got a few good bits done on the boat this weekend. i chopped and sawed out the last vestiges of the old engine beds for the now-removed Perkins 4-107. The original motor mounts below and aft of the now-removed ones look to be in good shape, and will become the basis of mounting options for the incoming Universal M3-20.
At the other end of the boat, i’ve started work on the inner forestay tang. The existing babystay is in an awkwrad position both above and belowdecks, so i am removing it and installing a proper inner forestay further forward, along with a jibstay on a short bowsprit. The inner forestay tang will come up through the deck immediately aft of the anchor locker lid.
i played around with plywood template stock, hot-gluing pieces together to form a mock-up tang fitting. i want something that attaches to both the slanting aft floor of the anchor locker as well as to the vertical bulkhead forward of the v-berth. The tang pattern i came up with is just about perfect, excepting that it would be expensive to have fabricated… lots of cuts, welds, and 3/8″ stainless plate!
Instead, i am going to use some West-saturated hardwood blocking to support a more conventional SS tang plate; a little less elegant, but loads cheaper and just as strong. With both designs, i’m avoiding placing any strain on the underside of the deckhead itself, instead distributing the load to two oher ‘glassed-in bulkheads.
As part of patterning-out the above bits, i needed better access to the forwardmost areas of the boat. At some point, the thin v-berth matresses have been replaced with the current thick, supportive, and very comfortable ones, with the only trouble being that the doors forward of the v-berth (that provide acces to the under-anchor-locker “cable tier” area) would not open properly; the mattresses where higher than the opening!
i removed the entire door and frame assembly, took it into the shop, and after disassembly, “sectioned” 4″ out of it. Re-assembled, the doors now swing clear of the new, higher mattresses.
Tomorrow: a trip to town, and i’ll have all the fasteners to start the next stage of my main sliding hatch re-build!