V-Berth Refit

One of the last major cabins to refit on Wildthing was the v-berth at the front of the boat. The v-berth on the Pan Oceanic 46 has a nice queen size bed to port along with a cabinet and a set of drawers. On the starboard side there was a locker and some drawers. The v-berth is probably the largest cabin after the main salon. It required a lot of work to cover the huge headliner, bulkheads, floor and hull.  

V-Berth Maple Tambour

The 40 year old teak plywood and veneer that was used to build the cabinetry in the v-berth had literally disintegrated. The two port lights had both leaked and added to the damage. 

We ended up tearing out most of the starboard side and building a new cabinet with shelves and a hanging locker. This was discussed in a previous post.

The old teak veneer was stripped off down to the bulkheads to allow us to attach the new maple tambour. It came off easily, in sheets, with a little scraping. 

We continued the use of maple tambour in the v-berth, like we had in the rest of the boat. Each piece of tambour was first cut to fit each area of the bulkheads. 

It was then removed and varnished for final assembly. We glued the panels to the bulkheads using a Roberts 2001 floor adhesive. We had to get creative in a few spots to hold the panels in place while the glue dried.

All the tambour pieces were cut and rough fitted last season. This year we did alot of sanding and varnishing to get the panels ready for final installation.

Brad fired up the sprayer and let the Epifanes varnish fly. Three coats of clear and one coat of matte finish were applied with copious amounts of glorious, glorious sanding in between coats.

Adding the sheets of tambour quickly changed the look of the old rustic v-berth into a classic designed yacht interior.

Port side bulkhead glued and braced

Cabinet face frame and outlets installed

Port side bulkhead and cabinet

Each piece in the v-berth went together like a puzzle. Once the face frame was secured, the other pieces of tambour could then be glued onto the bulkhead. We tried not to use any fasteners with the panels. They were glued and braced to hold them in place until they dried for about 24 hours. 

We found that if we glued more than one panel we would sometimes get buckling of the panels due to expansion. 

 A solid surface countertop was glued on top of the cabinet with silicone before the tambour went on. The cabinet door will be installed once it is varnished to complete the port side.

Starboard side cabinetry

Tambour was glued onto the starboard side cabinet, aft bulkhead and the small cabinet on top. Solid maple face frames for both the hanging locker and cabinet above will be varnished to complete the starboard side cabinetry. 

Starboard side cabinets

Cabinet face frame test fit

Tambour installed on the side of the berth with light switch

Top cabinet face frame, teak trim and solid surface on top of cabinet

Forward bulkhead in the v-berth & anchor locker

Tambour glued onto the forward bulkhead

Anchor locker door installed with  latches

Hinge detail of the anchor locker door

New Headliner

All the old vinyl headliner was removed and new slats were screwed into the ceiling to allow us to attach the new headliner.

This headliner is the same Sintra plastic product we used in the rest of the boat. The panels were kept small to allow easy installation and access if needed. 

We had a groove cut in the panels with a CNC machine to give it a wainscoting look. We took special care to make sure the grooves in the headliner, lined up forward to aft on the ceiling. The panels were initially rough cut for size then removed for sanding, priming and painting.

V-berth headliner panels looking aft

We added insulation between all the slats on the ceiling. We used an aviation product called Armaflex, which has an adhesive backing. It provides excellent insulation with sound dampening properties. The Armaflex is the black foam material between the slats.

V-berth headliner

Each panel was then sanded and primed, sanded again and given a final coat of white Interlux Bright Sides gloss paint.

We added 4 new LED lights and a fan to give the space a bright and well ventilated feel. 

Port side headliner

The new headliner is shown with the teak strips covering the seams of the panels. Each piece was rough cut then taken down for sanding and multiple coats of varnish. The teak strips edges were routed with a round over bit and were mitered where they met. 

The teak strips were cut to 2 1/4 wide by 3/8 inch thick. The teak was given two coats of Epifanes gloss varnish to fill the grain. A final coat of matte Epifanes varnish was sprayed on to give it a deep rich look. The teak strips were screwed into the headliner frames using 3/4 inch stainless steel screws. All screws were countersunk.

The contrast between the white headliner and the dark teak made for a nice contrast. This headliner took the most work of all the projects on the entire boat. Thousands of man hours were spent cutting, fitting, painting, sanding, routing and installing. 

If we had to do it again we would go with something prefinished and easier to install. This headliner is truly unique and a work of art.

 New Flooring

The floor in the v-berth is tiny and odd shaped because it comes up next to the hull on the starboard side. One floor hatch is located in the center of the floor. The floor was not quite high enough, so some plywood subfloor was added. The flooring was the same vinyl material used in the rest of the boat. The lines of the flooring were continued throughout the boat. The flooring was also used on the toe kick up the from side of the cabinet to improve durability.

Flooring and a latch were added, edges trimmed out in teak

New hatch with flooring trimmed in teak

The hatch in the floor was trimmed with teak strips cut to 7/8 inch high by 1/4 inch wide. Flooring, trim and latch were added to the hatch to complete the floor.

Brad has become a master at spraying paint and varnish over the many years working on Wildthing. 

Learning new skills is important if you want to refit a large yacht like this. After a lot of trial and error, he has the formula down for mixing paints and varnishes. He uses a small HPLV spray gun to apply the finishes.

Here he is applying one of the many coats of varnish to the maple tambour panels. 

Many man hours of cutting, sanding and varnishing went into each panel. The results have been worth all the effort. 

