After returning the boat halves to their normal orientation, and with the epoxy-potted hardware fittings cured, I removed the peel ply from the aft tanks’ new fiberglass tabbing, and lightly sanded the areas as required.  The epoxy was still a bit too soft to sand properly, but all I really needed to do was clean up a few of the corners to prepare for the next step, which was more fillets.

Note that if I’d been building this boat to be a clear interior finish, I’d not have used a marker to mark the fiberglass tape when I cut it.  This boat will be painted inside.

After cleaning up the boat, I applied epoxy fillets around all the outside edges of the tanks to complete their installation.  These were cosmetic as well as structural.

With leftover epoxy from the fillets, I filled the alignment slots around the transom and stern quarters of the hull.

I turned the two parts of the boat upside down on the bench and hung the bulkheads out over the edge a bit, and clamped each half at the opposite end just to hold things in place. I used a scraper, putty knife, and solvent to remove the remnants of the balsa wood spacers and adhesive.

The hull planking was mostly flush with the bulkhead panels, especially at the bottom three panels of the boat, but in other areas the hull was proud of the bulkhead.

With a firm, heavy sanding block (a piece of 2×4 in this case), I sanded these areas flush with the bulkheads.  I wrapped a piece of masking tape over the bulkhead end of the sandpaper on the block, which raised this end up just enough so that my sanding efforts didn’t affect the existing bulkhead surface much or at all.  Most of the required work was at the top edges of the bulkheads on both halves of the boat (now facing down towards the bench with the boat upside down).

Because my saw had wandered as I began my early cut through the port upper gussets and gunwale–though I corrected it immediately–there was a roughly saw kerf-width ledge in the bulkhead there, which extended over a relatively large portion of the area because of the near-vertical orientation of the saw at that time.  There were other minor saw marks hither and yon that required work as well, but this particular one, being at the edge of the hull,  would affect the next “normal” steps outlined in the manual, so I needed to fair this in now, before I could really move on.

After preparing the bulkhead halves, and masking over the hardware and gasket slots as needed, I applied epoxy fairing compound here and to the other areas as needed.  At this stage of the project, there was nothing else left for me to do till this epoxy repair work cured; the next step from here involved creating an epoxy edge at the sharp corners of the hull/bulkhead intersection all the way around both parts of the boat, but that would have to wait till I’d brought this particular section back to its proper contours.

First thing, I worked on the aft tanks to clean up the plywood edges and corners after the glue-up, using a sander and some hand tools to create rounded corners on the three exposed interior edges, and cleaning up any epoxy remnants from around the other edges.  All the outside corners were now ready for fiberglass, which I planned to do a bit later in the day.

However, the main event for the day was to cut the boat in a half–a milestone step.  First, however, I flipped the boat over on the sawhorses and checked over the hull, taking care of some light sanding on the filled main bulkhead slots and otherwise ensuring the hull was in good shape before cutting.

I set the boat up on the work table, upright, and supported it near the ends with some blocking to hold the center of the boat–where the main bulkhead was–just off the table.  I unscrewed the four connecting bolts and taped them in place to hold them while I cut through the bulkhead spacers.  I had a brand-new handsaw that I got just for this task.

Now there was nothing but to go ahead and start cutting.  The manual called for starting by pushing the saw through the bulkhead spacers roughly amidships, and working out towards the gunwale and bulkhead/hull edges from there, keeping as much of the saw within the bulkhead slot as possible to maintain the best alignment.  It took a bit more effort to get the cut started than I expected, and was a bit of work even just cutting all the spacers to ease the saw towards the bulkhead, upper gussets, and hull, where the real cutting would be.   The boat was higher on the work table than might have been ideal (the manual suggested from the onset that a second, lower table height would be useful–and it would have been, several times, but the specifics of my space and chosen table setup prohibited this).  I started out with a small platform and, when that wasn’t getting me high enough, switched to a stepladder to help me cut.

I found that the boat rocked significantly, affecting the cutting operation, so after a couple false starts attempting to shore up the blocking, I ended up stabilizing the boat with two clamps at the bow end of the table.   This helped greatly, and eventually I sawed through enough to get into the hull itself.

