Enclosing the Buoyancy Area.

 Mod 2. Enclosing the buoyancy chamber under the footwell between BH 8 and the transom.

The second mod was to enclose the buoyancy chamber in the lazarette area. I cut the footwell sides between BH 8 and the transom 12.5mm narrower to provide an area on the cleat to glue the lower extension piece.

 

The lower footwell side cleats are glued in place.

A cardboard template is made to ensure a tight fit.

I included a small round access hatch to the starboard extension, just in case I need to access the sealed buoyancy area.

The cleats to hold the lower 6mm extension piece are milled.

The lower extension pieces are glued to the cockpit footwell sides.

The lower cleats for the extension pieces are trial fitted. These will be glued in after the cockpit footwell sides are installed. 

The cockpit footwell sides with the lazarette extensions are installed.

Here you can see the interior cleats glued to the hull bottom and held in place with temporary pieces of timber.

Another view of the interior cleats.

 

A finishing fillet and a couple of coats of epoxy and the area is ready for a layer of glass and painting. Holes are drilled for the electrical wire conduits.

Thats the end of thirteen months of construction

Widening The Footwell

 Mod 1. Increasing the footwell width by 36mm.

Firstly, I would like to thank Brent for his detailed instructions on increasing the footwell width in his blog.

BH 7 is marked indicating the location of the internal cleats, footwell side Pannels, footwell base, lower cleat and the longitudinal cleats. (Check Brent's blog for detailed instructions on how to increase the footwell.

BH 8 is cut 18mm either side to the new wider width.

The 6mm ply footwell sides are cut as per plans but I increased the length by approximately 10mm, I do this to allow minor adjustments to ensure a neat fit.

Cockpit Cleats & Floors

 Cockpit Cleats

Construction starts with milling up the Queensland Hoop Pine off cuts (which I used for the floorboards) into cleats.

The outer hull cleats are cut at a 15-degree angle to allow for the rake on the hull side and the cockpit floor to sit flat. I set up my trusty Triton bench saw on the appropriate angle and used a fine tooth 3mm blade. The 40 mm x 25 mm off cuts milled perfectly into the port and starboard pieces.

 

The 15-degree cleats are glued to the inside of the outer hull with screws through the hull sides. All exposed cleats are rounded off with a small router.

Cleats are glued and clamped to BH 7

The cleats for the transom and BH 8

are milled. The transom cleats are also cut at an angle to compensate for the transom rake and ensure they sit level for the horizontal cockpit floor.

The remaining cleats for the cockpit footwell are installed on the transom, BH8 and BH7.

Two larger cleats (40mm x 25mm) are installed between BH8 and where the aft cabin BH will be, 610 mm forward of BH 7. The larger cleats will provide more strength for the cockpit floor when stepping into the boat.

Cockpit Floors.

Time to cut out the cockpit floors, I laid two sheets of 6mm ply on top of each other and traced the outline using carbon paper under plan sheet No. 6.

The trusty jig saw made short work cutting the two sheets simultaneously.

After a bit of aligning and minor trimming the sheets fitted perfect. (I did cut the sheets slightly larger to compensate for the wider footwell mod)

The underside of the cockpit floors are glassed for additional strength in conjunction with the larger cleats from BH 8 forward to the cabin BH.

The cockpit floors are temporarily screwed into position and the cleat locations marked with a pencil. The floors are removed, and the cleat locations masked up.

The lazarette masking up includes the top of the hatch drainage units and the speaker boxes.

The underside of the cockpit floors are given 3 coats of paint. Much easier to paint this area on the bench. The floors are put aside until the flush hatch supports are completed and the hull area under the floor painted.

To give the cockpit floors some additional strength on top of BH 7, I installed additional timber blocks under the cleat.

The blocks are shaped to fit the curved area of BH 7.

The blocks are glued and clamped in place.

The frame looks and feels much stronger now.

The Cockpit Build and Mods

 

Time to start the next stage.......The Cockpit.

I am considering five mods to this area:

• A wider footwell.
• An enclosed buoyancy chamber beneath the cockpit footwell in the lazarette area between BH 8 and the transom.
• Built in flush timber hatches replacing the plastic ones.
• Speakers installed into BH 8.
• A small storage area above the footwell space at the transom. 

I will explain each mod in detail as a separate project.

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Floorboard Sealing and Installation

I removed all the boards (hopefully for the last time) and carefully numbered each one, the numbers were transferred to the floorboard plan to ensure each board goes back to their correct position. 

As indicated earlier the Queensland Hoop Pine floorboards have a beautiful grain so I decided to give them a clear bright finish.

Here is my step-by-step process.

STEP 1:

Sand each board to a smooth finish and thoroughly clean any dust or contamination.

STEP 2:

Using a mohair roller I apply the initial coat of epoxy, thinned with a chemical called TPRDA (Timber preservative and reactive diluent) this enables the epoxy to wick further into the timber.

STEP 3:

Lightly sand and clean any dust or contamination. 

STEP 4:

Apply two coats of undiluted epoxy resin to the tops, bottom, sides all the screw holes and hinge recesses.

STEP 5:

Lightly sand and clean any dust or contamination.

Now it's time to Seal the deal.

I chose a clear gloss finish. The product is called "Aquacote" which is an extremely long lasting, very hard very scratch resistant, high-performance polyurethane water-based topcoat.

Each coat of "Aquacote" was applied

using a foam brush.

After two coats, "looking pretty good"

Floorboards installed after five coats; I followed the manufacturer's directions by wiping down each board with a damp rag prior to applying each coat. The 5th and final coat was thinned with 10% water which resulted in a lovely glossy shine.

Video of installed floorboards.

Floorboards are covered with cardboard never to be seen again for a long, long time.