1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Final Install of the V-Berth Forward Bunk Cabinet

I was reading an article recently about how major depression is on the rise among young people in America. There are all sorts of theories as to why that’s happening–the internet and toxic social media, the politicization of everything, the formerly slack economy, massive college debt accrued studying subjects that have little to no value in the economy, etc. Those factors (and many more) may contribute to the situation, but it seems to me that a more fundamental factor is that humans aren’t made for a free and easy life. Strife and complex challenges make life worth living. Take away strife and big challenges, which isn’t all that difficult in the modern era, and the simple, worry-free life turns into a vacuum sucking out your soul. And what fills that void is almost never a good thing. When I see articles talking about how the solution is to provide mental health counseling and other support at work, and school, for example, I wonder why they think more of what caused the condition in the first place (i.e. make life easy) can fix it. I think that’s a recipe for making it worse.

They don’t need counseling…they need a challenging hobby. And where else to find a challenging hobby than in the Purgatory Rows in every boatyard across the fruited plains? That’s how this Roamer refit began, and I assure you that in spite of the paperwork SNAFU, the ongoing tent improvement project (Model XXXv4 is the best so far!), the bastard thieves clearing me out, and Nor’easter storm damage setting the project back, I couldn’t tell you what depression is because I’ve never experienced it. I can tell you all about frustration, but that’s not a debilitating mental illness.

Since I started this project ten years ago, I’ve learned to do cabinetmaking, TIG welding on stainless and aluminum, and there’s always a challenge waiting for me when I arrive at the boatyard. So if you know any millennials who are griping about how life sucks while walking down paved streets staring at their ‘smart phones’ and sipping their $5 double-mocha vente coffees, tell them where they can find purpose: go to the boatyard and commit to bringing an unloved boat back to life…and stick to it!

Speaking of which, I wrapped up the cabinetry in the V-berth. A year ago, I was working on the bed foundation and surrounding cabinetry in the V-berth. I decided to build a little cubby cabinet at the forward end of the bed surround, and I made it so it could be dismantled for access to the forward stem, AC ducting, and wiring that’s behind the cabinetry. I recently finished the installation of the AC ducting, so once I get the wiring done and cubby cabinet reinstalled, this is a wrap.

The starboard panel comes out first

Then push the insulation back

Today’s parts and materials

I’ll put in a 120v plug here as well as a combination 12vdc/USB charging port.

Slide the panel back in while feeding the wires into the proper holes

I’m using leak-resistant electrical boxes, which are better at stopping cold (or hot) outside air from leaking into air conditioned spaces

12vdc/USB port is installed

And that’s pretty much a wrap

Installing the outlet and face plate won’t take but five minutes, and I plan to do lots of them in one go. That’s a wrap for the V-berth cubby cabinet!

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Back Into the Aft Stateroom

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing the Final V-Berth Mahogany Panels

The V-berth paneling is just about done. I have to say, it turned out pretty darned nice.

Marking off the plywood panels for the ‘shelf’ around the V-berth

Measure the angle from the shelf to the curvy walls

I could rely on the bevel and epoxy to hold up the back edge of the shelf panel where it will meet the curved side wall. But I decided to make angled cleats just to make the joint more robust.

Cleat angles look about right

They’ll get glued and screwed on here

Mark the cleat locations

Then cut the Buffalo Batt insulation for the under-side

Insulation is epoxied in place…they’re ready to install!

Cleats are glued and screwed in place

Next, I wetted out all of the joints with epoxy and started installing panels.

Epoxy thickened with wood flour makes strong glue

Base panels are installed

Next, I saturated the base panel top surfaces and the under-side of the pretty ribbon stripe mahogany 1/4″ plywood with epoxy. Then I mixed up some wood flour-thickened epoxy, brushed on a thin coat, and installed the mahogany panels one by one.

Pressing the mahogany panel in place

I wonder sometimes how professionals would deal with this sort of situation. My solution is to put shrink wrap tape on solid blocks of wood, and use that to press the veneer panel to the base. Epoxy doesn’t stick well to the tape, so if I miss some epoxy when I’m wiping the panel with alcohol after I put it in place, the solid block of wood pops free very easily the next day. Then I use scraps of 1/8″ and 1/4″ plywood as springs between the overhead deck framing and the solid blocks that press the mahogany panel onto the base.

Next day, the blocks and springs come off…

On to the next panel…

One more to go

Looks good!

