Cleaning Up The Transom!

The installation of the transom is lost in the mists of time now, but when I did it I made a bit of a mess with squeezed out epoxy on the outside of the transom panel.

The hull side and topside panels also projected very slightly beyond the transom, and would need to be trimmed at some point.

My intention is to have a bright finish on the transom. That dark hardwood veneer will look great varnished, and it will be the only part of the hull to be finished that way.

So I had to be very careful not to scar the transom when cleaning it up.

Having had lots of practice in trimming the cabin roof and seatback top edges, I decided to clean up the transom while I was at it.

Again I used the sander as a grinder to remove most of the epoxy and excess ply, and then switched to finish sanding to complete the job.

In this pic you can see the before (starboard) and after (port) halves of the transom.

And here is the finished article.

You can also see that I have shaped and smoothed the big fat fillet on the outside of the boat where transom and transom skirt are joined.

That was fun!

Seatback Tops | Trimming To Size

When the seatback tops had cured I set about trimming off the excess material inside and outside the boat.

Again the marking device shown in the build manual came in very handy. Here is it is use.

Then I used the Japanese saw to remove most of the excess from both outboard edges.

Experience gained from trimming the cabin roof made this a quick and easy task.

The inboard edges were a little trickier.

There is nowhere to start a saw cut inside the boat, so I drilled a couple of entry holes and used a keyhole saw to remove enough waste to fit in a saw. Like this.

That allowed the Japanese saw to be deployed to cut out most of the excess material. As here. 

This was straightforward. A chisel was required to chop away the excess at each end.

Then, as with the cabin roof, the sander was used in rotary mode with a P40 grit to grind away what waste remained before switching to random orbital mode and P60 and P80 grit to clean up the inboard and outboard edges.

Here are both seatback tops trimmed, seen from astern.

She is starting to look like a capable little boat!

Transom Skirt Fillet

I had been putting off making a fillet across the transom where it is joined to the transom skirt.

But now I had to do it, so I could move on to other more enjoyable things.

I knew the first application would turn out horrible, and it did. Here it is.

Absolutely awful. So I got out the drill and a carbide burr, and dressed it to remove most of the rough stuff.

It looked a little better after that.

Finally, I sanded it some more and taped it up for the second layer which will turn it into a much more respectable fillet. Like this.

That's it for now!

Seatback Tops | Installation

With the roof trimmed to size it was now time to fit the tops to the cockpit seatbacks.

This was a straightforward exercise.

The tops were securely buttoned down with plenty of temporary screws and epoxy resin, being careful not to apply too much glue in way of the seatback locker tops where squeeze out could make a nasty mess.

I installed the port side first, using plenty of glue.

When satisfied that it was tightly held down by all the screws I scraped off all the flash on the outside.

Then I carefully scraped off and wiped away any epoxy on the upper inside edges of the locker. To do this you need to be able see inside the locker - doing it by feel alone will just make a mess. Here is my secret weapon for doing this.

It's an old bicycle mirror, used with a couple of small, bright lights to see into each corner of the locker. It works really well.

Lastly I pulled the blue tape from inside the locker.

Here is a view of the port seatback top from the stern.

I repeated the exercise on the starboard seatback.

This is what both seatback tops looked like when installed, seen from astern.

With the roof and seatbacks in place it feels like we are really making inroads to this build!

Cabin Roof | Trimming To Size

When the cabin roof had fully cured I set about trimming off the excess material around the edges.

But how to know exactly where to cut it?

It was then that I realised the real value of a marking tool shown in the build manual. This is what it looks like.

I made it from a piece of scrap ply. You merely slide it along the side of the hull and mark in where the point at the top aligns with the roof. Simple!

Having marked out its outline I then roughly trimmed the roof to get rid of most of the excess material.

Here is a view from the front of the port Dorade box area.

I had to drill entry holes to use a jig saw across the forward face of the cabin.

Otherwise a Japanese saw made light work of cutting all other edges.

Further trimming was done with the Rotex 90 sander set to rotary mode and using a P40 grit, turning it effectively into a grinder to remove most of the remainder.

Lastly I switched to using the sander in random orbital mode with a P60 and then a P80 grit to get to the final finish.

Here is the roof with its finished trim, viewed from the front on the port side.

Lastly, here is a rear view of the starboard side.

Looking good!

Seatback Tops | Getting Ready For Installation

 While the cabin roof was curing I prepared the seatbacks for installation in the same way that I had done in the cabin.

The only area in the seatbacks where squeezed out glue would be a problem is inside the lockers, so I taped the edges of the locker tops. This is the port locker top.

You can see that all the edges are protected by blue tape and plastic sheeting. The bottom of the locker is also covered with plastic dust sheeting to catch any drips.

The starboard locker received the same treatment, like this.

My plan is to reach inside the lockers when the tops are in place and scrape off the squeeze out before pulling the tape. We will see how effective that is in due course ...

Cabin Roof | Installation

When all the preparation was complete and all tools and materials standing by ready for use, I went ahead with the permanent installation of the cabin roof.

It went well, with little or no drama.

Here is a view from starboard of the roof glued in place and firmly buttoned down with plenty of temporary screws.

This is another view from the port side.

You can see that the roof is quite considerably oversized at the front, almost as if the original design had a longer cabin but the roof panel was left unchanged!

It's no matter - it is actually very reassuring to know that there is plenty of waste material around the perimeter.

The temporary screws into the carlins in the hatchway were insufficient by themselves to hold the roof down tightly, so I added some spring clamps to assist. As here.

That did the job nicely.

When all the screws and clamps were in place I cleaned up the squeezed out epoxy on the outside, and then hopped into the cabin to do the same inside.

Lastly, I pulled out all the blue tape which was protecting the interior of the roof and the Dorade boxes from squeeze out. It worked really well, as this pic of the port roof shows.

Luckily I took photos before the glue had cured, when I noticed that a strip of blue tape was still in place. So I quickly peeled it off.

This is a view of the starboard roof inside the cabin.

An this is the view looking forward.

The cabin will be entirely white inside, and will look very smart indeed!

Next job is the seatback tops ...