I managed to glue in 2 more bulkheads today. I probably should have done all 3 but I am a bit slow. I also hit a minor snag that slowed me down a little but also showed just how forgiving this method of building is.

I didn’t dry fit all 4 bulkheads before gluing them as some people do. Laziness I guess. Anyway, I successfully glued in the rear bulkhead yesterday and then today I glued in the forward bulkhead. This effectively set the hulls together at the correct spacing forward and aft. I then moved to the next bulkhead, BH5 which is around the middle of the boat and probably the strongest bulkhead, the mast is usually stepped on this bulkhead, it is the back of the bedrooms and the front of the saloon. I found that the bulkhead middle part was about 15mm too small, that is with it butted up against the bulkhead in one hull there was a 15mm gap to the other. I couldn’t understand how this could happen given that the forward and rear bulkheads fit with only a 5mm gap and both were consistent meaning that all should follow this gap and the hulls are evenly spaced forward and aft.

You can easily use glue to fill a gap this size but it is messy, more difficult and more expensive than just cutting a piece of duflex to fill the gap, which is what I did. I am not concerned by the gap, it means that I have 15mm more boat to live in! Or that the panel is just too small in the kit which is more likely given I have the correct beam at the the bows and stern CL and at bulkheads 4 and 7 (the ones correctly glued in). The joined part is now neatly under the tapes and the boats structural strength is not compromised. Another crisis averted!

I will be creating a new link to a new page soon. I will document the construction of Nine Lives on its own page so that when it is done the whole construction will be on the same page rather than spread throughout my pages.

So now that the hulls are glued together I can remove the bracing that was holding the hulls at the correct spacing. I have to climb over them so I will be glad to get them out of the way. I hope to get the final bulkhead glued in during the week. I will then clear away everything between the hulls so I can start to join the bridgedeck panels together. That will be one huge panel when joined!