Hi John,

I removed both the veneered plywood (1/4″) plus the underlayment (1/2″) plus the 3/4″ exterior ply all at one time.  I then removed 1/2″ around the perimeter of the top layers and glued and tacked a teak frame to fit.  Then I added the latches.  It was much easier that way – After removing the 1/2″ for the frame, I ran 1 blade thickness off a long side and a short side of the 3/4″ layer so it would fit back in the hole properly.

The things you're calling 2 x 4s are actually 2 x 3 douglas fir.  You can purchase them at any lumber yard except Home Depot or Lowes.  I got mine in a yard in Connecticut.  Make sure you get douglas fir because it is rot resistant which white pine is not.

Bob

On Wed, Mar 17, 2010 at 5:05 PM, John Stevenson wrote:

 A year or so ago, Bob Fine posted pictures of his project to add hatches in the cabin sole and gain access to some of the space under the sole for storage.  After a year or so of procrastination on my part, I've finally started a similar project.  I'm documenting the progress on my website at http://www.svsarah.com/Sarah/ewUpgradeStorage.htm#Under_Cabin_Sole, but I will summarize that progress in this email.
Like Bob, I was reluctant to trust my woodworking skills to perform the cutting of the cabin sole.  I hired a local yard (Deaton's in Oriental, NC) to make the cutouts.  I'm glad I did as what we encountered was a little different than I expected after viewing Bob's pictures and descriptions.  It goes to the fact that probably no two 424s are the same, even if they have consecutive hull numbers.
I knew that the Sarah's cabin sole is made up of two layers of plywood. The top layer is 1/2″ plywood with the Teak and Holly veneer.  The lower layer or sub-floor is 3/4″ plywood.  The top layer appears to be marine grade plywood and the lower layer appears to be exterior grade plywood.
I assumed that the two layers had been laminated together and all that was necessary to remove a cutout was to remove any plugged screws in the flooring.  Not so on Sarah.  The two layers are secured together by the plugged screws, but the bottom layer is secured to the longitudinal and cross-member supports for the sole by a separate set of screws that are not accessible until the top plywood layer has been removed.  This added a lot of labor to making the cutouts that I did not anticipate, but at least everything came out clean.
One difference between Sarah (hull nr 2) and most of the other 424s is the location of the shower sump tank.  On Sarah the tank was glassed to the top of the keel under the cabin sole aft of the mast step – in that area under the sole that is almost inaccessible, and actually inaccessible by a wide-body like myself.  I had bypassed this tank years ago and one of the benefits I hoped to achieve with the hatches under the table was to be  able to remove that tank.  With access to the tank I found removing it to be a problem.  It is securely glassed to the top to the keel.  I tried to break it free without success, but I did not want to break it into fragments as I don't have a grinder to remove those fragments.  So for now the tank has been left in place.  I may adapt it to a storage locker or borrow/rent/buy a grinder and finally remove it.
Now I am working on modifying the cutouts to become hatches and adding cleat stock to the cutouts to support the hatches.  It appears to me that Pearson used 2×4 lumber and ripped it down to 2×3 for the longitudinal and cross-wise supports under the cabin sole.  I will attempt to use 2×2 dimension lumber as my cleat stock.

More to follow.
—
Regards,
John Stevenson
http://www.svsarah.com

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Bob Fine
s/v Pelican
Pearson 424 Hull #8
http://thesailinglife.blogspot.com
Follow me at: http://www.tinyurl.com/WhereIsBobFine

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