Sanding & epoxying in seat well, centerboard cap

The last few days, I've been cleaning up inside the seat wells in preparation for gluing on the seat tops.

I didn't get any pictures, but I used some epoxy with 410 fairing to smooth out the inside. I used a squeegee to roll on thin coats where needed.
I then sanded inside the wells and put a 2nd coat of epoxy over everything.

Now I just need to wait awhile for it to cure. I'll give it a quick sanding with 80 grit to give it tooth and then prime it.

As long as I was messing with the seats, I decided I could glue up the centerboard cover. It needs to have a block put under it so that it fits in the centerboard trunk. Additionally, it needs to have a lock on one end so that it stays put and won't jump out. It turns out I've got some pecan hardwood tongue & groove flooring that is nearly perfect. I used a table saw to rip it down to the right width, chopping off the tongue and the groove. Then I use the leftover tongue to cut a small piece that would fit in the groove on the end. That will be the lock. It doesn't need much.

Then I pondered how to glue the pieces together. I decided that I could use packing tape to make a little hammock to hold the flooring at just the right spot.

See the packing tape hammock on the right?

I also added more packing tape and scotch tape to make sure nothing got glued that wasn't supposed to be glued.

I slipped the tongue in the groove. I'll put glue on the ends and glue it inside the trunk.

I also wrapped the end of the flooring in packing tape to make sure I didn't glue the tongue in the groove.

The fore end, again wrapped in tape. The lateral piece is the hammock.

Cap is on top of the pieces suspended in the tape hammocks.

I then put the cap on and made sure I knew where I wanted it in relation to the seat. I put on one coat of epoxy, then mixed up some silica glue and smeared that on. Then I put the cap on and weighted it down. A few hours later, I took the cap out and it looked great.

The tongue is glued in. I'll re-coat that with epoxy.

Here you can see the groove on the flooring and the tongue in the centerboard trunk

Finally, here is a shot of the whole thing. I'll coat it and seal it up.

Tomorrow the epoxy in the seat wells will likely still be green and will sand poorly, so I can't sand that. I have a couple other projects like the anchor rode storage that I still might build.