Deck on Permanently

I thought I would glue and screw the deck in place on Christmas Eve, but the holiday and especially the weather kept me from it until today.

Waiting for a warm day I hung the rudder and made a pattern for the piece the tiller will fit into. I still need to sand the rudder smooth and probably give it another coat of epoxy before painting it.

I also made "oyster whackers", protective strips of brass screwed to the forefoot (the bottom of the stem), the bottom corner of the centerboard, and the entire skeg. The boat's draft will be about 13" with the board up, and the trailing end of the skeg will be the low point, the first thing to hit bottom. The rudder will not go aground; its lower edge will be an inch or two above the skeg's.  Although many boats are designed with a rudder which touches bottom before the keel; none should be. Running aground means loss of control, at best; at worst, loss of the rudder.

Today was forecast to get above 60 degrees. I don't think it made it, but I went ahead with the deck installation anyway. Over the last few days while I was killing time, I pre-drilled all the screws holes and put in all the screws a couple of turns, so that when I put the deck down, epoxy would not squeeze up through the screw holes. I also masked off the topsides and the inside to protect against drips and runs. So today I simply wet out the sheer and frames, wet out the underside of the deck where it will contact those parts, and spread epoxy adhesive on the sheer and frames. Then I just laid the deck pieces on top and screwed them down. It went smoothly and didn't take too long. It turned out that drips and runs were not a problem, but it was still hard to remove the masking tape from under the deck. I don't promise there aren't any small scraps of blue tape remaining but I do promise that no one will see them.

I had a little time left, so I mixed up some microbaloon filler and filled all the screw holes on the deck. If it were warm, that would save me a whole day, but I doubt the filler will harden until late tomorrow, if then.

The next job on the hull will be to fill the joint between the deck and coaming, then fabric-coat the deck and coaming. After that, the rub rail. And a lot of sanding, filling, and painting.