The wood work is starting to come along. The Nav station piece is cut and ready for staining once i cutout the instrument panel and storage holes. I have everything i need except for the VHF and A/C panel. I will hopefully have enough cash by this thursday to order both and finish this project ASAP. In the meantime i have been going back and forth on different ways to create the cockpit seats. Originally the cockpit seats consisted of plywood with a teak deck veneer and teak trim pieces around the inside edge. This was simply glued down to the cockpit itself and also served as a lid to the lazaret. The First owner did not like the seats because they became hot in the texas sun. To solve this issue he did one thing that still makes me cringe…..he painted them white! Also from years of sitting the piece that covered the lazaret completely rotted away. I fortunately still the trim pieces and went back and forth on creating a new teak deck “looking” cockpit seat. I really don’t have the patience ( or money! have you seen the prices of teak?!?!?!) to lay down teak decking. I thought of alternatives such as using mahogany and even bamboo over the top of fiberglassed plywood. Then i finally decided to create plain old fiberglass seats using the original pieces as templates. Then i started looking at the trim teak pieces and sanded them down a bit. I would be slapping the rare teak trees across the face if i were to merely fiberglass over perfectly aged teak lumber. So i sanded down a few pieces and they all look beautiful except one piece that has a small section knocked out. o’well, nothing a little glue and epoxy won’t fix. the plan is to make fiberglass seats and then use the original trim pieces on the inside of the cockpit. That way the boat will remain a bit lighter in the back end, it won’t be as hot to sit on, it will require FAR less maintenance, and there will still be a bit of a traditional look in the end. I’ve got a few pics of the progress. here ya go!