AC vent opening turned out nicely

A straight router cut trims the opening

I used Sikaflex 291LOT for sealant and stainless screws installed from underneath to attach the MSI transition box to the opening in the plywood.

Last panel gets pressed in place

Next day, off come the spring panels and blocks

Not bad joinery for a weekend woodworker!

Done!

I’ll eventually put a fiddle molding on the edge of the shelf, but the big panel work is finally done in the V-berth.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Final Install of the V-Berth Forward Bunk Cabinet

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Still Inside the Starboard Salon Cabinetry

I’m getting close to wrapping up the ‘behind the scenes’ cabinetry in the salon. By which, I mean the installation of the plywood panels that are insulated on the back-side with Buffalo Batt non-woven fabric. The port side is already done, as is most of the starboard side. There are just two more panels I need to install in this area, and I wrapped up the framing for one of those, then cut the panel and insulated it in my last article. Once that’s done, I can move on to completing the aft stateroom bilge vents and surrounding cabinetry, at which point the topsides will be almost weatherproof.

The next panel needs to fit against the new mahogany cleats AND that engine room blower outlet

But first, the blower outlet needs some work

The barrier coat Chris Craft used here didn’t hold up long, probably because it appears none of the aluminum was sanded or otherwise prepped for paint.

The white powder is aluminum oxide, and there’s lots of it

The top and bottom screws securing the base plate to the welded-in outlet came out just fine. The left and right screws…not so much.

My Harbor Freight Dremel-style tool helped with screw removal and surface prep

More aluminum oxide under the screw head

Second screw comes out the same way

Once the screws were out, I continued cleaning up the mating surface and interior of the vent outlet until all of the aluminum oxide was gone and exposed aluminum was sanded bright.

Customized acid shop brush will help apply the epoxy inside the outlet

The hooked brush will allow me to paint the interior of the exhaust duct.

White-tinted epoxy coats the duct outlet inside and out

Next, I cut the hole in the panel for the ER blower

I messed up on the order of operations here. I should have cut the hole and done the final fitting of the panel before I insulated the backside. That Buffalo Batt insulation makes panel cutting much more difficult than it needs to be. Major rookie move…

Ready to test fit

Looks good

Next, I removed the panel, epoxied the edges, wetted out the mahogany backing cleats, and applied Sikkaflex 291 LOT sealant to the vent duct mating surface. In the interim, I’d also finished installing the last starboard salon duct, which you can see to the right of the pic below.

Glued, screwed, and clamped in place

I only have one more insulated ceiling panel to cut and fit inside this cabinet, and this part is a wrap. Making the pretty mahogany cabinet interior can come later and will be relatively easy, since I won’t have to spend so much time cramped up inside the cabinet.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Wrapping Up the ‘Behind the Scenes’ Starboard Salon Cabinetry

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Back Into the Starboard Salon Cabinetry

With Tent Model XXX transformed back to pre-2018 Nor’easter condition, I got back into the salon cabinets…like, literally. There were a couple of parallel projects happening back when I installed the last bilge duct in the salon, one of which was fitting the panels that form the insulated envelope between the boat interior and the hull. This isn’t very sexy work, but the results of having a fully insulated interior will be a happy missus…and that’s priceless.

Back inside the salon cabinet!

The view inside before the duct was installed

I installed a mahogany cleat on the floor to give a wall panel something to seat up against.

Ready to glue and screw in place

Next, I had to make a cleat to run up the left side of the panel. It’s complicated by some funky angles going on in here.

The cleat will attach to the vertical aluminum frame that the engine room vent panel butts up against

The cleat cut to length

Next I need to cut a rabbet of decreasing depth.

Gotta love the EZ-One Track Saw for this kind of stuff

Drilled and ready to install

Glued, screwed, and clamped in place

Before epoxying the cleats in place, I cut the wall panel

 

Then I cut a piece of Buffalo Batt insulation for the back-side

Saturate the back of the panel with epoxy, then apply the insulation

Press the insulation in place and go home

Next day, cut the cabinet interior overhead panels

Lay out and cut the second panel

Test fit…looks good!

Cut and fit the insulation

Wet out the panels and lay on the insulation on the backside of one

Keep applying epoxy to the face of the other panel until it doesn’t take anymore

Lay heavy stuff on the insulation and go home.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Still Inside the Starboard Salon Cabinetry

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: The Starboard Salon Aft Bilge Vent Duct

Repairs from the big Nor’easter damage are just about done. I’ll be writing about that soon, but while the repairs are happening I’ve been continuing the work to weatherproof the boat.

