Prepared Bench port side

Today I only prepared the bench on the port side for gluing as dad was not feeling well and could not work. I sanded the edges to be glued and the flat surfaces that will be in contact as well.

First cockpit Bench

Big milestone for the boat again. We added the first bench on the starboard side today. The work prooved easier than anticipated as dad had the opportunity to lie down to do it instead of being bent completely to get his arm into the tight spaces.

Spread glue under the benches

Today we sanded the places that will soon become the underpart of the cockpit benches and spread a layer of epoxy everywhere. Then we had to stop work early.

Glue the double bench plywood together

Today we sanded the two benches of the boat and set about gluing the pieces together. What we did was add a second layer of plywood to reinforce the benches so that we could cut out holes to be hatches.

Glassed joints for water storage compartment.

Today we added the fiberglass to the joints of the water storage compartment. Later we will add a fiberglass to cover the whole of the cockpit sole in order to give us a strong place to walk on when we're in the boat.

Finish cockpit cover and added last part of cockpit sole

Today we spent a large part of the morning fixing the wooden posts that will act as support for  our wooden cover.

We also set about doing the final polishing on the benches and their hatches. The next part of the work will involve the gluing the benches in place.

While unbolting the wood of the cover we had surprise. Turns out that one of the holes we drilled in the Iroko wood was not straight and while we were removing the bolt in it, the bolt actually broke instead of making a new path for itself through the wood. Though we were using marine grade stainless steel bolts. the metal turned out less strong than the wood as it came out completely bent and broken.

The last parts of the cockpit sole has been glued in place. This part took some time to add as the space underneath it will be used as a water storage compartment later on. It will also serve to stabilize the boat in case of choppy waters.

We also had a surprise in the afternoon as we found a book on our bookshelves called "Elementary Seamanship" that none of us had ever seen. We simply have no idea how we came to possess that particular book.

Cut and Polish new wood posts for the cover

Almost the whole day went into cutting and polishing the wooden posts that will later hold the cockpit cover up. We cut the posts from a big log of a wood walled "Iroko". It also known as the "African Teak" as it is a very tough and good quality wood.

We can confirm the toughness of it as our handsaw we were using ended completely blunt by the end of the day.