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
Hello Sean
ReplyDeleteI was thinking of adding a bomar hatch to my kayak. I was wondering how you have got on with yours. Is it watertight?
Ian: Sorry for taking so long to answer. My Bomars leak a little bit - depending on what I am doing with the boat. During normal paddling they're pretty good. If I'm doing a lot of rolling or just fooling around and totally submerging the decks, I do get some water in. I may run some heavy rubber bands under the rubber seals to tighten the fit!!
ReplyDeleteSean