It was tricky to get through the fiberglass at the upper gussets, and the saw tried to wander here; to counter this, I cut from the top a shallow kerf through the fiberglass right on the seam between the two sections, and this helped guide the saw more accurately through the most important part of the cut.

With the port side partially cut like this, I moved over to the starboard side and repeated the process, eventually cutting the hull down to the first chine.  Then, I went back to port and brought the cut down till it was even.

Now, I reblocked the boat with a 2×4 on each side of the main bulkhead, where the cut would be, and resupported the ends as needed, along with the stabilizing clamps.  At the guwales, I clamped a pair of blocks over the seam on each side to help hold the boat properly while I finished the cut through the bottom of the boat.  The worktable interfered with the saw as I worked towards the centerline, so I pulled the boat towards the side of the table on each side as needed to give the saw clearance to finish the cuts.

Removing the clamps and separating the boat, I was generally happy with the accuracy of the cut, though there had been some blade wander at the top edges of the bulkheads–minor to starboard, and one place on the port side where I’d adjusted the cut initially going through the gunwales, as described a few paragraphs above.  These flaws were to be expected, and I’d fill and fair these with epoxy during the next round of work ahead.  The hardware that I’d glued in looked good all around, with plenty of space around the cylinders for epoxy, which was the next step.

Before I did that, however, I prepared fiberglass tape for the aft tanks, and installed it on the three edges required, covered with peel ply.  Before installing the fiberglass, I filled any small voids in the plywood seams with a thickened epoxy mixture.

After vacuuming sawdust and cleaning up the main bulkheads, I set the two boat halves up on their ends, with the main bulkhead facing up, and leveled the bulkhead in both directions on each half.  I rested the stem/transom on some rubber mats I had, and secured the two halves with clamps and some rope to ensure they couldn’t tip over; they were pretty stable and didn’t require active means to hold them upright.

Working off a ladder, I used a syringe to inject unthickened epoxy into the slots around the hardware, working mainly from the half-moon-shaped feed slot on each location.  I filled each of the eight locations to the top of the hardware, then went back over each as needed to ensure the recesses were full.  As directed, I carefully used the syringe to dab some epoxy out onto the metal of the hardware at each spot, but staying away from the threaded holes and bolts.  This was delicate, and I erred on the less-rather-than-more direction here.

I left that epoxy to cure overnight.

I had a short day planned, with off-site commitments, so I got started with the easy work of unclamping and untaping the aft tanks.  These would soon get additional attention to finish off the edges and seal them completely, but for now this was as far as I took it.

My main task for the short day, which fell at this moment mostly by happenstance, was to do the first step of installation for the special connecting hardware in the main bulkhead.  This  custom stainless steel hardware, with little carbon fiber handwheels, was one of the keys to the ease and adaptability of connecting and disconnecting the two hull halves under real-world circumstances.

To begin, I cleaned up the four hardware locations as needed, sanding the faces of the reinforcing pads flat if there was any epoxy in the way, and cleaning out the holes with a bit of sandpaper wrapped around a drill bit, for lack of anything else cylindrical on hand.  I’ve just shown two of the pads below, but I did this cleanup on both sides of all four locations.

Next, I dry-fit the hardware and checked the fit, mainly that there was just a bit of slop in the hole (important for step 2 of the installation process later), and checking the the flanges on both sides fit flat against the pads.

All four sets fit well and as required, so after removing the hardware and final cleanup of the parts and all related surfaces, I installed the hardware with a narrow bead of thickened epoxy along the flanges on both sides.  This was only the first step in a two-step process, and would serve to hold the hardware in place and with both parts properly aligned in the two bulkhead sections.  The second step, which would happen after the boat was cut in two, would fill the space around the hardware with injected epoxy (similar to what I did with the mast tube a little later on this page).  I tightened the bolts enough to hold the parts securely and squeeze out epoxy, but no more.

I finished up by cleaning off the excess epoxy, working carefully in the tight spaces so as not to upset the hardware.

