On Schedule !

Week 8

This week starts on the Monday before Christmas, family visiting having kept us away from the boat over the weekend. As you see from what follows, we think we achieved quite a lot this week and this makes the page quite long. Apologies for that.

Arrival at the boat was a little later than planned. We'd started off with good intentions and had eaten breakfast and loaded the car by just after 7.30am. We needed to post a couple of cards and call into our local branch of Wickes - because it is closer than our local branch of B & Q! That delayed us a bit and then, as we loaded our purchases into the car, we discovered that we'd left our clamps behind. That's not a good idea when you plan to saw some plywood using a straight edge clamped to the panel being cut. It only took a few minutes to return home, but that got us stuck behind a lorry - going into a nearby boatyard to move a boat - at least that's what is implied by the name on the back of the lorry. We then got stuck behind the school bus, which didn't seem able to do more than about 40mph.

We got the the boat just after 8.30 and quickly unloaded our tools. As the windows had been open for a couple of days, and the external temperature was a little low, we closed the windows and put on the heater as soon as we'd stacked the panels that we'd varnished just before we left on Friday. We then had some domestic matters to attend to in the area. Consequently, it was nearly 10am before we got back to the boat and were able to start work.

I think we'd just placed one sheet of plywood on the sawhorses when the second fitter's mate arrived. This was somewhat fortunate because we are now talking about working with almost full length panels and a third pair of hands is very useful. The first panel had half a window at one end and half a porthole at the other. It also has two light switch sockets that need to be cut out - that will teach us to plan for each lighting circuit to be switchable at each end of the area that the lights cover. The good thing is that this panel has parallel top and bottom edges, unlike the next one we had to do.

We cut this (first) panel to length and depth and offered it up and marked the extremities of both window aperture at one end, and the top and bottom of the porthole at the other. While two of us concentrated on cutting the window aperture out of the panel, the third member of the team made a paper template of the porthole. This was used to judge the size of the opening that had to be cut. However, to allow some room for the porthole liner, we needed to make the opening about 12mm larger than the largest part of the frame and we did this using a bit of string and a pencil as a rough an ready compass. The end result was pretty good, even if we say so oursleves.

It was tea time by the time the holes for the switches had been cut and the panel screwed to the battens. With tea over, we turned our attention to the last long panel on the starboard side, the one between the portholes. The remaining panel is between the second porthole and the cabin's rear bulkhead and needs to await the installation of the panelling on the rear bulkhead wall..

The long panel seems reasonably straight forward. It has half a porthole at each end and requires cut-outs for two light switches. Unfortunately, this is the easy bit. It is complicated by the fact that the upper edge of the panel needs to follow the alignment of the roof and this gradually slopes upwards. It was not too easy to work out the cutting line with no real datum line to work to. In the end, we created our own pseudo datum line by using one of the eight foot long off-cuts from an earlier sheet and using the chalk line to line up the top edge with the previous panel. We were able to measure upwards from the datum line and mark the measurement on the off-cut and then transfer the measurements to panel. Instead of effectively cutting the bottom edge of the panel using a straight edge and circular saw, we drew a shaped line and cut the top of the board to that using the jigsaw. After that, fixing it to the battens was a relatively easy task.

One thing that we've forgotten to mention is that as we've attempted to fix the various panels, we've found that we've had to trim even more of the foam insulation off the cabin sides. In some cases this is to keep the bottom of the panels in a reasonably straight line but, more usually, it has been where the wires to switches need to be recessed into the excesses of the foam in the top corners of the cabin - we're sure that there's a technical term for this location which is a bit like what we consider to be the eaves of a house roof.

We don't just manage to get one panel fixed up between refreshment breaks, even if it seems like it. What usually happens is that we finish something, like a panel, and decide to stop before we start the next thing. And so it came to pass that, with all the wall panels in place for the time being, we stopped for lunch, rather than start something new and have to stop before it was finished, possibly leaving one of us to stand there holding some plywood in position while the others fed themselves!

