Hatch covers lined up in the garage. All latches trial fitted and both sides glassed or saturated with epoxy
The garage has been a good refuge in the cold weather so I have taken the hatch covers there to finish the latch fitting, glassing and epoxy coating. I recycled the cut out from the top of the gas bottle locker to bond to the underside of the lid so that the lid locks in place. This takes the load off the hinges and hatch latch and also lets me glue in a slight curve in the lid. I am pleased with the latches as they are strong and the handles fold down out of the way. The anchor latch is the same as on the J122. The gas bottle and deck hatch latches have the same lift handle but are a rotary latch ideal for holding the lids down against a gasket. I am pleased with the glassing as tomorrow I can put the hatches back on the boat and keep the approaching wet weather out. In the spells of sunshine I have pushed on with sanding the epoxy coating on the deck taking turns to use the random orbital sander and do hand sanding in the corners or on edges. I have finished sanding the cockpit and transom and have about half of the deck to complete. I am looking forward to the first coat of white primer on the deck next week. Again in anticipation of a few days of rain I gave priority to sanding any bare timber and epoxy saturating that so as of tonight there is no bare plywood edges or timber exposed to the wet and all the fitting cut outs and fastening holes have at least one coat of epoxy on the plywood edges. I even saturated the bolt holes for the stem fitting with epoxy using a long thin brush and a lot of patience. That went better than expected and the surplus epoxy was still dribbling out hours later. The photo shows the hatched lined up in the garage with latch holes drilled and epoxy or epoxy glass coating depending on the hatch.