My last task of the day was to fill the spaces around the mast tube–in both the upper and lower partners–with injected epoxy.  The four half-moon holes located evenly around the tube were there for this very purpose, much the same as with the hardware holes in the bulkhead, each of which features one injecting space like this.  I went around several times with a syringe, filling the voids with epoxy, awaiting its self-leveling and bubble-formation, and filling again, till both partners were full of epoxy.  For this step, I left the boat elevated at the aft end, so that the mast tube was vertical, and the partners were level.

Now was the ideal timing for me to depart on my other business and leave both delicate epoxy operations the remainder of the day and overnight to cure.

 

I removed the taped-down aft seat covers to reveal the new blind fillets.  The fillets came out well, and the seat tops came off with no issues.

Afterwards, I lightly sanded the glossy tops of the fillets, and sanded back their sharp and thin outer edges just a bit to remove the knife edge.  I also sanded the bonding areas of the underside of the tops, and, following the directions (which were confusing here) removed all the tongues from the top.  Later, I found the instructions had meant only the outboard tongues on the long, hull sides of the tops–not the pair on the transom side of each top–but this was of no matter since alignment of the seats was already well-established by the fillets, and in any event what was done was done.

Next, I securely taped the interior side panels in place so I could permanently install them with fillets on the inside.  I fully taped the joints where the panels met the transom and hull, and added more tape to hold the panels securely at the ends and where they met the hull.  Then, I installed epoxy fillets on the inside corners to tie these in with their adjacent parts.  I used fast hardener for this mix so that the fillets might cure enough before the end of the day to allow me to install the seat tops, rather than wait till a new day.

While giving the fillets time to cure, I worked on fitting the foredeck.  Final installation wouldn’t happen till after I cut the boat in half, but now seemed as good a time as any to get the fitting done, and move on with a couple final steps that had to happen before final installation.

Initially, the foredeck fit fairly well, but was too tight at the aft end where it met the bulkheads, and also a bit tight in several places around the hull edges; the net result of this was that I couldn’t pull the assembly far enough aft, nor down far enough to bear on the mast step and bulkhead, and the daggerboard, cleats, and aft bulkhead.  I took these  blind photos to help me determine how the foredeck was riding below the surface.

The directions pointed out that the framing members of the foredeck might hit the forward end of the daggerboard trunk, limiting aft movement, and I found this to be so, so in addition to slightly modifying the aft corners of the foredeck to better fit around the bulkhead, I also sanded back the upper portion of the daggerboard trunk and support cleats to increase clearance there.  It took several fits and starts and various trimming of the foredeck sides, slightly widening the gaps in the mast step bulkhead for increased clearance for the reinforced edges of the foredeck, and other minor adjustments till I got the foredeck to fit down tightly on the required bearing surfaces (mast step and bulkhead, daggerboard, and aft bulkhead/cleats).

The foredeck had a slight tendency to warp, so unless I pressed down on the aft end, there was a small space there, but it required only light finger pressure to close it. so overall I was satisfied with the position.  The foredeck was flush with the aft edge of the forward part of the double bulkhead, and as directed I added two alignment nails here.

Next, reaching beneath the foredeck through the hatch, I marked the position of the mast hole through the upper partners, and also traced out the borders of the bulkheads and other bearing members for reference.  With the foredeck back on the bench, I drilled a 1/2″ hole through the center of the mast partners mark, enlarged it slightly to fit a router bit, then, with the foredeck back in position on board (and aligned with those small nails again), I trimmed the mast hole to match the partners beneath.

Now I could lightly sand the bottom of the foredeck (coated previously with one coat of epoxy), paying extra attention to all the marked bearing surfaces, and after cleaning up I applied a second and final coating of epoxy to the entire underside, including framing members, the aft edge of the seat tongue, and the inside of the hatch opening.

For the afternoon, there were two main tasks I wanted to do:  install the aft seat tank lids, and install the mast tube.  The mast tube installation required that the boat be blocked at the aft end so that the tube would be vertical, so I started with that, figuring it would take an extra block or two.  Imagine my surprise when it required four 2x4s, two 3/4″ pieces of scrap, and a 1/4″ piece of plywood (all added piecemeal and with increasing dismay) to get the mast tube finally vertical.  The dismay arose because, since I didn’t want to move the boat around at all during either of the next chosen tasks, this meant that I’d have to work over the much-higher gunwale to install the aft tank tops.  It wasn’t the end of the world, but was an example of my greed for progress sometimes making things more difficult than they needed to be.