We hadn't really got any options for further work after lunch. We only had fully varnished 9mm plywood left and couldn't easily start on the other wall until after we'd fitted the 12mm plywood to the hull once it has been fully varnished. The latest delivery had, at this stage, only had a single coat of varnish on each side. Ceiling here we come.

Thankfully, the panel nearest the door is relatively short. We marked the mid point on each of the two edges that that would go across the boat. We then tried to ascertain the centre line along the roof. probably with the benefit of hindsight we should have measured the width of the cabin at the front and back of the boat and used the chalk line again. Instead, what we did was to judge the centre line by eye based on the position of a mushroom vent and the centre line of the front doors. The edge, not the centre, of a roof batten ran along our imaginary line. We lined up the mark on the inside edge of the panel with the relevant edge of the batten. We then used a framing square to line up the rest of the same edge square with the face of the lining on the starboard cabin wall. We knew that the roof battens weren't all parallel so we weren't completely surprised when we noticed the side edges of the panel didn't align with some of the battens. Our framing square said we were square, so we must have been.

We'd built a couple of props, as suggested in Graham Booth's book, and used these to prop up the panel. The props were cut so that they were a reasonably tight fit and they did a good job of holding the panel in place. We drilled and screwed the panel into position. The balance of the plywood sheet was long enough to use for the next panel. We knew that the edges would line up and so would the grain. We measured up and cut the next panel. Before we could fit it we had to remove one of the fluorescent lights as it was slightly foul of the panel's final position.

We marked the centre of each of the edges that would go across the boat and offered it up, supported by the props. Something was wrong. The outside edges were lining up less with the length ways battens on the roof. If we carried on at this rate, we'd need to cut a slot in the side of the cabin wall to let the panel edge stick out!

We had a few options. We could try to straighten up the second panel, leaving a gap between the first two. Or we could take them both down and start again by re-positioning the first one. We opted for the latter option on the basis that we'd probably live to regret not getting it right to start with. One of the reasons for our decision was that the panels would need to come down, one at a time, to have the holes for the lights and vents cut in them. If they were a snug fit then putting them back in the right place would be easier.

We removed the second panel and undid all the screws in the first panel except one. This screw was the one nearest to the point at which we didn't want the panel to move as it lined up the centre of the panel and what we thought was the centre of the roof. Because we thought that the first panel was square according to the framing square, we hadn't originally lined up the centre of the other edge of the panel with what we thought was the centre line of the roof there. This time we did. We then re-drilled all the holes in the battens on the edge away from the single holding screw, as these were all new holes and wouldn't make the panel move when the screws tried to go into their old holes. With that edge secure, we re-fastened the other edge.

With the first panel now (properly) square, we offered up the second panel. The alignment was much better and, in no time at all, we had that fastened. The third panel was cut from a new sheet of plywood. Again, with no current provision for lights or vents, there were no fiddly cuts and so it was soon up and fastened. By now, as you've probably guessed, it was tea time again! While the tea making brigade were despatched to do the necessary, the other two team members cleared up the sawdust and put all the tools away, taking them to the car en route to the tea.

With tea over we started work on varnishing. However, we had to re-fit the light because it was now dark outside and the front of the boat was suffering from the loss of light. We had to rub down the face side of the plywood. Although there were three of us, it was taking the fitter longer to rub down and wipe off than it was for the mates to varnish. This meant a bit of hanging about for them and lengthened the whole process. As a result it was nearly 6.30pm before we'd finished and locked the boat.

We drove home via one of the Screwfix Trade Counters, hoping to be able to see samples of mains switches and sockets and to pick up some lights and screws. They only had five lights - we wanted twenty - and the switches and sockets aren't readily on display. The lights weren't a problem as we didn't really need them just yet, we just wanted to look at them. At least the balance will qualify us for free postage on our next order! Fortunately, there was a display of some sockets and we decided that we liked one of them. Unfortunately, we couldn't order the switches and sockets because the fitter realised that he'd left the plan on the boat as we got into the car and he couldn't be bothered to go back and get it so that we could work out the quantity. Again, we don't need them just yet, so this oversight shouldn't cause any delays.

