Valkyrie II
PROJECT PAGE 4
05/19/08
It has been said that confession is good for the soul. If that be true, then my eternal spirit is about to get REAL healthy…
It’s looking like I screwed up.
Two weeks ago I joined the bottom halves together, but they were too heavy for me to get up on the boat by myself. This past Saturday, Tom Hamernik was kind enough to come over and help me heave the assembly up on top of the now inverted hull assembly. As soon as it was up there and centered, it became obvious that the bottom of the first bulkhead was wider than the bottom of the boat where they met, by about two inches. I’m still not sure how I managed this, but the measurements indicate that I mounted that bulkhead a good 4 ½ inches further forward than is called out in the plans. As a result, things are not fitting right. In the picture at right, you can see the mismatch on either side of the bottom.
But wait- all is not as bad as it seems! The bilge panels have yet to be cut, and re-cutting the angles on the bulkhead where the bilge panels will lay is a simple matter. So it shouldn’t be all that difficult to mend this in a manner that is acceptable. There is also a bit of serendipity to my blunder, as I inadvertently added several inches to the length of the cabin. My only real fear is that moving that bulkhead forward in that manner is going to tend to give the finished boat a bit more lee helm, which is not a good thing. I will need to confer with Jim on this aspect and see if he has any ideas on how to compensate.
The other “adjustment” I had to make as a result of this mistake was to make the forward portion of the bottom a bit more bendable, as the curve it must assume now is somewhat sharper. I accomplished this by cutting several 3/8” deep grooves across the bottom on the inside surface. This worked quite well, and I will simply lay a bit of glass tape and epoxy over this inner surface to reinforce the wood later on in the construction process. So, all things considered, I think I’m going to be able to pull my chitlins out of the fire on this one!