There are six bilge vent ducts that exit at the mahogany toe rail, and two more on the transom. Chris Craft used a combination of pressboard and solid mahogany boards to make the ducts in the salon and at the transom, but pressboard was a horrible choice for a place that’s directly exposed to weather and spray. Of course, Chris Craft wasn’t building the boats to last forever, and pressboard is cheap and easy to work with. It was probably a decade or more before the ducts started deteriorating, by which time the warranty had long-since run out. The problem for fans of old boats is that once the ducts deteriorate, the leaking water takes out the cabinetry and floors in the area. I’ve used a couple of approaches on the ducts, but the one I think is best has been to use the original design, but with fiberglassed and epoxy sealed 1/4″ marine plywood instead of pressboard. It takes a lot longer to make each duct, but I won’t have to worry about them falling apart in ten years. The last thing I want is to have to do ANY of this work again. 😉

I’ve been spending a lot of time inside this cabinet

Inside and aft is where the bilge vent duct goes

The round pipe is the bilge blower outlet. The starboard salon rear duct was completely rotted out, so I’ll have to make the whole thing.

1/4″ marine ply and solid mahogany duct boards

That ought to work

Looks good

Test fit the plywood panels

Chris Craft ran the ducts just down to the salon floor, and they didn’t seal the edges of the plywood floor there. So when rain, spray, or water from washing the boat went down the ducts, it would seep into the edge of the plywood. The wood was slightly soft in spots but otherwise in pretty good shape, so I saturated the area with epoxy until it wouldn’t soak up anymore. I’m also running the ducts all the way to the bottom of the floor frames, so water will drop straight into the bilge. I’m hopeful this will fully resolve all of the problems with Chris Craft’s approach.

The top edge needs trimming to match the angle of the deck

EZ-One track saw makes it easy to cut panels at odd angles

Test fit looks good

Screw holes got drilled and countersunk

Marked off and ready for epoxy

Cutting the fiberglass for the duct cover panel

Wetted out with epoxy, then topped with epoxy glue thickened with wood flour

Screwed together and clamped square

The duct cover panel is behind the duct, wetted out with epoxy and topped with a fiberglass layer. Once the epoxy cures, I’ll put a layer of fiberglass inside the duct and it will be ready for assembly.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: The Starboard Salon Aft Bilge Vent Duct II

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Cutting and Fitting More Starboard Salon Plywood Panels

Repairs from the big Nor’easter are proceeding apace, with several hiccups being tossed in the mix by the surveyor and insurance company, which hasn’t paid the claim yet. There’s a narrow weather window for painting the boat between freezing early spring and roasting hot late spring/summer, so I’ve had to self-fund the repairs to get them done during that window. Fortunately, we’ve had a longer stretch of relatively cool weather than usual, with plenty of days where the temps don’t go above 70°F, and the repairs are going well. All this effort just to get back to where I was before the big storm came…it’s discouraging. Anyway, I’ll post pix of the repairs before long.

While all of that’s been going on, I’ve been continuing the work of sealing up the starboard cabinetry in the salon.

Inside the starboard salon cabinetry

I’m trying to make sure there’s an insulated envelope inside the boat so it will be more comfortable and energy efficient in summer and winter. I’m doing that by insulating the backside of each plywood panel that faces the hull and making sure that none of the hull or decks are exposed to the air-conditioned interior space. So I need to install ceiling panels here under the side deck, just like I did on the port side. On the inboard side, the original cabinetry offers a good landing spot for a ceiling panel, but there’s nothing on the outboard side. I already installed one short panel above the ER main air vent, which you can see in the pic above, that will serve as the wall to which the ceiling panel attaches. Next I cut another short, upright panel from a bulkhead scrap panel I saved when we were doing demolition a decade ago when the refit began.

Old-school marine plywood

It’s a dirty old panel, but the wood is in great shape.

Marine-grade Douglas fir was a lot different 50 years ago than it is today

Glued and pocket screwed in place

I’ll coat it with tinted epoxy when the job is done.

Mahogany cleat recycled from the original toe rail

Back-side of the ceiling panel gets wetted out with epoxy

Buffalo Batt insulation adds R3 insulation value to the panel

Mahogany cleat is glued and screwed in place

Et voila! Good fit!

