(4) Fitting the hatch to the dog-house

As I mentioned earlier, I bought a great hatch at the boat jumble, so time to fit it!
Part of the Cunning Master Plan is that yours truly will not, under any circumstances, get cold or wet , when we sail away to the sun, well, probably we'll get as far as Cowes and stop by the pub, as usual ?!
The sheets and lines will all be led back to the doghouse near to where I sit next by the kettle.
There are a couple of options where to lead the sheets, either on the dog house itself or the stern.
There are potential challenges (we don't have no problems here, moosh):

• On the doghouse: (1) No access: solved: fit a new hatch (yarp yarp, wot a cool idea!) (2) the angle of the sheet to the lower block(s) fitting, as you can see from the drawing, if the sheet is led here the angle is only about 10-15 degrees but looks OK when you close one eye and squint? unfortunately, this could lead to tangles when we tack. We simply will not know until we try. but worryingly when I showed Robin Blain, after delivering the mast,  he did do a fair bit of yer 2nd hand car-dealer type teeth sucking with this idea, so I now have even more doubts!!
• At the stern. Whist the angles are much better, the problems with leading the sheets to the stern is that I would need to locate the lower blocks above the Bimini, which means some sort of structure about 50" above the deck deck (stress?). Also, when we do tack, the sheets could batter the canvas Bimini to death..I think I have a solution regards locating the blocks, I picked up a stainless steel ladder at the Chandler's barge at Bursledon (£40) which, believe it not, is exactly 50" high and perfect for the job. The idea is to fit this to the deck and to the push pit rail and use a series of mini stays to provide the lateral strength needed.

So, being the decisive type, I will set it up so I can use either! (good decision, Chris) I will initially set it up for the stern fitting but could then change it to the dog-house roof if this doesn't work out or I get bored and want to play...

Irrespective of the sheet issue, having the access panel in the dog house is a real bonus, it will mean that I can easily get to the lasy-jacks and boom to secure the bundle of reefed sails and step them, etc. Also, it will be great for letting out the steam from the kettle and hot pasties and throwing the bits left over to the seagulls when on route?!

So, fitting the hatch. I am coming to the conclusion that whoever built Bobtail confused it with a nuclear bomb shelter... when I started hacking away with my jig-saw it took forever, I kid-you-not it is over 1" thick, 2 layers of GRP (over a 1/4" thick) sandwiching a 1/2" balsa woof inner bit... wow?!. The only doubt I have is the side walls are only one layer of GRP and the windows could be a weakness there with the side way stresses from the sails when running or tacking etc. The last thing I need is the bloody roof to blow off, my ruddy toast could get cold?



Hatch in position, GRP time!

 Answer? Reinforce the structure, nuptie!

Side view - bit weak by the windows?

The solution will be by a combination of  3 or 4 1/4" ply-wood laminates all glued in place with cascamite and mega glops of GRP at the edges, joins. corners.... on the floor, me and Gypsy the dog, no doubt ...

 All together now (to a Reggae beat):


" Yep, i'm yer boatee builder chum, HEY, loadsa GRP, loadsa mess n' loadsa fun, fun, fun (etc etc) yeah, yeah (etc etc), hey dude innit, YEAH "... What jolly old jinks we have, Eurovision Song contest eat yer heart out (better than that Azzer-by-jan jobie or wot!!