In any event, with the boat thusly positioned and ready for action, I started by stabilizing the boat a bit with a couple long clamps at the forward end, just to keep the boat from its propensity to tip one way or the other.

Working over my shoulder-height aft gunwale, with the assistance of a little step platform I’d previously built for some long-forgotten need, I installed the aft seat covers, beginning with a dry fit, during which I installed alignment nails on the inboard edges of the seat covers to hold them during installation, and followed by an epoxy coat of the inside of the tanks and underside of the seats.  The fillets I installed earlier in the day were well-gelled by now and safe for these additional steps.

I applied plenty of thickened epoxy around the bearing surfaces, then installed the tops, securing them with wooden pressure clamps cut to appropriate lengths beneath the transom inwale, and clamped sticks along the outer edges, plus lots of masking tape on the two inner edges to secure them as needed.  I cleaned up all the excess epoxy and left the lids to cure overnight.  The extra height of the stern made this all more work than it might have been, but such was the price of stunning progress.

Finally, I installed the mast tube as directed.  After confirming the tube was still vertical, I sanded the two ends a bit (where they’d bond to the respective mast partners), then mixed a one-pump batch of epoxy, with a small amount of structural filler mixed in, till it was just-still pourable/level-able, and poured this into the lower mast partner.  As directed, this filled the hole to about 3/16″ deep.  I installed the mast tube and held it in place with small wedges on each side to hold it centered in the hole (at both mast partners).  Then, at the top partner, I applied a small fillet around the bottom edge where the tube passed through to basically seal up the gaps from beneath, which would be required for the next step in the installation process.

That would happen next time.  Now, the day was done, and I left the boat strictly alone so the pooled, leveled epoxy could cure undisturbed.

Over the weekend, I returned to the shop to apply a fill coat of epoxy to the new fiberglass atop the upper gussets.

I also coated the daggerboard trunk with epoxy to catch up for the coat that I postponed in order to advance its installation earlier.

Now, the epoxy coating had cured over the past couple days, and after trimming the excess fiberglass and removing the peel ply from the work, I sanded and cleaned up the upper gussets as needed, smoothing the transitions where the fiberglass ended at the gunwales (the peel ply I’d applied here, and at the outer corners of the gussets, had been intended for this very purpose and worked well) and removing most of the gloss from the epoxy coating, while cleaning up and smoothing as needed the inner edges and other transitions.  I also lightly sanded the various fillets where I’d made some small touch-ups.

I lightly sanded the daggerboard trunk as well.  This, like all areas, would later get another full coat of epoxy later in the build process.

Next, I turned to the aft tanks once more, unclamping the vertical inner panels and planing the top edges of the plywood even and flush with the angles on the tops of the new cleats.

I test-fit the top seat panels, modifying the tongues a bit so they fit in the associated grooves as required.

Satisfied that the panels fit correctly, I prepared the undersides for the next step, which was applying blind fillets around the three outer edges of the upper panels where they met the hull, transom, and small bulkhead.  These fillets, once cured, would eventually be used to glue down the top panels.

To prevent the epoxy from sticking to the plywood for now, I covered the three edges with plastic packing tape on the bottom, leaving enough overhang that I could wrap the tape around the edges of the plywood and around the alignment tongues for protection there too.

Then, I installed and taped the panels securely on all available edges to hold them in place and in proper alignment while I installed the fillets in the space beneath.

To improve give me access beneath, I tipped the boat as much as possible on to one side at a time, which allowed me to install the required fillets along the hull, transom, and bulkhead edges.  It was a tight fit with poor visibility, but it was possible.  Although these fillets were structural only and would never be seen once the tanks were fully installed and sealed, I strove to make them as clean and consistent as possible.  I did the starboard side first, then tipped the boat to the other side and repeated the process to port.  For some reason I seem only have taken photos of the starboard side, but you can hold your screen up to a mirror to imagine the port side.  (There’s video footage that will be posted later, though.)

