Kai O'hana
03/26/07 - Salon
-Letter from Lauren
Ah, the Salon. This was the gathering point of the boat -- the living room and the dining room (as we use to say when we lived in a house) all in one. Well, at this point in the project, our primary living/dining area was a disaster, more like a workshop and a tool/material catchall at the same time. Getting this space to what we visualize it could be was going to be a big project requiring time and patience on everyone’s part.
Tracy and I decided that starting the finishing process with the chart table was the best strategy. Everyday before we started, I had to make sure the galley and captain’s quarters where always closed and taped off. This project required a lot of sanding, which created dust clouds that made the Sonoran Desert look like a sand box. As if the actual work wasn’t difficult enough, it had to be timed around lunch and dinner preparation. Some days were better than others when it came to actually getting meals out. When I was late with lunch, the crew would threaten mutiny, and the captain, a swing from the yardarm. I thought running a business was hectic and demanding; at least I got to wear fine clothing, and I smelled good most times.
Brightwork, or the actual varnishing process, involved a rotation of sanding, wiping down with acetone, applying two coats of epoxy, sanding, wiping down with acetone, then applying three coats of varnish (actually a two-part polyurethane), allowing it to dry for 2 days, sanding, wiping down with down with acetone, applying three coats of varnish, two more days of drying, sanding, wiping down with acetone (we could go on and on…) until there where twelve coats of varnish. Then all the surfaces were prepared (sanded and wiped down) one final time so Preston could come in and spray the final varnish coat. This process covered every square inch of the salon, which numbered in the thousands. Obviously, it was a monotonous job, which required every crewmember to be recruited to help get the job done from time to time.
As if the project wasn’t involved enough, Tracy decided this was the best time to move the port door forward (by one panel width) and build the L-shaped bench before we finished that side of the salon. After all, why would we finish something, destroy it and have to finish it again? She knew she had an additional bench to build that would further accommodate our large crew, so she tackled it with her trademark tenacity and a little help from her dad -- a job Craig was not looking forward to, but knew needed to be done now. But with the Tracy’s enthusiasm, Craig was spurred on to tackle the job along with all the other projects he had started (but not finished, remember, he’s the quintessential do-it-yourselfer), and wow, they got the door meticulously cut out, removed and reinstalled all in one day! It was impressive. Then Tracy finished the wall (preparing it for varnish), built the L-shaped bench and raised all the seating in the salon to accommodate all us long-legged folks all while the rest of the salon was being finished out.
With the salon’s brightwork complete, we had a very “cozy” (we hear this word a lot) place where we could gather and/or eat out of the wind and rain, and once Chad had installed the “computer cabinet” he built (the one housing a stereo, an Apple G5, a 21” flat screen, several external hard drives among lots of other switching and other technical stuff) we had a home theater on board! Morale was indeed improving.
