While I've been busy all week, there isn't really a lot to show for it, because I've been preparing shelves and spaces in the heads compartment. This has involved coating fiddly pieces of framing for the shelves and gluing them into place, as well as coating and sanding the shelves themselves. There is a surprising amount of tooth sucking going on at what probably sounds like a very straightforward project. One of the issues is that if I put the vertical framing in too early, I can't get the shelves in. Equally, if I put the shelves in too early it's harder to paint out the locker.
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And the cabin sole needs to be fitted, but goes under the locker, so I didn't want to fit that until I'm sure everything else is prepared. It has a hatch cut out of it, so I had to remember to put some framing in for that. Finally everything was ready and I took a final photo of the bilge, which won't see the light of day again.
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Eventually, I plan to cover the bits of the cabin sole that you can see with hardwood, to make a pleasant surface to walk on. I shall probably leave it bare so that it doesn't become slippery when it's wet. Shiny varnish doesn't stay shiny for very long, I've discovered. Thinking about the fact that I was making a space for the beer brewing barrel reminded me that I needed somewhere for the beer, too.
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It has to stand up without falling over, so I made a shelf with room for three bottles across and 7 along. In the photo the fack looks a bit shallow, but the inboard and outboard bottles are supported by the locker front and boat side, so can't tip. Presumably, the ones in the middle won't tip over, either.
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With everything ready to install, I've started painting. I'm trying to do as much as possible 'on the bench' for obvious reasons, but will no doubt have some touching up work to do once everything is fitted. The masking tape is keep the wood paint free for gluing.
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It will be good to have the locker painted out. I could have left it all simply sealed with WEST epoxy, but having done that in the past, I realise that the extra work of painting them out is worth the effort. Varnished lockers are very dark and require a head torch to find stuff!
