Builders' Forum Archives

Re: Slow-roast Duck

Posted by Laszlo on Mar 13, 2008

OK Julie,

You must be building the 10. The 12 has always had the trapezoidal bulkhead. You're talking about hull form number 7, right? I have a vague memory that originally in Eric Schade's design that form was also supposed to come out. I also vaguely remember from a conversation with him that John Harris thought while that did make the boat wonderfully light, it also made the deck too flexible and left the boat with insufficient reserve buoyancy. So it would make sense that in the early kits they just had the builders glue in the form.

If you haven't filleted it into place yet (only wired or tacked) I'd do what Julie says and ask CLC for an updated bulkhead. And if it is filleted but you're willing to spend quality time with a bonsai saw and sander, you could do the same.

If it's too late to remove it, then I'd say ask CLC for the updated bulkhead measurements and recycle one of your other formers into a filler strip.

You can butt the edges and use either a wooden butt block (another piece of wood which overlaps the joint) or a fiberglass splice (like with the puzzle joints).

If you go with a butt block, I'd say make it 2 inches wide and as long as the top edge of the trapezoid. That'll give you a good glueing and bearing area, as well as leaving room for filleting the edges.

If you do a glass splice, I'd say 2 layers of tape on each side.

Either way, it needs to be very securely attached. If you do a re-entry that part of the deck could get a lot of compressive forces.

Hope this helps,

Laszlo

In Response to: Re: Slow-roast Duck by laurie on Mar 12, 2008