Day 179
 Bulkhead tangs & support
Above is a photo of an intermediate support. In this boat design you may recall there are half frames only as webs below the floor. In some places where there may be storage of heavy items or exposed where feet will be pressing against, a little extra support is needed. Not so much to maintain a second curve to the interior but becaue we likely will be using fiberglass panel here instead of 1/4" plywood. It's a little less biased and also way more flexible.  
Because we haven'y a lot of experience in these matters, it's probably best to play it safe.
There is only one other area where this extra strength may be needed so it wont be a common thing. It only adds a very small amount of weight besides, a good tradeoff.

We are now preparing for the last bulkhead installation. This is supposed to be a weight bearing bulkhead with the mast directly above, and will be made of wood - even though our mast will be keel stepped. I'm sure it also has a little to do with the breadth of the hull structure too!

It will be nice to work with wood for a change. The bulkhead will be secured via bolts to tangs welded on to the hull. ( Photo to the right ) We removed a cieling "T" because that would interfere with the bulkhead bolting to the cabin top. I punched holes all around for the bolts to insert into.

Origionally under the deck we had welded a plate on to bolt to as the frames under the deck were mysteriously offset by 1/4". ( This just happened somehow so take care with alignment throughout the boat! ) Unfortunately we realised the plates would be in plain view in the interior and would be a bugger to hide so we chopped them off level with the frame under the deck.

Plasma cutting 3/8" circles out of two 1/4" thick pieces of steel is not easy trust me!
The tangs for bulkhead
Aother thing that needed to be done today was tacking in the chainlocker plate, just to make sure it would fit. It did. The plate has a slight curve to it and looks great! A drain will be welded to the bottom that will feed into the pipe that goes back to the bilge.

Because it's so cold out we can't really blow air throght the boat so we had to wear bodgy masks all day. Better than being up all night coughing though, which has happened previously hehe!
Gena checking ou the chain locker plate  

 

 

Day 179:
6 hours - Put in tangs for wood bulkhead and extra supports forward. Fitted SS chainlocker plate.


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