Little jobs

This morning I found that my paint was still tacky, so rather than putting the second coat on I tackled a number of other little jobs.

I applied fillets to the transom, and epoxy coated the bevel I had planed on the bottom of the transom doubler.  I test fit the cockpit sole and found it was a touch long, so I planed off about 1/8" on the back edge.  I believe the bevel on the doubler is doing it's job of making the installation easier.

I then trimmed the centerboard pivot pin to length and made the solid cover that will be glued on the water ballast tank end of the pivot hole.  I also made the cover that holds the head of the bolt and screws on from the underseat area.  Here the rough first coat of epoxy over the bare wood is shown.  I'll smooth that down and recoat before installation.  I also drilled out to 1/4" and epoxy filled the anchor holes for the screws.

Then I clamped the hull to the building jig and removed the screws that were holding it in place.  I put the final coat of epoxy in those areas, and will sand and paint, and then reinstall the hold down screws.  Then I can remove the clamps so they are not in the way of hull panel installation.

A couple days ago I received in the mail an Earlex steam generator, and an eBay purchase of some 6" layflat tubing 4 mils thick,and so I experimented with some steam bending.  

This is a piece of lumberyard pine 10mm x 30mm.  I steamed it for 1/2 hour and was able to easily put a twist in it.  I'm going to try 20mm x 30mm next and if that bends easily I will do that and not have to laminate the under-deck carlins.  I will need to join shorter lengths with epoxy and scarf joints in either case, and I will be running another test with a test joint to ensure the epoxy doesn't soften and let go at that temperature.  I know I can soften epoxy with my heat gun, but that's quite a bit warmer, I think.

By steaming inside the plastic tubing (which is similar in weight to a zip-loc bag), I should be able to do this right on the boat, and not have to hurry from the steam box to the boat before things cool off.  I'll be providing more information on this later.

I also spent some time thinking about where I wanted my seat hatches and how large they should be.  This is the port side with one of the B3 hatches, which is 12 x 18".  I think that looks about right.

But on the starboard side, I have to set it further outboard because the centerboard trunk is under that seat.  this puts it too far out, in my opinion.  I plan to cut a new template so that I can cut the hatch, hatch stiffener, and underseat backing plate about 1 3/4" narrower.