Now that most of the deck is protected from the wet by the epoxy glass coating I have started on the cockpit coamings. Coamings are a raised border around the cockpit to keep out the water. They also act as a back rest when sitting in the cockpit and sometimes can act as a seat when sitting outboard when the boat is heeled. It has taken two days to cut all the odd shaped longitudinal stringers and cleats as well as the odd shaped panels of plywood that form the coamings. They are all screwed into place temporarily. I propose to glue all the parts together but not to the deck so that I can remove the formed up coamings and turn them upside down to glass inside. That way I can incorporate the winch mounts as hollow structures glassed into the coamings as you would expect to find on a production yacht. i have a couple of plastic buckets ready to laminate up the winch bases and I might cut up one bucket and put it on the coamings just to see if it looks right.
First look at the cockpit coamings on our Wide Stern version of the Didi 40 cr
View down the starboard coaming on our Didi 40 Cr. The seat on the deck behind the coaming feels like a good helming position