Bulkhead prep and reinforcing the engine mount

Well, I learned a new skill today: I finally got a start on some fiberglass work. Without any real plans for major work on Tradewinds, I decided to spend a few minutes reinforcing the fiberglass bed the engine is mounted to. I'd noticed while taking things apart that the two forward edges of the bed looked like they could benefit from being tabbed to the hull. Whether they were tabbed once upon a time or not I couldn't tell, but certainly adding some tabbing would strengthen things up and give me a chance to practice the process.
I had previously ground the area down to fiberglass, so I wiped the engine bed and surrounding hull with acetone, then mixed up some West System epoxy thickened with colloidal silica. I created a fillet that filled a small gap under the bed and provided a smooth transition between the bed and hull, then I applied the tabbing. I cut a couple 4" lengths of tape, wet them out, then began smoothing them into place. After the 4" pieces, I added some 6" pieces with a cut or two to allow the tabbing to lay naturally along the bed and hull. All in all things went together quite well. In fact, I rather enjoyed the process and now I'm anxious to move on to the bulkheads. When I get some more time, I'll sand the area and add a couple more strips of tabbing just to make sure things are good and stout. I'll also trim the fiberglass that ran off the edges of the bed.




Port side of the fiberglass bed.


I also added a fillet to the starboard side of the bed, but didn't have time to tab it.

After I'd tabbed the engine bed, I was kind of hooked on progress so I mixed up more thickened epoxy and filled the gaps between the tabbing where I'd removed the bulkheads. When I get back at things, I'll sand those areas smooth and begin measuring for my bulkheads.


I'm still trying to decide exactly how to tackle the chainplate knee. It was originally tabbed to the shelf in the hanging locker as well as the adjacent hull, so I'll certainly tab it back to the shelf when I get things together, but since I've done so much grinding in that area I'm thinking that I ought to add a couple layers of tabbing to the hull, too. The only problem is that the space will be very confined once I reinstall the bulkhead, and adding more tabbing (if it were done over the whole knee) will mess up the chainplate alignment. So, my options are to simply tab it back to the shelf and quit there, or tab it on the aft side only so added glass won't affect the chainplate's alignment, which would involve removing the bolts, adding the tabbing, redrilling the holes, and bolting things back together. Probably the best plan.