The green tape seen at the upper/inside edge of the short bulkhead and on the transom is there to show me in an easily visible way how much clearance is required for the inner panels and cleats; I ended the blind fillets just short of that tape line.

This brought be up to lunchtime, which was a good time for the fillets to begin to cure for a bit before I continued other work on the boat.

In the afternoon, I completed a few small jobs, starting with preparing and installing two spruce cleats on the forward side of the mid bulkhead, which cleats would later support the ends of the foredeck.  I had to shape the cleats slightly to fit the fillets in the corner against the hull, and trim them slightly so they ended flush with the slots in the bulkhead.  I installed them with thickened epoxy adhesive and small alignment blocks to ensure they remained flush at the bulkhead top, and clamped securely while they cured.

Next, I epoxy-coated the cleats on the inner panels of the aft seats, a simple chore, then coated all the gussets in the boat again–both sets of lowers and the uppers, stopping at the gunwales.  This was about all I could do to advance the project for now.

I pulled the peel ply strips to reveal the  tabbing beneath.  In many cases, it was tough to get the peel ply started, as I should have used wider strips that would have left more of the release fabric unsaturated, but once I got a section lifted, it was easy to pull off the rest.

Afterwards, I sanded around the tabbing as needed to clean up the edges and surrounding hull, and lightly scuff the fiberglass itself.

I also lightly sanded as needed the minor repairs to the fillets I’d completed last time.

Next, I completed several shaping and preparation steps with the upper bulkhead gussets, including rounding over the tips where they terminated into the bulkhead, and some other preparations for installing a layer of 6 oz. cloth over the gussets and adjacent gunwales, which I did next.  I left portions of the fiberglass overhanging with intentions to trim the excess later.

Now was a good opportunity to add two layers of 6 oz. cloth to the forward edge of the daggerboard trunk where it met the hull.  I applied several strips of peel ply over the fiberglass.

Now that the hull tabbing was complete, I could think about the aft tanks/seat assemblies.  I test-fit the longitudinal side panels, fitting them to the slots in the transom and taping to the short bulkheads at the forward ends, and cut to fit some cleat stock provided for the purpose along the top, inner edges of the panels; then, I epoxied the cleats in place on the bench.  Note that the angle formed by these panels is designed so that the bow of the boat, when nested, will fit right in there.

This seemed a good place to end things for the day.

Since I used fast hardener for the fillets, I started by water-washing the new epoxy to remove any blush formation, after which I lightly sanded the fillets to clean up as needed, as well as the surrounding surfaces of hull and bulkhead.  The fillets came out well overall and required little sanding other than as a preparatory step for subsequent work, but as expected, in some of the tight inside/3-way corners, I thought I might want to touch things up a bit.

With a small batch of epoxy, I applied more to some of the problem areas, smoothing the repairs with a fingertip and cleaning up those inside corners.  This touch-up focused on the corners where the gussets met the hull and bulkhead on each side, and the inside corner of the upper gussets.  Cleaning up the corners made the fillets look better, and they’d be smoother once the boat was finished, but mostly they made me feel better too.  I’d sand the new work lightly once it cured later.

Now I was ready to move on to the day’s main event, which was installing the fiberglass tape over all the interior hull seams (chines).  I’d prepared lengths of 2″ wide tabbing and peel ply for all the chines earlier; the manual helpfully gave all the lengths required, and while I took the time to measure a couple of the actual seams for confirmation, I found the published dimensions to be accurate.  There were 22 tapes all told.

With the inside of the boat completely clean, and working from a wet-out station on a nearby bench, I installed all the tabbing over the remainder of the day, starting with the boat tipped to port for access and working from bow to stern, lowest chine to upper chine in each of the boat’s four compartments.   When I completed the port side, I canted the boat the other direction and did the same thing on the starboard side.

I applied strips of peel ply over all the tabbing, which helped the fiberglass lay down well into the contours, but would mainly help provide the smoothest end result and ease the edge transitions between tape and hull.  One might recall that all the hull panels were fiberglassed before assembly.

