Friday, March 31, 2017

Cockpit Coaming

Of the three ways that I know to build a cockpit coaming, laid-up plywood seems to be the simplest.
On my last two builds, I used the molded-fiberglass method. It works well, but its tedious, uses lots of epoxy, and the edge of the rim seems to come out kind of sharp, making it more difficult to pull the spray skirt off.
I briefly considered doing the lots-of-cove-and-bead-pieces method again, but I couldn't get psyched for the woodworking, so I went for the plywood. I got a half sheet of okoume, screwed up the cutting, and had to resort to cheaper stuff, but made it right with epoxy & filler.
This will be painted.
Paint job came out o.k. Side braces in place.

Monday, March 20, 2017

Some Details

I glued in the skeg control box. This time, I managed to rout the opening out without hitting the box.
Hatches went as usual. Here, I'm trying some fairing filler:
I gave this a coat of green paint.
And, once again I managed to install the glue-on foot brace studs in the wrong position! Tough work removing them with the heat gun, smoothing the area out, etc. I originally put them in before joining the deck & hull, thinking that it would be very difficult to do by reaching into the cockpit, but it actually made it easier to screw up. It wasn't all that hard to reach through the cockpit, and next time, I'll do it that way.