January 9th, 2005
In spite of the lingering cold I brought back from Florida I got some boat building done this weekend. Did some more work on the arc piece that fits under the edge of the cuddy cabin roof at the helm. Renn calls for one layer of 3/8" plywood here that glues on the edge of the arc piec to the roof. Well, I had some issues with this piece staying nice and flat, so I glued on another layer of 1/4" plywood to the face and had it over lap so as to have more gluing surface. I don't think it will add too much weight or mess up any dimensions. I do think it will be more secure and since there will be a full width combing/handle to grab in rough seas, I will feel more secure about it's strength. Plus this piece will be a lot easier to install now that it's almost perfectly flat.
Built a template for battery boxes I'm putting on both sides of the transom. These boxes will have enough room for a group 24 battery each and other stuff I might contemplate such as some other electrical connections.
Used the template to trace out the sides of the battery boxes and to my amazement the template worked for both sides with only a very slight adjustment. Cut the side pieces out, positioned them and then cut out lids for both sides.
Since these boxes will share the same plane and edge of the side decks and may have folks stepping on them I installed some lips to give additional support.
Once I had all the pieces fit and temporarily screwed into place I cut a long piece of the same plywood and capped the top edge of the splashwell so it was now at the same height as the battery box lids and the side decks. Then I took the battery boxes apart and started glassing them. The side pieces will get a single layer of 6 oz cloth and the lids of the boxes will get a layer of 6 oz cloth underneath and a layer of 10 oz cloth on the tops to match the cloth of the side decks. I anticipate the side decks getting a fair amount of wear.
Also drilled holes through the bottom of the splashwell so I can finish running the pvc conduit for wiring. I also need to finish filleting the underneath of the splashwell. This is gonna be a lot of fun laying on my back and filleting in a very tight space. Maybe a fillet of 3M 5200 or Silkaflex is better... hmmmm.