Rebuilding the flat deck F1 frame

I’m working on so many projects at once right now that it’s difficult to find time to work on things much less write about them, but I’ve been steadily working on rebuilding the flat deck F1 frame this last week.

I removed the sawn curved deck beams and replaced them with my normal laminated configuration but with two plies of ash in the center for extra strength.

I was hoping to sneak just a little more curve out of the deck beam forward of the feet for more room for gear bags, but after several attempts I had to surrender to the miserable half inch that I was able to get initially. This tight forward cargo space is just going to be a fact of life on this model, if people want better packabilty, they can always choose my standard version.

The new deck beam is a lot stronger and keeps the system congruent with my other models, but it also presents a few challenges with the deck geometry. It was pretty painless to build up blocks to mount the deck stringers, but it leaves a wide unsupported area that I normally used to mount the cleat and tiedown for my sail system.

Normally there would be other options but the catamaran board that I’m hoping to mount directly ahead of the cockpit precludes me attaching anything else the foredeck stringers. (on the positive side this attachment will be fantastic for a variety of deck mount accessories when not in catamaran mode.) so that has me thinking about using the deck beam again. I could of course just laminate a bunch more wood on top of that to give myself a mounting surface but that’s a pretty clunky solution and not something I would do. Right now the best I can come up with it’s just reversing my normal configuration of cleat and hook and hoping for enough knuckle clearance. Ordering some flat cleats

As usual I’ve been tracking weights meticulously and I’m not thrilled about the extra couple pounds from all my modifications but if someone just wanted the flat deck and didn’t care about the catamaran or sail, it doesn’t look like that’s going to add much weight over the standard models.