Two layers on the bottom and two layers on the top make for a pretty strong (and heavy) rear deck. Even with the holes cut out and no interior supports it withstood my weight without much of a protest.

The floor was my next target. The cockpit was much too large to make out of one sheet of the foam. By-the-way, the foam is called Toughboard for anyone that may want to look it up. So after double and triple checking my measurements I cut out the floor from three sheets making it an inch shorter than the total measured length. ACK you say? Just wait I have a plan…

I first used a twelve inch strip of the 24 oz roving to attach the three sheets together. The front halves and a six inch strip the full width of the rear. Once this was dry I screwed support boards across the seams in several places to hold and support the sheets. *Another tip…If you try to lift all three sheets without support you will crack the glass strip and have to start over. (Fortunately I have good ears and stopped as soon as I heard the stress sounds.) Turning the full assembly over on several sawhorses I started the top glassing with a resin filled seam and Roving going across the width of the floor. After it cured it was checked for flatness and another layer applied. Once the top part cured it was turned over and the process repeated on the bottom. This made for a nice solid floor that should withstand anything I can throw at it.

Now it was back to the most hated part of this project so far…Grinding. Remember I said that my step-son had removed most of the flooring? Well he left a ragged edge along the entire cockpit, ranging for an inch to four inches away from the edges. Have I said I hate grinding fiberglass yet? It took another day to clean up the boat (and myself) from all the fiberglass dust

Update:
I next turned my attention to the electrical portion of my “little” project. I went back to Ebay to find a good water rated wire. The first hit was fantastic. An Underwater rated 10 gauge solid copper roll. I bid on it and waited through the last four hours of the auction ready to react if anyone tried to outbid me. No one did and I used the pay now button and my Paypal account to get the roll on its’ way. I won’t name the supplier because he ripped me off on the shipping. He charged me more than triple the actual shipping costs!

Getting this ready I also purchased from Ebay: A stainless steel Nema 4X enclosure (tonycrits), ultrasafe fuse blocks (sellcomblue), and shrinktube (lapidarist). I already had terminals, terminal mounting strips, and holders from another project.

I decided to add a lot of extra wires to my wiring harness and a spare fuse block in the panel for any later upgrades. Good thing I did. I found a really nice waterproof LED light at Walmart. I went to pick up some grommets for the enclosure but they didn’t carry them. So I wandered into the boat section to see what was on clearance. These little babies are waterproof, take less than a tenth the current standard bulbs, give off almost no heat, and are guaranteed for ten years! Downside? Fourteen bucks a piece plus tax. One inside each live well, one in each hatch equals eight lights and a hundred twenty bucks. While there I also picked up a new Attwood 1250 GPH bilge pump, live well fittings, transom plugs (screw type not the stupid lever ones), two spot lights, cable ties, and a plastic label maker. This is one receipt that will not make it to the wife!!!

Close up of glassed roving

Rear deck glassed

Hole for dry storage canister

Rear deck with cut-outs

Cockpit Floor

Another cockpit floor picture

Water rated wire pulled through existing tubes

Wire ends for the front of the boat

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