Today, the goal is to get the fiberglassing of the hatch lip taken care of. The first step was to tape up the hatch covers. I taped the back sides (under-sides) completely with clear, heavy-duty tape. I also taped the edges of the hatch cover. Then I taped the hatch-cover back into place using duct tape and the heavy-duty clear tape around the edges. The idea is to get the hatch cover back into place so that a lip can be fabricated underneath. This view is from the top of the front hatch.

And this is the underneath of the front hatch. This is where the fiberglass strips will fabricate the hatch lip. I sanded it some. Yeah, it's not smooth, but this is the inside of the boat. Nobody's gonna see this. If you don't tell, I won't tell.

The back hatch cover, outside.

The inside of the back hatch cover.

And the front hatch lip after a 'glassing marathon. I almost really screwed up here. For some reason, the fact that Nick's book said he used six layers of fiberglass here never registered. I'd cut and neatly prepared (even taped!) one layer each for the front and the back. Then, after laying that layer, I realized it wasn't gonna do the trick. I freaked. Went back and read the book quickly, and the light went off -- SIX layers! So I returned to my fiberglass cloth scrap heap, and frantically searched for more long skinny strips. Thankfully, I had enough. I cut enough for three more layers, then laid it, front first, then back, then front, then back. Mixed more resin. BTW, the black stuff is graphite powder, which works really well to make the hatch lips black. When you do this, do not skimp on the graphite. You want your resin blacker then black when poured/applied. Use lots of the stuff. Anyway, I did manage six layers on each the front and the back, one after the other. I used a 4" foam roller to apply the resin, I think it works better than a squeegee, especially with the System Three Clear Coat, which is really quite thin. With thicker goo, I can see that the squeegee is the way to go.

And the back hatch lip.

It's a little blurry, but this is the front hatch lip, with the hatch cover popped out. After 'glassing, I waited about six hours (had soup at Vince's -- thanks again, Vince!). See next slide.

This is the back hatch lip, with edges somewhat cleaned. This was more difficult than I'd thought it would be. Prying the hatch cover free from the semi-cured glass went ok once I figured out what was going on, but I really freaked out before then -- I thought I'd really screwed up and ended up 'glassing the covers back into place. At first, I thought it would be gentle prying. I'd actually thought I could get away with using a tongue depresser (my resin stirrer of choice) but that was pure folly. Frantically looking for something of substance to use as a wedge, I ended up using the #11 form knock-off. Not my smartest move. It worked, but the plywood was brittle and fractured a bit, leaving chunks in the partially cured 'glass that was impossible to remove. I got smart with the back cover, and used an old putty knife. This worked like a charm, but beware -- you'll probably ruin the putty knife, so if that's what you use, make sure it is expendible. This will be sanded to clean up the goop and tape and other stuff, then I'll probably add another layer of resin on top of the gasket before I trim it, just for good measure.

The front hatch lip, from the outside. If you look close, you can see the small chunks of plywood stuck in there. This will be trimmed to probably one inch wide, sanded, and perhaps some more resin added.

The back hatch lip. This as well will be trimmed to about an inch wide, and probably sanded and filled with more resin. Note that I also have some work to do on the hatch covers themselves. I need to sand them down, remove some black resin goop that made its way in a few tape seams. I also need to determine how I'm going to attach the hatch covers (leaning towards using shock-cord) and get the right stuff attached in the right spots. But this is huge progress -- I'm moving from doing major structural stuff (scary!) to doing outfitting type stuff in order for these things to be functional in the end. Yay!