In hindsight, I wished I’d cut the peel ply a bit wider than I did.  As it was, it was roughly 1″ wider than the tapes, giving me a theoretical 1/2″ (max) on each side, but in reality but a bit more on either side would have been helpful not only to ease alignment of the tape over the length, but to ensure plenty of the peel ply on both edges to taper the transition between fiberglass and hull.  I cut the peel ply a little shorter shorter than the fiberglass tapes, and used short pieces to finish off where the tapes terminated at the bulkhead fillets on each end, since peel ply is not that adaptable to curves and contours.    The white edges of the peel ply made the work look kind of ratty at this stage, at least it looked that way to me, but it was only temporary till the epoxy cured overnight, and I was confident with the condition of the actual tabbing itself and knew it would look good once revealed.

Note that in the bow compartment, the two lowest chine tapes overlapped one another at the stem, and, anticipating this as I installed the first–port–side, I cut back the peel ply there upon installation so that when I installed the starboard tape later, it overlapped the fiberglass only on the tape beneath.

 

 

I lightly sanded the edges where the new gussets met the hull and bulkheads, as well as around the daggerboard trunk and upper mast step, to clean up any bits of epoxy that might have been there (there really wasn’t any), and also lightly sanded the faying surfaces all around where the bulkhead and gusset fillets would soon be installed.  Afterwards, I thoroughly cleaned the inside of the boat to prepare for fillets.

I planned the fillets in two stages:  first the bulkhead fillets, around the base of the daggerboard trunk, and part of the upper gussets; then, once those cured sufficiently, I’d do the gussets themselves, and any remaining adjacent areas.  3-way corners were tough enough to fillet under any circumstances, never mind when all the fillets were wet at once.

Working on one side at a time, with the boat tipped up for improved access, I installed the fillets on the main bulkhead, daggerboard trunk, and half the undersides of the upper fillets, cleaning up the excess epoxy as thoroughly as possible.  I also chose to fillet the forward side of the after bulkhead, where the seat tanks would eventually be built, since it seemed that the hull chine tabbing would partially overlap the fillets at the ends, and I thought it’d be nice to have these fillets in place now even though the instructions suggested waiting till the remainder of the aft tanks were constructed later.  I’d just conjoin the partial fillets later.  I used epoxy with fast hardener for these fillets so that they might cure enough before the end of the day to allow me to continue with the gussets later on.

With some epoxy leftover from the fillets, I also did a first round of filling on the main bulkhead slots on the outside of the hull, and also a bit around the towing tube in the stem.

Next, I sanded the glossy epoxied surface of the foredeck and hatch to remove gloss, clean up from the overfilled, potted-epoxy hatch dog locations around the hatch, and otherwise prepare the foredeck for the next steps.  The various construction steps were now complete, and the foredeck awaited its time to be installed in the boat, which wouldn’t happen till after the boat was cut in two a bit later.

In the early afternoon, awaiting the first fillets to cure, I prepared all the fiberglass tape for tabbing over the hull seams inside the boat, along with strips of peel ply to cover it.  I’d be installing this tabbing as soon as all the fillets were complete.  The manual provided lengths for all the tapes (I confirmed several with actual measurement), and I laid out the strips according to their eventual locations in the boat.

By now, the first round of fillets had cured sufficiently for me to continue with the remaining fillets around the gussets and upper portion of the daggerboard trunk.    These were complex areas to fillet, and it seemed likely I’d have to touch up a few areas later for best appearance, but they turned out fairly well.  Only the fillets on the aft side of the bulkhead would be visible in the finished boat, but I wanted them all neat regardless.

With the main bulkhead installed and cured overnight, my next task was to install the eight supporting gussets.  Made from plywood, and pre-shaped and -rounded from the kit, these gussets provided the crucial structural support required to ensure the boat was stiff and secure in two halves, both when mated and separated.

First, I used a straightedge held across the boat at the bulkhead to sand down the top edges of the bulkheads on each side so they were flush with the top edge of the hull, as installed, the bulkhead sections were slightly proud, but had to be just flush before installing the gussets.

