A salad bowl was the dressing it needed
Issue 106 : Jan/Feb 2016
When we purchased Sundew, our Watkins 27, she needed love in many areas, (see “Sundew Returns to Bloom,” May 2013). What she did have, though, was a great stereo system. Two 12-inch Standard speakers were mounted on the main cabin bulkheads. I’m listening to them as I write this article.
What was not so great was the reverse side of one of the speakers protruded through the bulkhead in the head. The back of the speaker was as ugly as melted snow in March. After many years of putting up with, or simply ignoring, the speaker eyesore, my wife, Barb, suggested that we embark on a head beautification program by doing something with the speaker’s ugly backside. But what to do?
The solution was simple and took only five hours to fabricate and install. Barb found a wooden salad bowl at our local Walmart. That, plus several shop-made wire covers, worked to conceal the “ugly” speaker and the wire leading to it.
First, I sanded a flat surface on the rim of the salad bowl to receive the adhesive I would use to attach it to the bulkhead. Next, I covered the electrical connections and speaker wire with two wooden U-shaped wire covers that I made.
I glued the bowl and the wire covers to the bulkhead with Liquid Nails. (I used the formulation designed for use on fiberglass simply because I use it for a plethora of jobs on Sundew.) Several coats of varnish finished the job and forever vanquished the eyesore in the head.
Jim Shroeger began sailing more than 50 years ago in Jet 14s and progressed through a series of small to medium-sized daysailers including a Star. In the early 1970s, he and his wife, Barbara, and their two kids began their summer family cruises on the Great Lakes, which he and Barb continue to this day in Sundew, a Watkins 27.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
