deck thickness of lazerette - for eddie

[bob mitchell]

here are a coupkle of featured shots showing the thickness of the deck in the cleopatra or lazerette area- it is one thickness of 3/4 on mine. In the second photo you can also see the curved deck beam as well as the blocking.  Some of the blocking is for the davits - so you need to contemplate that.  If it were me I would try to work my way under the deck and take a look - In lew of that I would stick my digital camera under and shoot some flash shots upwards - and then make sure you undestand the parts. But my most important suggestion would be to cut the deck out for where your hatch goes BETWEEN the deck beams  so you affect the real structural strength of the deck hardly at all. You can reach under with a drill, and drill marker holes from underneath to establish the boundrys between the two frames - hopefully that amount of space will be wide enough - -- a long narrow hatch. Unfortunately since the frame stations are basically laid 1 foot apart, and a deck beam is associated with each frame, that may be to narrow for you.

But if you go 2 frames wide you will have to put a "header" between the two frames on each side to support the "cripples" (what was originally one continuous deck beam will become two shorter beams that will need support. I will feature one more shot of my new framing which will kind of give you a visual of what I am saying. - feel free to bounce ideas off.

[Eddie Offermann]

As luck would have it, the cutouts for the hatches I selected are 11 1/4" x 28 1/2" - which gives me a width that may be compatible with the underlaying supports. At the very least, I should be able to notch them and add steel braces, avoiding actually removing any of the frames.

On a whim about a year ago I picked up an inspection camera - a neat digital handheld with a small camera on a flexible snake. It's been the most useful impulse buy of my life. I feed it around all sorts of impossible-to-look-in areas.

[bob mitchell]

that's great!