Coffee fuelled study

I spent a lot of time with the plans and a scale rule today trying to figure out the sizes for the deck panels that cover the main cabins. There are four panels on each hull. The largest ones cover the forward part of the cabins, over the dining area on the port hull and over the double berth on the starboard hull. There’s are two smaller sections at the aft ends over the galley and navigation area and then finally there’s the four side decks that connect them all  together. The forward and aft sections have cutouts to receive the upper cabin sides later and they needed a bit of working out but other than that they are reasonably easy. Same goes for the aft sections. The problem I had was that no measurements are given for any of these sections, it’s necessary to study the plans carefully, scale off from the drawings (staying aware that these can only be considered as approximate) and then checking against the actual hulls. All very taxing for someone with my level of brainpower! I’d planned to cut out all the pieces needed to make all the sections but I decided to hold off with the side decks until I can dry fit the forward and aft deck sections. Things will look a lot clearer then and I can take actual measurements rather than guess. Having worked things out I set to and cut out the 8 4mm ply pieces and then made a start on construction of the first forward section

4 Aft Deck Sections Cut

Starting The First Forward Section

Another clearing and cleaning session today and I’m now happy that I’ve got the barn looking like someone owns it again and that I can work in comfortably. Next job was to take stock of my ply and timber and I was pleased to find that I’d actually got the 4mm ply needed for the cabin tops already in stock, I’d completely forgotten about it. I also spent a goodly amount of time with the plans and build instruction book refreshing my memory and clarifying what to do next and what materials I need. The next job is quite a big one – making the sandwich construction cabin roofs and decks. I want to get these made so that I can dry fit them and ensure that the cabin sides are right before gluing everything. I first need to finish making the mould and also need to decide on, and source the sandwich material. This can be Balsa, Styrofoam, Polystyrene etc, it just needs to be fairly dense, a good insulator and able to take the epoxy. I’ll get this sorted by the end of the week. It’s the big Beaulieu Boat Jumble this weekend so I’ll be heading down there to see what bargains I can pick up so that means it’ll be next week before I can start work proper…… Can’t wait!