Bits and bobs

Right around this time (but before I officially glued the cabinet sole down) I did a few other smaller jobs. Here are some of them.

Water tank fill hole

#

I had been thinking that I would wait until I flipped the hull over in order to drill the through hull for the water tank fill hole. I thought this might be the easiest way forward:

• I wasn’t sure if the build cradle was in the way of where the hole would appear. Drilling it after the boat was flipped would make it obvious I wouldn’t hit anything.
• Fibreglassing the hull would be just plain easier if it was flat with no holes that I had to worry about, particularly epoxy dripping through and filling the threads in the garboard drain plug
• I figured I could drill a very small pilot hole while the boat was right side up, fibreglass over it on the hull, and then use that to line up the hole going the other way.

In the end, I decided I was probably overthinking this. So I drilled the hole for the garboard drain plug itself, along with pilot holes for the screws used to hold the plug down (although really I just used a bunch of epoxy - that’s what’s holding it in), and attached it.

I didn’t hit anything when drilling through the hull (and geez, if I had, that build cradle would have been poorly designed), and you can see in the image that I’ve used plumbers putty to seal the threads while epoxying it in - I’ll likely do the same once the boat is flipped over and I’m fibreglassing the hull.

Centerboard trunk cap

#

With getting the seats ready to glue on, it was time to figure out the centerboard trunk cap. The plans call for “permanently” attaching this to the boat by putting long 3" screws through the top of the trunk to hold the cap on, but I prefer the idea of an easier-to-remove cap system. I’ve never sailed a centerboard boat (or daggerboard, for that matter) that didn’t have it get stuck in it’s trunk at some point.

I decided I wanted a relatively tight fighting lid that was held down at both ends. By cutting the trunk opening from the seat top a little short I could get an overhang that the trunk cap fits under, and for the end up near bulkhead 4 I intend to use a small hole with a removable pin that will fit through the bulkhead and hold the front of the cap down.

First step was to put the centerboard into the centerboard case fully raised so that I could make sure everything fit. Then I used some cedar to cut out a block that extends down into the case roughly an inch, and I drilled some pilot holes between the cap itself and the cedar block to make sure everything lined up when glued.

Wrenches

#

The last small bit was to cut a couple of wrenches out of plywood that fit perfectly over the nuts in the garboard drain plug as well as the centerboard pin.

These will get sealed up with epoxy and maybe painted. They’ll become the main tool I use while on the boat to drain/fill the water tank, as well as to get to the centerboard pin should I need to do that in the field. Given they’re made out of wood and thus will float, I’ll likely store one in the water tank itself - it should be easy to find when I need it!

Ok, but now, really, it’s time to get the cockpit sole ready for installation.