The old teak was very dark and made the cabins feel claustrophobic. The new lighter maple tambour was added to give the space an airy and open feel. 

We had purposely removed all the teak on the outside of the boat to reduce the maintenance but added a lot of wood on the inside to give it a rich look. We tried to recreate the look of the Dutch built boats. They are examples of some of the best joinery and craftmanship. We did not quite reach that level of work but we came close. 

One AC outlet was wired into the port side cabinet. The AC outlet has a two USB charging ports.

 A dual DC USB outlet was wired below the AC outlet to provide charging of mobile devices when the inverter AC power is not on. 

The DC USB outlets were purchased on Amazon. These have an on and off switch and an LED indication of the voltage of the DC house batteries. 

The LED lights in the cabins are controlled at the main DC switch panel. Dimmer switches were added in each cabin to control the lights. I thought of using some WiFi controlled switches in the cabins but kept it simple to decrease setup and maintenance.

Hull Side Covering

Port Side

The sides of the hull in the v-berth were stripped down to bare fiberglass. We glassed on strips of plywood to the hull to have something for the panels to attach to. 

The same ArmaFlex insulation was used to insulate the hull. We used sheets of 1/4 plywood to cover the side hulls. The panels were covered with epoxy resin and painted to seal them from moisture and give a nice white background. Teak slats were added every 6 inches to break up the white side hull. 

Starboard side finished

Port Side finished and trimmed into the headliner

New Cabinet and Hanging Locker

The whole right side of the v-berth was rebuilt using 1/2 inch marine plywood to create two bulkheads. Templates were made of the bulkhead and then transferred to plywood. One section will be shelves and the other a hanging locker. The bulkheads were epoxied to the hull.

3/4 inch poplar was used to build the framework of the shelves and hanging locker.

We insulated the hull in the back of the lockers with the same Armaflex insulation.

New face frames and doors were built for the shelves and hanging locker on the starboard side and the cabinet on the port side.

Solid maple was milled down with a power planer and table saw to 3/4 inch thick stock.

We created a step to get into the berth. We made a hinged door to allow access to storage below. 

Another storage locker was created ahead of the cabinet shelves and hanging locker. 

This triangular hatch opens up to allow access to storage below.  We covered the triangular hatch with the same flooring material and hinged it on the outboard side.

Solid Surface Countertops

Pieces of solid surface or Corian like material was used to cover the top of the shelve and hanging locker unit. The material is 1/4 inch thick and is easily cut with a table or skill saw. 

The material has a shiny surface on one side and matte surface on the other. We chose the matte surface which is easy to clean and any scratches can be easily sanded out.

The pieces were glued down with silicone adhesive.

 

Solid surface counter top was cut for port side cabinet and glued down with silicone.

Cabinet Face Frames and Doors

Now that we had cabinets we wanted to dress them up by adding some solid maple face frames and doors similar to the other shaker style cabinets in the boat.

We dusted off the table saw, power planer, Kreg Jeg, router and the random orbital sander and got to work.

Brad had purchased some nice hardwood maple boards but they had to be milled down to the 3/4 thickness. A couple passes through the power planer made quick work of that. 

We ripped the boards to 2 1/4 inch widths for the stiles and rails. We used the Kreg Jeg to create pocket holes on the back of the face frame and connected them together with glue and screws.

We set the table saw blade and cut a 1/4 inch deep by 3/16 inch wide recessed groove in all the pieces to allow the center panels to slip in. 

We used 3/16 inch maple plywood for the inset panels in the cabinet doors. We created these doors similar to the shaker style doors in the rest of the boat. We made sure everything was square and glued them.

The stiles and rails of the doors were connected with biscuits at the joints and glued with the center panels in place.

The face frame and doors were rough fit and glued.  Hinges were hand chiseled into the doors and frames to allow the proper reveal.

Holes were drilled into the cabinet doors to allow the finger pulls and latch mechanism to be attached.

This is the face frame for the little cabinet on top of the hanging locker. Instead of building a door for this we just made a cut out to allow access the cabinet and keep items from rolling out. A similar face frame cut out was used in the aft head cabinets.

This is the rough fit of the face frame on the starboard cabinet and shelves. On a boat nothing seems to be square, plumb or level. Every piece has to be custom fit. Once this face frame is installed the last of the tambour can be attached to the lower cabinet.

The rough fit of the face frame and door. 

Assembled face frame and door

V-berth starboard side locker

V-berth forward bulkhead, anchor locker, side panels and headliner

Anchor locker latch

Starboard side top cabinet face frame and tambour

Port side cabinet and aft bulkhead

V-berth starboard side cabinet doors

V-berth aft bulkhead tambour, fan, dorade covers 

This season was very productive. Summer is fast approaching and I am heading back to South Dakota for the summer. Work on Wildthing will pause during the brutal summer in Florida. 

We were able to install the two electric Lewmar primary winches and two manual secondary winches. We then moved onto the v-berth and nearly completed this cabin after two years of work. Side hulls coverings, headliner bulkheads, flooring and cabinetry were completed. The pilothouse was painted and the headliner was completed. More pictures on the pilothouse reveal will follow later.  Some repairs were made to the outside hull and caprail damage that occurred during hurricane Ian. 

I will return in November to hopefully finish up the v-berth. Stay tuned for more posts. Work is slow but we are coming to the end of the project. It is so exciting and gratifying to see 20 years of work come to completion. 

~~~Sail On~~~/)

Mark