New Salon table and Int. / Ext. renovation

[Nina Bonita]

I repurchased my 1995 PDQ 32 classic (I was the original owner), in June 2008 and spent one year in renovating her. You can imagine the wear and tear after 7 years in charter in the Abacos!...... " Bamm, Honey I think we landed... Abbott & Costello routine" Trust me, it took that long to give her a makeover! I must have completed over a hundred different projects, but I will list just a few here for the PDQ 32 lovers to peruse.
Redesigned new Salon table
New auto bilges with access ports
New under the refrig. cabinet
New teak shelving where the Nav station was.
Reupholstered complete interior vinyl
Refitted all hatches, portholes, and portlights
New Yamaha 9.9 GEXH - with No auto tilt
New Dometic CR 1110 Refrig.
New solar 135 watt panels plus cantilevered 65 watt panel off the stern rail.
Improved the strength and height of the stern rail.
Extra 35 gallon water tank, completed by previous owner.
New TV location
Go to this web site and stay on the photo stream for 96 pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nina_bonita

[amytom]

Looks great! Now expect the how to questions to pour in.

I'll Start

Do you have the plans for the table drawn up?

And how did you go about doing the headliners in the cabins?

[Nina Bonita]

I used the original table top as a template. Purchased 24" X 48" 3/4" Birch plywood at Lowes. What I enjoy the most of the new design is that it opens up the Salon area to a living room size feel. The legs and table set up in minutes. The original table was wobbly at best and was hard to get around it. I later bought another 24" X 48" to make the wings, which brings the size to 42" in total width. You can purchase the metal drop leaf supports slides at Rockler.com Item # 30006. (2) pairs for under $20. We also used (2) SS hatch hinges and a SS barrel bolt for each wing for lateral support. The 2 X 4 legs and 2X6 cross beam were made of Spruce, (you can use other wood that's stronger, but spruce is lighter.) I used the same two holes that the compression post had for the original table. I did have to drill one hole in the smaller cabin roof support post. So each leg has (2) SS wing nut thru bolts about 4" long ea. You need a good cabinet shop to built the table and legs.

Replacing the vinyl liners is difficult to do and time consuming. You basically have to put the boat on dry land and remove all the portholes. I was glad I did this, because you won't believe the amount of dry rot and wet rot damage there was to the wood filler between the fiberglass interior and exterior sides. It took some work to heavy duty sand all that down and epoxy fill the voids. Not all portholes were this bad, but maybe half of them. I used a professional upholsterer to do the cabins and I did the main Salon myself. I did all the prep work myself for all the areas. We used 1/8" closed-cell foam behind the vinyl, but I would use 1/4" if I did it again. PDQ used regular foam that had disintegrated after 13 years of heat and wear. As you would expect, the professional upholsterer's job in the cabins came out better than the Salon which I did. You can save plenty if you go to a Marine Surplus Store to choose your vinyl instead of purchasing it from an upholsterer. I purchased 12 yds. per cabin at the Marine Surplus store in Sarasota, FL (941) 758- 3552 for $9/yd (they have them starting at $6/yd.) vs. paying the upholsterer Upwards of $30./yd plus labor.

[amytom]

Thanks Gus,

Next questions (stop me when I start to annoy you )

The bridges installed under the hull floor boards; what did you use? Can't quite make it out on the pictures.

The floor boards in the Salon, were you able to pull those up or did you re-finish in place?

The inspection hatches; Great idea! did you just cut-out and put some 1x2 strips in to hold in place? (after finishing off the edges of course)

For all the wood re-finishing. Did you stain at all or just the poly?

The canvas over the windows. How is the Sunbrella attached? Snaps on the mounting hardware?

Tom

[Nina Bonita]

Tom,

The floor support bridges is my favorite improvement on the vessel, I wish PDQ had thought of this before. I owned the boat for 6 years and even before I put it in charter the Hull floors would flex and feel weak, especially where you take your first step from the salon on both sides of the vessel. Installing an auto bilge is very important to keep water in the bilge to a minimum because you might forget to use the whaler pump. The original floors where installed in two sections per side, I installed them in one single 7 foot piece per side (that alone improved the strength of the floors.) The bridges where constructed from discarded carpet cardboard tubes, then epoxy'd with fiberglass on both sides. We found that a 10% taper worked perfect and no shims were necessary. We then epoxy'd them to the bilge compartment using fiberglass strips.

Floor boards in Salon were finished in place with water-based polyurethane and a 4" foam roller. No staining used, just light sanding (I say that because, the teak veneer is probably only 1/16" thick.) We applied 5 coats of polyurethane . There is no need to remove the floor boards to do a good job. You can blue tape the screw heads using a hole puncher, or clean out the excess polyurethane later with an ice pick after the floors cure, or leave the screw heads filled with polyurethane is not a big deal, (I haven't needed to remove the Salon floor boards in 13 years.)

The lack of inspection hatches is really a gross oversight by PDQ, (though they did so many things right.) You have to cut out the hatch to your preferred size and underneath the floor epoxy the trim pieces with mitered corners so that it looks like a picture frame from underneath. Obviously, they protrude into the open hatch area roughly 3/8" to support the hatch.

