Over the weekend I shaped the dashboard and made a tighter fit against the deck battens. The dashboard sits at a 20 degree angle, and as the middle deck batten is higher than the other two, it was a little difficult getting the right fit. A file worked really well for this process. I also made some support blocking pieces for the dashboard to sit against for added strength. They will be fastened to the coamings at the same time as the dashboard.
Once the dash was in I went ahead and drilled out the hole for the helm. I first sat in the boat and figured out where a comfortable position for the steering wheel would be and then made a mark for it. Once I put the helm into place I realized the wheel was a little too close to center and it would be a strange fit to be steering with two people in the boat. I then made a second hole that fit a lot better and the helm piece is large enough to cover the other hole up.
Next I went about adding height to the transom. It needs to be raised a little less than 3". I cut out some scrap plywood I had that will match the transom, but I'm not sure if that will be strong enough to hold. I was planning to put 2 large screws with epoxy to hold it in place, and then fiberglass as well. Now I'm thinking about finding a metal transom raiser that would be stronger. I'll look online at pricing and make a decision in the next day or two.
The pictures below show the helm and steering wheel in place as well as the outboard (which you can see sits a little low). The second picture shows how much fairing I'll need to do for the decking to fit right, though I'm sitting slightly lower than even with the bow so it's not quite as bad as it looks. On the right on this blog I set up a calendar which will show the fastening schedule I'm going to try and follow. I'm hoping for a splash date in 3 weeks, but we'll see how close I get to that.
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