Cockpit floor dry fit

After epoxying and screwing most of the access hatch supports in place, and the sliding hatch top, I was looking for the next step.  I am in the process of getting the fuel tank to put in, and decided to dry fit the cockpit floor.  This will allow me to continue the dry fit of the cockpit while I wait, and also make it much easier to walk into the cabin.  Plus I get to stand there and pretend I am finished.

This is what I have been standing on while working on the access hatch.  The spotted gum king plank is 20mm thick and 90mm wide, but only sitting in place.  All others are epoxied in.

Below is looking from the transom frame forward.  Frame 8 is waterproof (top half still plain epoxy on ply, bottom half painted).  In front of that is the space for the fuel tank (that's why the king plank is not stuck in) and in the middle is the cockpit floor.

This shows the port side showing the supports for the floor of the under-seat storage:

I started with the floor of the starboard side, fitting the 12mm ply floor and a 9mm end piece to seal off the space.  To the right of the storage I will bring up the exhaust pipe above water level in a loop to prevent water coming in through the transom and flowing to the engine exhaust.

The the main sheet which will be the cockpit floor.  I carefully worked with a square and straight edge to cut notches in the ply.  It slides in under the wooden uprights which will have the seat fronts screwed onto.  I left the ply oversize on the inside and trimmed it after it was positioned to ensure a neat edge with the under seat floor.  Amazingly it fit first time!  Keen eyed watchers will see that this meant the other side had space between the rear edge and the uprights on the left of the picture, which I covered with the next lot of under seat storage flooring.

This is the port side before:

And after.  The left hand piece goes in first sliding up against the hull side and covering the first gap in front of the upright wood.  Then the forward piece which also has a notch on the right end that slides forward to cover the gap under the upright wood.  These were needed because the centre piece cannot be wider than the width to the upright wood, it wouldn't slide down into place!

Join between the two is notched to meet mid way across the support under the join.  Looks complicated, and I had to redo the left one due to some rushing towards the end of a day.  Lesson learnt, thought I would finish and stand on it to end the day, ended up making myself another hours work and wasted the first piece of ply.

And the final result.  Looking forward from the port edge of the transom support frame:

And and overhead from the access hatch looking aft:

Still haven't made the washboards, but now I can stand there more comfortably that will be next.  It also makes it more accessible for guided tours.  Because I have done it for years I thought nothing of walking over the frames whilst carrying a sheet of ply, but forgot just how much practise it took. Visitors will now be able to step up in style.