Progress continues on the interior of the port half of the main hull. Last week I finished dry fitting all of the panels. This took quite a bit longer than I expected (the rule of pi, everything takes about a factor of 3.1415... longer than planned). But I was happy in the end because all of the panels sat plumb and level in the intended locations.
I also installed all of the bulkheads. Final installation was done in four basic steps:
1 - Glue the bulkheads in place with just enough epoxy-microballoon putty to hold the panel in place and let set.
2 - Once the glue sets enough to keep the panel from moving, apply a heavy fillet between the bulkhead and the hull, and let set.
3 - When the fillet sets enough to hold its shape, apply the glass tape and epoxy over the fillet.
4 - Before the tape starts to set, apply peel-ply for a super-clean finish.
I thought this all went fairly well, although the peel-ply was a bit tricky to conform to the curves without pulling up. Unfortunately, today I removed some of the peel ply and discovered several bubble under the tape. I think I pulled up the tape in a few places while fighting with the peel-ply. Luckily glass and epoxy is forgiving, so I pulled out the sander and ground out the bubbles. I'll go back and apply some additional patches to fully restore the strength of the join.
This weekend, after dealing with the bubbles, I moved on to installing the other panels. I started with the forward bunk and the cockpit floor. The installation process is basically the same as with the bulkheads. The only real difference is the panels get lighter fillets and tape than the bulkheads. In this overview of the hull, you will also notice that I added some braces on top of the panels. These braces hold the panels vertical. I am not joining the panels to any vertical surfaces, e.g. bulkheads, so I can make final adjustments when I join the two halves of the hull together. Hopefully I won't need to make big adjustments to get the halves to match, but best to have some flexibility.
Here is a view inside the hull looking aft from the forward bunk. The forward bunk has several additional reinforcements because the beams that link the floats to the main hull tie into this section of the hull. For example, you may notice the unidirectional glass at the bottom of the bunk near the bulkhead. The bunk and cockpit floor are now glued in place. Next I'll continue with light fillets and tape the panels permanently.
