, with the mast in the down position, the hieght of the pilothouse would be 13" at the front and 16" aft. My next consideration would be to have a rubber roller pivot point at the front edge of the pilothouse where the mast would contact it. This would require a steel frame incorporated within the pilothouse. But then, the short distance between the mast hinge and the pivot roller would likely make the mast hard to control when removing the mast hinge pin to lower it to the mast crutch. Even harder, would be raising the mast against the pivot roller to attach the mast base to the hinge. To alleviate these issues, a pop-top pilothouse like the pop-top hatch of the Mac S, or a tabernacle mast. At this point, the dodger sounds more resonable.
add the new blue foam block to the top of the Original hatch and begin carving a Mock Up of the finished product. You now have a finished Mock Up that you can install on the boat and make whatever changes you desire. Now... you have a male plug and about $15 invested.. Tape off the Original hatch area and spray the foam plug with Poly.. Pull the tape off the Original hatch Area . Your now $20 into this project.. You have numerous choices for media to use for deriving a female Mold.. For smaller items we used plaster of paris.. We literally pushed the Male plug into the plaster..What ever media you choose you now have a female mold that will fit the slide perfectly and its ( with care) reusable for numerous moldings..
