International Telstar Owners Association

At long last, I am starting on the living space on the boat. After completing the molding on the jet drive insert, I cleaned out all of the crap from the inside of the boat and have it ready to be refitted. Here are a few views of the cabin, completely stripped and all of the structural work completed. You can't see it in detail, but the cabin has new bulkheads, a sistered main/forepeak bulkhead, a new floor, a new floor in the forpeak as well. There is a shower drain in the forpeak and a hose leading into the area where the shower bilge pump will be installed. The first picture is the cabin looking forward.

Cabin looking forward from the cockpit. Cabin 3.jpg (11.67 KiB) Viewed 886 times

The next is the cabin looking aft.

Cabin looking aft. Cabin 2.jpg (9.92 KiB) Viewed 886 times

. Finally, there is a detail of the floor I molded into the head/shower area.

Head/Shower floor. Cabin 1.jpg (10.46 KiB) Viewed 886 times

It all looks kinda rough at this point, but most of the real work has been done.

In many ways, this is my favorite time in any project. I have been sitting in the empty cabin, imagining what I am going to do. Here are some of my preliminary thoughts. First, I am not going all white inside. I am introducing some hint of color in the paint and surfaces I am installing that can be carried through with brighter variations of the color scheme in cushion fabrics, etc. Although I know white brings the most light below, I find the pure white telstar cabins I have see to be quite stark. I am going to tint the paint just a bit to get a very light pastel which should not darken the cabin too much.

My goal is to keep the refit as light as possible, within reason. I am likely to make the convertible couches out of sandwich construction to keep weight down. On the other hand, the galley and nav station will be plywood, with the top being covered in formica and trimmed in teak. As you can see, I have quite an empty canvass to work from.

Lou Giansante

Work has been occupying the better part of my spring ... I hate when that happens. Anyway, I have been sneaking away to the boat when I can steal a bit of time here-and-there.

I started the cabinet work in the easiest spot, the oilskin lockers near the doors. Since I'm probably going to paint it, i made it out of luan. I like the look of the wood though, so I might try to stain it first. If I don't like it, I can always paint it.

Oilskin Locker Facea IMG00416.jpg (23.1 KiB) Viewed 844 times

I'm laying out the bilge pump set-up for the cabin. I am installing a manual Whale Guzzler to drain the cabin. Since I lowered the floors, I am concerned about the need to keep up with any water draining into the bilge. There is a water-tight bulkhead between the cabin and engine compartment, so all I have to deal with is water coming through the usual leaky places or coming through the cockpit doorway. Since the boat will be on a mooring, i am also adding a rule 1000 electric pump forward of the whale intake. pic2 shows the location of the whale intake and the rule upfront near the galley.

bilge pump locations. IMG00423.jpg (6.56 KiB) Viewed 844 times

. Here is the pump in its future location. The hose will be led forward, under the shower floor and out through the side of the forepeak. I am considerind putting in a T fitting to make the same exit thru-hull handle the auto bilge pump and the shower drain.

I have cut the two small bulkheads to form the sides of the shower drain box in the forepeak. The floor in the head, will drain into the box and a pump will exhaust the grey water out through the same thru-hull that the other bilge pump uses. I will probably have the drain box glassed in this weekend. It will be covered by a piece of Lexan with the exit hose fitting coming through the lexan. The manual pump is going in the lower part of the starboard oilskin locker with the pump handle bracket being the only thing showing. I located it there to have access from the cockpit or the cabin, depending on where i am in the boat when it is taking on water.

Edit: I have some unfinished, natural cedar planking used to line closets. I'm thinking about lining the back and bottom of the Oilskin locker with Cedar. I have doors to fit the openings but am considering leaving them as is with coat hooks inside. With the Cedar lining, I think it will look good. The planking is very light and I'm only going to need a few planks to complete the job.

The floor was next. I'll start a new post for pics.

The floor is 3/8" marine plywood. It is in 4 sections. The front section has a lifting bracket and will be hinged to the middle section. The middle and rear section will be screwed down. The front section will be able to be lifted to inspect the bilge and the automatic pump. The fit is very snug and I get no movement from that section when it is walked on.

IMG00417.jpg (23.14 KiB) Viewed 843 times

Here is the rest of the floor inplace.

IMG00419.jpg (10.95 KiB) Viewed 843 times

The 4th section you can see on the left is the floor for the setee. It will be hinged on the port side and permit access to the storage compartment under the setee floor. I was going to put some kind of liner on the curved portion of the hull under the half-tubes molded into the sides of the hull. With the floor in place, however, I think it would look nice if I just faired and painted that part. The furniture, galley and chart table will come down to that point and there won't be a lot of it to reveal. Anyway, that's my progress so far. I sent my main measurements to Dave Bierig and am waiting on the estimate. I am shooting for a fall launch so that I can use September-November to shake down the boat and make notes for winter maintenance. That way, Dave has plenty of time to make the sail.

Later.

working on the forepeak liner now. Found a sheet fiberglass material at Lowes. I cut it into 24" x 8' strips and began scribing it to fit the forepeak. It looks like I can cover each side with a single solid piece. Work is tedious. First I made a cardbord template and then cut the sheet a bit oversized. Fianlly started a series of fittings to custom fit it. Here are some photos of the nearly finished starboard side.

you can see the flexibility on the cutting table. Interriorliner1.jpg (8.56 KiB) Viewed 801 times



After about 15 minor adjustments. Interiorliner3.jpg (7.34 KiB) Viewed 801 times



A few more adjustments and a few more wrinkles taken out. Interiorliner2.jpg (4.44 KiB) Viewed 801 times



Hopefully the port side will go easier.

