Companionway Hood & Slide | Dry Fitting Tops

When the companionway hood and slide frames were cured I dry fitted their tops to make sure everything fitted together properly.

This is the slide top, correctly located and clamped in place.

And here it is securely fitted in place with temporary screws.

Next came the hood. Here is the top clamped in place on the frame.

This was a bit of a struggle.

The trick is to clamp the top to the trim piece first - as the manual states - and then offer it up to the frame and clamp it in the correct position.

A helper would be useful here, or four pairs of hands. Unfortunately I have neither.

Lastly here is the hood top securely fastened down with temporary screws.

Looking good! Next up is permanent fitting of the tops.

Companionway Hood & Slide | Frame Assembly

It was time to permanently assemble the companionway hood and slide frames.

I did the slide first. Here is the frame glued and screwed together and clamped up square on the bench.

Here I am checking the slide for squareness, using an engineer's square.

All is well.

This is what the corner joints look like, fastened with 8 gauge bronze wood screws.

I had previously removed the hood from the cabin roof and refitted the temporary support brace, and now I screwed and glued it together.

Here it is on a table curing.

And here I am checking the hood frame for squareness.

Again, all is well.

This is fun!

Companionway Slide | Making The Plastic Runners

It was time fit the plastic runners to the companionway slide.

I covered the pieces of Starboard plastic (yes, that's really its brand name ...) with masking tape and marked up five screw holes in each strip. Like this.

Then  I carefully drilled the holes on the pillar drill, as here.

I countersunk the holes with a cordless drill and drilled pilot holes in the slide.

It was then I realised that I had assumed that the plastic strips were the same length as the slide. They aren't - they are slightly oversize.

As a result the end screws in the runners are very close to the end of the slide. It doesn't matter but it's a bit annoying ...

This is what they look like when fitted.

Companionway Slide | Test Fit

With the companionway slide now fitted with plastic runners it was clearly time for a test fit in the hood assembly, which was still attached to the cabin roof.

I removed the temporary support brace from the hood and slid in the slide.

Here is the closed slide, seen from the front.

And here is the opened slide, seen from behind.

She's starting to look a bit yachty ... very nice!

Companionway Hood | Dry Fit

The manual tells us to attach the companionway hood to the cabin roof with temporary screws which will later be used for its permanent installation.

I hadn't done that yet so thought I should get it out of the way before doing anything else.

So I carefully located the hood into place, measuring to make sure it was correctly positioned in relation to the forward cabin wall and the companionway opening and sill.

Then I pencilled around the outside and inside of the hood, pulled it aside and drilled three holes in the roof on each side.

I marked up and drilled pilot holes in the hood and fastened it in place with temporary screws.

All seemed well, as seen here.

Looking good!

Companionway Slide | Preliminary Test Fit

I wanted to be absolutely sure that the companionway slide fits into the hood correctly before I glued them both up permanently.

So I clamped the plastic strips to the bottom edges of the slide and offered it up to the hood. Like this.

Everything looked fine. Yippee!

Companionway Slide | Making The Top

It was time to make the tops for the companionway hood and slide. I did the slide first because it is the easiest.

First I assembled the frame with temporary screws and clamped it to the bench to make sure it was square, like this.

Here I am checking the corners with an engineer's square for trueness.

As you can see, they're fine.

Next I clamped the frame to the slide top, upside down so I could mark up the location of the frame on the underside of the top. Like this.

Again, using the engineer's square to make sure that the frame is perfectly square.

Then the frame was removed and the top marked up and drilled for temporary screws, as in this pic.

I put five screws in each side, to make sure it is buttoned down securely when glued up.

That's it!