Page 1 of 1

Companionway hood caveats

PostPosted: Fri Jun 26, 2015 9:09 am
by DanaDCole
1. The companionway hood needs two drain holes near the front corners, but this is not mentioned in the manual until after the boat is painted. Better to drill these holes before the hood is mounted (and this applies several other drain holes, especially the dorade boxes). I drilled the holes ahead of time in the hood and also sawed 1/4" wide slots from the bottom of the sides up to the holes. This way the drains will go right down to the cabin deck with no danger of damaging the deck when drilling the holes.

2. The sides of the hood are 3/4" wide timber, so naturally I drilled the holes for the mounting screws half-way across, i.e., 3/8". It turns out that later a slot is drilled for the hatch slides, 3/8" deep. So now the screws are in the slot! I suppose that, knowing this ahead of time, a person could put the screw holes closer to the outer edge, but I myself am not a "human drill press," especially when drilling upside-down, so there is a danger of drilling outside the hood side even with the holes at the center of the wood. (Luckily this did not happen.) So it turns out I can see the screws in the slots. The plastic slides fit between the screws thank goodness. I rounded the front edges of the plastic slides so they won't hang up on the screws.

The bottom line is to make sure your screws are as close to the center of the wood as possible, erring more to the outside if you err at all. And figure out a way to keep the drill bit as vertical as possible. One of those alignment tools won't work in this case because the cabin roof is not horizontal. I have Dewalt drill with a bubble to help keep it plumb, but that only works when you are drilling down, not up. Please chime in if you know a good way to do this.