Benches

After flipping the boat a first put in cleats (10 in total) to support the aft bench, rowing bench and the outer edge of the side benches. My carpenter friend had to rip some at three different angles. I had to sink a few screws into my beautifully finished transom and sheer strakes until the epoxy set, and will have to fill the holes and touch up the paint later. Then I cut all the bench tops and side bench risers and dry fit them, as you can see in the first and second photo.

In the second photo you can also see the fore bulkhead (although the wide angle lens makes it look small) with the white inspection port cover. I cut the hole with the bulkhead in place, cutting through 24 mm plywood with the jigsaw held vertically.  It would have been far easier to cut it before I built the hull but I wasn't sure where it should go, plus I hadn't yet bought the port cover. Be that as it may, I cut the hole without any disasters.

Then I cut, glued and nailed fourteen other cleats for the side bench tops and risers. In the last photo you can see all 24 of them, and if you look carefully you can spot the access ports I cut in the bench risers for reaching into the storage area under the benches.  Just simple holes, no doors or removable ports, for getting to life jackets, bilge hand pump, air horn, etc. I found from experience that hinging locker doors don't protect gear from the water and porthole covers can easily be lost.

Next steps will be to epoxy the insides and undersides of all benches and fill the rowing and aft benches with styrofoam for flotation before nailing and gluing everything in place.

I would then still have to:

• put on rubrails
• build a king plank for the foredeck
• build the mast partner
• cut and lay on the foredeck (after epoxying the insides)
• reinforce the inside bottom of the boat with extra strips of plywood
• build supports for the side decks
• put on side deck carlins
• cut and lay on the side decks 
• put down a mast step

After all that it will be time to epoxy and paint everything white, and deal with spars and rigging. I can see the end but it will be a lot of work.