1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Aft Stateroom Transom Panel

I made a bunch of moldings for the V-berth while the salon headliner was being installed, but I want to get a bigger pile of mahogany ready for ICA base coat clear. That stuff stinks, so the fewer times I have to use it the better.

Time to cover up this big, ugly wall of spray foam insulation

Good time to use up half-used tubes of Sikaflex 291

There are two vent chases back here, and Chris Craft never sealed the wooden panels to the hull. All of the panels are edge-sealed with epoxy, so I’m not terribly concerned about rot, but still…keeping water in the chase is better than having it get behind the cabinetry. Sikaflex 291 should seal these seams up just fine.

More vent chase prep

Looking up toward the vent hole

Sikaflex next got applied to the sealing surfaces for the last chase panel

Douglas fir marine plywood chase panel

A while back, I mentioned that I lost a memory card that had all sorts of pictures on it, one series of which was making these chase panels. On the inner face, which you can see above, it’s just plain ol’ Doug fir marine ply. But on the other side, inside the vent chase where water can run down into the bilge, I epoxy-sealed the whole thing and added a layer of light fiberglass just to keep grain cracks under control. These vent chases should be good for the life of the boat.

After installing the Doug fir panels, I epoxy sealed the inner face, too

Next up: finding a pretty mahogany panel in the plywood pile

It’s under there

Looky what we’ve got here!

There’s not that much plywood left. When it’s gone, the project should be pretty much done.

This one ought to do it (this is the B-grade back-side)

EurekaZone EZ-One track saw table is a truly awesome tool

That’s a full 4′ x 8′ sheet of 1/2″ mahogany I’m breaking down in my salon. The saw moves, not the panel, and if you need to do angled cuts…no problem. Just set the track bridge down on your cut marks on either side of the panel, turn on the dust collector and let ‘er rip (or crosscut).