Glueing updside down and our keel stepped mast

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!

So today I wanted to tell you about one of CAI's techniques. He has an abundant "toolbox" of various techniques that make building this boat possible.  In this case it's about gluing or bonding. Gluing is a very common process in the build out of AtLast.  Nearly everything is glued and screwed together, unless it's fiberglassed into place.  When pieces are both glued and screwed together it prevents these mating parts from creating unpleasant creaking noises when the boat is moving on the water.

When using glue, pieces are clamped together while the glue cures.  For an example, see the photo below when CAI was bonding the slats to the top of the companionway hatch:

CAI adds clamps to the companionway hatch while the slats are being glued in place.

But it's not always so easy.

Recently CAI was gluing reinforcements to the inside surface of the cabin top in the location where the mast will be.  Masts are either keel stepped or deck stepped.  Keel stepped boats have a mast which goes down through the deck (cabin top) and to a mast step at the keel in the hull.  This design is the classical way and the most secure way to install the mast.  But when using this approach, the mast protrudes through the cabin top or deck and that hole is a vulnerable location of the boat.  To strengthen that area, CAI glued additional pieces of marine plywood to the underside of the cabin top.

In this next picture, you can see the 4 pieces of marine plywood glued to the underside of the cabin top.  This is an AFTER picture, after the job was completed. 

Looking UP at the mast boot support. 
The mast will stand in this location, just aft of the forepeak.

So you can imagine it's impossible to use traditional clamps to apply pressure to the plywood.  We are gluing upside down here so we can't load the parts under bags of sand or lead either.  So CAI's solution was to place several 4x1's underneath each piece of plywood and they exerted upwards pressure to compress the plywood against the cabin top.  

The forepeak was off-limits for a day or two while this was going on.