Decking Structure

 Flipped the boat off the stand! Finally! First thing I did was encapsulate the inside of the boat with 3 coats of epoxy. Then I installed the bow eye with an extra long drill bit and very carefully drilling through the center of the stem. Now it's ready to tow.

Of course I had to test out the trailer so I decided to take it out to the lake with my fiancé and test out the hull. Wanted to see how the waterline would look on the water. Turns out you really can't know your water line on this boat until you've got it all rigged up with your motor. In this picture the hull glides on top of the water. Later once I had my heavy 20 hp 4 stroke the rear of the boat sank way passed the water line I had painted. However, in the water no one will really pay attention. Out of the water on the trailer the line looks superb. You'll see in my posts later on. I didn't go with a boot stripe because using this 2 part marine paint was already a challenge and I didn't want to complicate it more by having 3 colors on such as small boat.



Next I followed the curvature of the deck beam from frame# 2 to make the forward deck beam. Then installed the side comings (the longitudinal curved boards).



Cut the aft deck beam using the same curvature and installed 1/4 ply for the seats. I epoxied on some supports for the seat to help keep the 1/4 ply from flexing in the middle.


In this later picture you can see the supports I made for the plywood to rest on or the bottom seat.



Installed the strong-back and battens. Made them long until I figured out where I wanted to place the dash.



Placed some blankets on the seat to somewhat resemble the position I'd be in when sitting on cushions when the boat is complete. Clamped the steering wheel to the dashboard and spent a lot of time adjusting until everything felt comfortable.


Temporarily placed the dashboard and started framing the hatch. I realized I was not getting equal measurement from side to side because each coming had a different curvature to it. Below you can see where I added braces to help make the comings symmetrical so I could center the hatch.



I used 1/8th inch tile spacers to separate the hatch lid from the frame, hopefully it's enough.





With all the deck framing complete it's now time to start fairing again. I used my longboard sander to fair across the top to try to keep the curvature of the boat. Once properly faired the plywood deck should lay flat across the deck framing.

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