We are having a wonderful summer, here in New Zealand. At least it is a wonderful summer for those lucky enough to be able to spend it outside. I would have been seriously wondering about my sanity at building a boat where the temperature is reaching 38°C by lunchtime and staying there until 5 o'clock or so, but progress had been satisfying and I keep thinking of being out there, anchored in some quiet and beautiful spot ...
I haven't got that many photos, this time, because one piece of plywood looks remarkably like another!
This one shows me putting the thickened epoxy on a deckhead panel, ready to screw into place. The rest of the plywood is bare - it will be coated once it's in place. It's less stiff and recalcitrant if it's not precoated.
Fitting the deck head panels was definitely not a favourite job. It was very difficult to cut them accurately to shape because they only need to sag away from the deck beam a tiny bit to end up being marked too short. Still the trim will hide the gaps.
The final piece of headliner fitted in place. I made an extra little 'beam' for it to land one, because I am not going to have the headliner around the pram hood. Most of it will be cut out anyway, so it hardly seemed worth the effort of fitting.
This photo shows the extra deck 'beam' with the lining in and ready for its insulation. Plenty of screws are required to persuade the plywood into place, even along the flat, outside area of the deck. There has been considerable attrition among the screws, with many making a successful leap for freedom. I think some sort of toe rail might be a good thing!
With the high temperatures, even the super slow hardener is kicking off fairly quickly, so I kept the panel sizes down to something sensible. This also makes them easier to handle especially when I put them down - I don't want them sliding and scraping off all the glue!
Next one ready to go. The little grey device is my old barometer, which is convinced that we are in the middle of the deepest depression ever recorded, but still shows the temperature accurately. It's probably 5 or 6
°C warmer at deck level than at ground level, so it's worth knowing.
Spreading the glue without getting it all over me was a bit of an issue, here. I am wearing a knee pad, bceause my left knee is suffering from "deck layer's knee", and is presently swollen and rather painful, although it seems to be responding to padding and Ibuprofen. I remember now that I had the same issue when filling in all the screw holes on
Badger. You can see the blocking next to the hatch, to take the bolts for the winches.
And here we are - the boat is finally closed in!
"All" I need to do now, is to put down a layer of 4mm plywood all over the deck, followed by the teak and then the deck is done. the lockers next to the bilgeboards require lids and of course there will be various pads for winches, etc.
