Several Steps Forward

Early on the 5th, Tony and I got the supports for the rower's seat epoxied and screwed in place. With a piece of plastic over the curing epoxy we laid a piece of plywood in place so that Helen could confirm her seat design height.

As designers are wont to do, we had a design change but the epoxy hadn't kicked so it was easier than it would have been. With the lower seat, she's smiling - and I got the picture before the lower mock up collapsed. The rest of the day was spent glassing joints and the rear seat foot well - everyone had a chance to get sticky, again.

On Monday I worked on designing a double seal concept for the hatches while Tony calculated how much plywood we would need to complete the boat. With his answer compared to stock on hand, we decided to piece the decks for the side hatches from off-cuts, and started on hatch support frames accordingly.

The frames use a tendon fitted into a blind dado. The blind dadoes were done with a router while the tendons were cut with a backsaw.

The bare, dry frames received an initial load test,

and approval from the inspector.

By the end of the day we had the first piece of the back seat fitted,

and had started fitting the side deck pieces.

By lunch time on Tuesday all the pieces for the back seat and the side decks were fitted and ready for initial glass. While Helen and I worked with fiberglass, Tony started fitting the inwales.

The back seat pieces were easy, but most of the side deck pieces were more challenging.

We used the Saran Wrap trick to get the fiberglass cloth to conform to the tight curves from the bottom of the deck piece, around the edge that defines the space for the hatch lid, and onto the top of the deck pieces. Once the hatch interiors are painted, the deck pieces will be epoxied and screwed in place and then the deck will get two layers of cloth for strength and wear.

When I left them on Wednesday morning, Tony was working on fitting the outwales. I'll be back in a week, hoping the interior of the hatches are painted so that we can glass and install the fore and aft decks as well as the side deck and back seat pieces.