Bulkhead and nail strip

The bulkhead has been installed. A pattern was made of scrap pieces using a hot glue gun. The pattern was then removed from the boat and traced onto plywood.



The shape of the cabin and the companionway are also drawn and then the bulkhead is cutout. The bulkhead is two pieces so that it fits around the centerplate trunk. The bulkhead plywood is simply glued and nailed to the back of frame #4. There is a seam in the middle that is reinforced with a short 3/4" x 2-3/4" piece of wood, epoxied and screwed. While the glue was setting, I braced the bulkhead with 2x4's so that the two sides of the bulkhead would align.



With the plywood in place, I can start drawing on it and attaching the frame to it. Here is the frame that attaches the cockpit sole and side decks to the bulkhead. It's also epoxied and nailed in place. Other frame members will fit into the notches in these pieces.



If you compare the above photo with the Hartley plans below, you can really see how I'm starting to diverge from the plans. The side decks in my boat are much wider and the companionway is going to be a traditional (albeit small) drop board style. I'm going to make a small hatch on the cabin roof too, so hopefully it will be possible to egress that small companionway.



A 3/4" thick nail strip (Doug Fir) is glued and screwed along the sheer of the boat. Keeping glue from running down the side of the boat was difficult, but a piece of masking tape really helped keep it clean. The strip of wood broke the first time, so I had to re-scarf it and try again.



The deck plywood will later be nailed to this nail strip. I chose Doug Fir since it's easy to nail into and doesn't split. After the deck is attached, I'll cap this piece with a 1/2" thick piece of white oak for protection.

I tapered the nail strip slightly toward the bow, since I think it would have looked kinda "clunky" if I didn't.



By the way, sorry for the LONG lapse in the blog postings. I was taking a break and doing some household projects. I realized that I'm not going to get the boat done in time for this summer, so I might as well slow down and enjoy the construction more. For example, here's a composter and a cedar planter box I made while taking a break from the boat.



Notice that I used the old boat trailer hubs and a galvanized pipe for the composter axel. :)

The boat building blog posts will now commence again, bi-monthly probably.