Earlier, I’d coated the gussets with one coat of epoxy, and now I lightly sanded as needed to prepare them for installation.  Beginning with the lower gussets, which went on either side of the bulkhead and adjacent to the pie-shaped doubler plates on the bulkheads, I dry-fit the gussets, marked around them, and masked off the surrounding hull and bulkhead.

The other pair of gussets were to be located on each side of the bulkhead at gunwale level.  To help hold these in position and flush with the gunwales, I installed small alignment blocks with hot glue and, as before, marked around each gusset and then masked off the hull and bulkhead around.

I installed the four lower gussets first.  I primed the plywood edge grain and faying surfaces in the hull, then installed a heavy layer of very thick epoxy adhesive to the gussets, pressing them tightly into place and ensuring good epoxy squeezeout all around.  I carefully cleaned up the excess epoxy, taking care not to disturb the position of the gussets in the process.  Only the thickness of the adhesive held the parts in place during curing.  For the gussets, I chose to use shop epoxy, with fast hardener, to help ensure the glue tacked up more quickly to avoid undue disturbance, and to allow me to install a couple other things in the boat later in the day.

I repeated the process with the two upper pairs at gunwale level.  As usual, the gluing mix included high-density filler and cabosil for strength and workability.

After lunch break, I felt comfortable working on the daggerboard trunk installation.  Unclamping the top cleats,  I rounded the lower corners of the cleats, cut them to length, and lightly sanded the piece as needed.  The instruction manual called for another coat of epoxy on the exterior surfaces of the trunk now, but that would take a whole extra day, and I didn’t see why that couldn’t wait till after installation.  Installing the trunk now would allow me also to install the upper section of the mast partners, and having both in place would advance the project significantly next time.

With the daggerboard trunk in place dry, and aligned with the alignment marks on the hull and forward side of the bulkhead, I installed six glue blocks to align and hold the part.  Before final installation, I drilled a 1/2″ hole through the bottom on centerline, in the general fore and aft center of the trunk, to allow me to use a pattern bit and router to make the opening from the outside later.  I installed the trunk in the usual way, with adhesive on the bottom and bulkhead sides and relying on the glue blocks to hold it in the proper place while the epoxy cured.

With the bulkhead and daggerboard trunk now in place, everything required to properly align the upper mast partners was in place.  Some time ago, I’d coated and otherwise prepared this small part for installation, so it was ready to go now.  With a couple temporary alignment blocks to hold the upper mast step in place on the bulkhead, I used a straightedge to determine the plane of the foredeck from the mast bulkhead to the daggerboard trunk and midships bulkhead, and aligned the top of the mast step with this.  Satisfied with the dry fit, I epoxied the upper step in place, keeping the straightedge in place to ensure the part cured in the proper orientation.

Before ending the week, there were a few things I could do on the foredeck.  It took some minor sanding to get the hatch cover to fit in the opening in the foredeck, what with the various epoxy coating that had occurred, but soon it fit as intended.  Then, as directed, I redrilled the five holes around the opening (I’d drilled these from the bottom side before installation of the hatch coaming) to a depth of 5/8″, coated the insides with epoxy, and filled them slightly overfull with a thickened epoxy mixture, leaving this to cure.  I’d sand this flush when I sanded the top surface of the foredeck soon.

 

Before getting to the main bulkhead final prep, I lightly sanded the spots on the hull where I’d filled the chines earlier, and cut off and sanded flush the fiberglass towing line tube in the stem.  Once I’d finished, I turned the hull upright and cleaned up the tabbing on the inside of the towing tube.

With the hull upright and supported at the mast step bulkhead and transom, I could make final preparations to install the main bulkhead.  I lightly sanded both sides of the two sections of main bulkhead.  The mating faces required sanding to better accept the self-stick spacers that I’d soon be installing, as well as for future next steps, and the exposed faces required enough sanding to prepare them for finishing steps in the future.  Once the sanding was complete, and the parts cleaned up, I installed the alignment pins to make the pair a single unit, and test-fit it in the boat.  I had to slightly round the bulkhead corners at the chines, where the chine fillets created a similar and opposite shape, and the forward plywood reinforcing pads at the top sides of the bulkheads interfered slightly with the hull because of the angles  involved, so I had to do some minor modification there as well.  These were expected modifications based on the advice from the manual.

