Day 232 Ceiling and hatch
Before the first ceiling panel goes up, the sliding entry hatch to the pilothouse must be installed ( Day 206 )  

The the solid oak hatch slide that we cut down to 3/4", sanded, and coated twice (to a smooth darkened oak finish suitable for a dining room table! ) was inserted. It goes in from forward between the ceiling and dashtop above, never to come out again.

Normally this will remain open unless privacy is required, or in the event of a pilothouse window failure. The door will seal against this. The aft edge must be finished to flow into the frame underneath.

We used some plastic corners to make a slide and it works well.
Gena cutting off 1/4" with a dado saw blade

Jigsaw is ok for circles


Perfect fit!!

 The remainder of the ceiling was cut and held in place then the hatch and vent openings were marked and cut out. The ceiling we put in last day had to be removed and cut down 3/4" to get rid of the rogue screwholes we put in too far from the bulkhead. (Not thinking duh!)

We then used the newly cut ceiling to mark a line on the other section, cut and fit into place.
The joiner, made of plastic, was difficult to insert. At first we tryed to slide it in from the end but it was too tight. The other option was to remove a panel, put the joiner on, and wiggle the other into it. This we didn't want to do. Eventually we discovered that folding both panels down after the joiner was on one side, then carefully feeding the other side in with a knife while aligning it just ahead - worked!
Now we're ready for anything ha ha!!

The photo to left shows how nicely everything went together. The vertical 2x2's were used to temporarily hold the ceiling in place while hatches were marked out.

The cabin edges of the ceiling aren't yet attached.
The hatch interior work will prove to be interesting, and we have a few ideas with wood.
The plastic cornering between the ceiling and the cabinsides fit ok, but at the joint has proven to be a real menace. There's no way to make it look nice as the corners edge flows down to less than a millimetre. Unfortunately, the joiner is over 2 mm thick.
I held up a piece of oak trim in it's place and finally Gena decided to go along with using it in place of the (ugly) 90º over a 100º corner situation.
I always thought that would look great! Yay!!

 

Day 232:
6.5 hours - Installed hatch slide and galley ceiling panels

   

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