Hatches are, well, hatching

January 29.  Happy National Corn Chip  Day!

With the hatches joined at the seam by a bit of sorta-cured epoxy (sorta because this is a cool shop for about half of the day and I'm already using a slow hardener that takes 16 hours for a cure at normal room temperature, which this ain't), i installed ribs that run down the inside of the seam between the two halves of each hatch and when fully built fit into slots in the front and back of each hatch opening.

First a fillet of thick epoxy and glass tape over the full length of the inside seam of each hatch, and after a couple of hours to let the epoxy on the glass tape kick, i taped the ribs into place.  I tried to use a clamp to get more of a robust contact between the rib and the glass tape, but that didn't work at all and ultimately it shouldn't matter because (a) the ribs will be filleted to the underside of the hatches and have another pair of glass tapes reinforcing the filleted joints, and (b) the hatch won't change its shape no matter how much pressure I apply with something stronger than a bit of masking tape.  The tape was just to keep the slightest contact and to hold the ribs vertical for the three or four hours they would need until things were starting to cure for realsies.

I also got started on the installation of the seat.  It attaches to the hull at four points: at two mounting tabs epoxied into the hull at the front of the seat, and at two tabs epoxied into the underside of the hull.  At this point, i can't do a complete installation, since i need to first get the deck glassed, then decide on the positioning of the lower coaming, then cut the deck to fit the opening required by the coaming once it's where it needs to be.  That will be a while, like maybe this weekend or early next week, since i don't work on it every night.

What i COULD do was to get the lower tabs into their final shape and ready for epoxy and glass tomorrow.  So i did.  On Monday, I'll have the deck glass and depending on how much energy i have i may do the deck and the seat and most of what's left on the hatches.  We'll see.