There are two deck pieces and they meet in the cockpit area, this makes installation of the decks much more manageable. Basically, the steps involved are this:
1. Coat the underside of the deck with epoxy.
2. Brush thickened epoxy along the sheer clamp (rails) of the boat, which is where the deck and boat contact.
3. Place deck (wet epoxy down) in position and use car tie-down straps to cinch the deck down which not only holds it in place but curves the deck in to place.
4. Hammer brass nails though the deck and into the sheer clamp every 3 inches.
5. Flip the boat over and fill the gaps between the deck and sheer clamps with epoxy.
6. Repeat for forward deck.
As you can see the deck panels are actually larger than the boat, this also helps as alignment is not as critical. There seems to be about 2" of overhang all around the boat, which I will be trimming off in the next step.
Where the two deck panels meet in the middle I trimmed off the overlap and nailed the deck down, making a nice flat joint. This is further reinforced with a small piece of wood glued underneath and bridging the two decks.
This is the back deck just before nailing.
The fore deck held down with straps and partially nailed in place.
The junction of the two decks. I trimmed off the overlap.
1 comment:
Just wait until I get my Tempest baby. I'm going to be so far ahead of you, you're going to need a motor to keep up.
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