Pearson 365 and 367

Nice work!  And good post.  It is great that others can see what can be done and a detailed way to do it here. The link pictures give a good idea of job progression.
Do you have a guesstimate of material costs?
Did you happen to make paper patterns or dimension drawings after you finalized your wood mold?
Cheers,
Wayne

I made my hard dodger out of 1" Airex and 2 layers of 1708 exterior and interior with epoxy resin. Painted with 1 part polyurethane.

Dodger is positioned on coach roof around a flange that is glassed to the coach roof. This flange keeps the dodger from moving around and six bolts secure it to the flange (3 on each side). I didn't glass dodger to coachroof because I want it removable and didn't want it to tear the coach roof apart if a wave carried the dodger away.

Acrylic windows are stuck to the outside surface with 3M VHB tape and Dow 791 sealant to cover up the crude edge of the VHB and cover the edges of the acrylic panels to prevent sunlight from penetrating the edge. The forward-facing window is hinged with an acrylic hinge. Dome is clear acrylic fastened with Dow 791 only and it's positioned directly above the companionway steps so I can stand on the 2nd step and see through the dome.

Traveler is on its own stainless steel structure that is independent of the dodger and through bolted to reinforced sections of the cockpit coaming and coach roof. Tubes are made of 1.25" schedule 40 pipe, 316 SS. One design criterion is that I need to be able to trim the main if the dodger were not in place. I also did not want the loads from the main sheet tear the dodger away.

Perimeter of dodger roof has a dam to capture rain water, which drains through threaded holes at the forward corners. When needed, I screw threaded hose barbs into those holes and connect to drain hoses --> buckets.

I used 3/4" x 3/4" sticks to get the basic design structure, then added 1/8" plywood to finalize the design. Once satisfied, I screwed the Airex to the wood mold and tacked the corners and joints with fiberglass. Removed the screws and applied the 2 layers of 1708 to the exterior. Flipped it over, removed the wood, then routed out passageway for wires. Following that, I added the 2 layers to the inside. After several days of fairing inside and out, I added light fixtures (then removed). Final step was to apply paint and reinstall fixtures.

Aires was very bendy and difficult to shape with sand paper. Divinycell might have been a better choice. I tried using 1700 (no mat, but that was a nightmare to work with because it fell apart during dry fit and wet-out. I went back to 1708, which I think took more resin. Overall the dodger doesn't flex, I can stand on it, but takes two people to move it because of it's size. It's slightly heavier than I can lift, but I never weighed it.

The most time-consuming process was the design; it took months of sketches (paper and on computer) and modeling on board with sticks. I wanted to make sure it didn't look like crap and tried to ensure that it blended in with the boat. Slopes forward and that sight line intersects the bow. The height above the cockpit sole is such that I can stand and see over the top. Previous cloth dodger was higher and I hated looking through dirty windows.

I added the PDF diagrams of the windows.

More pictures: https://boat.bodylens.com/index.php?album=Dodger

Todd,

The engine is 400 to 500 lbs and sitting on a forward slope. As soon as you take some weight off the engine, gravity will will slide forward; therefore, you'll need some way to control that forward motion. Your angled chain/lever design might work for that, but test out with some line to see if you can get the angles you need without the companionway threshold interfering.  You then have to lift it a few inches up onto the cabin sole and forward about 24". Once out on the cabin sole, you just hoist it straight up. The U bracket is only needed to pull it out of the cave and put it back in; it's not used for lifting it out of the boat.

Once the underside of the engine is high enough to clear the companionway theshold, you need to move it aft so the forward side clears the companionway opening in the coach roof and slide out out into the cockpit.

Your plan will likely work to remove the engine, but, depending your motor mounts, will be difficult to reinstall because you might need more precision when sliding it aft and lowering it onto the  mounts. That is where the U bracket is very helpful.

Here are links to what I did

Removal
Removing the engine before I knew what I was doing. Almost broke fingers when the engine slid foward once I took weight off.  I added blocks/tackle on both sides to control the fwd motion, but those were inadequate; however, I managed to get it out.
https://boat.bodylens.com/index.php?album=Engine/Engine-Removal


Reinstall
Reinstalled using the U-shaped bracket. First you lower it down onto the sole, then use the U-shaped bracket to move it aft into the engine cave.
https://boat.bodylens.com/index.php?album=Engine/Rebuild/Reinstalling-in-Boat

New 365 owner, so I apologize if this idea is asinine.  Thinking ahead to the '25/'26 winter, I am trying to think of ways to get the engine out without fabricating that cool u-shaped bracket I have seen others do.  Here it goes:
With an engine hoist attached near the end of the boom and the chain dangling forward of the engine, use a long 2x4/pipe as a lever with the fulcrum being the point of contact with the hoist chain and the long portion going forward in the cabin.  It seems that I could get huge mechanical advantage and simply repeatedly lift the engine a bit, scoot it forward a couple inches, set down, slide connection between engine and lever, repeat.
Thanks in advance.

Todd
S/V Cetus
365 #22

Greetings everyone.  I have been the recipient (and once or twice provider) of priceless knowledge on mirafiori.com while working on my father's '81 Fiat Turbo Spider--looking at this site I am anticipating the same kind of helpful jovial experience.
S/V Cetus (#22) is a 365 that just joined the family and seems to be in great shape.  My father and I are hoping to get quite a bit of use out of Cetus this summer in SF bay, with a haul-out next winter to do usual bottom preventive maintenance, pull/rebuild engine, replace fuel tank, possibly re-step main and re-rig (I would really like to go synthetic or swageless to make it as DIY-reparable as possible).
I have read a fair amount of posts already and appreciate the help.

Todd
S/V Cetus
#22

Nice!  Should be a great setup once you have it all installed. 

We did 4 years of offshore cruising and always thought that 400 watts would have been enough for our needs.  We made do with 200W and a Honda genset.

Im now thinking of removing that center 210w solar panel in the center and getting 3 more 100w bifacials like the outer panels and putting them in. I would gain another 100w.

Almost everyone has a project going on with their boat, be it large or small, there always seems to be something. I tend to keep my larger projects for the winter when the boat is used less.

 I just finished adding 400watts of solar to the boat. It was a real challenge to find somewhere for them that didn't shade. see the picture and critique my location and work 

My next project that's in the works is the battery change over. Just bought 400amp hours of LIFEP04 batteries / chargers... etc. still in the final planning stage but I've purchased most parts. Getting rid of the 135ah lead acid house batteries. Keeping the big Lead acid as the starter battery, and will have a dc-dc charger to the main bank. I will have 3 ways to charge the batteries, from the 5kw Westerbeke genset, 400w solar, or dc-dc (motor) charging. Going to build a wooden/fiberglass box that fits into the side of the port locker.

Trying to get this done for a small cruise to Pensacola/Destin in the late spring.

Since I've seen very few post lately and want to keep this board active, I'm gonna post this picture. This was taken on the Mississippi Gulf coast during the cold weather event we had recently. This is the most snowfall recorded in the area. As a matter of fact the most snow I've seen in my life as a resident of this are is about .5 inch of wet snow. I recorded up to 6 inches at my home nearby. She looks good even covered with snow! Let keep this board alive and hopping. There is so much good info on the forum that helped me greatly.

Thanks!!!

         ...jim