Adventures in a Mill Creek 16.5

I made the decision to include a deck hatch, and cutting it out was a bit daunting! In the end, I made an oval template in some plywood and used a router with a narrow bit - this way I was able to use the cutout as the hatch cover. I made the magnetic closure in the same was as this Laughing Loon video. Here is the internal rim (made from heat-bent walnut) being fitted.  

The inside seams went OK but it was not much fun. Lit with a torch, the  process involved having your head stuck inside a kayak while trying to sort out laying a sticky glass fiber tape flat using a paintbrush taped to a long stick. Also the seams crept apart a little during the process which has meant using a bit of epoxy filler on the outside. Here is the first outside seam being installed, which was much more enjoyable. I have done the seams in four sessions, rather than trying to get the pairs done at once, and I'm glad I made this choice, otherwise it would have been way too messy!

  Here are the hull and deck taped together ready for the internal taped seams. This is a bit of a fiddly process as a roll of epoxy-soaked glass fibre tape has to be unrolled right down to both ends of the boat on the inside (torch and paintbrush-on-a-stick at the ready).

  I have now glued on the coming lip (using most of my clamp collection). This is made of thin walnut strips clamped to the coming. I'm not sure how deep the lip needs to be - I don't want the spray skirt to 'ping' off too easily, but it does need to come off in case of a capsize. I can always modify it once I have a spray skirt to test out.

 This is the last major piece of fibre glassing - the inside of the deck. I trimmed the bottom of the coaming first with a saw and then an electric file - not a very enjoyable job, but it came out OK, I think.

 Here is the deck after two coats of epoxy onto the glass fibre cloth.