Companionway Hood | Test Fit

The companionway hood needs to be installed before the topsides can be painted, so that was the next task.

I made the hood and slide at the beginning of last year and set them aside until now. I carried out a test fit at the time but thought it best to do it again before getting out paint and epoxy.

Here is a test fit of the hood and slide together, held in place with a couple of sliding clamps.

I was not too surprised to find that the holes in the cabin roof for temporary screws no longer lined up exactly with the pilot holes in the hood frame.

Maybe the hood has moved slightly while in storage. We will never know!

So I simply blocked the original holes in the frame and marked up new ones before drilling them.

Here are the tools for marking and aligning the new holes.

The green marking tool ('MarxMan') shoots a jet of green chalk through the screw holes in the cabin roof, showing us exactly where to drill the pilot holes.

The bradawl is handy for aligning the frame before fastening it in place with temporary screws.

Here is the refitted hood.

And here is view of the hood interior.

The cabin roof and the inside faces of the hood will be painted before final installation.

Paint is the next activity!