A Difficult Bed

Much of today was spent working in the back cabin on the 3 inch duct at the foot of the bed.  The biggest problem occurred attempting to fit the panel against the plywood lining on the side of the boat.  None of the dimensions were level or square!  After copious scribing and re-cutting Richard managed to get the panel to fit (B in the photo below).

If you’re going to fit out a boat it makes sense to be able to reach all the services after the boat has been completed.  Who wants to ripping out partitions and built-in furniture to find a leak, or fix a wiring fault.

The back cabin is 6’6” long and the bed 6’3”.  This gives a 3” void at the foot of the bed in which cables, gas and pipes can be run.  The void has an access panel (arrow B).  Immediately above the void will be a high locker containing the node and instrument panel.  It will also incorporate a storage locker.  I had to move all the cables on the wall leading to the canbus node after Andy informed me he intended to locate the solar controller and the Hurricane control box under the bed with the inverter.  As a result of this I’ve been able to significantly reduce the planned size of the instrument and canbus compartment. 

Richard and I spent the latter part of the afternoon prefabricating the high locker.  Hopefully we will install it on Monday.

The inverter cabinet is under the foot of the bed (C in the above photo).  Where the tip of the red arrow points I intend to fit a ventilation plate with a super silent 12v fan behind it.  Actually I’ve been looking at this particular one for some time.

Akasa 120mm Apache PWM super silent fan

Coincidentally, Bill walked a kilometre from his home to Waiouru just to suggest we might want to consider fitting a computer fan in the compartment.  Great minds think alike!

Then, today Bruce (nb Sanity) left a comment on yesterday’s post suggesting I might like to consider fitting a smoke detector in the inverter compartment as there have been instances of inverters catching fire.  Now this is something I hadn’t thought of and is well worth pursuing!  Must be an even greater mind!

You may have noticed I’ve drilled a series of holes in the top of the bed base.  This has been done in an effort to stop the mattress “sweating”.  Some of the heat generated by the inverter may also migrate into the area under the bed and assist in keeping it warm and dry.

Richard and I have had another discussion about the design of the rear steps.  There will only be four of them as there is already one step up into the back cabin from the galley.  The first two rear steps will be fixed.  The second will be at the same height as the bed base.  Actually it will form part of the bed extension when converting it from a single to a double.  The third step will be removable so it doesn’t “foul” the bed when it’s extended.  The fourth step is the hatch cover over the engine bay.  When the bed is converted to a double the third step will fit on the floor between the galley and the rear cabin and assist the cabin occupants getting into and out of the bed.

Tomorrow’s plan is to lightly sand down all the cabin walls above gunwale height in preparation for giving them a second coat of varnish.  Our strategy is to gradually varnish all the timber so we don’t have a major varnishing job at then end of the build!