Cabin sole - filling boards

Warm and rainy. Only a couple of hours in the shipyard today. I continue building the cabin sole - this time filling boards in between wide pieces, frame facing. A bit tricky as I need to take rivet heads into account.

As all boats mine is no different - it is not symmetrical so these narrow boards are not simple rectangles. I need to pattern each piece separately. Joggle stick would be overkill here so I use simple cardboard templating.

The plan was to use short boards left after old sole demolition. They are old and worn mahogany, slightly thicker than my current stock. After fitting two pieces I took a look and didn’t quite like the effect - the new wood differs in colour from old stock, it will make distinct strip pattern which I don’t like.

I could of course stain all these boards but the purpose is to have light-coloured sole so I abandoned this idea and cut from the same stock as wide boards. The effect is much more pleasing.

For final fitting I cut filling boards at 89 degrees, to get perfect fit on the surface. This is a bit tricky as wood is expanding with humidity. Today’s perfect fit - at humid weather - will became less tight when freezing temperatures come. Even though mahogany is a very stable wood I will further minimise movements by encapsulating it in epoxy coat.

After fitting boards on half of the floor I needed to call it a day and head home.

Re-circulated oil in the system, added 2.5 litres more oil + turpentine and slowly drove home through foggy woods.