1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Aft Stateroom Porthole Surround Panels II

I got to the boatyard just after the crack of dawn and was listening to the radio when I heard news about “not my president” protests that were happening on President’s Day. My first thought was, these people need to get a hobby or something. I can’t imagine having nothing better to do than maintain a tantrum over having lost an election months ago. But then, I don’t belong to a political party, and I have the distinction of having never voted for anyone who ultimately won. I’m used to losing elections, so I take it in stride. Plus, I’ve got plenty of far better things to do. 🙂

While I wait for my painter’s schedule to match up with mine again, I’m cutting more 1/4″ African mahogany plywood panels that surround each of the porthole openings in the aft stateroom. Without those in place I can’t install the portholes, so getting the panels cut is mission-critical for taking the boat out of the tent. This time around, I cut the panels for the laundry and storage lockers, and the closet.

First, clear out the laundry and storage lockers and the closet

I really look forward to finishing up the walls in the laundry room, so I can finally get the washer and dryer out of the way permanently. Those things are heavy!

Starboard porthole surround panel

I split this 4′ x 8′ sheet of 1/4″ African mahogany plywood last week and fitted one half in the aft stateroom head. I used my EZ One track saw table to break this one down further still, since there are walls separating the laundry locker from storage and another one separating storage from the closet. I wrote about installing the aft stateroom walls a while back. Everything has been covered in ugly cardboard since then, so a couple of reminders of what they look like are may be in order.

1/4″ panel cut and fitted in the laundry locker

Nice fit…sloppy spray foam insulation overspray

I wasn’t careful enough taping off this area when I sprayed foam insulation, so I got some foam on the bulkhead separating the  salon from the laundry closet. It’s not a big deal, since the stacked washer/dryer will be in this space. I’ll clean up the foam later, before I wrap up this space.

Nice fit to the aft wall, too

This wall panel isn’t visible from the aft stateroom, so I used okume plywood instead of African mahogany.

Mark it from the outside, then cut out the porthole opening

Good fit

 

Screw holes are all countersunk

This panel is ready for ICA clear coat.

 

Next, rough cut the closet panel

This one’s tricky because the closet-to-storage wall lands right on top of a porthole. There was no other way to pull this off. The missus wanted a closet and a place to store laundry supplies. Who am I to ask why she needs both? And on other Chris Crafts I’ve owned, it was common for them to have walls split portholes like this.

Mark the opening from the outside, then cut

Nice fit

Screw holes drilled and countersunk

The storage locker is last

I ended up spending quite a bit of time cutting the spray foam insulation back so I can install these panels and also the ceiling panels that I’ll install eventually. The foam is 2~3″ thick in some places, but 1″ in most spots.

Nice fit

The joint between panels isn’t the prettiest, though it will look much better when the panels are clear coated. Either way, the porthole flange will cover most of the joint.

Screw holes drilled and countersunk

So, that’s three more panels that are ready for the painter. The stack of plywood needing clear coat is growing. Which means the stack of plywood that’s been taking up space in the salon is shrinking. This is a very, very good thing, since the plywood stack is a visible proxy for a progress meter. I’m really looking forward to the meter reaching zero.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Aft Stateroom Porthole Surround Panels III