Building the Interior

With much of the mechanical, plumbing, and electrical nearing completion it's time to start building the bulkheads and lockers that will surround all that work.  All the wood has been planed and sanded to a uniform thickness.  Wayne has lofted the bulkheads in the shop, and has milled the rails and stiles.

The sheet of plywood on the right serves for the lofting and layout of multiple bulkheads.  The top, center, and bottom stiles for two narrow panels are laid atop the lofting for two narrow panels.

The end of each stile has a long tendon that will fit into the mortise in the rail.  In the picture on the left one can see the inner edges which will face the raised panel within the bulkhead.  Each has been milled on the shaper.  To produce all this Wayne has been running plank after plank through the shaper and then cutting out the tendons with a jig on the table saw.

I've no idea how he keeps it all straight, but there are dozens of small stacks of wood, each with the grain matched, piled around the shop and slowly forming themselves into raised panel bulkheads and doors.

Few boats have bulkheads built this way today, primarily because it's a massive amount of work and also because modern boats utilize the strength of the bulkheads as a key component of the boat's design.  In older boats, like MAYAN, the bulkheads often aren't structural and can be both less strong and moved to whatever place in the boat is most useful.  In the three pictures to the right, you can see how the tendon on the stile fits into the mortise in the rail to form the center structure of a bulkhead.  A panel will be inserted into the interior slots in the stile and rails.

A number of new bulkheads will be built to surround the new head, separate the head space from the forward passageway and from the galley, and to provide the cabinetry along the starboard side of the main saloon.  In addition, we will most likely replace a few of the older doors in spaces like the master stateroom and build new doors for the new head and shower that are all constructed with this raised panel technique.

Traditionally, only the stiles and rails were glued and fastened together.  The panels within the system were free to move within the slots.  This was done because the finishes were not particularly water-proof.  For example, oil based enamel and varnish only blocks 60% of moisture.  As the humidity changed, especially in northern Europe and New England, between summer and winter this allowed the large panels in the center of bulkheads and doors to expand and contract as they absorbed and lost water content.

However, many modern glues are capable of providing enough flex.  This will allow Wayne to glue in the panels, making everything much stronger and resistant to mold and rot that can occur when the panel is loose set.

Because the bulkheads and doors in the shower area will also be built in this way, and will be subjected to a great deal of moisture, we will be using epoxy to set all the joints.  After a few tests, we've decided to use varnish to finish the interior of the shower.

Panels made entirely of one broad plank are prone to cracking as the humidity changes.  As a result Wayne is gluing up the large panels from multiple smaller pieces with the grain matched.  This results in a stronger and more stable panel.

It has been a great deal of fun for me to hold the "dumb-end of the board" for Wayne in this process.  Learning a new field is always entertaining and in this case it's teaching me that I have a tremendous amount more to learn about the complexities of wood, adhesives, joints, shapes, and thousand of other things that Wayne has learned over his 40 years of ship and boat building.