Made some progress on the fore and aft locker areas this week. Also a couple other things.
Got a folding chair in. Dismantled it to see how it would fit on the console. I think this will do. I'll need to build a frame to stand it off the hatches that they'll cover. I'll get back to that later...
Earlier in the week I glued down the battery box shelf.
A lot of the foreward work consisted of working on the hatch gutters. First I laid out the deck openings back on top of the gutters to mark the edges of the gutter. I offset those lines inward 1/2" to mark the CL of the gutter, then made marks every 1/2" or so to drill 1/2". I kept with 1/2" vs going larger because I could set a drill stop. I didnt wanna try to finagle the entire gutter under the press. Time will tell if this makes the routing job a chore. So I drilled a bunch of 1/2" holes. The raw cedar broke out a bunch between holes so it actually cleared out more than just where I drilled.
Next thing was prepping the deck pieces for gluing to the gutter. The outside will serve as the path guide for the gutter. At least on the outside. I have 3/4" router bits so I will have to make a guide for the inside as well.
Cut out the gutter tracks in the deck. This basically leaves two side panels on the aft portion and will leave a big U in the foreward bit.
Before I completely dismantled the deck pieces I made markings on other pieces and the rubrail to try to ensure that everything aligns again. Here I used the fore deck piece to make sure I set the aft pieces in the right location for bonding.
Here is after the aft side pieces were cured and the rest of the deck was cut out for gutter tracks. I laid the filler pieces back in to get a visual on how it will look. I like it!
And with the hatches themselves.
Also installed another deck support forward of the gutters.
Moving to the rear...worked on getting the dead space outside the stringers ready for foam and flooring. I fabri-cobbled the dip in the floor on the port side. This will be to accommodate routing the livewell drain hose thru the center 1/3 of the stringer height. It's ugly now, but I think it will clean up alright. I went ahead and put the dip in so I wouldn't have to shape that in the foam.
Foam!
Back to the fore. Home Depot down here stocks 1/2" King Starboard in 2'x4' pieces. Figured that would make good mounting surfaces for componentry. First one to go in is on Frame B behind the battery. This one will hold the charger, circuit breaker, bus bar, and a terminal block for the fore area wiring.
You may say that you can't bond HDPE, but I have ways!
Ever heard of Stern Savers? It's a piece of HDPE you glue to your transom for your transducer mount. The trick? Tapped holes. The glue itself creates plugs that secure the board to the surface.
Here's a mockup of it's location.
And bonding...I did also flame treat it as well which improves adhesion. I used GFlex G655 which advertises pretty decent HDPE bond strength with a flame treated surface, so we will see how this holds up.
This week I will be gluing the fore deck and the inner pieces to the fore hatch gutter and sanding down the foam in the aft and gluing in the floor.