Carpentry, Electrical and Electronics - 2024 i.e. time to make the inside more functional

Like everything else that was involved with the refit during haul out, Hurricane Beryl interrupted our work. What follows is the plan and some pictures of the progress we had made. When the boat fell over and the hull caved in, the cabinetry and bulkheads on the port side were all dislodged and many shattered as they were up against the hull and when it caved inward it pushed the interior wood out of the way.

Carpentry work in the interior

The interior of the boat was designed over 20 years ago to meet the needs of a crew of 9 or more doing offshore racing. It was designed with 3 staterooms each with a double bed and then the Salon table could also be reconfigured for another double berth and finally a single berth area also in the salon that once fitted with a lee cloth could be used for a crew member underway. The boat had 2 heads - one all the way forward in the bow, forward of the master's berth, and then a more roomy head (the day head) in the salon area. The 2 aft berths were located on either side of the main engine space and under the cockpit. There was a traditional Navigation station adjacent to the salon head that had mounting space for a chart plotter, radios and the electrical panels. Finally, the galley area was an L shape on the starboard side at the base of the companionway.

So our list of complaints after living on the boat for 3 years

While the interiors was nicely appointed in cherry, we found the lighting a bit dark - especially to do any kind of maintenance work at night.

• While fairly spacious, for our needs as a couple cruising full time, we found the layout not as effective as it should have been given the amount of space (almost a 15' beam) available. Storage space was plentiful, but most of it was buried deep and inconvenient to access.

• While we know how to use paper charts, we have 3 chart plotters, and several mobile devices all receiving GPS and able to be used to plan and manage our passages. This made the Nav station just wasted space with a horizontal surface that just collected stuff.

• In the forward berth, there was a seating area (couch) on the port side that was clearly an afterthought. We used the space to hold our Engels powered cooler.

• The cat's litter box sat on the floor of the forward head making that already cramped space unusable for anything but some storage and it was not setup to facilitate that either.

• The Starboard berth hatchway is very narrow and it pinches the side of the galley making access to our top loading deep freezer challenging especially for someone shorter than almost 6' tall.

• There was really no place below to stretch out and lounge other than a berth. The salon table area was fine for eating but we could never get comfortable to watch our large TV that was mounted on the bulkhead adjacent to the mast that separated the Salon from the forward berth.

So with this extensive list of gripes we decided to start a major renovation of the interior to make it more useful for us.

Our list of projects:

• Starboard AFT berth – convert to storage, including opening up the hatch/doorway to allow for larger items

• Galley – Square up the corner of the countertop closest to the berth (now) storage to make it easier to access the freezer

This picture shows the galley and entrance to the Starboard Aft Berth - you can see how the doorway infringes on the Galley counter/ cabinetry space - the freezer is in the back left corner of the counter top

• This is as far as we got - the doorway frame and associated bulkhead is cut away - this made the galley much easier to use. We still needed to refinish this area

• Navigation Station – convert to Engels pull-out slider, Tool chest and work area, update electronics and electrical systems there

The Nav Station as it looked when we bought the boat

This is why we wanted to make the change - This is how the Nav Station looked prior to Demo

The Space the Nav Station used to occupy - you can see the Ship's electrical harness termination point

This was our planned design for how we were going to use this space

The layout of the upper left electronics door - we were just starting to layout this piece of wood

The layout of the upper right electronics door - everything here was mounted and working

This was our plan on how to route and mount all of the wiring for the AC, DC and electronics that needed to be mounted in this area

Again this is far as we got. The wiring is mostly complete and we were working our way through making final connections and testing each circuit

This was as far as we got. The workbench surface is in place, the drawer supports are in place and the upper right electronics door panels are in place with electronics mounted

• Salon table – reconfigure for storage, love seat and table, recover cushions

This is the starboard side of the salon after we dissassembled the outer salon table cushion area closest to the galley- this is as far as we got. The cusions were done by the way

This is as far as we got- The cabinetry is installed, but the drawers were never completed

After all the cabinetry was removed - the bench area remained - it was not worth removing as the hull is right behind it

The design of the drawers and storage for this area

Portside Couch as used by previous owner

The design of the drawers and storage for this area - top view - the hull is rapidly angling towards the bow so we are working against a curved surface here

The head as we purchased the boat

Simple plan to add shelves

This came out really well and they and the stored stuff actually survived the knock down mostly intact

Electrical and Electronics Ramifications

As you can see by the pictures and diagrams above, this interior redesign was a significant impact on the boat's electrical and electronics systems because the heart of those systems was located behind the nav station. There were several issues that we took the opportunity to address since we were here:

• There was a nagging drip from a stanchion that was located directly above the original DC electrical patch panel that was causing corrosion issues - we needed to relocate that panel so it wasn't getting dripped on

• As we had added both electrical and electronics items over the previous 3 years of refit, this area had become a tangled mess as it was never intended to host so much equipment and associated wiring. We needed to clean this all up.

• As we were adding a Master Alarm panel that had over 30 new connections associated with it, we needed to make room to manage all of that wire

• We knew the new workbench was going to need power, so we planned ahead with plenty of DC, USB and AC power available

• When we redid the AC Electrical Patch panel originally, we where not happy with the results - it was not anywhere as neat as it should have been and was taking up valuable space

• We knew we had some dead wiring and some abandoned conduit - time to clean it up

• We had some good ideas that turned out to be not so great, that needed to go away - time to clean them up also

So that is quite a list - it took me 2 weeks of 8 hour days to do the demo and put it all back together. Fortunately, Beneateau numbers each conductor on the boat uniquely and provides a key to those wires. This index/ key was invaluable to rebuild both the DC and AC systems. Even with that help, there were still some gotchas that took a few hours to work through - especially the way the overhead lights were wired.

Overall, we were pretty pleased with the results so far. The boat was coming back to life and as the carpentry was being assembled, I was installing more parts and pieces and making connections. We figured that I had made in excess of 400 connections from DC, AC, Network, NMEA 2000, Low power signaling and others.