Fettling and fitting the cockpit parts

the final fitting of the cockpit parts is in progress, of course templates were made but the final fitting is essential

 Deck pieces cut, cockpit pieces cut, hard dodger v1.05

The interior is almost complete, the bunks need to be glued in and the watertight hatches need to be coated  

There was a break in the rain, so a lot of parts were cut out, and are now ready for epoxy coating. The deck panels , bow panels and parts for the cockpit were cut out - those of you who know the design will see a modification to the cockpit, it is  to create a smaller cockpit, increase the volume of   foam floatation but most importantly it will make use of the dead area under the tiller, on my previous boat my liferaft was stored under the tiller. I have run drawings of this modification past the designer and he said that the modification is within the changes allowed within the rules of the Setka Atlantic Challenge. FYI the cockpit will still have the same amount/size of drainage.

there will not be any "verandah" overhang at the aft edge of the deck
 it will be cut flush with the companionway bulkhead

and below you can see my rough mock up design for the hard dodger , for my last boat I built a really nice hard dodger and for me it is now  the most essential thing on a boat 

- this is CagarroDodger V1.05 

- the next version will have more of a hard chine shape and some angles will change to keep it more in the same design language of the hull and deck -( I think this one is too boxy), 

 Aft compartment under Cockpit glassed

the aft compartment was glassed using one complete layer of glass on the bottom and up the sides, then another wide tape was glassed along the filletted edges of the two added transverse panels, and then 12 layers were added in differing dimensions and configarations to the aft edge and bottom of the compartment.

and two layers of glass were added to the beam that divides the cabin floor from the under cockpit stowage to increase abrasion resistance to the beam. the bottom layer went over the beam so finally the beam has 3 layers of glass.

job done

 Floor at companionway prepped and glassed and peelply-ed

Instead of having a plywood floor as you enter the boat, I have added some glass to the inside of the hull as you step through the companionway - it will give a tiny bit more headroom at the entrance, add less weight I think, and will strengthen the hull  and add abrasionresistance- the area under the companionway will get the same treatment as well as the area further aft - which will also strengthen those areas and also add abrasion resistance to anything getting dragged out of the stowage space under the cockpit  - BTW the outside bottom of the hull has had an extra layer of glass as well -  as It made more sense to add glass rather than a thickish layer of fairing epoxy to fair and fill the hull bottom.

sanded and prepped

glass and peelply prepped

Job Done!

AND A LITTLE WHILE LATER

I glassed the part under the cockpit sole as well.

and a few pics showing the rest of the hull final coated

 Living section final epoxy coat

prepping main living compartment for final epoxy 

coat 

A  lot of sanding happened today to prepare for the final epoxy coat

 Final coating in bow and glassing in deck beam and bow

Removing peelply

Also first coated the hatches for the bow flotation compartment and the bow crashbox

and some better pics of the "cargo" compartment

and the bottom bow crashbox in the bow flotation compartment

 Bow Crash compartment second coated, 
"cargo" compartment second coated

Both the bow compartments had their second coat of epoxy, looks good

this pic is not sharp  - sorry, trying to take a pic without looking, 

around the bulkhead, without getting myself epoxy covered, but you can see reflections in the bulkhead  - nice

Prep work for second epoxy coat and
second coat under bunk tops

sanded the underside of the bunk tops

 and gave them a second epoxy coat -

all 4 are complete now and are ready to be bonded in

also sanded the bow and the cargo compartment in preparation of giving them a second coat

 Second epoxy coat - looks like varnish

 Sanding in preparation of the second epoxy coat

 epoxy coating complete

The coating of the assembled structure has been completed , 

there are a few uninstalled cockpit panels that still need to be coated, 

and of course the deck

 A lot more epoxy coating has been done

 Epoxy coating of interior starts

in addition to its protective property this is a penetrative coating 

- plus and now this is a big help in deciding what gets painted and what gets varnished as some of the ply panels are quite boring  - what I am pleased with and is nice is that the structural mix fillets tone in well with the wood.


This IMHO is one of the most beautiful epoxy boats  - a pacific proa, "Jzerro" by Russel Brown

He also wrote an excellent book called Epoxy Basics

available to buy from the link below

http://ptwatercraft.com/ptwatercraft/E-Books.html