You will notice at the end of the post, the cockpit will not be completed. Building this type of coaming has multiple steps that didn’t necessarily work out sequentially. So finishing this part of the boat will be in at least one other post.
First, I wanted to illustrate how the epoxy is measured. The mixing ratio is 2-1 and is pretty crucial so my epoxy comes with two different pumps, color coded for the containers. One pump from the blue is twice that of the red meaning you don’t have to keep count past 1, measure or guess. One pump from the red, one from the blue, one from the red, one from….you get the pointThis is the template for the actual cockpit opening. You can see how the template lays down on the recessed area that I built earlier.Here I go again with the jigsaw.The cut opening. I needed over a 100 pieces so I taped the cedar together to keep from losing the cuttings.I measured the circumference of the cockpit template and divided by 3/4″ then by 2 to get the correct numbers. Sorry, I forgot the length or we would’ve had another math quiz.I started placing the wood at the centers of the cockpit because I wanted the pattern to match the deck. Not critical, just a detail. I put wood glue on one edge of the piece, put it in place then used super glue to hold it in place while the wood glue dried. I’ve used two full bottles of super glue on this boat along with a bottle of “kicker”, which cause the super glue to cure immediately. You wouldn’t think super glue when assembling a wood boat but it does work. Of course the alternating pieces don’t come out even or square.So you end up with a coupe of custom fit “keystone” or the nautical term “whiskey planks”.All fit togetherThe completed riser. I’ll trim the height later.I do have to deal with the extra extending down now, though. Now is the time to smooth and even out that area before the deck is attached. Sanding it flush with the underside of the deckWith the deck upside down, I fiberglassed the bottom edges of the risers to the deck for strength. Bad picture.