With our few lights, the screws that we wanted and a 10% off voucher for our next in-store order over £25, we drove home.

We missed out on Tuesday due to other commitments. However, the fitter in chief journeyed forth early on Wednesday morning having first spent 15 minutes scraping the ice off his car. Fog was evident for most of the journey and, as it turned out, most of the day and the temperature hovered just below freezing as well. The first job, having unloaded the car was to stack Monday's varnished panels on the floor, remembering to stand up the already varnished last three 9mm sheets beforehand. The gas heater could be lit with the first few panels stacked and out of the immediate line of fire from the heater. It was necessary to be away for the boat for a while and, upon return and expecting a nice warm boat, the heater's gas bottle was found to have run out. A quick change of gas bottle later and the heater was re-lit. The remainder of Monday's panels were then stacked out of the way.

The next task was to write out a shopping list for Screwfix, ordering the 230 volt switches and sockets that we might get round to fitting just after Christmas. The plan was to order all these things later that day, together with some plumbing fittings, once we got home. In true On Schedule ! tradition, we ordered the electrical bits but not the plumbing items - because we couldn't find what we thought we needed in the catalogue.

The shopping list was almost complete when the fitter's mate arrived. As indicated above, we had just three sheets of plywood that had had their tally of coats of varnish. These were destined for the ceiling. We weren't going to cut holes, just cut them to length and fit them. That shouldn't take too long and, in view of the fog, an early departure, before it got dark again, would be appreciated. We might even be away around lunch time. There's no prizes for guessing that it didn't quite work out that way!

We put the first sheet on the sawhorses, measured the length to be cut and marked the board. We checked that we'd got the measurements correct and cut the panel. So far so good. The panel was only one metre long and quite light to lift up. We supported it with the props and aligned it to the neighbouring panel. It was then that things started to go wrong! This latest panel was almost falling off the roof batten on one side of the boat. How could this be?

For the next however long we tried all sorts of things to assess where we'd gone wrong. We measured the distance from the edge of those panels that were already fitted to the sides of the boat. There was more variations than Elgar wrote! We also tried to measure the distance from the edge of the battens to the sides of the boat. Even more variations were discovered. We were beginning to feel that we were fighting a losing battle. We'd made sure that each panel butted up tightly to its neighbour. On reflection, we realised that we couldn't guarantee that each panel was exactly square. The cuts that we'd made only needed to be a fraction of a millimetre out and the adjacent panel would start to drift off the centre line. We were also using what looked like a straight edge as a guide for the sawing and our cut marks assumed that the sheet ends were square. Obviously, we'd gone adrift slightly, somewhere. We had to have something reliable to measure against. What we needed was a datum line.

If anyone reading this decides that they're going to fit out their own boat then, if you take no notice of anything that has gone before, please take notice of what now follows.

We got two pieces of 12mm square wood and clamped them together so that they'd span the width of the boat. We used them to check the width of the cabin at various positions and found that the cabin sides were parallel - we already knew they were straight, just by looking at the outside. We now measured the overall length of our gauge and marked the centre. We clamped a further short piece of wood at right angles to the gauge, on this centre line. When we held the gauge against the ceiling the end of the short piece of wood indicated the centre line of the roof. Why did it take us so many days and so much mucking about to arrive at such a simple solution?

We used the gauge to mark the roof centre at strategic locations and then used our string line to plaster blue chalk dust all over the place but, specifically, on the roof, using these marks. It should be remembered that, at this time, we still had four panels fitted to the cabin roof, so the chalk was on them as well. We could now reliably line up the centre of the panels with the centre of the roof by marking the centre of the plywood roofing panels. Magic, or was it?

Having gained some experience in the fitting of plywood panels, we'd got used to simply butting up the panels to their soon to be neighbouring panel and then securing the new panel in position. It had worked so far and we only had relatively minor gaps between panels. Now, however, we were starting to find that the inter panel gaps were getting slightly larger. We put this down to the fact that the panels were being forced to follow the curve of the roof and this was causing them to distort slightly. It seemed a good reason (and the only one we could think of). We overlooked the fact that we might have been cutting the panels slightly out of square because we'd been pretty careful in measuring and checking those measurements and we were using a straight edge as a guide.

