The first bulkhead faired

This morning Piet turned up on the forum. He looks in almost daily and helps where he can, even though most of the photos from his log have gone. That was convenient, because my first question was ready and waiting.

My first bulkhead has been faired. I started at the bow, without knowing whether that is wise. I’m using Piet’s method: fairing the bulkheads loose, before they go into the keel. On the Mermaid the bulkheads were already in place when I started fairing, but on a boat this size that seemed harder to me. At this stage it is still difficult to measure whether enough has come off.

The forum was fairly unanimous that this should be done differently. Hans Groenenberg couldn’t get on with Piet’s method himself, because he likes to lay a fairing batten across several bulkheads to check the bevel. Peter advised putting the bulkhead back on the keel former repeatedly while sanding. Danny Mulders always glues the bulkheads first, even on large models. And Piet himself warned me not to fixate on his way of doing things: the normal procedure is to glue the bulkheads square into the model and fair them afterwards. The batten must touch the bulkheads everywhere without bumps or hollows; if the batten shows a dip, material needs to be added.

I hadn’t been working at random, mind you. Every few strokes of the file I checked the bulkhead with a strip in the keel former. The angles look right. It’s just that when I lay the deck on to see the curve, the deck sticks out slightly, although I haven’t filed anything off the long side. The same happens on the quarterdeck, and I haven’t touched anything there yet. Hans explained that a deck usually has a little extra, so you can fit it to the faired bulkheads later.

Conclusion: I won’t take too much off for now and will touch it up later, once the bulkheads are glued. They still wobble a little, and that does throw things off. Other than that I’ll sit back and enjoy the sunshine, file in hand.