Cockpit finish and fairing begins

The end of the last post had me epoxying down hardwood pads for the stanchion bases.  Below shows the final outcome, firstly up close:




And a wider shot looking own the port side:





Work has continued on the final steps in the cockpit construction which have been ticked off the list. First job was attaching a hardwood pad on the inside of the transom under the quarter deck.  This will be used to bolt into for the top support of the rudder.




I also put a layer of glass on the coaming tops.  Below shows them prior to the epoxy being set and each side being cleaned up:




I contacted the designer and confirmed the tabernacle needs to sit level rather than following the slope of the deck (would have given the mast a large angle backwards) and put a hardwood pad in place using the same technique as the stanchion pads.





Then on to fairing prep.  I gave the top and sides of the cabin a sand, and cleaned up the rear of the cockpit as the underside of the quarter deck, the seat sides and the inside of the transom were not yet epoxied.  The cabin top I felt needed another layer of epoxy to fully cover the weave of the mat, so I put two layers wet on wet on the whole lot.  With that dry I gave it a light sand all over, but was much happier with the surface on the cabin.  Below shows the seat backs after a light sand:





Below is pre fairing of the cabin:






And with the first layer of epoxy and fairing powder:






This is the port side of the cabin, looking aft:





And the outside of the coaming:






Before and between epoxy coats I also managed to finish undercoating the oval covers for the storage in the cockpit and the inside of the hatch cover pieces, and two coats of paint on them as well.  Trying to keep a number of jobs on the go as the fairing will take time and plenty of effort.

These are all the same size, just look the photo on an angle.









Onwards to sanding and more fairing, forgot how much fun it was!