In the forecabin again

With the tabernacle in place, I can now think of getting the deck liner in.  This will help keep the forecabin clean and allow me to fit out the saloon, with a certain knowledge of where I have full headroom.

 Please forgive the quality of this shot.  It was the only one I took showing the dowelling put into the deck beams, through to the beam shelf/sheer clamp - whatever the correct word is.  While I am fairly sure of my glue joints, adding 'trenails' gives me an increased confidence in them.

 My next job was certainly what is known in this country as a 'lolly job': fitting the cabin sole.  Once again I milled up a heap of tigerwood and planed it down to about 5mm.  I worked out how many square metres were required and prepared that much timber, to be sure that it was all the same thickness.  In fact, I ended up sailing a little bit close to the wind, but just had enough.

 There are two lifting hatches in the forecabin and I indulged myself in buying some natty little brass rings from Classic Marine to help in lifting them up.  Thus far, there is no way to secure these hatches, but if I went offshore, I would have to screw them down, or find some locking device.  I was very pleased with the looks of the floor, once it was all sanded.  The paint and varnish now require touching up, of course, but I expected that.  Indeed, I only put a couple of coats of varnish on the side of the bunk, in anticipation of needing to do it again.

The unstayed mast puts quite severe loads on to the deck structure.  Because there is minimal framing in the boat, and there are no hanging knees, I am going to stiffen up the deck with some more layers of plywood.  Two layers of 6mm ply will run fore and aft on either side of the tabernacle (and in front of and behind it) and a further small deckbeam will be fitted abaft the tabernacle to allow for the same thickness of plywood to be carried out to the sides.