Settee Rebuild

Sedna has a Cole brand wood stove on her saloon bulkhead.  It's a warming delight in the winter, but presents a couple issues that after 6 years I decided to fix.

First issue is that the stove sticks into the settee about 8 inches and is a real head bonker.

Secondly, ashes drop down on the settee cushion creating a mess and potential fire hazard.



So I decided to put a shelf/mantel/hearth under the stove to catch ashes and move the seat back away.






First I needed to demo the existing Settee while destroying as little of the beautiful mahogany as possible.  This was made easier by my reciprocating saw (seen here on the bilge) and removing screws piece by piece with care.

Sedna's bilge looks shallow because the potable water tank runs above the keel and fits a mere 2 inches below the sole boards.  There's a 3'x3'x4' deep well fore the companionway and aft the water tanks.  I sucked that dry and will repaint it.

Next, I checked for damage and painted the inside of the hull, bilge, and battery compartment while all the clutter was out... 

I removed the steel cover, cleaned, and flushed out the potable water tank...

After shortening the settee panel 9", I inserted a shelf under the wood stove. 

I re-positioned the settee back to fit on the face of the shelf and also be movable to leave a foot cubby-hole for my taller guests.  When done, i stored blankets and pillows in the cubby.

Here is a shot with the panel positioned for a sleeping giant.