Hard spots or hard points or whatever u want to call them...

[insanity]

I've read plenty of things that talk about spacing bulkheads off the hullsides to prevent 'hard spots'. But I've torn a few boats apart, that had the bulkheads glassed right against the hull. I'm in the middle of rebuilding my Baja and would like to have the bulkheads run all the way up the hullsides, should I put some foam between the bulkhead and the hull side, or add say 12 inches of coring on top of the existing coring with the bulkhead in the middle? And what about the stringers, is it better that they are spaced off to or should they be directly against the hull?

[old377guy]

I had wondered about that myself in the past. Maybe Dave will enlighten us.

[insanity]

Nobody???? Glassdave? Sharkey? Offshore Ginger??

[phragle]

I know what I did when I was working on my boat. whether it is correct or not, I don't know. it's just what I determined doing some basic research and advice from others.

I bullnosed the bottom and top of the new wood for the stringer. when putting it in the boat, I blocked the wood into position on top of a peice of wetted mat, mixed resin wiith chopped glass and filler, then 'puttyed' the string in leaving a nice fillet radius between the base ofthe stringer and the hull so the glaass would'nt have to make a sharp bend. the bullnose on top allowed the glass to wrap over the top without sharp bends. to cover I laid down a layer of mat, tabed, clothe, matt, tab and cloth. I started early in the morning and busted azz so it all was done in one shot before anything really cured

[SHARKEY-IMAGES]

This is how I did my forward bulkhead in the Sharkey Bullet 130

[insanity]

Ahhh, so you rounded over the bottom of the stringers too, not a bad idea and it should have given you a little more leeway in matching the angle of cut on the stringer to the hull. I like it.

[SHARKEY-IMAGES]

I cut the angle on the bottom of my stringers. I hot glue them in, then fill any voids with a fiber filled putty. From there a radius is much stronger and spreads the load on any angle. If I were to do any in the future, you would find a radius or at the very least a 45 degree core filler strip to help offset the loads in the corners.

[Geronimo36]

I cut the angle on the bottom of my stringers. I hot glue them in, then fill any voids with a fiber filled putty. From there a radius is much stronger and spreads the load on any angle. If I were to do any in the future, you would find a radius or at the very least a 45 degree core filler strip to help offset the loads in the corners.

Pretty cool!

When Frank (F. Plus) was working on my boat he said he likes to add a strip of balsa between the stringer and the hullside. he said the balsa is soft so it allows the joint to flex without cracking, then he radius' the edges from there.