Projects: Quarter Berth ... Cont. (2)

After much thinking of things through, and a year and a half of living with the project, E. and J. decided to work upon E.'s quarter berth some more. This project was more fine tuning, but we think it now looks much nicer, and keeps E. much warmer.

The first installment of this project is here: Projects: Enlarging the Quarter Berth.

The above link shows what this project looked like at that time, while there was a plywood "bunk board" separating the quarter berth from the engine room, it also allowed lots of air circulation through. This had its positive sides (summer lots of air flow) and negative sides (winter lots of air flow). In addition, while the previous owners (original owner?) had insulated the entire hull with closed cell foam, he/she neglected to insulate the lazarette and the cockpit foot-well. This meant that the foot-well would drip with condensation during the fall, winter and summer.

So, we decided to insulate the foot-well; close off the bunk from the engine room; and make the quarter berth more finished.

So, the first step was buying a roll of foil wrapped bubble-wrap insulation and some spray glue at a hardware store, plus some 1x2 boards (we already had some wood glue).

Next, we removed the "bunk board" so that we could clean the foot-well and cut the bubble wrap to size. We decided that we'd glue a piece along the bottom, and sides prior to inserting the bulkhead. This way, the foot-well would have a little "play" if it needed to flex for some reason, and might allow us to take it out at a later point. (The foot-well can come out of the cockpit to make it easier to work on the engine or to remove the engine if necessary. We've never had it out ourselves, and I don't think it has ever been removed.)

Once a layer of insulation was installed along the bottom of the foot-well, we reinstalled the "bunk board" on the engine room side of the fore & aft bulkhead. Then we fit pieces of 1x2 vertically (like tongue and grove) along the bunk board.

Once, these were dry-fitted, we added a layer of insulation to the sides of the foot-well, then glued the 1x2 pieces in place.

E. has already commented that it makes a huge difference. In addition, it has cut down on the condensation in the engine room, too.

We plan on painting during the next haul-out. In addition, I would like to glass-in/seal-off the through-hull fitting in this bunk, and move the electric bilge pump through-hull to a better position. However, one thing at a time.

Pictures follow:

Here E. measures for the next board, while J. cut it to length before handing it to E. to place (dry fitting them all, first).









This shows as far as we got before moving the cut pieces, and gluing on the insulation to the side of the foot-well.

There is a hole in the bulkhead for the cockpit drain hose to exit. This is why the third piece from the front is not quite up to the foot-well. When glued in, we used a clamp to hold these pieces tight to everything.

Once the insulation was glued to the side of the foot-well, we could shape the end pieces and glue everything together. 


Here's the finished result.

Down aft you can just make out one of the covered cushions, and the red at the top is a piece of yarn the kids were using for a game the other night.