The Triton Daysailor | From a Bare Hull: Bulkheads

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From a Bare Hull: Bulkheads (Page 4)

Midships Bulkhead (Continued)

The next day, the epoxy was cured, so I removed all the screws and cleaned up the bulkhead by sanding off any excess epoxy from the seams, screw holes, and edges. I also took that time to even out the edges of the two layers as needed. After an hour or so of sanding and prep, the bulkhead was ready to make the short--but difficult--trip up into the boat and into position.

Getting the huge bulkhead up into the boat by myself was not particularly easy. It was too heavy and unwieldy to lift by myself--it measured over eight feet wide, about 7 feet tall at its highest, and contained the better part of three sheets of 3/8" plywood, all told. I found that by rolling the large cabinet on which the bulkhead was currently resting over near the staging surrounding the boat, I could lift one edge onto the staging and then raise the other end up so it leaned against the hull. Close, but still a long way from being where it needed to be.

The bulkhead was now supported upside down on the staging near the port quarter of the boat. Now I had to get it inside the boat, turned the proper direction, and into place. After contemplating the issue, I decided to pull the inverted bulkhead around to the staging behind the transom. From there, with considerable effort, I managed to get it up onto the hull, temporarily supported by some boards that I laid across the open hull.

Now the problem was that the wrong side of the bulkhead was facing up, so I couldn't just slide the whole thing forward and then erect it into place. Instead, I had to spin it around, and then figure out a way to flip the whole thing end for end. Given the size and heft of the thing, this proved to be difficult, but I finally got it done with no injuries, deaths, or broken bulkheads. Once the bulkhead was flipped the correct way, it was a relatively simple matter to pull it forward, over the temporary brace at the bulkhead location, and get it oriented vertically into the space. It fell into place with a significant bang, but ended up in the right place with only minor adjusting necessary.

After aligning and plumbing the bulkhead as needed, I secured it in place with my usual short pieces of tabbing, after holding the bulkhead in place with screws and more of the inverted L-shaped blocks. I left it to cure overnight, and in the morning, when the tabbing was cured, I moved the temporary beam aft to the location of the next--and final--set of bulkheads, about six feet aft.

Aftermost Bulkheads
I located the final set of bulkheads six feet aft of the large midships bulkhead, near the location of a bulkhead from the original design. Similar to the forward, chainplate bulkhead, the aftermost bulkhead was in two halves, with an opening in the center.

I followed the same templating (tick strip) steps and installation practices as with the other two bulkheads, and therefore will not repeat the whole description here. I wanted to get these bulkheads in place, but at the time there were several unknown factors regarding their shape, so I decided to make them overtall, and to not attempt to cut out the center portion until later, when I had a better idea as to the cockpit width and depth. Later, I could cut out the unneeded portion with no trouble.

I sized the two sections of the aft bulkhead so that the inner edge was about three feet from the hull, and extended the tops of each side well above the eventual deck height for later trimming.

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