There's going to be a porta-potty on this boat, but finding a home for it has been proving difficult. Originally I was going to put it on the starboard side just in front of the bulkhead, but after a mockup and some measurements that clearly wasn't going to provide enough headroom, so back to the drawing board. Too, I was originally going to run a deck side-to-side at the top of the stringers, but that height still was too high. So I decided to lower the deck between the stringers. Now this is no mean feat as the hull is curving upwards at this point and a sloped floor was no good either!
So to get a level deck low enough so that the top of the porta-potty would be below the level of the bunks meant that the deck would have to be cut with a curve to meet the curve of the hull. When I get it installed and some pictures taken it will be clearer than this, but suffice it to say I spent a lot of time working this out.
Next up was to cut center supports for the decking in both the cuddy and the cabin. With 1/2" plywood spanning 27" in the cuddy and 3/4" ply spanning 30" in the cabin there needs to be support running up the hull centerline. I cut holes in the decks for access plates and then cut strips of plywood the correct height and length to run the distance, but skip the plates. I'd come back later to epoxy these in because I needed to do some painting.
But before painting I needed to sand the hull where I would be applying epoxy and then swept and vacuumed up all the sawdust.
It's supposed to blow hard the next couple days which is ideal for when I'm painting with the Bilgekote. Because the wind moves the shed around and since the shed isn't airtight, the wind actually causes the shed to breath and that helps clear the air.
I pulled out the Bilgekote and painted the bilge area on the sides in the cabin. I got about a quarter of the way done when it would normally be time to quit, but I kept working right on through. Time consuming work painting all those surfaces! After this paint dries I'll be able to install the conduit and some closed cell foam where it will fit and I'll be able to drop the decking in place until I can permanently fasten it down.
Next was epoxying. I mixed up a large batch of epoxy and liberally coated the bottom sides of the cuddy and cabin decks. Most of the left over I turned into peanut butter and then starting at the front of the cuddy I painted epoxy on the bottom (that had been sanded earlier) and epoxy on the bottom edges of the plywood strips. I put a thick strip of peanut butter on the plywood and then pushed it down onto the hull. After the two strips in the cuddy I did the two strips in the cabin and as it worked out I had made exactly the right amount of epoxy!
With that I cleaned up and headed home.
Been a long night and I'm pooped. Supposed to get cold the next three days, below zero temp. Should be interesting to see how warm I can keep the shed.
5 Hours