With the first main hull half structurally complete, attention shifted to the cockpit area: fitting the remaining bulkheads, building the emergency escape hatch coaming and safety compartment, and laminating a heavily reinforced cockpit coaming deck plate designed to take hardware loads without worries later on.
Bulkheads and cockpit area
This stage wraps up the first main hull half structurally, with the remaining bulkheads installed and the cockpit area taking shape. It includes the cockpit coaming/deck plate, the emergency escape hatch coaming, and the flush safety compartment.
For the cockpit coaming deck plate I used a mould and vacuum-bagged a high-density core made from four layers of 4 mm plywood, with fiberglass laminate between the layers. That creates a stiff, durable foundation and removes any future worries about mounting hardware in this area.
There is also a short video on the right showing the infusion of the escape hatch coaming reinforcements.
This photo gallery (36 images) covers the finishing work inside the first main hull half: installing and taping structural bulkheads, building the emergency escape hatch coaming and safety compartment, and laminating the cockpit coaming/deck plate with a vacuum-bagged high-density plywood core.
