Dodger project for 65' Hatteras

I will take you through a good job that I completed recently (I mean ages ago for you younger guys)

a bloke said oye!... make me a hard dodger that looks like this rag one. I asked how rich he was and he said filthy



His yacht is a hatteras 65' motor sailer... so I built a customwood pattern (most of us call it a plug) on the boat.

The timber pieces at the edge of the cabin top (below the plug)are only there to stop us from falling off and to put tools on. My jig saw is in the frame. The brown paper is to allow me to alter the port (window) size easily to improve the look.

Plug is strip planked from custom wood. Notice the hatch measurements written inside where I cant loose them.
When I had the shape, I removed the plug using a crane and moved it to the workshop.

Here the plug has been sheathed with glass, filled, faired and spayed with Duratec primer (the only goo for painting plugs in my opinion)
This is the final coat and is wet sanded to 1200 grit in preparation for polishing and release wax coatings.

The hatches must sit on flat areas created on the cuved suface of the dodger when finished.
I cut the shapes out of 18mm customwood, waxed them then applied them to the plug with filler under them. I the cleaned off the excess and used a rounded stick to form the cove on the edge.
after the customwood was removed it took very litte work to finish sand the shape.

Very nice finish for the mould to be built on. The flanges were important especially at the aft edge where a surface is needed to fasten a reversed flange to when I build the dodger itself. (see later pic)
Notice the lines for the ports (windows) scribed into the plug so that they will show in the mould.
scibing these lines is a problem of another kind (ask me)
read how I used these later.

This brow mould insert was not needed in the end, however I did not want to take the risk that the mould may not release from the plug, therefore even though I could wreck the plug and remove it, I would have the same problem with the dodger itself and then I would have to wreck the mould. (not a good problem to have)

After waxing the outside of the brow drop in the plug is sprayed with tooling gelcoat which is the first layer of the dodger mould.

 several laminations of chopped strand matt was layed on over the tooling gel and wet out with polyester resin to give the mould strength.

Here I am releasing the mould from the plug using compressed air,several wooden wedges, and few short sharp shocks with a rubber mallet.
notice that I have further reinforced the mould with timbers glassed to the mould shell to keep it from twisting and to make it sit on the floor without rolling about.

This is when I explain to everyone that the whole job is screwed and the mould is stuck to the plug forever while desperately hoping I am joking.
With great relief the mould comes loose from the plug now the other half of the work on the mould can begin.

Here I am making patterns for 12mm toughened glass ports and drop ins for the hatches.
The hatch openings will be moulded through the dodger as you will see later.
After masking out a litt bit away from the lines (remember the lines scibed into the plug)
I layed glass into the mould and made frames for the inside of them all to hold their shape. When they were released I could see the scibe line printed on them so it made it easy to deduct 3mm all the way around then send them to the glass company to be made.(they make steel moulds to form the glass)

The hatch drop in fitted to the mould you can see the quality of the mould finish and this saves time finishing the product.
The dodger laminate will run up the sides of the hatch drop ins

I made 20mm thick laminated customwood drop ins to form the rebates for the 12mm glass ports. (not easy but worked well) Of course first I laminated some chopped strand matt into the mould so that when I cleaned up the edges I had a line to work to (remember the scibe lines)
All dropins and flanges are sealed with Klean Klay (plasticine) to prevent gel coat leakage behind them.

 The mould was first sprayed with white gelcoat (after 15 coats of wax.
Here it can be seen how the port drop ins work.
The laminate runs up and over them to be trimmed after the product is released from the mould, while the hatch drop ins are only laminated up the sides.
Mullions have been fitted between the fwd ports and foam core has bee glued into the top.
The wiring can be seen fitted through the mullion (right of pic)
Notice the flanges at the aft end. the laminate runs onto the flanges and so cleanly finishes the end of the dodger.

wiring was routed into the foam and is inside conduit so that it can be removed and replaced in later years.

Here it is the thing all the fuss was about.
A new and very strong dodger moulding although still not finished.
When I released this from the mould (besides telling everyone that it was stuck forever) all the drop ins were unscrewed from the main mould and came out in the product to be knocked out later.
if you look hard you can see a triangular drop in sitting on top of the mould in the background

Here I have cleaned up all the edges, cut out the port openings and filled and faired the inside.
The owner requested that I make a track to take the soft covers at the aft edge.
This was done in a very sneaky and secret manner (I could tell you but then you would all have to die)
However if you ask me face to face I will tell you.
I can say that I cut the slot freehand with my diamond saw and grinder (in pic) the bolt rope track was already formed by this time.

a closer view of the track. you wil see it in later pics of the finished dodger. (the wide part is the feed)

Here I am checking the fit and it was pretty much perfect.
I glued it into place, glass taped it both sides of the join and for good measure drilled and tapped 12mm machine screws through the lot and into the existing coaming at 100mm centres.

In this shot you can see some teak dorade vents in the forground that I made on the way through.
(more dorades and teakwork in photo file)

I did not like the cockpit tent but it was good in side it out of the weather.

Notice that above the centre port there is a vent slot and there is a drain hole at the side.
I closed off the area inside the brow to form a vent box
you will see the inside slots in the next shot.
I also installed a washer wiper system

Here you can see the vent slots above the fwd ports.I made moulds for the inserts to trim the slots.
also notice the rebates aroung the hatches for insect screens.

Strength wise I believe that the dodger must be strong enough to take the weight of water that the yachts displacment will put on it in the sea.
The yacht displaced 50 ton however I did no calculations, I used the construction of the yacht to guide me.
People I will not mention created a scetch and a laminate for this and I ignored both.
I had a report that at sea, a green wave came over from stem to stern and the dodger had no sign of damage. (the crew had a few skiddies)















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