Nothing in a boat is square or straight. This means that anything you wish to add will need to be custom cut to fit your specific application. This also means that any “quick project” will never be quick.
The old head design was rather straight forward. When you entered the head, you had to step down a significant step. We wanted to bring the level of the sole up to be the same as the level of the toilet, that way you can easily walk in and use the toilet without your feet dangling into the shower area. It also helps to serve as a visual partition between the “head area” and “shower area”.
The goal was to make a piece of sole that would then be elevated to the level of the toilet sole. I chose to make this structure out of 1/2 inch closed cell foam covered with epoxy and fiberglass. This would give me a very flat and stable platform to work from while also imparting a great deal of strength. The issue was that the space this article would occupy was anything but regular.
The foam coring material I was using has a perforated grid cut into each side, allowing you to easily snap the foam off into the rough shape that you desire. This worked very well at matching the contour of the door side by simply breaking them off to allow better fitment. I never had to use a spiling batten to transfer the curvature onto the foam or anything, simply break off the little pieces as I needed to make it fit.
Once it was roughly cut to the shape desired, I laid a layer of chop strand mat onto it with epoxy to hold everything together and give it strength. I left the edges dry so that it could be cured into the overall design when production reached that point. When the day comes that I will glass in the rest of the floor, this irregular piece will easily fit into place just like all the other regular pieces I will be adding as well, saving me a lot of time and allowing the shower sole to be laid up all at once and in one piece.
