1971 Newport 30 Sailboat
Made one of the cushions for the v-birth today. Ended up being a bit more complex with curve+bevel in one side but turned out OK. Man, the boat doesn’t have much space for this type of work – cushion + roll of material + measuring tools and so for. Spent a lot of time crunched up in tight places.
Marina was without power today but thankfully, I have put in an inverter as part of my propulsion power system upgrade. That made it possible to complete this weekend’s project.
Upholstered the final saloon seat and paused to take in the new look. Love how cosy this. material looks, especially in the warm evening light.
Don’t want to run my usual electric heater off the inverter so got the fireplace going. This is definitely turning into a super cozy happy place!
With all 3 back support cushions done, it was time to get the seats upholstered. These ones are a bit more complicated because ever single one of the 3 has a small notch on one of the corners.
That makes them not really reversible and to save on the cost of material and make them more likely to stay in place I ended up using special nonskid backing. The zipper goes into the backing panel.
Then I make the top part using “simple box cushion”, except of course it has a notch that takes the “simple” part out of the name 🙂
Turned out pretty nice.
Made the final reversible cushion for the back of the seat by the fireplace. Now all the remaining ones are simple box cushions and should move quicker. Fingers crossed.
Used the high tide this morning to return back from Spaulding Marine Center yard to home marina. This was the first trip under own power with the new Victron system in. Still a bit of vibration due to shaft mis-alignment that I’ll need to chase but overall the boat performed great!
With vibration in shaft still quite present I decided not to risk making my own trip to the yard and took advantage of the BoatUS membership to get towed. Timed it to high tide and got lucky with perfectly calm weather. Tied up at Spaulding Marine Center for a quick haul out for cutlass bearing replacement.
This is the last piece of the puzzle – it may take care of the 100% of the vibration problem or most of it. I’ll likely still need to play with shaft alignment. We’ll see.
Making progress on cushions. Made the 2nd reversible cover for the back of the saloon seat. Turned out pretty nice – happy with it.
The first cover turned out pretty well. Used the traditional method with continuous boxing to make it reversible.
Realized last minute that I ordered #5 zippers and then got #10 pulls that totally don’t fit them. Doh! Tried to find #5 pulls anywhere in SF and managed to find 1 at a store on Clement st. That one was white. So this first cushion has black zipper with white pull. Will have to wait for more #5 to arrive in mail before I can tackle the other cushions.
Got the fabric for the cushions today. Soooo looking forward to making the covers and seeing how the saloon looks.
Finalized the front section of the new sail cover/bag by adding straps and buckles.
