Today was a good day to work on a boat. Cooler, about 20 degrees C and raining most of the day. Raining does not make boat building any easier physically but when it is raining you at least don’t feel like you could be doing something else like you sometimes do on a sunny day! I worked pretty hard today, but I don’t have as much to show for it as I would like, mostly because some of the work is invisible. I have glued, coved and glassed the rear seat webs in and before I could do that I had to glass the rest of the rear bulkhead.
A couple of years ago just before we bought our kit, we visited another Schionning builder who told us it had just taken 2 weeks to make the saloon lounge framing and we went away thinking no way that it could take that long. Now I know. I spent all day and whilst I have glued, coved and glassed all of the pieces on, it does not look like a days work. It is surprising how much time is consumed with coves and taping.
The rear seat is curved to match the duckboard, and to achieve this curve the webs are smaller in the middle and then each web is slightly larger, the same size each side and the same distance from the last one, this creates a curve that the seat front will be pulled into, the panel will have a uniform gradual bend in it. Then the seat top can be glued on. I will then make hatch lids out of the seat top rather than seat front making the size of what can go into the hatch larger and easier to get in. I intend for some of the seat back to be for the outboard tanks and life jackets.
I have a plan for the rear seat back, for the centre part. The open section in the pics above should be filled with a curved seat back but I may leave that section open, and fit a curved seat back made from chromed tubes with round padded cushions around them, this way the seat is see through making visibility aft from a seated position in the saloon better, and also the back of this seat back is also a seat back to the duckboard. I can sit on the duckboard with my back on this padded seat back with my feet over the edge fishing or just enjoying the view. I first saw this idea on the Schionning Alaskan 41, except it has this seat back on either side from a centre duflex bbq stand so mine will be reversed, the seat back across the centre only.
I have a tip I have been meaning to pass on for some time but keep forgetting. You don’t need any special tool for coving, you can make your own out of 3mm ply, just shape the end to the radius you need and then taper the top like a chisel, then just throw it way and make another next time rather than cleaning a purpose made tool.
Tomorrow I should get the rest of this seat front made. I have to measure and kerf the starboard side seat front and when it is done, glue it to the port half and glue it to shape and to the seat webs.
