The salon shrank

My goal was to  have all the wood work in the salon completed by the end of April, and while I'm going to be close, I won't be finished in a week. I'll be close, but not finished.

This weekend I brought in the cabinets I built last year and got them fitted. The range cabinet along with the 36" sink base and the 18" drawer unit are in their final resting spots, and things are looking good.

With the cabinets in place, I'm able to finalize the air conditioning ducts that feed the salon and wheel house. Along with those two six inch ducts, a six inch return air line is getting installed in the salon. Getting these ducts installed required giving up some real estate, but I've had my plan in my head for a year now, and I think it will work. The only less than ideal strategy is that I don't have a return air line to the wheel house. The wheel house is open to the salon, so I'm hoping the air will get pushed back in to the salon's cold air return.

The other issue that's been thrown in this mix is how I'm ventilating the lazzarette ( the room under the aft deck, aft of the engine room). The air conditioning unit for the salon and wheel house resides in the lazzarette. I had originally vented this room with two three inch ducts that ran up and out the salon aft bulkhead. This was really a poor design on my part, along with having too small of vents. As it turns out, I had to cannibalize those two vents to get some plumbing in to the lazzarette, so on to plan B. I'm talking about all of this because this is going to impact the forced air cooling of the salon and wheel house, and this is what I 'm dealing with today. It's really not that big of a deal as I'm going to locate some 6" cowl vents and use the plasma cutter and hog out two holes in the aft lazzarette bulkhead three feet above the swim platform. This will be adequate ventilation for the lazzarette helping get rid of the  heat from the AC unit, which will help with the cold air return..... air in needs air out.

Before the cabinets can be landed for good, the range needs to be located off of the starboard wall. Again, no bid deal, but the gas connection needs to be landed  once I haul the range to the boat precisely locate it.

Unlike a  house, where things are plumb, level, and square, a boat with its descending and ascending angles and dangles, everything needs to hit a specific location.  In a  house, if one needs to frame in a square chase in the corner of a ceiling to route some plumbing or HVAC, it's no big deal as the space's are huge, and likewise easy to square things to each other. A boat on the other hand is 30 times more robust than a house yet her spaces are delicate and need to be treated that way.

I can now say that I'm closing in on completing the salon. All the major components are in their places and I'm totally happy how nice the space feels. Two people can easily navigate without tripping over each other and no area of the salon has me feeling cramped or claustrophobic. With the tinted windows open, the breeze moves through nicely, and there's plenty of light. With the tinted windows closed, the sun getting through and washing over the darkening Cherry wood , gives the room a warm and rich feel. The table saw has moved to the aft deck along with the saw horse cutting station. For the first time, the dust of a build is on the retreat.

Cheers,