Te gusta asado?

My neighbors are having a Thursday night asado and I was feeling bad about the saw noise, so I knocked off early this evening after cutting out a shelf and center support for the starboard settee, and tracing the template for the port settee on a piece of 1/2" ply. This A30 did not originally have a shelf behind the settees. Instead the area was open, creating storage cubbies accessible from the top. The idea of dropping something into a deep, narrow space seemed silly to me, and I really like the shelves behind the settees aboard our Cape Dory 36, so it seemed appropriate to create shelves. In order to take advantage of the space behind the settees, I'll cut in hinged hatches. I suppose some may think that's an equally dumb idea since accessing the area requires moving the cushion out of the way, but generally things that go in a space like that don't need to be gotten to all that frequently - at least that's my thinking.

I determined the shape of the shelf by creating a template much like the main bulkhead templates I created earlier because the approach is pretty tough to screw up. I cut the shelf out of the same 1/2" ply that I used for the settee backs and tops after tracing the shape on the ply. I used a scrap piece of 3/4" ply for the vertical center support, which I hot glued in place until I can secure it with fiberglass.

The port shelf is traced and ready to be cut out and placed. I'll make another vertical support for the port side as well.

It's not much progress, but it's progress. One thing less to do the next time.