I had a ~2metre length of the 40x40 tube I'd used left over and as I went to put it away I wasn't watching what I was doing I did the stupid thing
1 stabbed rear deck tearing out a great chunk of the ply instantly, as I jerked it away I plunged it into the other rear deck which split right down the guts.


after several minutes of expletives......

came several more minutes of colorfull mutterings

Tired / not focused / looking forward to the roast dinner I could smell all contributed but I have no-one to blame for this error except myself.

So with a full belly of yummy roasted beef I headed back to the shed to butts the damage, 10 mins later the rear decks were no more and I'd cut in some stringer slots in much the same manor I did Jurassic Karps rear decks



the 2 small stringers will give better support to the rear decks and offer the same to the inspection ports.
I've left ~3mm of clearance between the inspection port and the stringers, I had zero clearance on Jurassic Karp so lining up where the hole was to be cut had to be super accurate, didn't make that mistake again



As of last night the stringers have been glassed in and sanded back ready for some new ply decking.

I wasn't going to touch any of the decks until the off season and at this stage that's still the plan.
The front and main's will get a quick coat of paint just to seal them up, with new rear decks I wont be painting these bits as I want to have the entire deck area in varnish, so for the short term I'll have colored fore and main decks and varnished rear decks....

on the plus side......
Atleast I wont have to replace the rears come winter