New decking in the cockpit

Saturday -today's job was to fit the Permateek deck (if only to stop Garry nagging me about it!) Actually I'm just as keen to see it finished as he is. I started off with a visit to Garry to collect the empty drums he promised, to use as weights. He also cut me some mat to use to make new gutter in the engine box. Then off to the marina via BaseLine Marine to buy two catches for the electronics hatch (another job in progress). I eventually arrived at the marina, where it was dead calm and baking hot. Calm good, baking hot - not so good if the glue goes off! Anyway, on to work.

First take off the engine casing and wrap the engine up. Then sand down the deck, take off any lumps and bumps, and screw down an access plate that I am going to cover up. I measured carefully and recorded it in the back of the Log Book so I know where it is if I ever have to cut a hole. Then I had to do a thorough clean, and make any slight adjustments to the Permateek mats to make sure they fitted like a glove. There would be no second chances. The glue was in sausages so I had to invest in a sausage gun, expensive but worth it. After all that, each panel took about half an hour to fit, what with the gluing, spreading, fitting and rolling out. I weighted them down with wooden boards, Garry's drums and more buckets. The boat looked like it was about to make a drought relief trip up some African river. I took the engine casing home and tomorrow I'll make a start on the GRP work before going back tomorrow afternoon to see what the new deck looks like.

Sunday -part 2 of the decking installation. I spent the afternoon glassing up a new gutter in the engine casing, with real-time virtual help from Garry with text messages. I'll show photos when I have tidied it up, but it looks pretty good for a beginner. This evening I went back to the marina to see how the deck had stuck down. All the planks and Garry's drums seem to have worked. I emptied everything out, then spent ages masking all around the edges of each panel to caulk the gaps and ensure any water drains to the scuppers and doesn't settle and go green. The engine casing is still at home but here are a few shots of the new deck. Looks good.