Chip & Debbie Willis on s\v Elegant'sea: Under sink Insulation, plywood hole covers etc.

January 2011 - Marina Cortez San Diego, CA

Looking up under the cabinet that holds the sink and drawers in the galley area. Looking up from the engine room.

Saturday we were back in the bilge. At home we made a piece of plywood for the underside of the sink. We removed all the hoses from the cabinet next to the sink that were running up high to the counter top. The area had been cut out quite a bit for hoses. We had a couple hoses and a T PVC fitting with a couple smaller vent hose coming off it behind the cabinet where we keep the pans. That is next to the sink on the starboard side of the sink. Also towards the sink there is the sink drain hose, the engine exhaust hose, the bilge pump hose and the PSS shaft seal hose. We also added another bilge pump hose.

The new ply wood covers those holes left by the old hoses. We also made the sink hose a bit smaller.

Before with the Perkins in there we were getting exhaust fumes and noise and diesel oil smells from under the sink are. This work will take care of that issue.

The plywood was pre-drilled and counter sunk at home. At the boat we had to trim it and cut out the are for the hoses we still wanted to use and then we used a router on the edges for chafe protection of the hoses.

Debbie used the plywood we finished (the new ½ inch piece) to cut the new sound insulation.

Debbie mounted the plywood to the underside of the cabinet by first drilling a hole into the cabinet underside plywood using an existing hole which we had pre-drilled in the new ply wood. Then she screwed in a screw into the underside of the cabinet to hold the new plywood in place. She then drilled all the rest of the holes using the same method. There were about eight holes for screws or maybe ten.

This piece of plywood goes into an awkward place and with the sink drain hose in the way it makes it even harder. But it is way easier than if the water muffler is there or the engine as that is where she was working from. If the engine were there and water muffler then it would be damn near impossible. So we used extra fasteners so it will not come down in many years of boat use.

I taped the sound insulation (I know the easy job again, how do I work this you ask J ).

Debbie then sprayed glue on the sound insulation and then on the plywood she had screwed into place. Then she slid in the insulation from the starboard side. It was not that easy as the insulation would touch and get stuck but she managed to get it in there nicely.

After the new exhaust hose and water muffler are installed we will put more sound insulation this area on the top side of the bottom of the cabinet and around the hoses going under the sink.