The tasks today were two fairly small once, to get rid of the binding on the main hatch and to cut the hole for the deadlight on the fore hatch.

The lower runner you can just about see here was bowed upwards and the only way to widen it was to put some sandpaper around a thin piece of wood and sand the bowed part flat.

The wood/sandpaper tool as a close fit and I sanded and pulled the wood towards me so that the correct part was sanded. It worked and after about 15 minutes I had a hatch that slid back and forth freely again.

Cutting the deadlight hole was the next thing to do and once again I used the hand router and fig to do the job.

It works very well, you just have to make sure that you do not try to take too much off at a time. The router bit I used was only 3mm in diameter and trying to remove too much at once breaks the bit.

The holes for the bolts were drilled and the holes in the perspex countersunk and this is the result.

While I had the countersink bit in the pillar drill and correctly set up I countersunk all the other deadlights.

The screws will be accessible from outside but the nuts on the inside will be fixed using some thread lock and I think it will not be possible to unscrew the bolts from the outside. Once the bolt has turned a little and the nut loosened, there will be nothing to hold the nut stationary while the bolt turns.

So, did I meet my target of having all the major construction work on the hub completed by the end of 2016? Technically, no as I still had the hole to cut in the fore hatch but I'm going to say close enough.

There are a few jobs that still need to be done. The skeg, for example, but that will have to wait until I am ready to paint and anti foul the underside of the boat as I only want to turn her over once.

The toe rails will probably need to be steamed and then screwed in place but that has to wait until the rubbing strake and decks are sanded and prepped but those were not on my finish before the end of 2016 list.

The trick now is to fly work on those things that must be done before she goes into the water. The other things that can be done whilst she is afloat can wait.