Hatch covers, oar pieces

I was going to duplicate the way I secured the after hatch on the kayak for this build, so I installed the tie-downs for that system. But it turned out that I put the tie-downs so close to the hatch cover that it was impossible to lift up the lid. Here's the kayak arrangement:

The shock cord goes out to the sheer, which gives enough play that the cover can be lifted without having to undo anything.

Here's the present work-up, to be tiddled-up later:

Jim Michalak, the designer, shows a single two-tiedown-one-hook system in his book, Boatbuilding for Beginners and Beyond. Since I already had the four tie-down loops installed, and since I thought it wouldn't add significant work to open the hatch, and would even make the boat more seaworthy, I did a double-Michalak.

Meanwhile, the mold for the forward hatch cover has received its outer gelcoat layer:

I first waxed the mold, then just before John sprayed the gelcoat on, I sprayed several thin coats of partall, drying it between coats with a hair dryer. John says you don't want your piece hanging around with just the partall on it, because it picks up dust and dirt.

Next it will get "dusted" with a light spray of dark blue, to show up any air bubbles in the layup so they can be worked out. Exciting!

Finally, here are the oar pieces, cut out but not yet glued up:

It's too cold to use Titebond without concerns, so I'm planning to use epoxy (WEST) to glue the cheeks on, which will fill out the handles and looms. Those two 8'-long boards represented a lot of band-sawing, with more to come! Could not have done it without, though. The pieces fit so closely together on the board layout that the cuts had to be right next to the line or I'd be cutting into the next piece. Here's my drawing of Jim's plan for oars:

Jim's oar plan is for 7' oars, and the cockpit on this boat is 6'6", so I had to shorten them by 6½". I didn't want to shorten the blade too much relative to the rest of the oar, so I spread out the shortening: I took 3½" off the blade, 2" off the loom, and 1" off the section between. I drew it out for 78", then cut ½" off the end of the blade, since it wouldn't quite fit in the cockpit otherwise.

Thing is, there's not a good place to put the oars in this boat where they won't be in the way. But I have a plan. Stay tuned! 😀