As a curiosity, we had to scratch our heads when installing the transom. It took some time until we figured out it was bent. Why? We don't know as it was flat when we received it and it was stored on a flat surface. Our theory: The inside surface received three coats of epoxy some time ago but not the outside. Over the past weeks, the two surfaces responded differently to changes in temperature/humidity and the transom became bent. Whatever. In the end, we forced the transom straight during mounting prior fixing it to the floor and side panels with temporary screws.
Next, we filleted and glassed the chine joining floor and side panels. Glass tape plus additional glass overlaps have been used at the chine to increase strength. The joints of all bulkheads with floor and/or side panels received additional strips of glass on top of the fillets (we were not sure if this is advocated by the manual, but it felt the right thing to do).
Whenever possible, glassing is done immediately onto the 'wet' fillets: First, we want to avoid the tedious job of sanding fillets. Secondly, we believe this method provides superior strength.
This shows the front part of our boat after glassing. As we plan for a removable tabernacle, bulkhead 2 has received two additional backing plates.
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Everything got sanded and cleats installed to the bulkheads. There is additional cleating on bulkhead 4 and 6 as we plan for a different layout of the lift-out sections. We also started with cleats for the deck. You may realize the increased width of the cutout for the footwell at bulkhead 8 - we decided to copy this idea by Brent -
https://idahopocketship.wordpress.com/2 ... r-braydon/ . The white patches close to bulkhead 8 are a first test to level out the transitions between glass sections by using epoxy thickened with micro spheres. This was done everywhere in between bulkheads 1 and 8.
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The inside got painted with 2k PU color. Yes, it requires mixing two components but we did not bother after mixing quite a lot of epoxy during the past year. We hope 2k will be more durable. The painting was done prior fitting the floorboards; winter is coming and we are afraid it will be too cold for working with epoxy and paint soon.
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That's it for now,
Dietrich
