Deck Construction
Jazzing up the back end. Final pattern fitted to the rear of the deck. The contrasting wavey lines were produced by placing a light strip on top of a dark strip, then locking them together at the sides with a few dabs of hot-melt glue. The wavey line was ripped through the two strips on the bad saw. The hot-melt glue spots were then broken and the sections recombined and wood-glued together to produce the strips with contrasting patterns. ( In this photo the surface has been rough-planed with a Sure-Form tool, but has not been sanded.)
The cockpit sub deck. After using the larger cockpit template to enlarge the hole in the deck, wood strip scrap sections are glued together to form this little deck. The few strips that cross the opening are quite helpful with respect to holding the whole works in place. I clamped this with a lot of clear vinyl packaging tape... forget the mechanical clamps, they are almost useless here. After the deck (top of the boat) is glassed, we will use the small cockpit template and a fine laminate blade in a hand-held jig saw to cut the hole for the final cockpit opening.
Light and thin. After the deck has been planed and sanded, and the final shear staples pulled, the deck easily lifts away from the station forms and the hull. Careful!!! The deck is very delicate prior to being glassed. In this photo I am holding the deck up with two fingers; it does not seem to weigh more than a couple of pounds or so. Next, I will resin the deck, then gap-fill with thickened epoxy any ugly little gaps by some of the cockpit sub deck strip joints or places where a seam opened, and finaly, glass the deck. Then it is on to constructing the upright section of the coaming. (Note: I already knocked out one of the station molds to show a friend how easy they are to remove from the inside of the hull. It will not be too long before the rest can be removed. It is best to leave them in until the deck gets a protective layer of glass cloth.)
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