The Seldom Said Word: Belowdecks

[Tim Ford]

I searched the threads and I do not think I see anything on finishing up the interior space on an i550.

OK, so having done an okay job, on the outside, I have been bringing a space heater and utility lamp inside the hull, on some of our rare, warmer days, (e.g., above 30 degrees F) to try to get a grip on the interior finish.

It is ugly.

Aside from running a lot of mud over all the ragged, spiky glass edges and meat hooks, anyone have any bright ideas on how to quickly and/or efficiently clean up the carnage below decks? I thought about going wild with a power sander, but in that enclosed space the dust will be lethal. Maybe hooking up a shop-vac to the prod exit will evacuate enough airborne irritants and, with the help of an organic respirator, I may be able to escape hospitalization. But I am looking for ideas.

A good one would have been: deal with it prior to closing up the boat, but that horse left the barn quite a while ago.

Another question might be: on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being a mess and 10 being a Hinckley) how slick is your interior finish?

[micah202]

.
.....heh,,after a few adventures'down there',,and after realizing there's little to no access when the keel's up anyways,, I actually just mounted a panel across the section,,,if you ever want inside,,,the whole forward of the cockpit opens up with a few screws.

,,,at 6'3'',,,and a dinghy sailor,,I see little reason to go down there---there's better ways to get beaten up!!!!

[jray]

I didn't spend a lot of time making everything just right in the cabin. Knocked off rough edges sealed up and painted. Probably a six on your scale.

[Chad]

Buzz-box sander works pretty well, and fingers and folded bits of sandpaper for the corners. I put a small fan in the companionway to exhaust the dust, wasn't too bad. My interior is about as Jon said, minus the paint which I've just never got around to.

I'm 6'-1", and can just slither past the keel when it's up, and it's easy when it's down. One of the non-racing uses for my boat is sailing out to a swimming dock in a corner of the lake, and I find that occasionally people like to swim in different stuff than they sail in...

[Tim Ford]

Thanks.

Huh. 6 is actually pretty high. Mine is like a 3. Maybe a two. OK, maybe I'll go with earplugs and my little screamer detail sander (mouse) but it will be a misery mission. However, I don't want to end up at some event where you guys look like furniture stores and I look like the flea market. Plus spinns hate the meathooks. I was thinking of deploying my kite out of one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/Pacific-Tents-Mul ... B00009IMAS

hung vertically just inside the companionway. Hey, I'm cheap.

Some white paint will probably help.

IMG_2493.JPG

[jray]

Colorful! I was going to use a mesh laundry bag in the hatch opening for a launch bag, but haven't gone there yet. Seems to work fine right out of the hatchway.

[ryderp]

I just used a hand-held Stanley Surform shaver to take the edges (and the pointy glass) off of the frames and corners. No noise, no toxic dust. Someday I'll do more finishing down there. At this point, I'm really more concerned about not snagging the sails when they are stored in the cabin.

Phil

[BaikalPeter]

Hey, sorry for the offtopic, but I cannot send private messages here.
I need Tim Ford or jray to contact me for the -pic of the week-,
jray, email you gave me is not valid...
my email is 401089@mail.ru

Peter

[jray]

Sent you a email, Tim will have to help with the pm function.

[Chad]

It takes 5 forum posts before the pm function is enabled.

[masc]

hi!
i did the interior finish before gluing the deck on, and i'm shure it was more comfortable than doing it afterwards.i used a 1K white varnish.
...masc.

[jray]

Ok, that's taking it to a hole new level, a 10 for sure. Well done, beautiful!!!!

[Kevin]

Depending on rigging that you have below deck, you will either go there often or never. I always seem to be sitting in the cabin futzing with some rigging to make it better while the boats on the trailer. Yes the companion way is fun with keel up, but I consider it a good measure of captain's weight and diet accordingly. I'd clean up from 53 to 110 enough so you can go below and move around. It shouldn't take more than ½ hour and the little ends of glass sand off easily, so high powered equipment is overkill, but may be faster. A towel is a great way to wipe a section and see if it snags. Much better then your bare hand unless you want to leave DNA evidence all over your boat interior.

Because of ample internal rigging, I have a launch bag for my spin that velcro's into the companionway when sailing. It was the best father/daughter sewing project I've ever done and works great. Not snags in or out, protects spin from rigging and other crap below. I made mine out of vinyl mesh cloth with folded dacron tape on the exposed edges/lid.

I go below deck while sailing rarely. Biggest reason is to stow/fetch the motor for easy in and out of harbor that's not sail in friendly (can you say sand bar). I also have an anchor if needed and to conform to class rules. If I'm pulling that out, the the you know what has already hit the fan hard.

Cheers, Kevin.

[i550sailor@aol.com]

I got my cabin top installed, filleted and taped, 1 cote of primer on everything, I elected to do a solid sheet across instead of separate bunks, as small as the area is, I think it will be more user friendly. I am building the short cabin wide cockpit version, the space between the entry into the cabin and the mast compression post is small, I think I will use Kevins method, as to using it, to measure my weight, but it is quite small, I built everything so I can bolt my compression post in place, (later in the build). It would be nice to see some good photos as to how other people are handling their spinnaker control lines below deck, also how people are handling exit holes for lines thru the deck. Also does anyone have photos of how they are storing their motors while underway, (lashing down or using a modified motor mount?). Thanks

[Tim Ford]

envy ^

[BaikalPeter]

I only suggest to "i550sailor" to install hatches, one per every separate chamber, as moisture will inevitably condensate inside...( NO zero humidity air exists) A small 4 inches hatch will do the work of venting....

[i550sailor@aol.com]

Thanks Peter, I already bought all the ports months ago, I plan to install them at the end of the build, thinking it easier and cleaner to cut out later..How is your boat coming?

[Tim Ford]

With regard to the inspection ports, install first before laying down Kiwi-Grip (big slap to the forehead, here)