Dinette Riser Cabinet...

...construction has begun. These are the cabinets that make up the "riser" for the dinette, raising it up about 12-13 inches from the floor. The carcases were "almost" finished, as, with one piece left to cut, I ran out of plywood. There are four base cabinets. The forward three will have side pull-out drawers.

The foremost cabinet will be wide, with multiple shallow drawers for the admiral to store her paper charts. The middle two cabinets will be narrow, each with a single deep drawer, for the cook to store his canned food supplies.

The aft cabinet, for general storage, will not have a side drawer (companionway stairs would block it) but will be accessible via a false floor under the aft settee.

All cabinets have been designed for "easy" removal, for when the day comes that tanks need to be removed (hopefully never), one does not have to cut things out to do so. Also, each cabinet is designed small enough to fit through the companionway.

Pictures show the pieces being dry fitted in place.

Enter More "Traditional" Building Materials

Marine plywood. Compared to Coosa Board, plywood is

• cheaper
• easier to paint
• holds screws better

but it is also

• heavier
• weaker with bonds using epoxy
• more messy to cut

Plywood will be used for semi-structural/non structural uses where there is no bonding/glassing to the hull. Moreover, the really cheap, ...uh, 'less expensive' Chinese marine plywood will be used in non-outward facing areas (it is guaranteed to have more voids and the edges cut a bit rough).

How Hard Can It Be?

DIY Cable Master Shore Power Cord Management

A company called Glendinning Products makes this thing called a Cable Master. Targeted and the marine and RV market, it provides a handy way to deploy and stow your shore power cable. I don't know about most boaters, but when we prepare to leave the dock for an extended cruise,  the question of "do we take the shore power cable with us?" eventually comes up. If we decide not to take it, then there will be some later event, at a transient moorage, when batteries are down, when we say "we should have brought the power cable". If we take it with us, we have to find a place for it on the boat, probably buried under a bunch of other stuff deemed more important for the trip. Whereupon, at said transient moorage, one will ask "do I really want to dig up the shore power cable"? Something like a Cable Master would simplify if not eliminate these decisions.

I am sure  this qualifies as a "luxury" item, but it has occurred to me that I could very well build one of these. And there exists an ideal spot to install one of these on the Westsail. It could end up being better and cost much less than the original (retails for about $900). I already have most of the necessary parts/tools/materials. We'll see how it goes. If anything, it will be fun doing the designing/building/testing.

I mean... how hard can it be?

Hawse pipe special ordered.

Experimenting with the microcontroller, stepper motor and pulley

Modeling one half of the deployment drum, to be cut by the machine.

CAD layout of the mechanism frame.

Fuel System, Part II...

...is in and more or less buttoned up.

During the re-check of fittings (in last post), I took the opportunity to tidy the hoses a bit more.

Supply and Return manifolds

Other side. Fill manifold permanently mounted. Supply/return hoses plumbed (blue hoses).

Part III will be the fitting of filters, circulation pump and a wet test with some real fuel.