After pandemic delays, Hale Kai is now ashore at Granton and I've set about getting to the bottom of the rot that afflicts Golden Hinds where the bridge and main decks meet the aft bulkhead. It looks like a relatively major repair because of poorly done prior attempts at repair. The port side, in the wet locker is in worse shape than the starboard side by the chart table.
Cutting away the bad bits of bulkhead exposed the cross beam that runs the whole way across, under the companionway. It is damaged at the extremities. At some point, someone with good intentions but questionable judgement fitted a substantial Henderson bilge pump directly under the companionway. To do this, they cut out a significant part of the middle of the beam, weakening it.
The best plan at this point, though I am very much open to suggestions, seems to be as follows:
- Clean up the beam as much as possible, including removing the fibreglass that covers the aft part in the cockpit locker and pilot berth. The fibreglass has already separated there in the pilot berth so is doing nothing useful.
- Saturate the wood with two part clear penetrating epoxy sealer (CPES) both on the surface and by drilling holes.
- Laminate in 25mm iroko to fill in the gap in the middle.
- Possibly cut a slot straight down the middle and glue in an L- or T-shaped piece of 6mm thick aluminium
- Sister 25mm iroko plank on both fore and aft faces, epoxy and bolt through
It's still an open question whether to replace the entirety of the aft bulkheads or just sections. Less than 50% of the ply seems to be sound.
Much of the problem at the deck interface seems to come from the fibreglass covering the bulkhead not really being joined to the fibreglass covering the deck to make a watertight seal. Instead it seems like these were done separately and the joint is made with some kind of structural sealant which has deteriorated over the years.
Well. Those are the plans for the summer anyways. Thoughts and suggestions very welcome!