When I acquired Morning Star she had been sitting uncovered and unattended for 3 years. The wood entry door was cracked, split and delaminating. My plan was to replace the door with one of fiberglass and eliminate any future refinishing.

The original door.

First I needed to make 2 over sized fiberglass panels. These were laid up on a sheet of melamine. Fiberglass will not stick to melamine. A layer of white gel coat was painted on to the melamine and then the laminates applied to this. This will give me a good finish for the gelcoat on the outside of the doors and minimal sanding.

For the outside I used 1 ½ oz mat and a layer of 18 oz roving. For the inside 2 layers of 1 ½ oz mat.

Laying up the panels.

Pulling the panels off the table. The two panels are side by side on sheet of melamine.

The wooden core of the door was a frame around the outside edges with additional cross pieces to frame the window and at the point of the door hardware. The frame was glued together with epoxy and some wood gussets.

The wooden core was used to mark the fiberglass panels and cut them to size. The panels were then glued to the wooden core. Rather than use epoxy, I used Sikaflex caulking. I felt this would provide a good bridge between the smooth wood and the uneven fiberglass panels. If I was doing it again I would use thickened epoxy.

Cutting the panels to size.

Applying the Sika Flex.

Since I was reusing the old window a matching hole was cut for this, as well as holes for the lock hardware.

My plan was to paint the door with a close matching 2 part paint, Endura. In preparation for this I sanded the fiberglass panels. This removed much of the white gel coat and removed the fine texture of the melamine panels. The door and paint were then taken to a body shop familiar with Endura and spray painted.

The window and hardware were then mounted and the entire unit mounted on the boat.

Overall I am very pleased with the result. A major improvement and now maintenance free. The paint colour, Oyster White, is a very close match without going through the hassle of a custom mix.

The new door installed.

Much brighter on the inside.

Propane Sniffer

The old propane sensor was dead and needed to be replaced. My plan was to replace it with the same brand in the same location and avoid any rewiring. The old unit was quite flat and screwed directly to the valance. The new unit was bigger, and made to be mounted in a cut hole. Seems not all new models are advances. The sensor was kept in the same location by enclosing it in a black plexiglass box and mounting the box to the valance. Because of the increased depth of the unit the box had to hang below the valence. It works, is convenient to the stove, and avoided some rewiring, but not as pretty as the old model.

The plexi box is notched to keep it as high as possible. The extension above covers the unfaded mark of the old unit.

Radio Holder

The kids who inherited this boat just cut the wires and took the old radio out. Again it was a case of putting a new radio back in the location of the old one as that is where the speaker and power wires led. I had purchased a car stereo-CD player and the bracket for mounting was made for a car. A holding shelf was fashioned out of black ABS, sized to hold the radio and with side wings that allowed it to be screwed to the underside of the wooden shelf above. The instruction book for the radio was bigger than that for the GPS and the VHF and the unruly mass of unused wires coming from the back of unit made for an ugly mess. Although you cannot see it in the picture, the mess of wires was covered by a piece 1/16 ABS, loosely screwed in at the corners.

Was able to screw through the ABS shelf to a threaded hole in the sides of the radio to lock the radio to the shelf.

Found time to get a picture of Morning Star for the blog.

Boat Table Using Starboard

I wanted to install a table on my lower deck and this is what I came up with.

The table is ½ “ white Starboard. It is hinged to an extension of the rear railing system.

The hinges are 1” UHMW, made by PlasticWorks, and screwed to the underside of the Starboard. By the way, all the holes you see below the table appeared when I removed two cracked and badly weathered strips of wood. What was originally mounted here that required all these holes? Anyway they will soon be covered up by strips of Starboard.

At the edge of the table opposite the hinges I installed a length of stainless tubing. This provides stiffness, and to hold the table up I use a wooden brace from the tubing down to where the deck and aft wall meet. This can be seen in the top picture.

-Dennis

This is a crude picture of the boat I have an offer in on this moment.
 

Welcome to my boat project Blog! This page will cover all projects I tackle on my new boat (offer pending!), or at least all the projects that use materials from PlasticWorks.

More to come soon I’m sure.