Cabin Deck

The cabin frames are now finished. The companionway opening to the small cabin is now starting to take shape. Like I discussed in a previous post, this opening has been modified from the original plans to make the boat more safe in my opinion.

The windscreen plywood has been installed and trimmed to shape. Sailboats were kinda funny looking to me at first, not having a see-through windshield.


And now the last large pieces of plywood are cutout ... the cabin deck. Since these are the last large pieces of plywood going on the boat, I'll go through the whole detailed process of installing them one more time.

First the boat is used as a pattern. The plywood is clamped in position and the shape of the cutout piece is traced onto the plywood.


The pieces are cutout a little larger than necessary, just to make sure they aren't too short after they are bent into position. Then each frame is traced onto the plywood pieces.


Using the traced outlines of the frames as guides, pilot holes for the nails are drilled. This almost guarantees there will be no misplaced nails that miss the frames.

All surfaces are coated with straight epoxy, followed by a generous smearing of thickened epoxy.

The cabin deck is fastened at the centerline with a row of temporary screws (to be removed after the epoxy cures.) The plywood is bent over the frames and nailed into position. The nail heads are countersunk slightly into the surface of the plywood, then covered up in thickened epoxy.

All of the epoxy oozing out underneath needs to be cleaned up and filleted before it cures.


After the epoxy cures, the excess plywood is trimmed flush with the frames and cabin sides. I don't have pics of that, because I haven't done that yet.

Next I'm going to frame the companionway opening with some pieces of white oak.