Re: I say screw it

Posted by Dave Houser on May 25, 2004

The bending of the cambered deck puts internal stress in the deck that forever makes it want to straighten. There are a few things that keep it from flattening out on the boat after installation, adding glass and epoxy onto the bent deck, the coaming, the top curve of the bulkhead and the deck beam. Of course, the beam and bulkhead are used to form the deck and will hold it in shape forever. If you eliminate the deck beam, the coaming and bending out of the sides will have to hold the shape of the portion of the deck that extends toward the cockpit behind the front bulkhead. They will do it but not with the strength and rigidity of the deck beam. Without the deck beam you will also need a temporary form (like a temporary bulkhead) to help form the deck during its installation. I would install the deck beam. Because there are gaps, I would put a wood screw through the side and shear camp into the each end of the deck beam and fill the gaps and screw heads with thickened epoxy. Once the deck spans over the filled gaps between the deck beam and shear clamps it will provide a lot more strength to the joint.

By the way those deck beam screws were a must in the early tortured plywood designs (the Yare, etc.) because the spring back of the sides would rip the shear clamp to deck beam joint apart before you could get the deck glued on.

In Response to: Flying Pigs by Mac on May 25, 2004

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