With the winter of 2021 fast closing in after the toe rail was installed it was time to move operations inside the boat.
The first order of operations was to paint the interior of the bow with paint primer. I cleaned off all of the mold and dirt with a solution of TSP and water, did a great job. Next was to apply the primer.
Lets go back to before the bow was rebuilt. To get access to the bow frames and everything else that was up there, the bulkhead needed to be removed. While the frames were being replaced up near the stem, I temporarily bolted the new chock in place to the old stem. This allowed me to crawl into the forward section and do the work. The forward most frame (#1) required removal of frame 2 to be removed to allow removal and reinstallation of frame 1. Once frame 1 was in, frame 2 was then installed. Getting frames 3 thru 5 in place required the chock and stem to be out of place. The new frames were easily slid up into place. I remember replacing frames 3 through 7 before doing 1 & 2. After all the frames were in place then I finished the assembly of the bow section.
(Click on the pictures for captions)
As you can see from the above images the plywood was trash. This was the condition of all the plywood inside the boat. I was literally able to pull handfuls of plywood apart by hand.
The new frame 7 and the floor was installed, painted and the deck frame cleaned up before making the pattern. Notice the floor is mounted on top of the frame. This allowed fastening from the outside of the frame into the floor. Attaching a floor to the side of the frame would weaken the frame by cutting through the laminates. Fastening through the laminated avoids thei pitfall.
The old bulkhead was bolted through the frame and a filler piece between the floor and the bulkhead. The top of the bulkhead was sandwiched between two deck frames. Since I'm reframing with laminated frames and wasn't about to change the deck framing I had to come up with an alternative method for attaching the bulkhead, The pattern was made in the same location as the old bulkhead, The only difference was that the top of the bulkhead was butted up against the deck frame and the leftover of the old bulkhead. I used the old bulkhead to give me the dimensions for the opening into the bow.
When laying out the pattern on the plywood I left a 3/4" separation between the halves. The cutting of the plywood was rather straight forward. The two halves were separated with a handheld jigsaw in the center of this 3/4" space. Further cutting down to the edge line was done with a band saw and block plane. This limited the rough edges a jigsaw blade would leave.
I used the factory edge of the plywood for the center line where the two sides meet. This makes for a nice clean line.
Since fastening through the plywood into the frame is unacceptable (for reasons mentioned above) I installed cleats on the edge of the bulkhead to allow fastening through the planking to hold the bulkhead in place. The bottom of the bulkhead is screwed into the floor side. The top is sandwiched between two fashion pieces attached to the deck frame.
The pictures below shows the process of replacement of the bulkhead in January and February 2021:
Once the bulkhead was installed, I moved the boat stands just one frame forward to allow me to replace the frame that the stand was pushing against.
Next task: Cleaning up and preserving.
