Cabin roof installed

With the cabin sides installed and the cleats attached and beveled, the next step was to install the cabin roof.  I had been a bit apprehensive about this because of the difficulty of clamping.  

I put a couple boards across the roof and used two web straps to pull the roof to the curve of the supports.  The front strap is attached to the building jig under the hull, and the rear strap goes through the portholes and hooks into the hatch cutouts in the front face of bulkhead 4.

The straps pulled the top into the general position, but it was clear I'd have to do better to keep the top from bowing up, and to get the edges down tight to the cleat.  I decided to use screws for clamps, since it appeared to be the only option.  

To hold down the center I prepared a couple sticks and predrilled the screw holes.  For the edge of the roof I prepared a bunch of blocks to spread the pressure out.   I planed both the sticks and the blocks to the correct thickness to ensure the screws penetrated an appropriate depth. 

I applied thickened epoxy to the supports and screwed down the center of the roof, then bent the roof down with the web straps and screwed the blocks along the edge.

The blocks pulled down the edge real nice, and only one screw stripped out its hole.

 While the epoxy was curing I took the opportunity to spread the first coat of epoxy over the deck and cabin sides.

After the epoxy cured, I removed the straps and the blocks and was happy to find that nothing went 'sproing'.

I planed the edges flush with the cleats and filled the screw holes with fillet mixture. 

At the same time I filleted all the joints underneath between the roof, bulkheads, cabin beams, and sides.  Working through the bulkhead 3 hatch openings I could reach all the joints in that area also.

After the epoxy cured I scraped the nail holes flush and sanded the roof in preparation for fiberglass.  But before that is applied I will attach doublers to the front and rear edges of the roof and round over the front and back edges of the cleats.

I'm glad to have this part installed.  This boat is really starting to look like a SCAMP now.

Cabin sides installed

After the deck was installed I moved on to the cabin sides.  Here you see the cleats on the edge of bulkheads 2, 3, and 4.  These are beveled to match the angle of the cabin sides to provide a good glue surface, and I was working on these before gluing down the deck.

Here's the minimal clamping required during the glue up. The sides sit flush with the bottom surface of the deck, so the little leg in the foreground needs to be trimmed a bit, as it sits on top of the deck.  I also elected to cut the little quarter circle drain holes in the cabin side, mostly because I like the way they look.

I've got a little stick clamped to the deck pushing the forward part of the cabin side towards the center of the boat to keep the curve of the side constant.

After the epoxy cured I ran a little fillet along the lower edge of the cabin side to fix that in place.  Later on I will add a larger fillet and fiberglass tape to this joint.

I also glued on the doubler that reinforces the front section.

And filleted inside between the cabin side and the bulkheads. 

And along the bottom of the cabin side where it meets the carlin. After the epoxy cured I softened this edge with sandpaper.

With the sides attached the next step was to make the cleat that will hold the edge of the cabin roof.  There's a gentle curve to this, so I set up the steamer to bend the wood. 

After cooling and drying out I glued it on. 

Here you can see the small filler strip that I also added to the top of the cabin sides, as they were a little bit short. 

Here's the cleat installed. You can see I even remembered to run the bottom edge through the router before gluing it on.

And planed down to match the curvature of the roof, which is next to be installed.

Deck installed

With the underdeck supports complete, I was now ready to install the deck.  

There are four puzzle joints in the deck, and I had previously glued two of them, so now I did the other two.  I applied packing tape to the 3/4" plywood support and the 1/4" plywood pad under the clamps so the glue would not stick.  

I then applied thickened epoxy to the joint and clamped it down.  Then unclamped briefly to inspect and make sure I had enough epoxy in there, and clamped it again, leaving it to cure overnight.

The next day I discovered I had flipped over one of my clamp pads, so the tape side was up and it was firmly glued it to the top of my deck.  <sigh>

I didn't attempt to pull it loose since I didn't know whether the wood of the clamp pad or the wood of the deck would pull out, but I figured it would probably be the deck.  So I got out a wood chisel and started chipping away.

About 1/2 hour later I was getting close...

And after shaving the final bits off and sanding, you'd never know I messed up.  Unless I blab it all over the internet or something. 

With the joints completed I clamped a board across the deck to support the floppy parts, and took it into the shop to test fit on the boat.  I trimmed the aft ends of the deck a bit for a good fit, then took the deck off again to put on the final coat of epoxy on the underside.

And the next day glued it in place.  I put a few supports in place to hold the deck up while applying epoxy, then my wife helped me lower it into place.

The build manual calls for a bunch of screws through the deck to clamp things in place, but I used clamps instead.  And would have used a few more if I had them.

Up front I piled on what lead ingots I had laying around, and clamped battens across the deck to hold it down.  I put a couple wedges in at the very front to make sure I had good contact there.

After the epoxy cured I put away all my clamps, and admired the result.

Then got busy with the block plane on the outside curve and the spokeshave on the inside curves and trimmed the edges flush with the gunwales and carlins.

Following that I filleted the joint under the deck where it joins the hull panels.

The filleting went pretty quick, but the cleanup took a long time.  I sometimes had to work with a mirror to see what I was doing as I scraped off the excess material.

I'm now considering filleting the deck/carlin joints, which will be even a bit more difficult, but I'd like to have a smooth fillet under there.  Right now that joint is rough with a bit of hardened epoxy squeeze-out from gluing down the deck.

Deck supports complete

With the carlins steamed and bent into shape,  epoxying them into place was the next step. A couple clamps were needed to keep them in place until the epoxy cured.

Next up was planing the top surfaces of the carlins and gunwales so that the deck would lay flat on them.  The block plane was the tool of choice, and it made lots of fun curly shavings when held at an angle to the stock.

Nice looking result.  I went ahead and filleted around the carlin/bulkhead joints at this point.

Between B3 and B4 I drilled a series of holes to provide convenient anchor points for small items.

Up front I installed a couple cleats at the bow in case I need to anchor anything there.  At this point I'm thinking I'll have an open cleat there to lead the painter through if I have one attached to the bow eye.

When I test fit the deck I discovered that the plywood cleat that supports the aft end of the front deck was about 1/8" too low with respect to the cleats.  To fix that I covered a light batten with packing tape and sprung it across the cleats where the deck would lie.  I put another piece of packing tape on the face of B2, and filled the space under the batten with thickened epoxy.

After it cured, I removed the batten and peeled off the tape.  A nice clean job resulting in a perfectly fit spacer to support the back of the deck.