I slowed down when the doubt concerning fairing the bulkheads, sheer clamps and chine logs arose. The eight or so hours I worked on the boat during these past two months did little to beat the doubt. Here is a pic of the issue:
So the picture is of a gap on the sheer clamp, here it is at the very top. It is caused through the twist of the clamp at various stations that wasn’t pulled out when gluing them up. In places it is 6mm, and varies over the length of the boat, from nothing to the 6mm.
Now I could laminate on some timber and fair it back, or I could fill the gap with epoxy when gluing on the topsides. The latter is very attractive. It will require clamping on that top edge carefully to not distort the topsides and extra epoxy.
Hardly the craftsman’s choice. But will it affect the strength? Will it ever be seen? I will know, and I think (think) I can live with it…
So these past two days I have been going over the fairing, I am happy except for the gap, but I feel keen to get over this hurdle. I am now studying up on fitting the topsides, the NIS forum on Yahoo has been helpful, as has Robert Ayliffe who is holed up on Kangaroo Island working on a big boat’s keel and answers his phone. Thanks everyone.
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