Bulkheads & Interior

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	With such a large cockpit, a lot of weight was thrown forward so I want to keep the structure as light as possible there. H-80 Divinicell was the answer. All bulkheads and panels forward of the companion way are glass and foam. This is considerably more expensive than marine ply but less than 1/4 the weight.




	I applied two coats of marine varnish to the cherry veneer to protect it during construction and with help form an interested e-mail buddy who was crazy enough to actually come visit, the bulkhead was tabbed in place in short order. A hint. For large bulkhead fillets, the little 7 oz Bud wiser bottles are exactly the right radius. They come with an added advantage in that they come full of beer which has to be removed before use. The collision frame is under the clamps in the foreground. This frame has a Divinicell core, 140 layers of uni-directional and DB170 on top and 30 layers of DB170 on the sides.. It tool a week to fabricate.


		The main bulkhead being bagged here also takes a lot of the stress from the shrouds so a pattern of several layers of unidirectional glass had to be laid around the perimeter and diagonally across the lower half. After this glass was bagged on, the bulkhead was faired flat and the cherry veneer epoxied on. Even with all that glass, the entire 14'x7' panel weighed less than 60 pounds.

Fabricating and installing the bulkheads went pretty fast. I mocked up the interior in corrugated cardboard to get final approval from Marilyn and these parts were used as templates for cutting the foam. Final fitting was easy with a crate knife and Sureform rasp.

Keeping everything square was more of a problem. I ran a line from the stem head to the center of the transom to get a line to work from and hooked a 50' tape to the stem. By placing a straight 2x4 over the sheers and aligning each end equal distance from the stem I could keep the bulkheads square. A couple of bulkheads like the one in the foreground took a little more work.

The main saloon is coming along. The cherry veneer has been laid and as you see here, the settee face is in place and the temporary sole covers the floors. Under the settee is the 36 gallon aft holding tank, one of the battery boxes and , in the foreground, the forward air conditioner compartment.

. Opposite the settee, the refrigerator cabinet and galley peninsular are set and the fiddle rails have been fit. They will remain loosely fitted until the Corian tops are installed. That will be near the end as I am a little to clumsy to work over that expensive surface.

The other battery box, battery switch and main fuses will be hidden in the base of the peninsular. The nav station will be installed between the refrigerator and the main bulkhead.

The galley cabinets are set temporarily so I can get an idea of the galley space. The tall drawer on the right is a pull out trash receptacle, Under the sink is pot storage, A column of narrow drawers on the left will hold silverware and utensils Across the bottom is a roll out wire basket for produce storage. The faces of the drawers will be covered in cherry veneer.

On the left is a view of one of the aft cabins that will not be possible once the cockpit is set. I am trying to get these cabins as complete as possible including varnish before the cockpit makes it necessary to hire an acrobat to reach the back corners.

The round white disks are clean out ports for the 60 gallon water tank built in under the berth.


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	Site last modified:04/12/04