Moving right along it was time to finish up the bits of interior that still needed to be built before I closed the roof up for good. First up I made a couple of seat backs for the cabin berths out of more BS 1088 marine ply with a double coat of epoxy.

The backrests have some upper and lower storage behind them divided by a small shelf at about 2/3 height. Additionally they will provide some stiffness to the hull by connecting the frames inside. I cut oval holes in the panels by marking out two corresponding circles, cutting them with a 5” hole saw then connecting them with straight lines to complete the pill shape. I routed the edges of the openings and sanded them for a nice soft feel.

I’ve planned all along to fit an Origo 1500 single burner alcohol stove and although most of my meals at sea will likely be prepared via the Jetboil, I thought I might want to have a proper stove just in case I catch a fish or want to prepare fresh vegetables after a port of call.

I started by fitting the galley pieces from the B&B kit and then decided how I wanted to cut in a recess for the stove while also leaving room the sink. I made up some 7/8”(22mm) cleating out of leftover douglas fir and started dry fitting the pieces to make up a framework for the fixtures. After that I cut and fitted the panels, made two pieces to fill the hole for the stove, and added some access holes for storage before screwing things together.

I repeated the process on the stbd side for the little nav desk with a cutout on the top for an opening lid and with the structures built I glued everything in place with thickened epoxy. I left off the galley and nav desk tops and the seat backs as I wanted to paint the soon to be inaccessible spaces in these areas before I closed them up. I rigged up a makeshift ventilation system, sanded everything smooth and got to spraying primer and paint. I also painted the undersides of the cabinet tops as well as the insides of the backrests.

Paint having dried I went ahead and did some minimal wet sanding and buffing for a decent shine before assembling everything for the final time. I also loosely fitted some vertical support pillars made of African Mahogany that will get final installation before I finish painting the inside.

Now with the interior pieces assembled it was time to finish up the observation pod and get the boat closed up for good! Thanks for reading!