We repositioned the two most recently fastened panels and were pleased to find that the outside edges were in a straight line when checked by eye. We could also fasten the latest panel to the roof, assured that it was in line. Because the first two panels weren't seriously out of line we decided to leave them on their previous alignment.

After that it was relatively plain sailing, The space only needed to be measured and that measurement transferred to the panel before it was cut. We then marked the centre line and, with the aid of the props and some demonstrations of Herculean strength from the taller fitter's mate, the next few panels were soon suspended from the battens on the cabin roof. For the time being we've left the panels whole, keen to get them cut to size to start with, before we cut holes in them and then found that the panels were either the wrong size or out of alignment and, thus, the holes were in the wrong place.

We only had one sheet of 9mm plywood left from the original batch. From this we needed to cut the largest panel that we'd yet to handle. Measuring / cutting followed the usual procedure and we even managed to get the panel up to the roof and supported by the props without too much trouble. What we weren't prepared for was the fact that the panel sagged in the middle. Obviously the weight and length were too much.

We've tried to avoid using securing fittings anywhere where they would ultimately show. There didn't seem to be much option here as we didn't fancy leaving the prop in situ evermore. So we inserted a single screw in the middle of the panel. Fortunately, this particular panel will span parts of both the galley and the bathroom with the middle somewhere in the vicinity of the partition between the two spaces. Once we've finalised the position of the partition we may well remove the panel and cut it into two to make it easier to handle and disguise the joint with the partition and associated trim.

With nothing else to do, save for having the inevitable cup of tea - which we did - we returned to the tins of varnish, applying the second coat to the reverse side of the latest batch of plywood. With no need to make good by rubbing down, we'd completed the task by five and had the car loaded and boat locked up soon after. The journey home was reasonably uneventful, although somewhat slower than usual because of the fog. Part of a new bypass had recently opened and we could now avoid the centre of Leighton Buzzard when travelling between boat and home.

We were back at the boat on Thursday afternoon. The taller fitter's mate has now left us for the holiday period but the vertically challenged mate was available. With all the varnishing now complete we could crack on with the port side of the boat. We carefully stacked the plywood, making sure that we had the sheets in the right order - five 12mm on top for the hull sides, then the six 9mm sheets for the cabin side. Finally, on the bottom, the two spare 12mm sheets that we planned to use either for the ends or the partitions, if we got that far!

We knew from fitting the starboard side that the first panel had to be cut to length and depth. So we cut the first sheet to the correct depth, measured the length, checked the measurement and then cut the panel, remembering to leave the 12mm gap between panel edge and front cabin wall to support the lining on the front wall. We offered the panel up and, shock horror, it didn't properly align with the batten. It was only a little way out at the top, but far enough that it couldn't be secured. Once the colour of the air inside the boat had lost the resultant blue hue, we looked a little more closely and discovered that the batten wasn't perpendicular. Blast, and other choice phrases. We'd wasted yet another panel - more varnishing! We temporarily discarded the panel and started again.

This time we screwed a piece of wood to the side of the batten so that we had something to fix the top edge of the panel to. We'd measured the original panel just above the floor which gave us a much shorter measurement than if we'd have measured it from just below the gunwale. This type of problem can only arise where the panels need to be cut to length because full length panels can be trimmed to the right depth and then offered up to make sure that the battens are vertical enough to be used.

The panel fitted without any problems. Three of the remaining four hull side panels are full length and only need trimming to the correct depth - if you can call cutting a twelve inch wide strip off an 8x4 sheet, trimming! Before we'd finally marked the second attempt at the first panel, we'd checked all the remaining battens to make sure that they were properly positioned. They weren't as accurately spaced as on the other side of the boat, but they were all just about usable without having to adjust the lengths of the plywood panels.

