With the aft cabin roof infused, I could finally push ahead with the aft cabin and cockpit structure: longer seats, a flush entry hatch, a small bridge deck, and the cockpit coaming—plus the inevitable “measure twice, cut once” moments.
Aft cabin and cockpit construction
To get some more room in the cockpit I made the seats 175 cm long (my body length) instead of the 168 cm specified in the plans (for sleeping under the stars, etc.). After fitting the aft cabin hatch it turned out I had been a little too enthusiastic with that extra length. To make the hatch fit, I had to cut a recess in the bridge deck, and that just did not look right.
The other option—moving the hatch further aft—was not desirable because of the mainsheet traveler position. Repositioning the traveler would reduce the boom’s ability to help mast rotation, so the traveler effectively dictates where the aft edge of the hatch can be.
To solve this I added two extra foam panels to the front panels of the aft cabin, resulting in a correction of 32 mm—just perfect.
Oh well… it seems you shrink as you get older.
This photo gallery (65 images) follows the vacuum infusion of the aft cabin roof and the step-by-step build-up of the aft cabin entry, cockpit seats, bridge deck, companionway hatch, and cockpit coaming.
