October 22, 2002 - Back Decking and the Bulkhead.

Today it was a nice sunny day, so I decided to get cracking on the bulkhead. This is the piece of wood that blocks off the area under the large back deck, but I've decided to cut a hole into it to allow the area to be used for storage. I had a brainwave - why not use the large sheets of corrigated cardboard that the plywood came wrapped in for making the initial template, rather than that flimsy sugar paper I used for the back decks. Above is a picture of the card cutout, although because of the sunlight you can't tell that it's not wood.

I cut out the relevant shape in ply, and it fit very well. Then I spent about twenty minutes sanding it - it is very important that the access hole doesn't have any snags or it will get broken very easy. I also cut two corner holes to allow any water that gets in to run out again. I don't want the back of the boat turning into a small version of an indoor swimming pool!

Here you can see the actuall bulkhead glued into place and clamped. I've also finished epoxying the whole of the inside of the boad. I'm hoping that if the weather is as good tomorrow as it is today, I can rout out the deck slots and then start painting the inside of the boat with the pale blue paint I bought on Saturday.

Tasks remaining are:

• Routing the edges where the deck fits in
• Painting and varnishing the inside of the boat
• Cutting out and fitting the back deck x2 (I'm double layering the back deck for extra strength)
• Final paint and varnish layer for the punt

• Design and build an outboard fitting for the boat
• Design and build a tent that fits over the punt
• Purchase a boat trailer