Warm weather has arrived!

So, last fall I cut out Pylasteki's cockpit to gain access to the rudder tube and make the cockpit lockers water tight.

This had a good and a bad side... on one hand, I had access... On the other, her insides turned to be outside. So, no interior work over the winter.

Saturday I spent the day working re-working my plans. I've learned a few things over the winter as far as time savings go. I had planned on using marine grade plywood to wall off the lockers, tabbing to the hull like the rest of the bulkheads, one sheet of which walked away a few months ago. (Drat.)

Having spent more than my fair share of time wedged in to the cockpit lockers grinding out various rotten wooden supports, glassing, and generally contorting... The time came to break out the thin metal cutoff wheel on the angle grinder.

My reasons for a fresh start:
I like destruction...
My back stay chain plate knee is rotten...
The cockpit lockers are to narrow to work a sail bag through, making the v-berth the sail locker.
The old lockers gave great access to the shallow end where you can't put anything, and require standing on your head to get to the deep recess where everything falls.
The athwartship bulkhead that keeps stuff in the lazarette from sliding under the cockpit isn't structural... and keeps one from being able to stash a decent size oar in the cockpit locker.

So, aside from the plywood stiffeners being rotten, and the generally goofy curvilinear shapes of the stock pearson deck mold... I decided the day had arrived to start with a blank slate.


Since I have an outboard on Pylasteki, the rear deck and traveller arrangement were tough on the rump... My minds eye pictures an alerion 28 style rear deck with cut down toe rails that taper out to nothing. Mainly because that image has haunted my dreams since I stepped on board one at the Annapolis boat show two years ago. No puddles for water to blister off the paint, no need for 2 sets of chocks to keep paint on the rub rails in the slip.

The bridge deck has to rank of a curve, which makes water puddle up at the forward corners, making the triton a wetter boat than it ought to be. I figure raising the cockpit seats an inch will make the cockpit more comfortable, give better viability looking forward, and an inch more room above the galley sink so it might stay dry on a port tack.

So... off came the curved stern rail, and off came the stern deck. This provided an interesting visual... as the transom appears 2 inches shorter now. Also curious, my deck being from the second deck mold... has a transom that runs up almost 2 1/2 inches from straight across. The Mk 1 and mk3's are much less curved. My eye likes the curve, but I will be installing a hatch on the aft deck... I am mulling over a flat (1/2 inch rise in the middle, as a truly flat surface looks concave) rear deck to make it easier to get a good seal, and give better access to the tiller on my outboard. Sigh, Pylasteki will just look like all the other tritons in the world I guess...

Materials:

I've been wanting to try vacuum bagging, so I bought a sheet of divinycell foam. I'm mocking up the various pieces with the hopes of getting all my pieces out of 2 sheets. It will probably end up being 3... It will make a little waste, but I am going to glass the whole 4x8 sheets, and cut the pieces out as though they were plywood, then assemble with epoxy and glass tabbing.

This means I'll pre-fair the panels, paint the inside of the lockers... etc, before it goes together, with minimal time spent actually wedged inside the lockers themselves.

I'm plotting two stringers that will run continious from 1 foot 6 inches aft of the cabin top, all the way to the transom. I'll build this off site, upside down meaning the tops will be even to one another. My footwell will be straight, at this point I'm plotting 24 inches of width... same as it is down below. This may mean I need a tiller with more curve to clear knees, and regain some steering angle... I'm after the storage, and figure that wider seats will make the Triton's overly short coamings not hit the kidneys quite as easily.

Oh yeah... and it'll be lighter than stock, and I'll finally have a boat that when I crank on back stay... I don't get the feeling she's warping into a banana.

I'm a little vain when it comes to the style of Pylasteki. I really love the line Alberg drew of those coamings... pretty much perfect.

The stock cockpit seats run at the same curve as the bridgedeck, which is fine when underway... I'm going to square off the cockpit sole, minus a few degrees, not so much that its even visible. I sat in (on?) a Herreshoff named Margaret over the summer last year, she was comfortable... mainly for the flat, wide, seats. So long as she doesn't list, the water should burn off the seats in morning sun...

My bridge deck is going to be 2 feet wide, reason being... I'm moving the cockpit locker bulkheads aft to make more storage inside the boat, the cockpit was being shortened... primarily so I can run my drains overboard above the waterline, out each side in the boot stripe. If one hose pops, it won't sink the boat.

Thats all for now!

Zach