Day 110

The measurements from the coaming were taken, marked, and a flatbar on the easy edge placed to continue the curve beyond the coaming to the sides. The sides were then checked for distance from the last frame and it was within 1/4" amazingly!

The next logical thing to do is to put in the transom! Unfortunatly, we don't have a motor yet ( soon! ) so all we can do is fit it in.

After reading many books on steel building, we found the least covered subject was how to make the transom fit! At first we were thinking of doing the same thing for this as we did to put in the bulkhead aft of the pilot house. ( Using wood sticks glued to a 2x2 ) But after some looking at it, we realised this wouldn't work ! We had no way of knowing where the wood tips should butt into the sides and bottom.
To make things even more unknown, the transom is curved in at the sides !
Here's what we did.

-First, I used the aft curve we have just cut to make another piece of plate
-Next this piece was put into the oversized transom plate and the transom pulled up to it, thus resulting in a predictable curve. The transom layback was taken into consideration so the curve was not standing vertically at 90º !
-We trimmed off all the stringers to allow the transom to go further forward, where the hull is wider
except the top sheer stringer that would act as a stop near the top edge, and the stem where we knew the transom would be at.
-We then hoisted the transom over the aft and dropped it down as far as it would slide in. The measurements were pretty close near the widest part so it did go in about halfway.
-After trimming down the radius and side edges 1/2" at a time, and a couple hours had passed, we finally got it to fit!

What a relief that's done. We have to leave it out for awhile as the motor will have to go in here.