As if we don't have enough projects going on lately I decided to have our cockpit table refurbished! "Why on earth?", I hear everybody say...well...it needed to be done and now is the time to do it, because now we are still at the dock. I mean, who wants to schlepp a cockpit table the size of ours via dinghy to the nearest shore to get it fixed? Common sense told me to grab the opportunity and get it done...now! When served lemons may as well make lemon juice. I promised my captain that this was MY project, which in turn brought life back to his ashen cheeks :)
Orion's cockpit table is quite unique...hand crafted by the previous owners with cut outs for the helm (steering wheel) and the binnacle (compass housing)...it fits snuggly over said helm and binnacle and was originally fastened with a hook on the bottom side of the table to one of the spokes on the helm. It is made of marine plywood and the whole table was varnished. Over the years the varnish deteriorated and some nicks needed to be mended. It was too much work to sand and fill and re-varnish times ten...way too much work and to have somebody else do it was not cost effective. What to do? My idea of laminating the whole thing and forget about everything else met...to my utter surprise...with total approval by both my captain and a local day laborer ready to do the work :) Problem solved! Since I did not take a picture of the "before" (my utmost apologies) the pictures "after" are all I can display!
We had the finished table back the next day! Here it is with the laminate applied, but the plastic protective film still attached. We decided that the French whipped wheel cover, which I painstakingly made a few years ago, had seen better times and needed to go.
It took me only a little while to cut the material off the steering wheel...contrary to the process of applying it, which took hours!
So here is the finished shiny table with the plastic protective film removed and the helm in its stainless steel glory without the cover. I made the white straps with snaps (remember my new snap tool?) to hold the table in place...works like a charm and much better than the hook that was used previously. Now we can dine in style again in the cockpit :)
Of course we take the table down before we sail...it stores neatly in front of the fridge/freezer in the main cabin.
I made a little "hoodie" for the compass out of some material I had left over :)
Woohoo...another project finished...best of all...my captain is as happy as I am...life is good :)