The next step here will involve removing the ceiling panel and sealing the face with epoxy before finally installing it. I have more ceiling panels to make in here, but I first need to make a new aft bilge vent duct and wall panel to attach them to.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: The Starboard Salon Aft Bilge Vent Duct

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing the Starboard Engine Room Main Vent Panel

The good news is, repairs have begun on the damage to my Awlgrip paint job from the big Nor’easter a few months back. The bad news is, the insurance company’s surveyor has gone nuts and thinks the job can be done for less than half of what the estimate came to. The estimator blew up when I told him the surveyor thinks it can be done for 40% of the estimated labor hours. I pointed out to the surveyor that the estimate was consistent with my records for the amount of labor it took to prep and paint before. I wrote back to contest the surveyor’s position but haven’t heard back from him or the insurance company yet. Until this gets sorted out, I won’t be blogging as regularly as usual. There are only so many hours in a day. This is so frustrating! I hate this freakin’ boat!

[takes deep breath]

That said, I installed the starboard engine room main vent panel after extending the lower edge on it and fiberglassing the side that faces the weather. This panel is one of many things I have to install before the boat will be weatherproof and can come out of the tent.

Exterior ‘gill’ vents let a lot of cold air in during winter

Vent covers will keep out the cold

I recycled the original 3/4″ marine plywood galley bulkhead panel to make the vent covers. We removed the bulkhead during the demolition phase when we first started the project, and the bits I saved have come in very handy over the years. All I have to do is epoxy seal the edges, and the vent cover panel will be ready to keep out winter for decades to come.

Sikaflex 291 LOT seals the ER vent panel attachment points

Sliding the panel in place

More Sikaflex seals the joint to the salon cabinet floor

Done!

The upper panel will be removable (or maybe hinged) so the vent covers can be installed/removed as necessary.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Refurbing the Original Electric Panel

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing the Starboard Salon Bilge Vent Duct

I’m happy with the way the starboard salon bilge vent duct is turning out. A fiberglass duct is a far better approach than the pressboard and painted mahogany that Chris Craft used. It only took another weekend to wrap that up. But I’d rather spend time now to do it right than to have to fix water damage in the future.

The panels are dry-fitted

Next, I need mahogany cleats for the insulated ceiling panel to butt up against.

The ceiling cleats will be perpendicular to the cabinet wall

Fitting upright panels over the engine room main vent

The ceiling panel

Not a bad fit

Good and tight

Disassemble everything, then seal the faces with epoxy

Next day, cleats get glued and screwed in place

I wet out the surfaces then apply a bead of epoxy thickened with wood flour as the glue.

Insulated wall panel is installed

I’m using Sikaflex 291 LOT to seal the duct face panel.

Lots of sealant all the way up to the vent hole

The face panel comes up from the engine room

The panel is too long to be slid in from the salon. But there’s plenty of room coming up from the ER.

Lookin’ good!

Fully sealed and waterproof vent duct

Upright panels over the main ER vent are installed and ready for more ceiling cleats

That’s one more bilge duct that’s wrapped up. There’s one more in the salon, and four in the aft stateroom. I’ve just got to keep knocking them out one-by-one.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing the Starboard Engine Room Main Vent panel

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: The Starboard Salon Bilge Vent Duct

I keep hearing from the mobile paint and fiberglass repair guy that the estimate for repairs for the big Nor’easter damage is almost done. But…alas…I’ve still not received it. So I continue working on weatherproofing the bilge and engine room vents on the starboard side of the salon.

Chris Craft’s approach to bilge vents

What we have here is two 3/4″ solid mahogany boards on either side, with 1/8″ fiberboard for the face and back. I don’t know where this one came from, but I removed it a decade ago  because it was failing when we began this project. For some reason, Chris Craft put a piece of 3/4″ plywood over the top of part of the fiberboard on this particular bilge vent. It’s all sealed up with what looks like grey primer and held together with rubbery sealant and some bronze staples. I’m sure it worked fine for ten years or so, but it’s got its problems.

Fiberboard really stuck in some spots

When I pulled the fiberboard off the mahogany, you can tell the rubbery sealant really stuck on the spots where it left some fiberboard behind. But you can also see where the rubbery sealant didn’t stick to the mahogany at all.

