Catching Up - Progress on the Interior

I must apologize for not having updated this blog in quite awhile.  Once again I've failed at retirement and the press of work has anchored me in San Francisco, far from our lovely MAYAN.  She remains at Wayne's boatyard in Wilmington with he and his crew hard at work on completing the tasks I left partially done, in addition to his many other jobs aboard.

While stuck in an office working, I've spend a little time working on the history of our lovely schooner and was thrilled when the grandson of her builder sent this along.  He has been researching his grandfather's dockyard in Belize and had the pen-n-ink done from a composite of family pictures.  A big THANK YOU to Robert Tewes for getting this lovely piece of art for all of us who love MAYAN and great old dockyards.

As I've mentioned earlier, part of the re-fit of MAYAN includes building a proper head with a shower, adding some berths forward, and rebuilding the starboard side of the saloon to make the seating more comfortable.  These projects are proceeding nicely.  I suppose some of the credit for the progress goes to me for not being there to constantly distract the team with silly questions. 

The new refrigeration, water tank and holding tank have been installed in the head, outboard and to port. (see above)  You can see that all of the wood that will be painted has been covered with red-lead paint prior to final finish.  This is the best technique we know of to stop dry rot and mildew. 

With that complete, Wayne has been able to start making real progress installing the bulkheads that he has built to enclose the space.  In this first picture the central athwartship bulkhead which divides the shower from the head forward of it is being installed.  (BTW, that's Wayne back there fitting the panel.)

The way that Wayne assembles the interior allows us to remove these bulkheads to access the equipment outboard of it and also allows us to remove them for re-finishing when required.  You can see that the central panels of the bulkhead have been sealed and have already received a couple of coats of varnish.  Prior to assembly, all the bulkheads, doors and panels will be completely finished with 8 coats of varnish.  Below is the same bulkhead viewed from the galley, aft of the head spaces. The shower will be on the left and the head is visible beyond the bulkhead.

Just forward of the head space, where the head used to be located, Wayne has built a berth and will build a storage space below it. While the camera has shortened the look of this berth, it is a full 6'6" long and full width.  These pieces have been dry-fit and will be removed for varnishing soon.  The sleeper's head will be aft, to the left in this picture and you can just see the opening at the foot of the berth to allow air-flow to the fo'c's'le in hot weather.

This next picture shows the opening from the passageway berth above into the fo'c's'le.  It will have a door for privacy.

While air flow is certainly valuable, one of our primary goals of MAYAN's mission is to be a great place for grandchildren.   The fo'c's'le will be their space and Stacey and I think it'll be great fun for them to be able to climb through the opening at the foot of the berth, and to have whomever is sleeping there get their toes tickled when they least expect it.  If you're crewing aboard MAYAN you'll need a sense of humor! ;)

Moving forward into the fo'c's'le in the picture above you can see a panel below the opening leading to the passageway berth.  This is part of the base of the two berths we're building up forward.  In the next picture you can see the same berth with the wide central area in the bow.  This platform provides a place to stand while moving sails up through the foredeck booby hatch, and will also make a great tiny person berth.  At the moment it's serving as sail storage.

Finally, Wayne has put together a wonderful video on how he built the raised panels for MAYAN.  Please enjoy it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LP-SfAV2yXg&feature=youtu.be