Fitting the bulkheads

The next  significant step is installation of the bulkheads.  This is also the last step before we start construction of the next float half.  Here you can see the foam core for the three bulkheads, in order from left to right, the forward, shroud, and aft bulkhead.  The cutout in the forward and aft bulkheads is for installation of the beams, which connect the floats to the main hull.  Of course, installation of the beams is far in the future, so for now they are just very precise holes.  The foam bridging the top of the bulkheads will be cut out once the hull halves are joined to make room for the beam ends.  The placement of this cutout is a critical measurement, so I made up some jigs to hold the bulkheads in place while installing.  The slot in the shroud bulkhead is for installation of the carbon fiber chainplates, again some time in the future after the hull halves are joined.

Here you can see the jig holding the forward bulkhead foam core in position.  I had to slowly file the edges of the bulkhead core until it fit the actual contour of the hull with the various layers of reinforcing installed.  Patience was definitely a virtue in this process.  The result was a good fit with minimal gap.  I traced the final profile on to the poster board templates I made so I can use them as a starting point when fitting for the other half of the hull.  Since the bulkheads will be permanently installed in this half, fitting the second half could be more difficult.  Assuming the other half will have a similar profile with reinforcements, the traced profile should save some headaches, maybe.

You can also see the reinforcing gusset on the stringer.  These will be installed on both sides of the bulkhead, both inboard and outboard.  Only the forward bulkhead gets this extra reinforcement.

If you are particularly observant, you might also notice that we finally know which side of the boat we are building.  Up until now, this half could have been part of either float.  But we now have determined that this hull half will be the inner side of the starboard float (that's the float on the right side of the boat for you landlubbers).  This was determined once we decided on an orientation for the bulkheads.  Notice the bulkheads are asymmetric due to the cutouts for the beams and the angle of the slot for the shrouds.  You may ask "Why did you decide to make this the inner starboard float half?"  And I would give the terribly enlightened response "I dunno, just the way I started fitting the bulkheads ..."  To which you would become further convinced that there "ain't no way" this boat is ever going to float.  Luckily, Ian assures me that even I can build one of his designs, so on to the next step - glassing the bulkheads on the vacuum table for a high quality, low weight, strong set of bulkheads, or so I'm told ...