The Countdown Starts…

We are now approximately 133 hours away from this boat leaving St. Jacobs forever. It really wasn’t that long ago that it was 133 days! It is now the end of day two of our 7 day sprint to the finish line. Don’t let the fact that I used the word “finish” suggest the idea that it will be finished. It will be able to go in the water but may have to be towed to our slip.

There is a lot of electrical work left and I can’t guarantee that it will be done. I am trying very hard to not be one of those people that expect businesses to only look after them. Those 5 or 6 lost weeks really set people back and having our 46 foot boat up and running definitely falls under the “1st World Problem” category.

We will see where the next 5 days gets us.

As for what has been accomplished in the last 2 days…

Donald took the day off with me yesterday and got a good start on installing the hardware on some of the doors. He was having some initial problems with getting them working as they seemed a little … sensitive but, after a while, he got it figured out.

He also started the installation of the lock for the sliding door. We have to go back to the drawing board with the finish on the door. The original plan was to have it covered with a mirrored stainless…just like in this photo that I had in a blog post sometime in the winter. This was the inspiration for my design.

The company that made the doors can’t seem to complete the project so we will have to figure it out for ourselves. What I’m basically saying is it won’t be done by Monday.

Here Donald is cutting out part of the aluminum door frame to accept the mortise lock.

He also took the time to install the lock on the mid-berth door. These were salvaged from the demolition.

We picked up the lower eating area table from the finisher. The photos don’t do it justice. The colour is fantastic and the inlaid veneer really pops. It has been put in a safe area until Sunday.

Let’s see … what else did we do?

Installed the v-berth window trim.

I got one of the worst jobs over with. This morning I sanded the fiberglass to get it to a fairly consistent surface. To say it was hot in this protective suit is an understatement. With the humidex we reached 34 degrees today (93 Fahrenheit).

I will have to wear it again tomorrow when I sand the coat of resin I put on today.

Tomorrow we will cut out the openings for all of the instrument panels. Then I will be able to put on the first layer of gel-coat.

My main focus today was continuing on with the headliner substrate. I am using 3/8″ water resistant MDF for the panels which will then be covered with the same white vinyl that I used in the v-berth. Hoping to get started on that tomorrow afternoon. I still have to cut in for the lights.

And finally … the most exciting news of the day…

The swim platform was installed today. We had originally purchased it through Blu Water Lifts near Barrie but the owner of that company suddenly passed away earlier this year. The manufacturer of the platform (Tranform Plus) is out Quebec and they were fantastic. They contacted me quickly to let me know they would honour the original price and kept in contact with me throughout the Covid shutdown.

It looks awesome and yes it’s big. Big boat … big platform.

These photos are from this morning just after we moved the steps to the boat to clear the area. You can see the path that we made to get to the steps on the lower left.

You have to know that I kept walking that way all day until they arrived. After 10 months of countless trips to the shop and back it’s very hard to change in a day.

The colour match is very close.

Besides making the boat 4 feet longer and therefore costing us more money for slip fees the platform looks great.

I am hoping to do another post on Thursday night so feel to check back then.

Now we are down to 131 hours…