Building the Deck

OK.  Completed the construction of the hull, and learned a lot about wire stitching epoxy and fiberglass.  Also learned a lot about properly laying it out so that rework is at a minimum.  So with that done, I can start to construct the deck.  With all the lessons learned from the hull, I expect that this will be a little easier to understand and hopefully not as messy.

First step was to lay the 2 center bow deck panels (#6 panels L&R) (the center panels) onto the hull and loosely wire stitch them together.  Then set the sheer panels (#5 panels L&R) on the hull and drill and wire stitch them to the #6 panels.  Then lay the stern deck panels onto the hull and drill and wire stitch them.  Lots of drilling and stitching.  Also installed another panel called the recess plate.  And now it's really looking like the boat I expected it to look like.

 

 

Next steps are to glue the outer deck seams.  I'll get started on that tomorrow.  Once this process begins, it will be several days of further gluing (thickened epoxy) the outside and inside deck seams.  Still lots of work to do! 

 

I wanted to be complete by now to enjoy some of the summer on the Sound.  Looks like another month of work to me at the rate I'm moving.  But then again, the weather has been so good this summer, and is expected to last a couple more months, so maybe I'll get out there before the rains begin this fall.