First I took off the rope locker door and hardware, the starboard bulkhead door and the port side vent. I sanded everything down; bulkheads, hull and decking, then vacuumed everything clean.
Then, as promised!, I took the two halves of the middle hatch and lined them up in the opening. I screwed a scrap piece of plywood to them, put some epoxy down the middle and a strip of fiberglass.
It's painted here, but it was actually the last thing to get painted to let the epoxy at least sort of set up. This will be a interesting experiment to see if the epoxy will harden with enamel on top.
I put two little pieces of fiberglass in the corner joint between the hull, deck and bulkhead. The gap is too big to fill, but it's not structural so the fiberglass is there just to cover the hole. Don't know if it'll survive, but we'll see. With what was left of the epoxy I made some real smooth peanut butter and filled the joint between the deck out on the bow and the rope locker bulkhead. I don't know how I missed that the first time around, but I squeezed some in for good measure. The last of the peanut butter was used to fill all the screw holes in the deck and bulkhead.
And painting was next. Roller, brush, pan and the last of the paint in the old can and off I went. First the flat surfaces, then the inside edges of the hatches were done. Too, I used the roller to get some more paint in the lockers to cover up the epoxy runs and brown spots from the peanut butter that fell out of the cracks.
Finally the faces of the hatches and doors were done. It's amazing to watch the paint soak in, especially around the knots. It's much more visible than when it happens with epoxy, but it's exactly the same process. With the wood being so dry, the paint just disappears.
I went out to the truck and got the third fuel tank out. It's been sitting back there for a couple days but I figured now was as good a time as any to start working with it. It will sit below the rear deck and will function strictly as a reserve tank for when I'm on long trips and need the extra fuel.
With the two main tanks at 27 gallons each, plus the reserve tank at 25 gallons, that gives me 79 gallons on board, with somewhere between 70 and 75 usable.
I had originally planned to put it at the rear of the boat, with the filler, vent and pickup lines feeding through the splashwell, but when I put it in the boat to see how that would work I had an epiphany. I could turn it around, move it all the way forward, and have all three lines end up under/inside the rear bulkhead.
Eureka!
Now the main reason I brought it in was to figure out how it would work out for height in relation to the stringers. I had figured that I would have to raise the height of the stringers, and consequently the rear deck an inch or so, but just looking at things with a 2x4 across the stringers I may not have to.
We'll see. The tank will expand 3% when filled with fuel the first time which will add approximately 1/4", plus I need to put a piece of 3/4" plywood underneath it for support so it'll be close.
Last up for the night I started taking measurements up in the cuddy area. The original design for the roof and sides of the cuddy by Renn is basically a box plopped on top of the shelves. I really don't like that look, so I'm shooting for a cuddy roof that follows a line from the top of the forward bulkhead to the tip of the bow. That will provide some downward slant that I think better matches the lines of the boat. I also want to put some curve in the roof for strength as I can easily see that as lounging space. That will require that the roof be laminated out of three layers of 1/4" plywood.
But guess what? The roof dimensions are greater that 4'x8' so I'll be scarfing more plywood. Yay. :-)
And that's where the cardboard engineering comes in. No paper? No problem. It's not like I don't have a surplus of cardboard laying around.
The sides will actually have two angles. You may have noticed in the photos that the bulkhead sides angle inwards above the shelves. That's intentional so as to offset the sides to make it easier to walk on the shelves. But from the top of the bulkhead the sides will go straight up. That will allow the windows to be vertical, making it easier to keep water out, but also creating a little more space inside the cabin.
Of course, all of these things affect how the rear bulkhead is built, and since that's next a couple hours were spent contemplating all this stuff.
Oh, and just to complicate things? The port side of the bulkhead will be made with 1/2" plywood to allow for windows, while the starboard side will be made with 3/4" plywood to allow for mounting stuff outside. The other reason is that the captains chair is on the starboard side, behind that will be a small galley and mounted on the rear bulkhead will be a small propane heater so I can't put a window there anyways.
It's not what's next that matters, it's what's next, next, next that matters. :-)
I finally went home about 9pm when the power went out. Figured that maybe that was a sign. ;-)
10 Hours