JOINING THE HULL TO DECK

We came across an issue when trying to attach the deck to the hull, as we couldn't attach the glass flange to the bulkhead in a suitable manner. So Chris and Rob came up with another solution.. to make a groove in the bulkheads top edge so that enough epoxy would fill it and bond to the inside deck. Also he was able to reach inside and cove one side of the B/H. Chris made a neat little tool for the job by bending a nail and flattening the end, making a little rotary chisel to gouge out the foam.

 A thick layer of WEST epoxy with 411 microsphere blend pasted onto the flange here will make a good bond. You can also see the B/H with a large bead of glue which replaces the glass flange which was destroyed in the post curing room. It warped out of shape and was unsuitable for attaching the deck. Once Chris and James got inside they found it made good contact so we were all happy.

Here's Chris Lovegrove cutting off the excess foam on the topside with the jigsaw on a beveled angle exact to the strake of the hull. To get it to fit nicely we removed a little more leaving a small 2mm gap which we filled with epoxy and later sanded. Chris L. made it clear that it was quite unprofessional to work the topsides in this manner, however it was our first time so it was all a learning curve, excuse the pun.