Once more, I started the day with the coamings, a light sanding followed by the fourth coat of varnish.  This would be the last coat of finish before I installed the coamings on the boat, as this was sufficient buildup on the back sides of the coamings where they’d be installed against the fiberglass moldings and bedded.  Once the coamings were in place and bunged, I’d apply more coats on the exposed surfaces.

I transferred the cardboard cockpit hatch pattern to a scrap piece of 1/2″ MDF that would suit as a final template for the hatch.  I cut the MDF slightly larger than the tracing of the pattern, cut three large access holes, then held it tightly in place over the cockpit opening and, with a new Sharpie held tightly against the vertical sides of the opening, traced the shape onto the underside of the pattern.  The shape of the pen held the tip an appropriate distance away from the molding to make marks on the template that, once cut, would give the piece the required clearance on all sides to fit appropriately in the opening.

Back on the bench, I carefully cut the template to shape, keeping just outside the black lines, then fine-tuned the edges with a sanding pad to bring it to the line itself all around.

Thusly cut, the template would fit several inches down in the cockpit well (the sides of the opening were slightly angled, with the base narrower than the top), not that this was where it belonged, but it provided a photo opportunity.  With the template held in place flush with the surrounding decks, there was a 3/16″ or so gap all the way around, sufficient to allow the hatch to be installed and removed.  I couldn’t take photos while also holding the template at the right height, so these will have to do.

Satisfied with the template, I unmolded the three-layer top skin and secured the template with a few dabs of hot glue.  Then, with a router and a pattern-cutting bit, I cut the fiberglass to match the new template.

My construction plan from here was to secure a solid fiberglass edge to the underside of the top skin (1/2″ tall from 1/4″ laminate), then install core within this “frame” and bottom skin over the whole thing to complete the sandwich construction.  As this plan was developing moment by moment, I didn’t yet have the material on hand for the next step, so for the moment this was as far as I could take the construction.

To begin the day, I once more sanded and varnished the coamings (coat #3).

Early in the project, the owners had asked about building a hatch to cover/enclose the after steering cockpit for storage, since they’d removed the pedestal and were reverting to tiller steering, which operated from the main, forward cockpit.  I’d not made the hatch a priority, as I wasn’t sure there’d be time to do the work, but now, with the bulk of the project complete, I turned to this new task.  The new locker wouldn’t be waterproof, but the hatch over top would give the owners an extended aft deck, and also valuable storage space for items that didn’t need to be fully protected.  Scuppers already in place in the well would drain whatever water came through from the edges of the hatch.

To begin, I made a simple cardboard template of the opening, far from perfect but good enough for what I needed right now, and good enough to use to build a “real” template in the immediate future.  Actually, I made two templates.  The first one, made from random pieces of scrap cardboard, allowed me to trace one side at a time from below, and then I connected the two pieces in the center with scraps hot-glued in place.  I used this version to cut out an improved template from a large piece of cardboard, which I left slightly oversized so I could trace the opening’s outline from the underside through the three access holes I cut in the top.

For the moment, all I needed to do right now was determine the size and shape to cut fiberglass as needed to begin the construction.  I prepared four pieces of cloth:  three for the top skin, and one for the bottom skin, which I’d apply later over a core material.  With a simple “mold” created on my bench from cardboard and plastic, to create a flat, smooth surface, I laminated the three layers for the top skin in epoxy resin.  This fiberglass blank was intentionally oversize, and once I had a workable permanent template, I could cut it to the size and shape needed.

Continuing work on the coamings, I lightly sanded the first coat of varnish, then applied a second.

Continuing work on the coamings, I milled edge details (roundovers) on the top edges and inside lower edge, then sanded the coamings smooth and clean to prepare for finishing.  To speed the process of applying varnish base coats, I secured the coamings from beneath to some wooden strips that helped them stand upright, so I could access both sides at once.  Then, I applied a heavily thinned coat of varnish to all surfaces.

On deck, I reassembled the companionway hatch and slides, then dry-fit the sea hood, aligning it with the four screw holes I’d used several weeks ago when I temporarily installed it for the dodger template.  I drilled the remaining screw holes then, removing the hood, milled countersinks at each location before applying a heavy bead of sealant and installing the sea hood with its numerous screws all around.

Finally, with some black paint I found in my inventory, I touched up the bottom paint at the waterline where I’d sanded it away during hull preparations much earlier, completing the final appearance of the boat.

Earlier, I’d prepared the stock and glued up the blanks for the new coamings; these blanks had been waiting in the shop ever since.  Now, it was time to cut and fit the blanks and finish up the new coamings.  Before getting started, I used the old coamings to double-check the fit in the boat, to make sure the old boards would be effective templates for the new ones.  The fit was as I’d anticipated, so I moved forward on that basis.

