With the construction of the pilothouse and trawler mast/hoist complete, I took advantage of the nice weather this weekend to install the components onto the Compac 16. It was quite a leap to take the sawzall to my beloved ship, but all worked out well and I am very pleased with the end result. Steps to install the pilothouse are outlined below.
I removed rooftop hardware and companionway slides, and then set the pilothouse on top of the boat.
Then I traced the cutout lines onto the roof from the inside of the pilothouse. The rear wall of the pilothouse prevented the pilothouse from sitting down flush with the roof still attached, so you see some gaps at the moment.
Crossed the Rubicon, and took a sawzall to my lovely craft. Man o man was I glad when the pilothouse actually fit. If I had made a mistake at this point it would have been disastrous.
- Next I filed the mating surfaces of the pilothouse and the cabin roof. There were many times taking the pilothouse off and putting it back on....good exercise and probably a sore back tomorrow.
- When I was happy with the fit, I drilled the bolt holes through the pilothouse flange and into the fiberglass roof.
- Then I cleaned the surfaces off, layed down silicone bedding compound, set the pilothouse on, and bolted it down.
- With that done, I put the trawler mast and hoist in place and rigged them in place with Dyneema standing rigging.
- The outrigger poles and bases were installed
- The downrigger bases feature quick-pins that allow them to be quickly installed and removed.
New mahogany companionway board rails and new okume two piece companionway hatch boards. All epoxied and spar varnished. The doors are weatherstripped.
Completed mast-top-light wiring, and installed stainless steel cabin-top handrails. The cabin-top handrails were installed with stainless steel hardware through oversize holes that were filled with epoxy.