flat aft deck on CH14

Posted by Jim Robinson on Oct 10, 2005

Hi, I've nearly completed my ch14 with no major disasters, my second boat so far (mc13 was the first). The decks were installed yesterday. My daughter, an artist with a great eye, immediately said the back was too flat. Sure enough when I measured with the radius tool she was correct. It has the correct radius for the first 18" or so behind the bukhead. It then begins a gradual departure towards larger radii and is essentially flat the last 12" or so. Not completely, but a larger radius than called for. I'm not sure why, I was very careful when shaping the sheer clamps.

This is not a major worry, I'm sure it won't affect the performance. However it will complicate the hatch since the front and rear raddi will differ. I'm thinking the best thing to do would be to modify or make new reinforcers to match the radii and bend the hatch cover to match the hull.

Another possibility would be to cut the hatch opening before glassing and try to glue a radius reinforcer under the deck to change the curvature back to design, maybe steaming the plywood in the process. I'm not sure if this would work, and I can see the potential of making things worse.

Has anyone else faced this, and if so what did you do?

In the future I will install a deck beam near the stern to give the plywood something to wrap around. I would think that would make the final shape less sensitive to the sheer bevel.

Thanks for any tips.

Jim

Replies:

• Re: flat aft deck on CH14 by Howard on Oct 11, 2005
• Re: flat aft deck on CH14 by Jim S on Oct 11, 2005
• Re: flat aft deck on CH14 by terry on Oct 11, 2005
  • Re: flat aft deck on CH14 by Jim Robinson on Oct 11, 2005
    • Re: flat aft deck on CH14 by Niels G. Mortensen on Oct 11, 2005
• Re: flat aft deck on CH14 by LeeG on Oct 11, 2005
  • Re: flat aft deck on CH14 by Jim Robinson on Oct 11, 2005
    • Re: flat aft deck on CH14 by LeeG on Oct 11, 2005
      • Stripped Deck?? by Mike D on Oct 11, 2005