I have coved the panel joins between bulkheads 4 and 5 and the back of bulkhead 4 this afternoon. The panels were already coved and I had sanded them yesterday. I also removed the temporary bulkhead between bulkhead 4 and 5 (TBH1) and coved these last gaps where the temp had been but taped over these wet on wet. Removing the temp was of course necessary so I could tape in single lengths between the 2 bulkheads. And I like to have the panels taped first then the bulkhead coved and taped over the top. As I have said, this is a much neater finish.

The cove on the back of bulkhead 4 (port hull bedroom, the one with the door to the walk in robe) looked quite good so I am now happy with the finish of these wet taped coves. I had a little filler left when finished so rather than throw it way I used it to cove the outboard bottom (which is actually the top with the hull upside down) which will be the most visible section of coving. I will have to sand it because I didn’t glass it, but I don’t mind, it is a small easily accessible section, but I only did so because I didn’t want to waste the filler.

I actually scared myself as I attempted to remove the first temp bulkhead, and this should serve as a caution. The coving I had already done was tight up against the temp bulkhead so it could only move down. I had attempted to lean it over rather than try to drop it down on my own but it wouldn’t move either forward or back because of the filler up against the mdf. It was then that I had a scare run through me. What if I hadn’t removed all of the screws before I glassed the hull. What a job it would be to remove the temp without doing some damage to either the hull or the temp bulkhead (which I need to use again on the other hull) if there was still a screw holding the temp in place. So the lessen is make sure you remove all the screws before glassing.

In the end the temp just dropped out so there were no screws. A relief. I still have 4 more temp bulkheads to remove and I am pretty sure I removed all the screws from under the glassed areas and now there are only 2 screws still in place at the edges so not under the glass but I will breath a little easier when I have removed all the temps.

I also had a little mental dilemma about removing the temp bulkheads before I have faired the hull. The temps also have legs on that help spread the load (of the weight of the hull) onto the strongback that once removed will reduce the number of legs by nearly half and I will also have my weight on the hull and into the reduced legs when I am fairing, especially as I fair the under bridgedeck side as I use the bridgedeck returns as a platform for my walking boards. So I thought to myself, damn I am going to have to sand sooner than I think. Until it occurred to me that if the temp bulkheads are pushing the hull panels out in any places that might spring back in after the temps are removed, it would be best that they are removed before I fair it, because believe me nothing would make me crankier than having to re fair the hull (having expelled so much energy avoiding doing it in the first place!) if the shape was to change after I have sanded it fair. So if there is any movement it will now occur before fairing, not after.

So having decided that little dilemma I proceeded to remove the temp bulkhead. After all, the hull would only weigh around 300kgs and there will still be 8 sets of legs holding it up while I sand it (eventually!)