I beefed up the interior of the compartment on the starboard side, just aft of the rear bulkhead and added an exterior mounting point for the motor mount. It will be held in place with four 3/8" bolts through the drilled holes visible here.
I beefed up the interior of the compartment on the starboard side, just aft of the rear bulkhead and added an exterior mounting point for the motor mount. It will be held in place with four 3/8" bolts through the drilled holes visible here.
Assembling the deck panels:
Note to people building the kit: the instructions talk about joining the deck panels with thin strips of plywood that fit into incised channels. My kit had neither the strips or the channels, so I contacted Brandon Davis, the creator of the kit, at Turn Point Design. He told me they had dumped the strip joining method in favor of simply running fiberglass tape along the bottom sides of the seams, so that's what I did.
My last task before affixing the decks was to solve my cabin storage layout. I ended up with a shelf on each side between the bulkhead and knee, beneath which I ran a couple of lines of bungee to create a space for stowing things like water bottles, first aid and hygene kit, etc. Next came two cargo mesh compartments along each side. Then I ran a line of bungee around the perimeter of the forward half of the cabin for keeping loose items like clothing, stuff bags, etc. out of the way. Finally, a closeline around the upper cabin for hanging lanterns, wet socks, what have ya.
Decks are lain...
...trimmed and glassed:
I temporarily clamped the "RowCruiser" panel in place so I could remove it while I layed glass. It seemed easier than trying to work around it.
It's always really scary cutting holes in your boat!
Building the hatches. Believe it or not, this was not an adequate number of clamps for the companionway hatch. It came out a bit wavy. I will probably rebuild it at some point, but it is solid and functional for now.
To get the right curve for the other hatches, I placed risers under the edges and screwed through battens in the centers.
Moving on to rowing components.
@Kellan Hatch Exactly the photo I was looking for! Thanks for that. It wasn't clear to me how the hatch pieces fit together
David
Another nailbiting cut into the hull. This time for the bottom of the daggerboard well.
Flipped, sanded and primed. I ran out of primer 80% through, so now I'm twiddling my thumbs waiting for another can to arrive.
I'm excited to be in the final stretch. My goal is to be finished and fitted out by the end or March. Woohoo!
@David E Lee I'm not overjoyed with the result. My hatches don't quite fit flush. It will be ok, though, I'm going to install them with turnbuttons which will flatten them out and hold them down tight. I imagine the straps in the plans would do that well, too, but I think turnbuttons are a more elegant solution.
