Re: 1984 Skeeter Champ 16' Restore
Uh oh, look who's back!
It's been a rough couple of months and not much work done to the boat in that time. Where I last left off, my son and I were building his Pinewood Derby car. He ended up taking 2nd in speed at the pack race and 5th in speed at District (which is very surprising due to the size of his car!). Here's his car, before putting on the wheels:
Anyway, after that I ended up having to have surgery on my wrist so that naturally put me out of commission for just about everything for a few weeks. After that, my wife and I decided to spend a week in The Bahamas (it was our honeymoon cruise). A week later and here I am! My wife has to have a surgery the first of April, so I'm not back 100%, but I am back and working!
Before my surgery, I dropped of my prop to be machined and I picked up my wiring harness that was made for me. I also resolved my trailer wiring problem (somehow the ground pin on the pigtail broke off). After the break, I decided to pick back up with the cap, starting from the front. I cleaned it all off (the first time I've seen it since starting the project! HA!) and assessed the situation.
Unfortunately, the core of the deck was rotten enough to where it needed to be replaced. On the flip side, I was planning on pulling it anyway. The boat originally had a single hatch up front that left a lot to be desired. So much wasted space! I couldn't leave this alone. I cut out around the perimeter and pried the wood core away from the top (the 'glass top was thick enough that I decided I would re-use it). After pulling it away, I realized there really wasn't that much wasted space... but still enough to warrant some access redesign.
In these two pictures, you can see where the old access hatch was located, as well as where the two seat posts were located. The black bar you see around the middle is where the bow the of the hull meets the sole of the deck. Anything ahead of the bar (towards the bow) is above the level of the sole, so it's pretty much unusable space in terms of using the deck as the storage base.
I've been thinking up ideas on how to best maximize space and this is currently what I have in mind.
For the section of the deck that is ahead of the black bar (the 'unusuable' space), the middle box is going to be for a recessed trolling motor tray. To the left and right of that will be some "mini-storage" boxes. I'm thinking I will directly mold in a fiberglass box large enough to hold tackle or a clear box or two. I'm pretty sure they will be much smaller than they appear on my drawing, but you get the idea. I'm still not 100% on these boxes, though, because I'm not sure how it is going to impact the strength of the deck. I don't want to step down on the lid and my leg break through, ya know.
For the section behind the black bar, I am going to get rid of the rear seat post (I don't believe I have ever used it) and extend the center access hatch back while at the same time pinching the center hatch in on the sides. This is because I am going to add a hatch to the left and right of it. These two side hatches will actually extend up closer to the black bar than what the drawing shows. If I end up getting rid of the idea of the front built-in boxes, then I will extend these two hatches up even further. Unlike current bass boats, I'm not making each access hatch it's own compartment. It will still be one large open storage underneath, but I will have more access to it, thus making more the space visible/usable.
Now for the question part of this post. My main concern is going to be how do I tie the new wood in to the cap to where it will be structurally sound? Would I simply use the cutout as a template, cut a new piece of ply (and wrap it in 'glass as per the normal guidance of course), 'glass the cutout back onto it, and then tab it back to the top cap from above and below?
