Bulkhead Replacement |
In August, 2004 I finally had to deal with the
delamination of the bulkhead under the forward companionway. For years
water had been leaking through that hatch onto the teak veneer plywood that
formed the forward wall of the head. This is not a major structural bulkhead,
but the delamination had gotten to the point where it had to be fixed.
This delamitation was not picked up in the pre-sale survey, although it had
been developing for several years before I purchased Sarah. The leaks
became dramatically apparent during our cruise to Bermuda in 2001 when a
massive amount of water came through the hatch during a storm passage.
At the time I viewed this as just a hatch problem. I discovered a
small amount of water ingress into the deck core in the corners of the hatch
cut out in the trunk cabin and replace the wetted core with epoxy filler in
2002. I noticed some warping of the teak veneer on the bulkhead under
the companionway ladder, but I didn't view that as a serious problem at the
time. The bulkheads appeared to be solid.
While living on board over the winter of 2003-2004 I became aware that
the hatch continued to leak with any significant precipitation. I had
a lot of stuff stored under the ladder at the time and didn't really see the
effect of this leaking. I just viewed it as another spring time
sealing job. In the spring I saw the that the bulkhead had been
compromised and must be replaced. This was well beyond my experience
and capabilities as a boat wright. I delayed doing anything about the
bulkhead for several months, trying to determine how I could do the job
myself.
In the meantime a Boatwright, Bob Devlin, moved his boat to our
marina. Having struck up a conversation with him on my problem I
discovered he had replaced several bulkheads in other boats and didn't view
this as a major project. I engaged Bob to work with me on my project.
His job was to replace the bulkhead, mine was to re-finish everything.
|
Day One: The demolition and
replacement |
The pictures
on the left and below show the situation before we started work. |
The
hole in the plywood was produced just by pulling on the veneer with our
fingers. |
On the
left I have removed all of the hardware from the
bulkhead (primarily the ladder) and we are ready to proceed with the
removal. |
Bob has now cut through the outboard edge and bottom of the
bulkhead with his SawsAll. |
Bob is now removing the trim and screws that secured the
upper portion of the bulkhead.
|
The upper portion of the bulkhead has now been removed and Bob is working on
the lower portion. |
On the
left the entire bulkhead has been removed. I now
have a walk-through head. |
On
the right Bob is sawing out the delaminated cabin sole. I got lucky, only
the 1/2" imitation teak and holly plywood was decayed. |
The
3/4" plywood subfloor was solid. I will build a box to cover the removed
flooring. |
On
the left and below, right the new bulkhead has been glued and screwed in place.
This is 3/4" MDO plywood. |
|
The
view of the new bulkhead from within the head. the head. |
I
have to deal with how I will cover the bulkhead in a manner compatible with
the wallpaper used in the rest of |