Yesterday was a very productive day as far as visible progress goes. I have had seven cabin beams laminated up for several weeks waiting for the right time to fix then to bulkheads. With the part complete bulkheads up off the floor I tackled the task of removing all the excess epoxy glue from the laminated beams. Once clean enough to go through the thicknesser they were all dimensioned down to 29 mm. This is two mm thicker than on Passion X and well above specification.
The next task was to router the edges of the beams up to the point where they join to the bulkheads and no further. In one day I managed to attach three roof beams and other cleats which seemed like good progress but it was more the culmination of scheduled work.
Today we had a scheduled power outage from 7:30 am to 4:30 pm and it went the whole distance. In anticipation I had used the time yesterday to cut some lumber some of which did get used today.
Mid morning with bulkheads stacked up against the wall again I saw the empty floor and promptly dragged out bulkhead B for more work.
Bulkhead B is mid way along the v berth and is designed to have a moulding around the edge of the 9mm plywood frame for comfort. The prospect of rolling into a 9 mm wide plywood edge while rocking around at sea is not one that would be welcome. Many options were contemplated but the one I settled for could be produced with my battery operated jig saw and a lot of time. Many 25 mm wide shapes were cut from 9 mm ply and by nesting the shapes very little plywood was used. To improve the uniformity of the strips they were clamped together and shaped to the same dimensions.
I now have a beam made up of five layers of 9 mm ply and after rounding the edges it should provide the necessary level of comfort while at the same time producing a very still and strong cabin beam.
I am a fan of reinforcing on the internal edges of plywood frames for durability and this one on Bulkhead B in the middle of the V berth gave me as much satisfaction as the three bulkheads completed the day earlier.
