chance that the bearing housing will not end up in line with the engine which will create another additional job.

 

 

To prevent both above options I decided to cut a groove in the bearing until the bearing housing. This was done with a Dremel tool and a small router suitable for metal, this is a slow process and one should make time to make the cut. I first tried it with a saw blade but this is not easy plus the fact is that it is very difficult to keep the saw blade straight in line with the bearing..

 

 

The following two pictures show the end result of the cut in the actual bearing.

 

When the cut is made it is easy to knock the bearing out of the housing with a hammer and a piece of wood, this since the tension is gone from the bearing which holds it in place in the housing.

 

 The bearing housing is cleaned and checked for damages. Then the new bearing needs to be inserted and as mentioned in the beginning it is not a good idea to try to hammer with force the new bearing into the housing, For example if it is not lined up properly it will result that the new bearing will get stuck in the housing which will result most likely in removing it and having to buy a new one.

In my opinion the best method is to slowly pull the new bearing into the bearing housing. This was done with a threaded rod and some plates covering the bearing at one side and the bearing housing at the other.

The bearing was lubricated with some oil and by turning the nut on the threaded rod the bearing slided relatively easy into the bearing housing without getting stuck. It is important with this method that the threaded rod is exactly in the middle to get an even force onto the bearing when it is pulled into the housing. As well as that the rubber of the bearing will not get damaged by the threaded rod.

 

As can be seen from the next picture the bearing housing is fitted with a new bearing which will last for several years. This was done for both propeller shafts.

 The removal and installation of the actual propeller shafts will be another chapter of this blog.
  Propeller shafts are planned to be installed this summer 2016 .

Kitchen Painting.

                                                            Kitchen painting

As with all other areas which required painting or repairs it was also decided for the kitchen area to take it apart and remove as much as possible the wood which can be removed for proper sanding and painting as well as inspecting the condition of the wood.

After the paraffin cooker was removed the base of  for the cooker was removed, one can see that this is not an original  design for the position of the cooker, it looks to me that the original cooker has been removed and replaced by a Taylor cooker.
When the 6 screw in the  wood were removed it was still  impossible to remove the plank

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   After                                                                                                                                                                 

The reason that the plank could not be removed was that there was another screw holding the plank in place which was located in the forward wall where the drawers are placed in.

 

With the removed plank it was now possible to get behind the cold storage area and clean it out , as can be seen lots of different things ended up over the years behind this cold storage from a ceramic serving dish to snickers and tea,

 

 

With stainless steel plates removed one can clearly see that in the past a cover must have been in place to close the cooking area, most likely the Taylor cooker is higher than the original delivered cooker. Light line on below drawing shows that a wooden support strip has been in place in the past.

 

 

The bottom plate where the cooker is positioned on has been sanded to bear wood and has been protected with epoxy varnish 3 layers to give it a stronger protection than with normal varnish would be accomplished.

 

 

Bottom plate has been installed again as well as the stainless steel side plates to protect the wood from heat during cooking.

 

 

The next area to be sanded and varnished is the cabinet next to the sink and cooking area, in my case this area is set up with and area for safe storage of plates cups etc.

 

 

The shelf's were taken out and apart and all separate sanded and varnished, when one does this it is important that pictures are taken because with all parts of the two shelf's as loose items it is a challenge to get them correctly back together.

 

 

The bottom shelf was not mahogany nor it had mahogany venire it was just a plank of plywood.

 

 

To make it look a bit better it was varnished with a varnish with a so called Mahogany varnish which as we all know comes out to red , so I mixed some oak varnish with the mahogany varnish to give it a bit more realistic color. This bottom plank is screwed in the bottom onto the ships structure all the way forward, difficult to reach and in the middle and aft side.

 

The hull behind the shelf was sanded cleaned and treated with linseed oil .

The planks near the window frame were also removed and sanded and varnished next picture shows the bottom shelf and all other planks installed of the cabinet .

 

 

Next step was to install the shelf's for the cups and plates, this units although looks like one when in place can only be removed and installed in two pieces which need to be disconnected from each other for removing.   First section installed which di not work out correctly and needed to be removed again

First section to be installed is the below section in the picture

 

Second section to be installed is the below section which holds the cups.

 

 

The whole unit is fixed to the ships structure with different strategic installed screws which normally are closed with wooden plugs, those were installed after the pictures were taken.

 

The whole unit in place and ready to store the plates and cups etc.

 

Sliding doors were in a good condition only required a good cleaning.

The Steel shelf was coated again with a new layer of plastic with self adhesive.

The next two pictures showing the finished product.

As can be seen from the below picture the complete kitchen block was sanded all planks doors which could be removed were removed to be able to proper sand and varnish the wood, hinges were removed and cleaned from earlier applied varnish.

 

 

Kitchen block completed

 

Taylor cooker was overhauled and works as it should be again.

One of the reasons that I keep cooking on a paraffin cooker is that I think Taylor makes a good cooker as well as I think that it is safer on a boat to cook with paraffin tan with gas especially a boat as the Storebro where it will be difficult to create an area for safe storage of gas with an outlet overboard.

 

 

The wall next to the sink was clean sanded and varnished again the differences in color of the wood are gone now as well as the discoloring due to earlier leakages.

 

 

As can be seen from below pictures although everything looks good I was missing a cover for the cooker.

 

From some scrap Mahogany planks I made a cover to protect the cooker and create some more working space in the kitchen area as can be seen from the below picture the kitchen is finished now.