We took the next panel and cut it to size and offered it up. It fitted after a fashion!. You will recall that we'd been leaving a 12mm air gap beneath the hull side panels. We'd done this all the way along the starboard side without any problems and had done likewise for the first panel on the port side. When we went to fasten the second panel there was an unaccountable gap between the edges of the two panels, just above the floor. A quick look along the top edge of both panels and it was plain to see that the front panel sloped upwards towards the front.

Hands up all those who reckoned that we'd cut the sheet incorrectly. You're wrong (at least we think you are, because we never actually checked once the panel was up)! We'd checked before we cut the panel, as we'd been doing with (almost) every panel, so we didn't bother to check again but, thinking about it, we might do that next time we're at the boat. Out came the trusty chalk line and, using the top edge of the second panel as our datum, we found that the front edge of the first panel was about 20mm too high compared with the rear end. We put that down to the floor being uneven. We unscrewed the first panel and let the front bottom corner rest on the floor. That closed the gap between the two panels enough to be acceptable. We now secured the second panel and re-secured the first one.

We picked up the third panel and put it on the sawhorses, still somewhat puzzled about the problems with the first one. We also took our framing square and checked various edges and battens for square. We also checked the square for square. We discovered that the ends of the plywood panels weren't square with the long sides. One end was slightly less adrift than the other. This obviously accounted for some of our problems. Armed with this information, we were a little less concerned about any alignment problems that we were experiencing.

Panel three was soon cut and fitted, as was panel four. The joins weren't spot on, but we now knew why. It wasn't worth trying to trim a strip that varied between nought and 3mm wide from the plywood panel using just a circular saw. Besides which, the batten might not be straight and any cutting might make matters worse, although it equally stood the chance of making them better. We'd learnt another lesson - not to assume that plywood panels are supplied square!

As may be recalled by those who read about our panelling of the starboard side, the fifth panel was trimmed to 6ft long as the hull side starts to curve inwards towards the stern of the boat to accommodate the counter. Fortunately, our discarded first panel was long enough to be trimmed still further to make the fifth panel. The previous screw holes weren't re-usable, but they were all hidden so new ones were acceptable.

It was nearly six o'clock and we'd taken almost four hours to stack a few sheets of plywood and cut and fit five panels to the side of the boat. All five required trimming to depth and two of them needed to be cut to length. One also needed to have a hole cut into it for an electrical socket. There may be some merit in the suggestions that we change the name of the boat to Behind Schedule.

We still had a while before we needed to pack up so we started on the cabin side. We recovered an offcut from our earlier attempts with the starboard side and cut this to length. By now we knew how we intended to finish the windows so we were able to be more precise with our cutting. The first panel was soon cut and fixed into position. The second panel - ignoring the filler pieces above and below the first window - would end in the area of the side hatch, opposite the dinette. We talked over possible options of how to tackle this and decided to cut the second panel so that its rear edge aligned with the mid point of the hatch. We had no offcuts of the right length so we'd need to start a fresh sheet. However, a quick look at the time revealed that we needed to brush up, pack up and get changed as we were going for a meal in the nearby pub.

Somewhat appropriately, we had second thoughts about the second panel as we lie in bed the following morning. There is no battening around the hatch itself, which would leave the join between second and third panels unsupported. We came up with an alternative plan to avoid this. We'd cut the second panel to the same length as the equivalent panel on the other side of the boat. We'd then cut a further panel that would cover the hatch and be supported along the back edge by a batten that matched the one adjacent to the back of the (larger) window on the other side of the boat. We'd then cut an opening in this panel that matched the hatchway, avoiding any unsupported joins. We'll add some supports when we fit the trim around hatch.

Saturday was two days before Christmas and started foggy. However, the weather improved during the day and the temperature remained above freezing. We made our way to the boat around mid-morning intending to check that we'd cut the first port-side hull panel correctly - we had - and to do a few other tidying up jobs before we continued with lining the rest of the port cabin side.

