Sole or bulkheads - which comes first?

[Clyderigged]

After re-framing over 75% of the frames on my boat, I am now at the stage of installing the cabin sole and bulkheads. There is no interior yet, which leads me into the following question - Does the sole go down first on top of the floors with the lower end of the bulkheads resting upon it, or does the sole butt up against the prior installed bulkhead?

Thanks,

Jamie White
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid193/pa01af03263e06b390adbb1093a5ab61b/f18f5561.jpg http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid193/p342c5dc7da8a2f4ec3a46f89bb770e6e/f18f5428.jpg

[Rick Tyler]

First off, I have absolutely no idea what the right answer is. Zippo. None. Having now freed myself of liability...

I'd do the bulkheads first. Someday, you are going to want to pull up the sole to look at the floors or the keelson or something else all wet and slimy in the bilges. You'd rather not have to cut it around the bulkheads to get it out. There probably isn't much reason to remove the bulkheads.

Now I can sit back and wait for an expert to chime in. smile.gif

[mmd]

Structural bulkheads to the floors, joiner bulkheads to the sole.

[Jay Greer]

If a boat has ceiling on the interior then bulkheads go in after the sole and on top of the ceiling. These are floating bulkheads and will prevent hard unfair spots from appearing on the exterior of the hull. For structural bulk heads, as already mentioned, the panels should be attached to the floors, frames and overheads and then the sole is laid down. Most good designers will call for "floating or structural" bulkheads in the specifications.
JG

[ 11-07-2005, 02:03 PM: Message edited by: Jay Greer ]

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

what mmd and Jay Greer said.

Anyway, that's what I did - bulkheads first, then sole, then bunk fronts.

Life gets ever so much easier when you have the sole down!

One VERY IMPORTANT POINT !!!

Get her absolutely level, on her waterline, fore and aft and athwartships, before you start work. Spend just as long as you need to to get this dead right -if it takes a week, it is worth it.

[Alan D. Hyde]

Andrew's wholly right about getting the boat level on her waterline.

Years ago, back in my dock-walking days in Maine, I was shown around a fairly good-looking old cruising sloop (kind of reminded me of a Gulfstream 30) that a guy had re-done himself. It had plenty of careful cabinet work and attention to detail--- he'd pretty much removed the old berths, bulkheads, nav. station and saloon table, and put in his own.

The joinery was good, but it just didn't look right--- everything looked slightly askance or askew. Later, talking to another guy a couple of docks down, I found out why. All the work had been done during the winter before, when the boat was out of the water on jackstands. The owner/rebuilder was a cabinetmaker, and--- probably without thinking about it--- he used his level on stuff all the time. But, the boat on the jackstands wasn't level: she was down by the head a little--- just enough to make all that work look wrong...

Alan