Over the weekend I installed the bulkheads and center thwart, which was a whole lot of work.
Before I could install the bulkheads, it was important to scuff-sand the areas of the hull interior where the bulkheads would attach. Later on, the entire inside of the hull has to be sanded before it can be varnished. So I decided to go ahead and do the bulk of the interior hull sanding before installing the bulkheads, so there would be a bit less sanding of nooks and crannies in the future. What I mean to say is: I sanded larger surfaces before breaking them up into nooks and crannies with bulkheads.
This sanding thing just goes on and on, but that's okay. I also sanded the final coat of epoxy I had applied to the bulkheads and daggerboard trunk. I certainly am getting my money's worth out of that random-orbit sander.
Next, I plopped (that's a boat-building term) the bulkheads and center assembly into the hull for a test fit. It all looked okay. Then I took the fore and aft bulkheads back out and cut holes for the inspection ports -- little hatches which will provide access to the otherwise-sealed fore and aft flotation chambers under the seats. I'll be able to store gear in those compartments, and inspect them for any leaks. If leaks occur, of course, I'll have to burn the boat and start over.
One more thing before bulkhead installation: I needed a pilot hole through the hull where the daggerboard will go. Later I'll expand this hole into a slot, but for now it's a hole. Yes, I drilled a hole in the hull on purpose. This is an odd business.
Finally, I replaced all the 'furniture' a final time in preparation for fillets. I had to stitch the aft bulkhead into the hull in a few places to ensure a tight fit, so I re-opened the old stitch-holes for that purpose. Then I masked all the joints.
By now my back was screaming at me. Something along the lines of "Why are you leaning over like this for hours at a time. Is this supposed to be fun?" I took vitamin I and pressed on.
The fillets go on as with the previous ones -- epoxy thickened with wood flour, loaded into a freezer bag / pastry bag, and squirted along the joints. Following up with various sizes and shapes of tongue depressor-type tools smoothed the goo, and removed a lot of extra, which then had to be re-loaded into the pastry bag. And on and on. And on. The goo gets on everything (I know, user error). And it wants to drop off the side of the plastic tub into which you're scraping the excess goo you just removed. It's just a mess.
While all of this is going on, the back has given up screaming and is now cursing. Having obtained a voice of its own, the curses are actually audible, and the wife sticks her head through the garage door and donates a quizzical look, followed by a knowing one, then shuts the door before she has to endure more sailor language. (I'm practicing the language even before I start sailing!)
Some how all of this gets squeezed and shaped into most of the spots it's supposed to cover. I clean up and prepare to relax the back for a couple of hours while I wait for the next step -- and am reminded that the lawn, which I made the mistake of fertilizing two weeks ago, is threatening to overwhelm the house. So out I go to mow it, and it's so long the mulching mower keeps getting over-clogged and dying. It takes 90 minutes to do what is normally a 40-minute job.
I check the fillets and ... yikes, they're curing faster than usual! I must do the smooth-with-gloved-finger-dipped-in-denatured-alcohol trick in order to avoid more dreary sanding later. I'll also need to remove the masking tape to make sure it doesn't get permanently glued to the hull. It turns out I should have removed the masking tape first, but I didn't, I did the smoothing thing first. Then I removed the masking tape, and in so doing I pulled up the edges of nearly all the fillets. So I had to back with more denatured alcohol and smooth them all back down again along the edges.
Note: if you ever do this, don't do what I did. I bought one-size-fits-all nitrile gloves, which is to say I bought extra-large. But my hands are not extra-large, so there is a lot of slop in the gloves, which is a nightmare to manage during this smoothing phase. I ended up doing this re-smoothing with a bare hand, and I'll probably develop Early Skin Death as a result.
Despite the Early Skin Death and the need for $300k in back surgery--or at least a pair of Vicodin--the fillets came out looking pretty good. I'm excited about how things are going. I'll keep at it.
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