Work inside the boat is focussing now on clean up and painting. There is still some construction to do in the galley and the saloon and the aft section of the boat, but the forward section is ready for paint.
While that is going on inside we are concentrating on construction on the deck. The main work to do here now is the dodger, which is a solid structure made out of aluminium.
It has been fabricated and is sitting on the boat to make sure it fits properly.
Dodger in place from the front. Note the fanny bar around the mast
Dodger temporarily in place to check the fit.
We cant see much out of it at the moment, but it will be removed from the boat and the openings for windows cut out. The windows will be rigid plastic (perspex or similar) glued and bolted onto the aluminium.
The dodger also needs to be extended forward to include a garage for the sliding companionway hatch. This is a small rectangular box that will extend in front of the dodger by about 500mm and just wide and high enough to cover the hatch when slid forward.
Finally, there will have to be small openings (about 250mm wide x 50mm high) on each side of the garage extension to allow reefing, sheet and other control lines from the forward part of the boat to pass through the dodger and into the cockpit.
Its a shame to have to make these openings which might one day in very bad weather allow water to sluice along the deck and into the cockpit, but its the only way to get all the control lines into the cockpit. As far as possible we are setting the boat up so that it can be sailed single handed from the cockpit.
From the port side