C'est la Vie is a 1966 Charlie Morgan 34.

Her home port is Everglades City, FL. Our typical cruising area is Southwest Florida, the Florida Keys, the Southeastern Atlantic Seaboard, and the Bahamas. We are C'est la Vie's third owners and purchased her in 2005. We continue to maintain and update this classic vessel. Please post any questions or comments about C'est la Vie or our travels via the comment links below.


Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Refinishing C'est la Vie's Cabin Sole.

Our winter work schedules have finally relaxed and now provide time to pick up the pace on boat projects.  We purchased the material for replacing the veneer on the cabin sole nearly one year ago.  No more procrastination. Time to quit hauling the roll of laminate around and actually install it.  


First a bit of history.


August 2005 - Our first glimpse of C'est la Vie on the hard in Titusville, FL
Prior to our purchase of C'est la Vie in December 2005, she weathered the epic 2004 Atlantic Hurricane Season on the hard in Titusville, FL.  Debris from TS Charlie plugged the cockpit scuppers while the rains filled the cockpit.  A few weeks later TS Francis transited the area and dumped additional rains.  The accumulated water cascaded down C'est la Vie's companionway and flooded the interior to a depth of approximately six inches over the cabin sole in the galley.  

We repaired or replaced most victims of the flooding immediately after purchasing C'est la Vie.     The cabin sole remains one of the few items that bears evidence of the flooding.
The cabin sole looking forward from the galley.  Dark stains on trim upper right note high water mark  from 2004 flooding.
The removable sections of the sole were successfully refinished by the previous owner in 2005.  The non-removable sections of the sole have continued to deteriorate. Last spring veneer began to peel away in front of the stove and became a nasty source for splinters in bare feet.

Sole in galley area.  Note dark  high water mark on corner  trim on right side of image.
While pulling all the floor and corner trim in preparation of creating templates, project creep set inn as a realized now is the time to refinish wooden trim surrounding the cabin sole.



While make a mess atop the new sole?  Break out the sandpaper!  I have created a new photo album for this project... Refinishing Cabin Sole - Winter 2013.  A link is also available in the Projects Side Bar on the blog page.   More to come...