Bronze staples are still holding fast 50 years later

The side of the fiberboard that faced the weather

Again, you can see where the sealant really stuck, and where it didn’t stick at all.

Now let’s look at that starboard salon forward bilge vent

I left the forward vent duct in place because it looked like it was in serviceable shape. Turns out it wasn’t in quite as good shape as I first thought.

Moldy white paint on the outside

But up at the top, just behind the longitudinal deck frame, you can see daylight through the pressboard

I’m glad I took off the face panel

Lots of gaps at the top

So, in addition to the hole in the salon-facing pressboard face panel, you can see that the back panel isn’t even touching the mahogany side board. The gray primer/sealant is also gone from the mahogany in spots. And at the toe rail, the rubber sealant is only there for appearance’s sake, apparently. There’s no actual contact between the rubber sealant and the pressboard.

I considered removing the duct and rebuilding it, but the mahogany sides are very firmly attached to the underside of the deck. So I decided to fiberglass what’s there instead.

First, rough up the surface and remove anything that isn’t well adhered

I also confirmed that I can use sticks up against the hull to press the back panel into full contact with the mahogany sides.

Ready for epoxy and fiberglass

Wetted out glass cloth and epoxy thickened with cabosil

I spread a bunch of epoxy out on a piece of scrap shrink wrap plastic, then laid on a sheet of lightweight fiberglass cloth to soak it up. While the ‘glass was still soaking, I wetted out the duct with epoxy

Epoxy thickened with fumed silica to the consistency of whipped cream

Thickened epoxy fills every gap and corner

Longtime readers will know what came next, after I jammed sticks in to force the back panel into contact with the side panels.

Fillets!

I do love my fillets. They look nice and also give a radius to the corners, which makes it easier for the fiberglass cloth to have full contact, and water won’t find any nooks or crannies to hang out in and cause havoc.

Next, I laid on the fiberglass cloth

Next day, the epoxy is cured

The duct needs a face panel

I’m using 1/4″ Douglas fir marine plywood for all of the duct face panels I’m making. I cover them with a layer of fiberglass on the weather-facing side to ensure they’re watertight.

I need to install an insulated panel to the left of the duct, too

Framing out the backing cleats

Next day, the epoxy on the panels is cured

Excess fiberglass trimmed off nicely

Duct panel marked off for screw holes

Countersunk screw holes every 6″

The insulated panel needed a bit of trimming to fit

 

Just about ready for installation

Dry fit is done

These panels are behind the electric panel, so I’m not terribly concerned about appearance.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing the Starboard Salon Bilge Vent Duct

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: The Starboard Engine Room Vent Panel

To get the boat waterproof, I need to do some work on the ducts between the mahogany toe rail and the engine room. I did that on the port side of the salon already. I started on the starboard side by cleaning out the space and then waterproofing the main ER vent panel.

The starboard main ER vent

Chris Craft used pressboard panels to enclose the main air intake vents to the engine room. Not surprisingly, water comes in through the gill vents on the outside of the hull, and water does bad things to pressboard. I decided to use 1/4″ marine-grade Douglas fir plywood instead of pressboard, and put a heavy coat of epoxy on it before screwing the panels in place. As with the port side, I want to extend the lower edge of the panel further down than Chris Craft did so it goes fully below the salon subfloor and framing. If any water gets in, it’ll run all the way down below the salon floor and drop into the bilge.

The OE flexible hose for the ER vent fan is a bit…worn

The vent fan itself still works fine, but the housing has some broken tabs

Inside the cabinet, looking forward

Inside the cabinet, looking aft

The ER vent panels are out

Ready for fiberglass

The small 3/4″ thick plywood panel in the pic above will be used in winter to block off the exterior gill vent and keep cold air out.

Wetted out with epoxy and covered with lightweight fiberglass cloth

Trimming off the excess fiberglass

If you look closely at the face of the plywood, you can see cracks in the veneer. Those cracks had telegraphed through the heavy coat of epoxy I put on a few years ago. This time around, I used US Composite’s 635 epoxy, which is less viscous than the 150 series stuff I used the first time. It wicks in much better, and no cracks telegraphed through the fiberglass layer.

New extension panels installed and topped with fiberglass

Next day, the excess fiberglass got trimmed

Upper panel gets a layer of fiberglass

I’ll leave the ER vent panels to cure for a while and get busy on the other bilge vents on the starboard side.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: The Starboard Salon Bilge Vent Duct