New hatch: My old hatch, which is a non-standard DS part, leaked and fouled the jib sheets so I made better one. This one's shape is a conic development so the plywood curves nice- I was worried I'd have trouble bending the plywood so kept the curves easy, though I shouldn't have worried and could have made the curves curvier. The plywood is 2 layers of 3mm Okoume and the top layer is 1/4" Oak faced laminated with wood glue. The plywood is supported by the 2 sides plus 4 parallel 'joists' and the front and back which are all solid 1/2" oak. I ran out of my favorite varnish, Pettit Z-Spar Flagship (6 times the UV inhibitors) as well as my budget for varnish ($40 a quart), and bought some cheap stuff- and man was I sorry. I sanded the crap off and then coaxed an ounce and a half of the now highly viscous Flagship through a filter and was able to do a last (fifth) coat I was happy with.
New tabernacle: The Dwyer tabernacle, which is usually deck mounted, is not strong enough to be mounted 2.5 feet above the deck, and not finding anything else suitable I designed my own. It works in the verticle plane, unlike the Dwyer, and is proving very sturdy and the mast does not wander at all when raising or lowering with my "A" frame. The top 2 1/2" bolts are attached to the upper mast. The bottom or 4th bolt down is the pivot and the 3rd bolt down is the lock. The sides are 3/8"x 2" x 12" aluminum. The boom is up high to facilitate working in the cockpit and is normally much lower and not in the way when the mast is down.
New halyard routing: I moved the halyard leads from the mast to the cuddy top so I can access them from the cockpit and use my "war club" ( a camcleat on a stick) to tension them. I don't trust these 40 year old Schaeffer camcleats so I mounted them on big wedges and backed them up with regular cleats which will also give a good place to coil the line. The halyards come down through some plastic cable anchors on the mast hinge to keep the halyards relatively taught whether the mast is up or down. There's actually a place to mount them on the tabernacle that keeps the strain on the halyard equal, but I thought of that directly after I mounted them this way!
New mast boot: (not finished) The 4" access hatch which is mounted upside-down around the mast on the deck will soon be a waterproof boot, as soon as I remember to buy some waterproof fabric and some really big hose clamps.