Once I had a satisfactory dry fit, I prepared to secure the two panels together with self-stick balsa wood spacers.  This stock not only would hold the bulkheads together during their installation and subsequent steps, but also provided a suitable gap through which to ultimately cut the boat in half later.

First I had to cut the included stock into 1/4″ or so wide strips, using a sharp knife and a straightedge.  Then, I cut these into lengths as needed to fit around the outer edges of one of the panels:  quite close to the outboard edges, and about 1/4″ down from the inboard edges of the bulkheads, and the same distance or so on either side of each of the four fastener locations.  I’d intended to install these spacers on the other (aft) side of the bulkhead, which is what was shown in the manual, but somehow I ended up installing them on the forward side.   By the time I realized the error, I’d completed the installation, and there was no removing the strips.  Fortunately, I could come up with no reason why it mattered one way or the other, but I was annoyed with the mistake nonetheless. Sometimes I get into a “duh” zone.

I installed the alignment pins in the section with the spacers, then removed the paper from the top side to expose the adhesive before carefully installing the second, after bulkhead section on top, pressing it tightly into the adhesive.  I placed the bulkhead on the floor (on some spacers) and walked over it several times to press the adhesive firmly.  Finally, for some extra insurance to make sure the sections didn’t pull apart at all before it was time, I installed some bolts through the large fastener holes (4 total) and snugged them up with large washers on each side.

After cleaning the hull in way of the bulkhead location, I dry-fitted the bulkhead again, and marked the hull on both sides with a pencil so I could mask off the hull before installing.  I also masked the bulkhead on both sides; the masking would make cleanup of the epoxy adhesive much easier. I left the centerline mark on the forward side exposed for alignment purposes.

After masking, I did a final dry fit, and prepared for the final installation with several glued-on alignment blocks on the aft side (glued to the tape), and a couple wooden cleats nailed to the after bulkhead top edges that I could use to clamp the assembly in place at the gunwales.

To install the bulkhead, I first wet out the plywood edges with epoxy, along with the faying surface on the hull, then applied thickened epoxy adhesive–lots of it–to the plywood edge before carefully placing it in the boat, aligning it with the blocks and pressing it tightly into the slots in the hull and ensuring everything was positioned and aligned properly.  I had good epoxy squeezeout all over on both sides, which is what I wanted.  I clamped at the gunwales with the blocking as needed.

Afterwards, I cleaned up the squeezeout and removed the tape to leave a nice clean line at the joint in all areas.

With the day’s main event behind me, I turned to some smaller jobs, starting with the daggerboard trunk.  This required a pair of spruce cleats at the top edge (these cleats would help support and secure the foredeck later).  I’d been set to glue these on earlier, but wasn’t sure which way was up and forward on the trunk.  The top and bottom were not parallel, as the top edge had to follow the plane of the foredeck, and without the mid bulkhead in place at the time, I couldn’t trial-fit the piece to confirm.  But I’d checked the orientation earlier during one of the bulkhead dry-fits, and now with the orientation properly marked I could round over the forward corners and install the cleats, using temporary plywood strips nailed to the top of the trunk for alignment and glued and clamped in the usual way.

Next, I made final preparations to glue the foredeck hatch coaming in place.  This plywood piece featured a milled groove to accept a gasket later, and fit on the underside of the foredeck within some scribed alignment marks.  After lightly sanding the bonding surface on the foredeck–which I’d left bare for the purpose, other than some epoxy that had gotten on there during other parts of the foredeck work–and lightly sanding the coaming itself, which I’d coated top and bottom with epoxy during an earlier step, I glued the coaming in place in the normal way, with unthickened epoxy primer and a coat of thickened epoxy thereafter.  I clamped the piece in place and cleaned up all the squeezeout, paying particular attention to the top side to avoid any epoxy remaining at the edges of the opening and in the gasket groove.