Black Pearl Project - All Decked Out!

With the interior of the hull glassed, the next step was to move onto the deck. Saturday AM I did some more mouldings around the house. It was not going very well - eventhough I managed to finish the baseboards in the upstairs hall.  Saturday afternoon saw me back in the attic - ready to tackle the deck!!

I used the same tactic with the deck that I did with the hull, i.e., let the strips run off the edge and trim them later. Makes for a much quicker job!!

Below are a few shots of the progress made on Saturday afternoon.

It was St. Paddy's Day so that actually is a pint of Guinness in the mug!! The first of too many for the day/night! 

What I call the the "pixelated deck" because it looks like an image with very low resolution and therefore blocky!!

Showing the cockpit template.

Things were going great until I hit the transition from rounded deck to flat deck - right at the aft of the cockpit!! A fair bit of twisting of the strips was required!

Brace and strap used to keep the back deck flat.

And clamps used to keep the strips tight while the glue set. The staples did not have sufficient  holding power.

Half way done!!

I managed to get half of the back deck completed before supper but knowing that I could do it once meant I could do it again - and in half the time. After a feed of BBQed burgers and homemade fries, I took another pint of Guinness with me and headed back to the attic. In jig time I had the second half completed!

The remainder of Saturday night was spent partaking of various St. Patrick Day libations. A little reward for a job well done on the deck! Besides, I needed to get out of the attic and socialize a little more!!

Sunday was a bit of a break from the boat. Cheryl and I spent the afternoon by ourselves in town. A little walk around downtown and a coffee.  It was nice to get out!!

Monday was a Provincial Gov. holiday - yippee. The weather wasn't particularly nice so it was a good day to work on the boat.

In the morning I trimmed the wild edges of the deck and scraped/sanded the inside. After lunch I glassed the interior. It was rather uneventful. Must say that the pine looked nicer than I thought it would when wetted out. This part of the boat will hardly ever be seen so I saw no need to pigment the epoxy.

Deck inverted and laid in the hull while I glassed it!!

Cockpit cutout -  the underside!

The plans call for deck plates rather than hatches. I went with 8" Bomars with integral locks.

8" Bomar deck plate with lock.

Inverted deck laid in the hull.

After the glassed deck dried, I had to flip it and put it back in place - just to make sure nothing went out of whack during the glassing.  All still fits nicely!

Deck back in place - from the stern.

Cockpit from the stern.

From the bow.

 All in all, a good long weekend's work.

Thanks for dropping by, 

Sean