Hull Hardware | Marking Up

The time came to begin installation of the hull hardware.

Still smarting from the consequences of cutting the ventilator holes in the wrong place, I was resolute that I would plan this process very carefully and mark the exact location of everything before drilling any holes.

Working from the rear to the front of the boat, this is what I did.

At the stern the stanchion supports for the gallows boom poles are already loosely in place. I marked the location of the rear mooring cleats in front of the poles, and the hole for the mainsheet bridle in front of that. Like this.

I won't drill the hole for the bridle until the boat is rigged and I can see where it should ideally be.

The location of the hardware on the cabin roof and tabernacle had to be exact so I fixed the components in place with Blu Tack until I got it just right.

Here are the halyard cleats at the rear of the cabin roof.

And here are the halyard cheek and lead blocks at the front of the roof and on the tabernacle.

I used a piece of old line to make sure everything lined up properly and located the ventilator in place at the same time.

The position of the jib sheet cam cleat is measured from the stem, so I made a measuring stick for this purpose. Here it is in use.

And here is the marked-up location for the starboard cam cleat.

Then I marked up the tabernacle, like this.

Then came the cabin roof, as here.

And at the rear of the roof the halyard cleats were marked up.

It will not be possible to know the exact position of the spinnaker sheet cam cleat until the boat is rigged, but I did know from conversations with other builders that that it would be between two points, so I marked them in. Like this.

The location of the mainsheet ratchet block and the centreboard pendant cleat were easy to determine. Here they are.

Fastening them in place will be a different matter. They come with machine screws and nuts for through hull installation, but they are both seated on the centreboard case so will require screws. I am wondering if that will be sufficiently strong for the ratchet block.

The location of the chainplates cannot be determined until the mast is up and the shrouds rigged, but it is again made by measuring from the stem. Here is the measuring stick.

The chain plates will be somewhere on this line, raked slightly backwards.

That's it for now. It will soon be time to drill holes ...