A couple weeks ago, I ordered a stack of mahogany plywood that I’ll use to finish the aft deck. I have the stack of mahogany ply in the salon that I’ve been using to build out the interior, but that stack is only for the interior. And, truth be told, I didn’t order enough. So, I got on the horn to Harbor Sales, ordered a stack of 1/8″, 1/4″ and 1/2″ ribbon stripe mahogany. I gave very explicit instructions so the driver would deliver the panels to the tent, and everybody agreed the delivery would likely happen in the afternoon. While I was driving to the marina, a call came in. But I don’t talk on the phone and drive.
When I arrived at the marina, I called the number back and–what do you know? It’s the delivery driver for Harbor Sales! He’d already come and gone at least three hours early! We had a two minute conversation, during which I tried to talk him into coming back. Eventually, he let me know that he’d unloaded the panels in the yard and leaned them up against a a building. I thanked him and strolled around the yard.
Delivered to the wrong side of the right marina
I spent 20 minutes schleppping plywood across the marina while light clouds overhead threatened to drizzle.
Relocated to the tent
Next, I had to break the panels down so I could get them into the tent.
That’s a good sign
Lloyd’s BS1088 is boil-proof, steam-proof marine-grade mahogany plywood, with all plies made of mahogany. It’s the highest quality cabinet plywood you can buy today, as far as I’m concerned. And it was a heck of a deal at Harbor Sales. If you’re in the DelMarVa area and plan to use lots of plywood, it’s well worth setting up an account there.
Unfortunately, every time I set up the sawhorses and got ready to make a cut, the drizzly rain started to fall.
The drizzle finally broke enough to get cutting
Gotta love that EurekaZone track saw. Perfectly straight cuts at any angle…on sawhorses in a boatyard between drizzle/mist events.
Once I got all of the panels broken down, I moved them inside the boat.
The extra panels (for now) got stuffed in the tent at the transom
I started with the port-side aft-most aft deck panel
Let the fine-tuning begin!
Not bad for the first try
That mahogany sure looks better than spray foam insulation!
Getting closer
I’ve got the basic shape done, next I beveled these edges
Need to knock a bit off the top
Again, the track saw permits me to make a perfectly straight cut at a very slight angle.
It ‘clicked’ into place!
Next up, port-side panel 2
Also, check out that 50-yo teak deck that’s been covered with 1/4″ junk plywood for a decade to protect it from the refit!
The panel needs to follow the curve of the teak deck
Nice!
Next up, fit the corner piece
That’s one of the pretty mahogany corner pieces I wrote about in my last post. The plywood panel is still too wide, so the corner piece sticks out too far. Gotta be very careful trimming that back to the final size. I don’t want to go too far!
It took three angled trim cuts before I nailed it
BINGO!
The final fitting will happen by beveling the plywood edges to match the corner piece and aft piece of plywood to get a nice, tight joint.
I learned a new trick!
Imagine you need to bevel a plywood edge at a very particular angle and in a perfectly straight line. I’m not a professional, so I can’t do that kind of stuff by eye and hand. So what I did instead was flip my tracksaw track upside down, with the clamps on the top. I aligned the edges of the plywood with the track, and removed the anti-chip plastic thingies. That gave me a perfect guide for hand-planing.
5-layer mahogany plywood but you can only see four layers in many spots
When you’ve planed a perfect bevel, you should be able to see all five layers at the same bevel, two veneer faces and the three core layers. But in this “before” pic, I’d only gone far enough to see four layers with just a hint of the last one on the bottom.
That’s more like it
It doesn’t show in the picture, but that brown bottom veneer is visible in a nearly perfect straight line from top to bottom. That track is a terrific guide for hand-beveling plywood.
When pressed into place that joint is pretty tight, but it could be better
One more pass with the plane to sharpen the angle and it’s near perfect!
Same thing on port-side panel 3, but it’s even more consistent
There’s nothing but a little piece of tape holding that joint together
A bit more trimming and port panel 3 is about done
That’s looking great!
Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Helm Station Mahogany II
1969chriscraftroamer46 