Decks started

Whew! All the sanding, filling, fairing, glassing, sanding, etc., and the outside of the hull is finally done—for now. Washing, light sanding and painting are next for it, after the deck is done.

As you can see from the photo below, the deck ridge beam didn't go on right: there shouldn't be a space there, the foam should rest on the beam all the way forward. So the plan is to do a carbon fibre-reinforced joint instead (more about that below).

(See how smooth and shiny that hull is!)

To get the shape of the decks, I taped the straight edge of the ¼" foam to the deck ridge beam:

I let the foam lie against the sheer, crawled underneath, and marked around the sheer:

The same was done for both sides, then they were easily rough cut out with a utility knife, as the foam has no glass on it yet:

(chipped corner gets cut out for cockpit opening)

Cut out & lying where they'll go:

Below: I plan to put the deck pieces in the vee-shaped form you see in the background, and make the carbon fibre joint at the bottom of the vee, the decks resting in the form. This is the inverse of the deck, and allows me to use gravity to advantage. The ridge pole will be cut out when the deck is ready to go on.

I realized I had to glass the inside surface first, which will help to stiffen it, as the ¼" foam is a bit floppy on its own. The glass should bend at the centre seam. If it breaks, I'll tape it on the other side to hold the vee while the carbon fibre centre beam gets made, on what will be the underside of the deck.