In the last week or so the join in the plywood flooring between the second and third panels from the front of the boat has seemed to be a bit spongy. As this join is in the main passageway between the dinette and the galley, we resolved to try to provide better support. Regular readers will know that the floor battens, which run lengthways down the boat, also join in virtually the same position as the plywood floor panels, without being supported underneath. Consequently, both panels and battens flex, especially when someone stands on the join. It appears that our earlier attempt to brace these joins had not worked, so we needed to do something better.

We unscrewed the two floor panels and moved them out of the way. Our previous attempt at addressing the problem had involved fitting short wooden braces across the ends of the adjoining battens. These braces weren't up to the job and, as we discovered when we attempted to remove them, neither was one of the securing screws, as this had sheared. We cut five lengths of what older people know as 2x1. Each piece was long enough to span the gap between the two steel cross members, either side of the join. When the 2x1 braces were stood on edge they were virtually the same thickness as the battens. We screwed a 2x1 brace to each of the existing pairs of battens, being careful to line the top surface of the brace with that of the relevant batten. We then fitted two further 2x1 supports midway between and parallel to two pairs of battens. Each support was screwed to the two plywood panels and was supported by the steel cross member at each end. We dare it to go spongy again!

We then had one of our senior periods - it must have lasted about an hour! The panels on the cabin sides on the starboard side of the boat were all cut to the same depth. They were offered up to the battens, as high as they would go, and were then secured to the battens. The end result was that the lower edge of all the panels didn't form a straight line. We intend to use the gap between the bottom of the un-seen face of the cabin side panels and the top of the seen face of the hull side panels as a service duct which, on the starboard side will house the 230v ring main wiring. The duct will be covered by strips of plywood that will be screwed to battens that will be fitted to the side panels. However, to do this, the bottom edge of the cabin side panels needs to form a straight line along the length of the boat.

We knew that we'd have to trim the cabin sides at some stage and now seemed the right time as we were about to start fitting the port cabin side panels and wanted to try and get their lower edges in a straight line from the beginning. In scenes that were reminiscent of the fun we had with the ceiling, we tried every way that we could think of to find a means of setting the straight line to which the panel depths were to be cut. Part of our difficulty was that the ceiling panels didn't extend to the cabin sides, so we had no common factor there to use. The cabin sides and the hull sides are at different angles - the widest part of the boat being almost where we planned to cut. We tried using the lower edge of the window openings to provide the basis for a datum line but they weren't straight enough themselves.

In the end, the only option we could come up with was to use the floor and measure from there. We couldn't guarantee that it was flat, although it ought to be, but we had nothing else that was any better. We measured and marked the side panels in several places and then used our string line to give us a chalk line. This was done in stages as earlier attempts to try to create a single line along the length of the boat failed because the chalk didn't like sticking to all of the line at the same time. We then checked the chalk lines by eye and they seemed to give the nearest thing to a forty feet long straight line that we were likely to achieve.

The panels nearer the front of the boat needed the most cutting off them and each was removed, in turn, cut to the line and re-fastened. We also re-positioned the higher fixing screws on the hull side panels. This should make for easier removal in the future, as the original fixing screws were covered by the bottom of the cabin side panels, which had to be removed to release or secure the fixings for the hull side panels. The rear most cabin side panels only needed a small amount trimmed off. Because the temporary lights wer preventing access to the panel's fixing screws, we trimmed these panels in situ. We also re-positioned the upper hull side fixings on the port side. This was a reasonably easy task as the cabin side panels have yet to be fitted.

Believe it or not, all this took a little over six hours, including a stop for lunch. We even went without our afternoon tea break! With the time now just after five o'clock we decided that we'd call it a day, rather than re-start work on the port cabin sides, a job that we'll probably crack on with just after Christmas. We swept up, tidied up and loaded our tools into the car and made our fog free way home.

From time to time we play host to a number of people we know at the boat yard. Each is very complimentary about the progress that we're making. It doesn't seem this way to us but we see it every day and most of our visitors don't. Nonetheless, comments such as these are appreciated and serve to encourage us to carry on.

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