Sunday, December 26, 2010

Cabin Frame

The frame for the windscreen and cabin deck (or roof?) is under construction. The windscreen and cabin deck are both cambered or curved, so all of the frame pieces have to be sawed out from larger pieces of lumber in a curved shape. The windscreen base is glued and screwed directly to the fore deck.

The cabin deck frame members are glued and screwed to the cabin carlines. The front frame member is a bit tricky, because it has to match the curve of the cabin deck and the curve of the windscreen. To accomplish this, the front frame member is cut out with a slightly larger curve than the others and installed at an angle. All of the frame members were roughly cut, then installed on the boat. Then they are trimmed to shape. So the lumber cutting didn't require a lot of precision and isn't as complicated as it looks.

After the frame members are installed, the top-centers of them are notched and a king plank of 1/4 inch plywood is installed. The king plank stiffens up the structure considerably.


The shape of the cabin is starting to become apparent.


The windscreen plywood is ready to be installed. Then, I'll finish the back part of the cabin frame, which will include a cutout for the companionway hatch.

I have some extra time to work on the boat during the holidays, so I'm hoping to get a lot done in the next week or so. I'll keep you posted.