[BigLew]

"Measure twice and cut once!"

No, really. It's a jigsaw puzzle and that's half the fun. Decide what you can do to start. Hatches sound like a likely starting point. Go read Strick's thread, HERE WE GO AGAIN and focus in on his layout and glass layup sections.

GET your tools/benches, etc. together and then write up a plan. Think the entire process through, step by step. Revise it because you will likely find that by the time you get done you will have thought of something that you didn't think of at first. When I say think it through I mean it. Not just until the last lick of paint, but once it is finished and reinstalled, how will it work and what could be improved for YOUR use. Get it down on paper, WITH MEASUREMENTS!

It sounds more challenging than it is, but each step is a learning experience and thus makes the next step easier.

Now the hard part. Probably nothing you do do will be perfect! There will be a blemish in the paint, an angle that wasn't quite right, a slightly off drilled hole, etc. Don't beat yourself up. Your friends will be amazed at what you did and will probably not even notice what just jumps out at you. Just keep at it and walk away when you have had enough for the time being. Frustrated hands can not do anything good!

Now for the real sanity saviour. I believe it is the Navajo Indians who believed that they should always leave a thread hanging or "mistake" of some kind in their work. They believed that they were imperfect and could not attain perfection in their work. They would leave the "hanging thread" as an invitation of prayer to their God to enter their work and and make it the perfection that only he was capable of doing.

Pretty neat, huh?

There's a lot of help for the asking here and even more moral support. We're the Seacraft nuts, that's what we do!

Best wishes and good luck.