Cannot resist a photo of the access stairs now that I have a second coat of clear epoxy on them. Also a close up of the quality of the plywood used in the stairs and also in the hull.
Another alteration I have installed is 12 mm plywood reinforcement over the keel in two places where there is a splice join. Dudley’s plan already has plywood across the centre line join down the keel on the outside of the hull. This provides considerable cross grain strength to the keel. I have added the 12 mm plywood to give cross grain strength in the inside of the keel as well as stiffness along the section. So effectively there is a sandwich construction with ply on both sides of the meranti keel. Each 12 mm piece of plywood weights approx 2 kg so for 4 kg additional weight low down on the keel I get a lot of insurance. I added these because the meranti backbone has a massive amount of cross grain reinforcement in the keel floor area and then nothing extra in the quite wide spans between the frames fore and aft of the keel.
No worries about cross grain strength in the keel floor area. The laminated frames are 110 mm wide where they cross the meranti backbone
An interior layer of 12 mm plywood for cross grain strength for the keel (backbone) of our Didi 40 Cr
12 mm plywood reinforcement across the keel at a splice join in the meranti backbone.
The companionway stairs for our Didi 40 Cr already looking good with just two coats of clear epoxy. More to come.
A close up of the 24 mm thick plywood stairs construction. This is the same plywood used in the hull of our Didi 40 Cr in 12 mm thickness.