Once the cooler design was complete, I could finish the plywood decking which is the underlayment for the real mahogany and maple decking. The panel at the rear of the boat created a challenge due to the hole required for the fuel filler. The fuel tank is only several inches from the deck and the fuel filler hose is very stiff. This means that the hole in the deck must align very precisely with the filler neck on the tank. I could not bend the hose to adjust for any misalignment. However, aligning anything on a boat is difficult because nothing is straight, square or plumb. Finding references to take measurements is next to impossible. You almost have eyeball everything but I didn't feel comfortable doing that. So, here is what I did:
I took a piece of old PVC drain pipe and greased up the top edge with black china marker. I slid this over the filler neck and then temporarily mounted the back panel. Reaching inside, I raised the pipe to the underside of the decking and rotated it to leave a mark. This is the result.
I could then mark the center and drill the hole. The alignment was perfect. Sometimes you just luck out. With the hole completed, I could glue and screw the remaining sub-deck panels to the hull.
The weather is still chilly, so you can see the heater in the hull. There are two, one in front and the one you see here. I then cover the entire hull with blue tarps and let the heaters cook overnight. The temperature in the hull gets into the 70's, setting the epoxy. The hull sub-deck is now complete, ready to start on the real decking.
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