Lou

Another weekend struggling with theliner. It's redy for finaly fitting. A couple of hours with a shureform blade and it should be in and trimmed. I have it roughed in all the way back into the main cabin. The rest is piecing. Soon, I'll be building furniture. Once the liner is in, I can finish the bilge pump system.

Making a template for the cabin liner. Liner3.jpg (9.63 KiB) Viewed 781 times



Liner roughed in, ready for final fitting. Liner1.jpg (9.31 KiB) Viewed 781 times



Forepeak liners ready for final fitting with a shureform balde. Liner2.jpg (6.58 KiB) Viewed 781 times


It's all been handfitting all the way. I feel more like a shoemaker than a carpenter.

Lou

Now that the liners are roughed-in, its time to do some painting before installing the liners. I decided that I'm not leaving raw fiberglass under the liners, I'm at least putting a good primer on them before covering them. This should keep the glass particles down to a minumim in the cabin.

Starting the bilge. IMG00091.jpg (5.91 KiB) Viewed 769 times



Shower base done IMG00093.jpg (5.37 KiB) Viewed 769 times



bilge completed IMG00092.jpg (5.15 KiB) Viewed 769 times

I used a 2 part epoxy on the shower and the bilge. Everything else is getting primed with Latex Kills. Then I'll install the liners and the pump system. At that point, I can move into the main cabin and work on roughing-in the furniture so I can work on the electrical system and plumbing. I went with a white bilge - probably a mistake but I want to see anything happening in the bilge.

Lou

Update:

Been working on the cabin every chance I've had. The forepeak is basically done for now. I need to run the shower sump and forward cabin bilge pump through a thru-hull to discharge. I'll get on that a bit later. The last series of pictures showed the first coat of the forepeak. The shower stall section and anything that shows in the forepeak have gotten a few more coats. The floor of the shower/head looks nice.


IMG00009-20100808-1124-1.jpg (12.06 KiB) Viewed 743 times


I finished cutting the fiberglass liner for the forepeak. It came out really nice. I have not glued it in yet. I want to have all of the systems installed before I do that.


IMG00035-20100815-1203.jpg (13.92 KiB) Viewed 743 times


Here are the sides cut to fit and just resting in-place.


IMG00050-20100827-1526.jpg (38.33 KiB) Viewed 743 times


Once I had the liner cut for the forepeak (I can't begin to tell you how long that took), I moved back into the cabin to work on my cedar closet. The original Mark I had these two lockers when you come into the cabin from the cockpit. I will probably hang the foul weather gear in here but I hate the smell of mildew or mold. Since my granny always had a cedar closet to keep mildew and moths away, I decided to line the locker with Cedar. (continued in the next post)

Lou

The Cedar Closet:

For years, I've had a cedar kit in my basement that was intended for the closet of my last home. I pulled it out and decided to line the rear lockers with it. It was immediately obvious that putting the individual tongue and groove planks into the closet would be nearly impossible, so I make a templet and gluded a bunch of the planks together first and then cut of the shape of the closet for gluing. I later found that I had to do the insert in 2 peices becuase of the odd shape of the closet. Here is the liner during a fitting, before it was glued in.


IMG00006-20100919-1112.jpg (18.23 KiB) Viewed 743 times


I decided to use only the top 2 doors from the original locker. There were very small lower doors that were basically useless. I am using the left side of the lower locker compartment to install a high volume manual Whale bilgepump. It will have a portable handle that will fit on the lower-front of the locker and discharge through a large thru-hull that I installed in the same space. Here it is, nearly installed.


IMG00013-20100919-1721.jpg (17.25 KiB) Viewed 743 times


I even lined the bottom of the locker with cedar. Even with that little bit of wood in the locker, the entire cabin smells of cedar when the boat is closed up for awhile. It also looks great.


IMG00008-20100919-1151.jpg (15.59 KiB) Viewed 743 times



Well ... that's it for my 3 pics in this post ... on to the next one.

Lou

Latest Update - Part 3:

Once the inserts were gluded down and the bilge pump installed, the facia could be refitted. I have the original teak doors that I will be fitting in the opening.


IMG00069-20100904-1248.jpg (17.83 KiB) Viewed 741 times


I should have the whole locker area finished this weekend. The panels next to the lockers across the back of the cabin are cut-out and ready to be covered with vinyl. I have some very thin indoor-outdoor carpet to cover the areas around the side windows in the main cabin. That should be done soon too. Then I can do the ceiling. I am fabricating panels to install. That will give me access to the ceiling for running electrical wiring if needed. I will finish the liner in the main cabin and make the adjustment to the floors. Then I can finish installing the rest of the bilge pump system and screw down the flooring. Once that is done, I am ready for the setees, the galley and the chart table installation, The rest will be detail clean up but at that point the cabin will be basically finished. I estimate that I will be done well before the cold weather gets here. If I have enough time, I will be able to complete the engine/pump installation before the winter gets here. It's starting to look like a boat in there.

Lou

9/27 Update:

TIghtened the thru-hull and cut the Thru-hull hose for the bulge pump. Pump was screwed in-place and is ready for the facea to be installed.

th_Bulk3.jpg (3.21 KiB) Viewed 705 times


Faired and sanded the bulkhead a couple more times and finally put a coat of primer on it. It looks good to me.

th_Bulk1.jpg (2.57 KiB) Viewed 705 times


Put a coat of primer on the entire starboard side, the whole bulkhead and the entire coachroof. It's much brighter in there.

th_Bulk2.jpg (2.54 KiB) Viewed 704 times


Fairly good progress this weekend.
Lou