[Finallybuyingaboat]

Wow, what a fun day! Spent 6 hours stuffed into the corners of my Shark 24 cutting out all of the bulkheads. If you haven't been in a shark, well, they are made for sailing, not for interior comfort, so i really have a sore back now!

Plan for tomorrow night is to get in there with the grinder and grind off the tabbing I was not able to cut away. Boy, am I looking forward to that! Unlike most boats that are this size (24 feet) a Shark has 2 sets of bulkheads. Oh boy, am I ever lucky, that way I get twice the work! Oh yeah, and it requires twice the amount of insanely priced plywood!

This is the second boat that I have replaced the bulkheads on, so I know what I need to do, and it is wayyyy less intimidating this time around. When I redid my first boat last year, I was really apprehensive about doing the repair job, but on this one it is just a matter of setting aside the time and putting in the work. At least the worst part of it is over, I did get a bit nervous when i was lying on my back kicking the bulkheads out after having cut away all of the tabbing. Boats made in the early 60s were made to withstand some serious punishment, I guess epoxy and plywood were significantly cheaper back then, the tabbing on my main bulkhead was 1/4" thick!

 

[Faster]

Have fun! We had to do such a repair on our first boat (also a Shark) but got away with only the forward of the two center bulkheads. We had already bought boat #2 and had to make the Shark sale-worthy.

btw - unlikely that the Shark was tabbed with epoxy - it would have been polyester resin. Hopefully you're planning to use epoxy this time around.

 

[Finallybuyingaboat]

Polyester or epoxy

Have fun! We had to do such a repair on our first boat (also a Shark) but got away with only the forward of the two center bulkheads. We had already bought boat #2 and had to make the Shark sale-worthy.

btw - unlikely that the Shark was tabbed with epoxy - it would have been polyester resin. Hopefully you're planning to use epoxy this time around.

Looks like they used polyester on the main bulkheads and epoxy on the forward sections. I plan to use epoxy and 10 oz cloth. How many layers of cloth did you put on the main bulkheads? I am planning 4, is that enough do you think?

 

[Gramp34]

A while ago I talked to someone who's done two Sharks. His trick to speed up the installation of the new bulkheads was to set them in place, then run a bead of 3M 5200 on each side where the bulkheads meet the hull. Not only does this hold them in place for the glassing work, but it also forms a nice fillet in the corner.

The four layers of 10 oz cloth will be plenty for the tabbing. If you're using a veneered plywood, it's best to remove the face veneers before tabbing since the face veneers aren't very strong, and in the case of teak, there can be bonding issues because of natural oils in the wood.

Good luck,

Tim

 

[Valiente]

^ ^ ^

Good advice. I've repaired tabbing, but never a whole damn bulkhead. If there are people willing to go to these lengths to repair Sharks, it's no wonder some of them are way past 40 years old and still out there in 25 knots plowing away.

 

[djodenda]

Good luck...

Sharks are great boats...

I'm presently using a snap shackle from #106 on the backstay tensioner for my present Catalina 30

(Our family has weird heirlooms)

I figure you already know this, but here's a link:

SharkBytes | Shark Sailing | Shark One Design | Shark Sailboat | Canadian Shark Class Association | International Shark Class Association

Best wishes,

David