Back!

We had company in town this past week. It was fun and I even did some sailing (light winds, but still fun). But now it's time to get back to work on the boat. I finally finished trimming the bow deck and got a coat of epoxy on.

I thought I would quickly install the sole between bulkheads 4 and 5 and that is where the problems began. I test fit the planks and it all looked fine, but with the added 1x2 structure pieces I found I added places for there to be small interferences. Also, I weigh entirely too much (220 lb) for the way I put the sole together.  So after a valiant effort to make it work through shear force of will, I pulled out the planks and started adding additional stiffeners.

If I stepped on the planks wrong they would bend at one side. I peeled some of the bonds partially apart. The stiffeners should help to stop that.  In addition I'm going to add 2 fasteners per stiffener to help keep stiffener and plank joined. Also I will sink some polymer brads along the length of the stiffeners to give the beam some additional shear capability. I think I may still need some hold downs to keep one plank from lifting off its neighbor if it is loaded at an edge. I'm reluctant to do that because I want the sole to be removable. Maybe I can come up with a couple of gates at the plank ends that could serve to hold down all the planks at once, while still being removable. First I'll wait to see if the reinforcing works on its own before further complicating matters.

Before running into so many problems with the sole I was going to make and install the anti-vortex panel backing plate. That will have to wait for the sole to function. In the meantime I need to trim out the mast exit hole and shim up the midsection deck section a bit so I can get the next section of deck properly seated. Lots to do, but good to see the inside of the boat shed again.