Matt's Jarcat 6 Pages

Once all the woodwork had been finalised I started on giving the exterioir of the topsides a coating of 85gm/sqm fibreglass mat and epoxy. The floor of the cockpit and the foredeck were both done with 195gm/sqm fibreglass mat.
The block mounted on the transom is to take the tiller pivot bolt. I decided to use a bolt rather than a pintle mainly as I had recently purchased the pintles and gudgeons for the rudders - a a price of over $25 for each item.
I did add an extra stiffening board on the inside of the transom at the bottom of the opening where the tiller goes through. This was to help take the strain that is placed on the plywood by the lower tiller pivot bolt block.
During the epoxy covering process 19mm holes were drilled through the cockpit floor to act as drains.

I purchased some hardwood "D" moulding and and screwed this to the cockpit floor. (The material purchased formed two of the cross pieces but when I tried to get more moulding it was unavailable so I ended up having to plane and sand a piece of hardwood to the same profile.)
Fillets were formed around all edges on the cockpit floor.

(This was really done at the same time as the cabin roof but I am trying to keep descriptions of like sections together.)

The coaming face was cut from 4mm plywood and the coaming top fashioned from a length of cedar. After carefully determining the angles, bevels were planed on both edges of the cedar.

Here you can see the beveled cedar sections glued and screwed to the seat top, the coaming face and the coaming top all in place. Note the cedar glued to the cabin bulkhead to support the inner face of the coaming. The inside of the coaming has been given a coat of epoxy/preservative. Just visible is the ply butt joint backing, inside the coaming, at the join between the coaming face and the cabin side. I also used a 6mm ply backing to thicken where the coaming rises to the cabin roof. Don't forget to drill a hole down through the seat top and int the rear watertight chamber to provide a breather for the inside of the coaming.