:-)
Yep, five hours to install the seven ribs over the top and the two along the edges.
So here's the routine. Ready?
Take a stack of four 1/4" by one inch strips of plywood. Line them up so they're just offset on the ends to account for the slope of the roof. Drive a single screw near the end.
Put the stack up on the roof. Climb up in the boat and carefully screw the end of the strip in place. Move around to the other side. Mark the stack for cutting. Move back to the first side and unscrew the stack just enough to free it from the roof. Get out of the boat.
Take the stack off the roof. Remove the screw. Line up the pieces for cutting (notice that because we've gone from a curved stack on the roof to a flat stack on the bench, thus moving the lines.) Cut the stack. Put the screw back in and put the stack back on the roof.
Climb back in the boat. Screw the first end back down. Move to the other side of the boat and put a screw in the other end.
Repeat for the next six ribs. Whoof. :-)
Now unscrew one end of all the ribs on one side. Move around to the other side and partially remove the screws to free the ribs. Set the ribs off to the side of their mounting points. Climb out of the boat.
Make some epoxy. Climb back in the boat. Climb up on one side and paint the areas where the strips will go with epoxy. Move around to the other side and do the same. Climb out of the boat.
Take the first stack of strips off the roof and put them on the bench. Remove the screw and carefully undo the stack keeping track of how the strips were stacked up. Paint all the contact sides of the strips with epoxy (making more epoxy as needed) then restack them. Put the screw back in. Flip the stack over and paint the bottom.
Put the stack back on the roof. Climb up in the boat. Tighten down the first screw. Move to the other side. Tighten down the other screw. Push the strips side to side to get them lined up and if necessary drive additional screws to suck them down to the roof or hold them in aligment.
Repeat for the next six ribs. Whoof, whoof. :-) :-)
Next, the side ribs. Now these are longer than eight feet, so while offsetting the butt joints I simply took strips and cut them so that there were two pieces per strip and no joints overlapping anywhere in the stack. Excess length will be cut off later. Paint the contact sides with epoxy. Stack the strips and drive one inch screws down the length making sure there's one on each side of every joint. Paint the bottom of the stack.
Carry the rib up in the boat and set it on the roof. Drive screws with washers approximately every six inches.
Repeat for the other side. Whoof, whoof, whoof. :-) :-) :-)
The little bit of epoxy left was turned into peanut butter and most of the corners where the over-the-top ribs meet the side ribs got tiny fillets.
So that's what you do with five straight hours of work.
After all that, you deserve a break. Here's the sunset from yesterday.
There are several places where supporting ribs still need to be installed and in one place the roof will be solid. That solid area is for a vent for the future heater to be installed on the rear cabin wall. I also need to plan for a conduit from inside the cabin to outside to run cables for things like GPS antennas or radar.
5 Hours