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| From a Bare Hull: Bulkheads (Page 6) |
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Hull Leveling | Basic Layout | Chainplate Bulkhead | Mid Bulkhead | After Bulkhead | Fillets & Tabbing | Limbers |
Trimming the Bulkheads I intentionally left the bulkheads extra tall, running them wild above the sheerline and eventual deck height, since I wanted to build my beam mold and do some deck layout before trimming them to actual size. With that work complete, I saw no reason to hold off any longer on trimming the bulkheads down. With the exception of the cabin trunk portion of the mid bulkhead, the cuts did not have to be absolutely exact--just something close to, but beneath, the eventual plane of the deck sheathing. |
 I
began with the midships bulkhead, which was substantially oversize and
made the interior of the boat feel like East and West Berlin after they
built the now-defunct wall. When laying out the lines on this
bulkhead earlier (go
back...), I had made a small error
in the topmost portion of the cabin trunk crown shape by running the
batten on the wrong side of one of my marks. I took a few moments
and corrected this error, then used my jigsaw to cut the bulkhead along my
layout lines. For the cabin trunk lines, I held very carefully and
closely to the marked lines, but for the sidedeck marks I cut just below
the layout line, to ensure that the top of the bulkhead wouldn't
protrude beyond the tops of the eventual deck beams, requiring further
trimming. The cutting was straightforward and easy, complicated only
by the slanting sunlight pouring through my barn windows and creating bad
reflections in my dusty safety glasses. Somehow I managed
to overcome that particular hardship and get the job done. I
refrained at that time from cutting out for the eventual companionway in
the bulkhead, as I wasn't yet positive
where the cockpit sole and other features were to fall.
Note that the deck beam shown in these photos (which is actually the one I used as a beam mold) is temporary and is there mainly to illustrate the basic deck shape and limits. |
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 I
continued by cutting the two remaining bulkheads down in a similar manner,
using some lines that I had marked during some of the deck layout process
as a guide. For both the forward and aftermost bulkheads, the
cutline didn't have to be perfect; it only needed to be no higher than the
level of the tops of the deck beams, so I cut about 1/8" below the
marked line to be safe. Later in the process, the bulkheads will be
secured to adjacent deckbeams, but that's later. |
 Cutting
off the unruly tops of the bulkheads, particularly the huge amidships
bulkhead, made a huge difference in how the boat looked and felt.
The beginnings of the shape of the cabin trunk and decks were suddenly
clear, and the hull looked much more like a boat. |
