Day 97

Some days everything goes just right, and this was a great one. The sun was shining and the temps were summer like, even got a tan! We started out early and put on the remaining cabintop cambered frames, ( done up at work ) then the remaining aft camber that will be like a dashboard in the pilothouse. That was plumbed in to the web frame below for accuracy with the bulkhead that will be there. Then the aft pilothouse bulkhead ( the top half ) was installed. ( Pic to right ) We carried that peice up, only 5' x 4', but the crane had to be used for the poopdeck plating. (below)	Welding in aft pilot house bulkhead
Got the aft pilot house smoothly cambered to match	This was an easy job as the plate we were butting it against was already straight, and will also be under the seat combing so it won't need fine finishing either. The photo shows how the two converge. We just sliced one off to fit! Not sure if that's standard practice but flipping a 10' x 4' plate over by hand while balancing on frames 10' up didn't really appeal to either of us! Next we cutoff the camber at the top of bulkhead, and finally the excess on the sides of the pilot house.
A lot of thought must come into play at this point. The pilot house side to roof join must be rounded with a split pipe section. The low cuts made will allow for this but we were afraid to overcut so some grinding will have to be done. We are tempted to actually put on the pilothouse roof plating but have to decide by next weekend as we will need more plate. Also a concern is how we will get interior plywood inside later on. One thought is through the pilothouse front window area as we can leave that until most of the inside panelling is done. We have decided to load the motor in ( fairly soon ! ) from aft because the transom is still not in yet. Then slide it down wood runners and use a come-along hanging from inside to position and mount it. As far as we can see, there is no reason we can't plate it in! Well....we'll see hehe

Day 97: - 12 hours
Put in remaing cambered frames, rear pilothouse bulkhead, poopdeck plate, trimmed pilothouse sides