I got started tonight by trimming the excess fiberglass left over from the rib installation work yesterday and knocking off the little pieces of peanut butter that had dripped on the hull. I was just starting to work on the bulkhead when...
Two Goettlers came over to help again tonight, Kim and Caitlin. Caitlin did such a great job yesterday I asked her to keep right on with the fiberglass work. She spent all night doing but three things. She glassed the ends of the ribs to the hull (didn't get done yesterday because it would have been too hard), fiberglassed the inside side panel seams on each side where the side panels were scarfed in place and then the rear side of the forward bulkhead between the bulkhead and the sides. I told her I'd hire her, but she'd have to commute from college.
On the east coast.
Don't think she'll take me up on that one. :-)
While Caitlin was glassing, Kim and I worked on the bulkhead. First she sanded down the bottom corners of the rear panel of the bulkhead to allow for the fiberglass that was put in the sides-to-chine joint. Then we lifted it into the hull and clamps and scrap plywood was used to hold the bulkhead in place at the shelf level and a single screw was driven at the lower port corner through the plywood and into the vertical framing piece to hold the bottom in place.
Next we worked on the forward bulkhead panel. The port side needed some sort of access panel to allow for air circulation and also for any wiring needs, but I didn't want to cut in another door. So I bought a vent panel. We positioned it on the port side and Kim traced the outside, then drew lines on the inside and using the jigsaw cut the panel out.
Further work was needed on the access door on the starboard side as the door had a slight warp in it that caused the corners to bow out. So we cut a piece of plywood that bent the other way and glued and screwed it to the inside of the door to offset the bend.
Last I cut out a strip of 1-1/8" plywood to use for a bunk support nailer like was used on the face of the flotation tank. Kim measured where to put it, applied glue and we put in two screws from the opposite side to hold it while the glue dries.
Now that front panel can't be installed yet as the conduit still has to be installed so we looked at working on the floor of the cuddy. Unfortunately when I was installing the 24oz fiberglass I really wasn't too concerned about perfect placement, so some of those very thick strands ended up sticking up from the edges of the stringers and they needed to be cut down. I tried to trim them off with a utility knife, but that just wasn't working so I sicked Kim on them with the 6" sander and shop vac. Took her all of about 30 minutes to grind everything down smooth.
Nice work!
Caitlin was still working on glassing the bulkhead, but it only took her about fifteen minutes and then we called it a night.
Just for fun I put my digital level on the face of the bulkheads. The measurements? 89.3 degrees on the starboard side and 90 degrees on the port side. Doesn't get much better than that!
Tomorrow will be floor and conduit work day. The floor in the cuddy will be an interesting trick as I'm placing the floor on top of the stringers which means that the chines will pass through it just like they did on the deck of the flotation tank. The deck pieces that will go on top of the ribs will be easy to cut, but won't be permanently installed for a while as blocking still has to be installed on the hull to anchor the fuel tanks and the straps for those will feed through the deck.
Once the conduit is installed then the front panel of the bulkhead can be glued in place and both faces of the bulkhead can get a fiberglass cover. Whee, that will be fun. :-)
3.5 Hours (Me) + 3 Hours (Kim) + 3 Hours (Caitlin) = 9 Hours