Deck
The weather was so nice that I changed my plans: instead of crawling in the bilge and making fillets I focused on finishing decking.
A bit of a jigsaw puzzle - to optimally use wood, avoid ugly knots (some of them are nice thou) and make it look harmonic.
I started with the main deck, as the easiest to fit. The plank closest to the centerboard case needs to be wide and rest on battens on the case. I don’t have wide enough wood to carve it from one piece so instead I ripped and cut battens to be glued and screwed on the edge.
Dry-fitting before gluing. I made the battens a bit wider than needed - after the glue sets I will trim them to size.
The opening opposite to centerboard case doubler is there for rubber line which will hold centerboard in position while sailing.
While these planks are being glued I switch to the aft deck.
The hatch there will be as wide as possible, so that I can keep full-size charts under rubber bands and do my navigation on such “table” and still be able to open it.
Soft batten to find a sweet curve for final shape.
Central section is wide and almost flat. Sheet clit will be there so I don’t want any excessive overhang which will grab the rope.
When deciding on spaces between planks I diverted from specified 5mm gap and made 3mm instead. It still will allow wood to move/expand and for bilge to ventilate but it will be less likely to grab any rope. Roger Barns had a capsize once, due to the sheet rope caught between planks.
All my wood is plain-sawn hence it will cup. I aligned planks so that middle of the plank will rise while edges will go down. So called “smiley” when you look onto grow-rings.
It turned out very well.
I marked each plank on the underside so that I will not have to solve this puzzle again when I remove them for maintenance (oiling).
Next step will be to drill holes for screws and then I will remove the deck for oiling.