The bi rig plans have changed and now the masts are inboard. I have already moved the doors across to accommodate this. But now I have to cut away part of the bulkhead temporarily because I have to lay 3 layers of glass onto the sole and up the inside hull sides in one piece directly through where the bulkhead currently sits. So the only way is to cut it way, lay the glass and replace it again then glass it all back to restore its strength. It is frustrating to have to do this and not a simple task but I cannot think of any other way even if I had known from day 1 of this. The glass must go onto the sole and the bulkhead must go all the way to the hull so it would need to be in place anyway, and it also is needed to shape the hull in the first place.

So first task is to cut the bulkhead away after first having marked on it where the sole will be. This is important because the bulkhead flush to the soles forms part of what I will be laying the glass mast bases to. It is virtually impossible to cut the bulkhead exactly to the height of the sole and flush against the hull side so some grinding is also needed and then later when putting the piece of bulkhead back will require glue or a strip of duflex to put back whatever amount I grind away. And it will be about 20mm or so of bulkhead.

Once I had the main piece of bulkhead removed with a jigsaw I used a hand saw to get as close to the bulkhead as I could and then I used a grinder to make it flush to the uni stacks that are either side of this bulkhead and to make smooth and keyed the rest of the hull sides, removing glue drips and generally tidying up ready to glass over this area.

Then I glued pine 25mmx25mm stringers in the soles against the hull sides to act as glue dams for the glue I will want to bed the soles into. I wont be able to cove and glass the sole from the underside so they have to bed into glue. The stringers also act as a level base for the sole to ensure it sits flat and level. In order to have them stay in place while the glue sets I put screws through. I was very nervous about doing this as I have already put a screw all the way through the outer skin. I don’t want to do this again so I used screws that only just grabbed the inside glass skin, no way at all they can reach the outside skin.