Starting randomly with the starboard coaming, I laid out the old piece on top, oriented the correct way, and after clamping it securely (mainly to remove the slight curve in the old coaming) I marked along the edges with a pencil.  The upper and lower edges of the coaming were essentially straight, and since the bottom edge of the new blank was also straight, I could align at that edge, and only have to make the top cut and the ends.  After making the marks, I used a straightedge and circular saw to cut the forward end and the long top cut, and finished off the curved after portion with a jigsaw.

Next, prepared the ends of the new blank as needed to fit:  a large rounded back edge at the forward side, to fit into the corner at the molded coaming block; and an angled inset area at the after end, which would fit the molded corner in the boat and, as with the original, provide just a slight overhang at the aftermost end.  With these reliefs made according to the old coaming, I test-fit the new coaming in the boat, using my rickety but venerable coaming-pusher to press the center into the curve as needed–closely enough for now to determine that the fit was appropriate in all areas.  Later, the final fasteners would pull the coaming in along its length and at the forward end.

I repeated the construction and fitting process with the port coaming.

With both new coamings test-fitted, and with only a short time left before I had to leave for the remainder of the day on unrelated business, I spent the rest of the morning laying out and preparing the fastener holes for the coamings.  The original coamings had relied on the defunct molded winch islands for much of their bolting support, so with these now gone I planned a more regular series of fastener holes along the lower length of the coaming, plus additional fasteners into the molded coaming blocks at the forward end.    I spaced the lower fasteners about 16″ on center, which, since the coamings weren’t aggressively curved, seemed a good compromise between proper fastening and avoiding too many fasteners.  The fasteners would be bunged, so at each location I drilled a flat-bottomed counterbore with a 1/2″ Forstner bit, then drilled 1/4″ pilot holes through the rest of the way for the screw shanks.

I left things here for now, but next time I’d dry-fit the coamings with all the fasteners, then remove them a final time to finish shaping and smoothing the blanks before starting the varnish buildup.

At long last, the great unveiling!  With all the paintwork finally done, I could hardly wait to get rid of all the masking and see the boat in entirety for the first time.

Thursday-Friday

I started Thursday by unmasking the top section of the new sheer strake.    Normally, I’d have happily continued and unmasked the entire boat at this stage, but I’d had an issue during the deck paint with excess paint leaking through the toerail scuppers and onto the upper portion of the sheer strake–the white section that was part of the deck work.  Those darn scuppers worked exactly as intended.  Earlier, I’d tried to repair these areas, but I wasn’t happy with the results, so around then I’d made the decision to simply respray the entire area.  I’d masked off the decks with this in mind, before beginning the hull, and there was a natural transition line at the top edge of the sheer, just below the toerail.  With the rest of the boat also covered now, after the trim paint, the amount of additional work required to prepare was minimal.

For now, it was too soon to mask over the fresh black, but later in the day I carefully sanded the 2″ wide (or thereabouts) white strip that needed repair, removing any drips and runs and abrading the whole area to prepare for three new coats of snow white.  I also used paper (taped to the paper above and below and seen in the photos above) to cover the boottop and protect it during the next painting spell.  I’d have to finish up the masking in the morning before I could spray the white section.

Friday morning, with the black paint sufficiently cured now to accept masking tape, I masked off as needed, first with the blue vinyl fine line tape, then the various layers of regular tape and paper as required to cover the sheer strake below.

Afterwards, I sprayed three additional coats of snow white gloss over the area.

Now that the hull paint had sufficient cure time, I began masking for the trim paint, starting with the raised, decorative sheer strakes on each side.  I began with a 1/2″ strip of vinyl fineline tape to define the edges, then covered this tape as completely as possible with regular masking tape, since the vinyl tape doesn’t absorb any paint and (1) tends to create runs and (2) overspray doesn’t stick well to the tape, causing frustrating freestyle ribbons of cured paint that are tedious during tape removal.

I repeated the process at the boottop, with fineline on each side of the stripe, and covered with more of the regular masking tape.  I used a wider tape below the boottop since it also covered the 1″ strip of hull color there.

Next, I covered the entire remainder of the hull with masking paper, taping it securely everywhere.  On this boat, with the sheer strake requiring trim paint as well as the boottop, it was easier to use all paper rather than wider plastic to cover the bulk of the hull, and anyway, I hate the waste and landfill-filling qualities of the plastic sheeting so was happy to avoid using it here.

With the masking complete, and after a final cleaning of the striping areas, I applied three coats of jet black gloss topcoat, which unsurprisingly was vastly more effective at hiding the primer than the yellow paint had been.

With the paint cured sufficiently overnight, I could remove the masking from the boottop and sheer strake, revealing a sneak peek at how the trim would ultimately look on the hull.  Other than some other minor prep work, however, this was all I could do for the moment, as the fresh paint had to cure further before I could mask over it to finish the trim, which was the next and final stage of the painting process.

After final preparations, I applied another three coats of zinc yellow paint to the hull.  This felt vaguely familiar, but fortunately the results were more in line with expectations this time.