Scrapes A'hoy - Cockpit Decking

Another busy day at the boatyard. Fantasies started again of getting this thing in the water by June 30, my original sort of deadline. The sailing club has a large gathering over July 4th weekend and it would be something special to be able to bring PocketShip to that event. If not, I'll still have the MacGregor, but I want to bring PocketShip. And to that end, I made some progress towards that goal.

I finished stuffing foam under the laz decks in the transom. I'd been calling these things "lazarette floors" but they're really "lazarette decks."  Same purpose, different nautical terminology. It's nice and firm back there, with very little give on the decking. The wires remain protected and the added foam brings a little more peace of mind. I fully expect this area to be submerged, but hopefully with the planning, it won't be as bad as it could've been. One minor task was to ensure that the wires I still need to connect later were accessible. These include the three from the bilge pump, the RAM cable, and the lights/electronics wiring that'll run to the locker.

Now you see the foam...

Now you don't...

I then cut a few pieces for the bow compartment but got bored of that so put that away for now. I'd like to get a decorative deck plate here since it's so visible. We'll see. Next steps will likely be to paint the forward locker so I can get the bow deck down. 

Cut a couple pieces for the bow area.

Done with that area for now, I pulled out the long-built cleats that will support the cockpit deck (I'd been calling this a "cockpit sole"). Hard to believe I built these, I don't know, maybe 8 months ago at this point. I tried to cover up the exposed areas with green frogtape, and for the most part it worked, but not nearly as well as the effort would've implied.

The manual makes a big deal of the decking to be exactly on the centerline. This took a little finagling but nothing too bad. I put a random piece of frogtape across the centerboard trunk, marked the middle, and ensured that the decking lined up on the line. I found I got some overhang on the footwell which I'll need to trim just before that area gets 'glassed.

Line marks the middle where the two halves should meet. Good view of the clear tape that protects the hollow area of the centerboard trunk. Removed the frog tape right after this photo.

Alignment of the two decking halves.

As described, I ran a pencil underneath where I could reach and marked the support lines. Once marked, I drilled holes through this to pop up the other side. The purpose of that is to re-drill into the cleats and then secure it with drywall screws. It was a little frightening; images of having to redo all the cleats because of drywall screw destruction ran through my head. In the end, not a single screw went awry. Believe me, I'm surprised as anyone.

Marking the cleats on the underside. The decking was fiberglassed underneath long ago, waiting for this moment.

Taped and ready for epoxy.

The meeting of the decks screwed down.

As an aside, it was neat to this part come together. The mainsheet block sits right there. This would be called the "bridge deck" on the finished boat. Long passages will be spent staring at this spot. And it's a pretty comfy place to sit, too.

 

All screwed down. I neglected to mark the port side cleat which would be bulkhead 7, so I set about 50 pounds on it to get a good contact. The amount of squeeze out I scraped from here let me know this technique worked just fine.

After screwing it all down, I set my timer for 30 minutes for squeeze out duty. This was one time I could absolutely, positively, not forget about cleaning up. Luckily, the alarm went off in between homework chapters, so I wormed my way under the decking and scraped off what I could, best I could.

With the temperature hitting 62 degrees today, the garage was plenty warm, accelerating curing. By the time I was at the back of the other side of the boat, things were beginning to set. I got there in time, though. I'll sand these areas down after the flip and paint. I'm glad I didn't put deck plates back there. By the time I crawled back, I could've been out of the cockpit and into the laz area. I am, however, thrilled that I have speakers there as well as a plan to run some LED's along the outboard cleats. I found a neat remote control for the LED and can't wait to see that go in. As an aside, some people kept the decking bright under here. Kudos to them - no way I could keep the finish to do that.

Squeeze out clean out. One of the more interesting contortions.

A couple major projects need to be done before I can make anymore transformational progress. The first is epoxy on the aft cabin wall. I don't see this called for in the manual but I'm sure it's gotta be done, so better get on with it. The second is 'glassing the underside of the cabin decking. These large, unusual pieces take a pounding. Having been on Chris' boat, this is where you stand to raise the main, hand lines to people, find your anchor, and get your butt in the bow seat. Just like the cockpit decking, it'll take a beating over time. A little extra work goes a long way.