Teak Week

A couple of years ago Nicky announced that she really didn't like the plastic kitchen roll holder in the galley area so we have been on the lookout for a replacement ever since. Sadly it has been a fruitless search. We did find one that might have worked with a bit of modification but it turned out to be too large and prevented the fridge lid from being opened up.

With only three and a half months to go we wanted to find a neat solution so that we can have everything on BV as perfect as possible for when we set off.

The kitchen roll holder therefore fell in with another couple of other jobs that would necessitate a trip to the teak supplier we use based in Poole.

Starting to look good after just a couple of coats of varnish

So, armed with some nice new strips of teak it was time to retreat into my 'man cave' and be creative.

After a few hours with sawing, drilling and sanding noises coming from the garage I proudly emerged with a new teak kitchen roll holder. Making the expanding bar to hold the roll was an interesting game but it will allow the holder to be mounted vertically where the existing plastic one sits.  It just needs a few more coats of varnish to finish it off which will hopefully be done in time to fit it next week when we visit BV.

The other pieces of teak were for making a spice rack and a drip rail for the door to the forward heads.

When showering in the forward heads the way the outward opening door fits in the frame allows a little shower water to get under the door and onto the floor of the forecabin. A minor irritation which necessitates mopping up the water after every shower. When we were last on BV we removed the door for the forward heads (We now have three of the four cabin doors at home) so we were able to cut, shape and fit a drip rail which we hope will divert the shower water back into the heads area.

Drip rail to keep the shower water inside the forward heads

Nicky's varnishing shop

The spice rack will be a shelf at the back of one of the three lower lockers above the cooker. It's the only one of those lockers not to have a small shelf at the back so it was easy to copy the design of the other shelves. Once in place it will allow us to use the dead space at the top of the back of the locker and therefore free up storage space elsewhere.

With lots of pieces of teak needing varnishing Nicky's varnishing area in the kitchen is starting to look a little crowded. The spare bedrooms in the house are also full of cabin doors all in various stages of being finished.

The loading plan

When not applying layers of varnish Nicky has also been busy preparing the loading plan. There are so many little nooks and hidden stowage spaces on BV that we know we will quickly lose track of what we have onboard. We can also envisage knowing that we have a vital spare part onboard to fix something but just not know quickly enough where it is. Nicky has therefore started to number and name every locker and compartment on diagrams of the inside of the yacht. We'll be able to tie these in with the lists we have started to make of everything we have onboard. It will all be ready for when we complete the final loading early next year; we just need to be disciplined and keep it updated when we take things on and off BV.