Boat Works Hatch

 02 Sep 22:

While I was out flying the French Door Fairy dropped by and installed a hatch in the bow of the Boat Works. Skipper was complaining that her cabin was too hot, now there is a nice breeze, almost a wind tunnel, more light and a cargo portal to the foredeck (coming soon). 

12x20 foredeck will appear here soon, level with the shed floor.

We used a hole saw to cut the mast hole in the forward thwart, hereafter and forever now known as the mast thwart. We leveled the boat side to side to get the mast mostly vertical...

...and then leveled the boat fore and aft to set the aft rake of the mast. Skipper and one of our Trusty Crew used their calibrated eyeballs and the TLAR method (That Looks About Right) to establish plumb and rake, while I adjusted the mast step. Once all was settled we marked the location of the mast step in the bilge with a calibrated Sharpie.

TotalBoat THIXO FLEX was our adhesive of choice, and you might just make out the calibrated Sharpie marks in the bilge. 

Adhesives have a memory, so if a work pieces is placed in position and then moved, the adhesive may try to drag the piece back to the original position. To prevent the mast step from sliding around we used a small clamp. Thickened epoxy also needs light pressure to ensure proper coverage, so we used an orange dead blow hammer to press the piece down. Any color dead blow hammer will work.

We also cut and fit a teak cap for the daggerboard trunk, it notches into the middle thwart. We fastened it with TotalBoat THIXO FLEX. 

Log of EXCUSE ME.