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.

Seats installed

Now that the cockpit floor is installed, I next moved on to the seats.  The starboard seat gets a section cut out to provide access to the centerboard from above, which will be handy to have when installing the centerboard.  Since I don't much like square corners, I layed out a curve on the aft end.

I didn't cut this access the full length of the slot, but left it about 8 inches short.  The idea there is to have no seams at the aft end of the trunk.  I have heard that some boats with the cover cut full length could get some water splashing/seeping through the joints, leading to wet clothing, and a recommended solution for that was to have a shorter opening, so I'm trying that.  

For the long straight cut I set up a fence and used the jig saw, after first flattening the set out of the blade with hammer and anvil in order to get a narrower kerf.  

For the corner I used a coping saw, which worked out pretty well.  I should have paid a little more attention to keeping the cut vertical, but it worked out fine.

I rounded over the edges a bit with sandpaper. 

And then put the final coat of epoxy on the underside of the seats and let that cure overnight.

In the morning I spread thickened epoxy on all the cleats and edges of the seat front on set the seats in place. I took care that they fit pretty well, so didn't need any clamps - just a few 23 gauge pins to snug it down and get a little glue squeeze-out. 

I didn't glue the joint between the back of the seats and the hull panels; that joint will be secured when I apply a fillet of epoxy along the joint, which will be the next job.

I'm always glad when the big glue jobs are done!

Cabin and front deck beams, cockpit sole cleats installed

I have now constructed and installed the beams that support the cabin roof and the front deck.  

Installing the deck beams fixes the bow transom in place, and I wanted to be very sure that it was centered.  The keel piece had somewhat of a bend to it, so I carefully measured from the corners of B3 to the top corners of the bow from both sides.  I pulled the bow over to the right and held it in place with a stick and two clamps.

Then measured again.  And eyed it up from the front.  And measured again...  Finally decided to go ahead and glue up the beams with thickened epoxy.

Here the ends of the deck beams poke through B2.  

After the epoxy cured and I removed the clamp I measured again.  And it wasn't straight.  <sigh>  So I softened up the epoxy with a heat gun where the beams pierced B2 and pulled it over to the right a little more and reclamped.  2nd try was perfect, so I went ahead and reinforced all the joints with fillets to fix things permanently in place.

Here's a shot of the cabin roof support beams.  Before installing these, I drilled a couple 3/8" holes and chamfered the edges.  These are in case I want to hang something from these supports sometime.  I also rounded over the edges that didn't meet other pieces, and then coated with 2 coats of epoxy.

I also cut and installed the cockpit sole cleats, except for the ones aft of B7.  These were installed with thickened epoxy.  I could clamp the side to side ones with bar clamps, but for the fore and aft cleats I braced them against each other with sticks.  This method of clamping is handy when it works. In both cases, I carefully aligned the cleats, then shot in a couple pins from my 23 gauge pin nailer to keep them from sliding around, then applied clamping pressure.

And here's the view after removing the clamps.  Looks nice.  One of my next steps will be to epoxy coat and paint all the interior spaces that will be easier to get at now while there are no hull panels to reach over. 

Seat cleats and transom doubler

Next job was to install cleats along the bulkheads to provide glue surface for the seats, which are installed later on.  I cut pieces from the cleat stock that I had previously prepared, and applied thickened epoxy to the cleat.  I then lined up each cleat and shot a couple 23 gauge pins in to keep it from sliding around, then follow up with clamps to ensure I had good contact.

I cut the ends of the cleats at a 45 degree angle and sealed the ends with thickened epoxy.  Cutting the ends like this will give me more clearance when I later apply the fillets between the bulkheads and the hull panels 

I also took this opportunity to glue on the transom doubler.  I had some difficulty clamping this part.  I had the part on my plywood risers, but ran them from side to side rather than front to back to make sure the panel didn't bow.  Doing that meant that the risers were in the way of my deep-throat vise-grip clamps.  

I was able to reach  parts of the panel from the edge, and some from the tiller cutout using my home-made cam clamps, but still needed more pressure out in the middle of the panel.  I tried piling on all my leftover lead ingots, but that wasn't fully effective.  Using go-bars between the workpiece and the shop ceiling finally did the trick.

Dynel, Cleats, and Building Jig

Since last update I applied dynel fabric to the leading edge and bottom of the rudder and centerboard.  Dynel is reputed to have very good abrasion resistance, and I put several layers on the parts that will drag first when the water gets thin.  Shown here is the front corner of the centerboard.

I also cut, planed, and routed some stock for cleats to reinforce the joints where plywood pieces meet in the boat.  These are just plain pine boards from Menards.  I've got 80' prepared.  There are some knots in this #2 lumber, but I will just cut around those and work with the clear wood.  Yellow cedar is recommended, but not to be found around here.  I will precoat these pieces with three coats of epoxy on the sides that will not be glued to other pieces.

Then I got started assembling the building jig.  I set up the legs and started gathering pieces, 

And held them in place with some clamps, 

And spent quite a bit of time shimming and checking for level both lengthwise and crosswise.

Then I screwed the bottom to the legs, and screwed in cleats to hold the sides to the bottom.  It stiffened up very nicely and now feels sturdy.

And ended the night by placing the first boat part on the jig - the hull bottom.  I think the shop is going to start feeling pretty small soon...