I had the Sunbrella canvas covers installed for approx. $400, which are attached by snaps. Really a snap to remove (couldn't resist the pun.)

[mikeandrebecca]

Hi Gus

We are also planning on installing some sort of shelving system in the Nav area where you did (I saw the pics). I was trying to think of some way to build an integrated shelf, to limit the number of screw holes in the sides. Your way looks much easier to construct though. Are you happy with how that turned out? Anything you would change?

Thanks,

Mike

[Nina Bonita]

The Nav. Station shelves were frankly, one of the easiest jobs that I undertook. The shelves get progressively wider as you go from the bottom. I had some left over 1/2" teak Plywood (they sell over here for about $200 per 4X4 sheet, probably cheaper elsewhere.) I made the templates from cardboard and brought them to a cabinet shop. The bottom side has a 1/2" round trim piece (not Teak, I believe Oak) at the edge where it abuts to the inside boat liner. This is important because it will provide additional strength to the shelves and resist sagging (leave approximately 1 " clearance from the side ends because the shelf sits on a 1 X 2 support piece.) The front 2" solid teak trim piece is mitered using a table router so that the 1/2 " shelf is tucked into it. The top two shelves are resting on two shelf support 1 X 2" trim pieces (any Ole' wood will do, because you can't see them.) I just screwed them to the two adjacent storage lockers. The screws shouldn't protrude too far past the fiberglass, so that you will still be able to take out those cabinets any time you need to. Needless to say, you also need to screw the shelves with a single screw (recessed) to the shelf support so that they won't fall out.

[mikeandrebecca]

Thanks for the details Gus!

[thinwater]

I made the table much narrower but using an old scan desk top I had. Now I can walk past it into the head and open/close the head door, yet is still usable for a chart book or as a work area...

Which is what I really use it for. I store many bits and pieces in 2 plastic craft multicompartment storage trays with lids in the right side of the chart area. The left side still has enough room for chart books and guide books. A few tools populate the front of the tray, though most tools are in the center cockpit locker. Still I seem to use the nav station seat a good bit. I would miss it.


How are you getting water in the bilge area on a regular basis? That does not sound right. I have only done that 3 times:
* Took a huge breaker over the deck with every hatch open. Won't do that again!
* Left the top of the water tank off on a rough day.
* Had a bad through-hull on the delivery trip. Flooded the front compartment and it came through the hose openings; they ran one lower than they should have.

In truth, it is dusty most of the time and I look forward to NO damp episodes next year. A dry boat is a corrosion-free boat.


Where did you find balsa? I have found it only in the head bulkhead. The cabin top was foam. How extensive?

Thanks. It is good getting some hints as to what to expect on a future project.

[thinwater]

It seems like the bridges are going to make drying the floor more dificult.

It seems that either laminating the underside of the floor with glass, or even adding athartship stringers every ~ 12" would do the job simply.

Man, did you have to tackle some big jobs on such a young boat. Nicely done!

[Nina Bonita]

Tom, You are right, we don't get much water in the bilges, but occasionally we do. I am not sure all the reasons, I know we leave a port hole open in the head. The auto bilge pumps are for safety reasons and for peace of mind. If this was an LRC PDQ, it would have to be mandatory to have auto bilge pumps. Having the opening inspection ports is handy. The Beckson portholes can leak even if you are not aware of it. The portholes are fastened from inside the boat and your only waterproofing comes from the silicone caulk around the windows and under the trim piece. The portholes are encased in a 6 inch, 3/4 inch thick piece of wood on all sides. This was done for added strength, I never said it was made out of Balsa wood. When water gets in behind the portholes, that's were you will have issues.

The "bridges" are really just floor bracing or what you called, athwart ship stringers about every three feet. You are right about keeping the bilges dry because the excess moisture will rot and weaken the teak floors. I don't see a reason to dry the floors because they should dry by themselves. They do sell a portable air dryer fan that heats the humidity out of the air, and out the boat due to convection. Yes, the boat is 13 years young , but it was in charter for 7 of those years. I have it now close to when I bought it new from the factory back in 1995. I wouldn't have it any other way.

[thinwater]

speaking of core.

Regarding the bathroom window, take a look a the bathroom fan we put in. It really does a nice job of pulling humidity and odor from the head with few dollars and no ports left open. http://sail-delmarva.blogspot.com/search?q=bathroom

And yes, you have certainly brought her back!

[Nina Bonita]

Thanks, Drew. Very professional look and an effective way to ventilate the head. Phenomenal detail on how to install it.
Thanks.

[thinwater]

In fact, an expanded version of that article will apear in Lattitudes and Attitudes in a month or 2.

Also, I do go back through my blog articles from time to time - when ever I learn something about a project that reveals an error, more information, or a change of heart after extended use - and make changes and corrections.

Few ideas are ever completely original and few are perfected on their first application! Most of the things I have posted are adaptatios of things I learned from my last boat. I owned a Stiletto 27, which served as a simpler, blank canvas.