Bulkhead replacement, Hunter 25.5, 1984

[JKCMBOAT]

I'm working on the interior of my Hunter 25.5 which was purchased with some severe water damage to the interior woodwork. Water found its way in thru a couple areas (which I have patched) as well as what appears to be thru the chainplate(?) on the port side. The bulkhead has some severe rot. I would like to replace this with an equivalent marine type plywood as well as inspect and potentially replace the compression post. When removing the damaged bulkhead it is not clear how it is attached in the top area? Did Hunter use an adhesive to secure the top of the bulkhead to the cabin ceiling? Is it only attached to the chainplate and other obvious fixtures...and just seated in the upper slot?

We will obviously unstep the mast to do the work and we plan to do our best to preserve the current bulkhead for use as a template. Are there any other suggestions, personal learnings, or warnings with replacing this bulk head that any of you can provide?

All info is very much appreciated.

 

[egodsey]

Last year I refurbished my Hunter 25.5 ... including new teak and holly cabin sole, and new teak plywood bulkheads in the main cabin. I also replaced the white Melamine that had originally been used to cover all of the shelves. I covered all of the shelves and the vanity in the head with white Formica (like what had been originally used on the galley countertop).

The furniture in both cabins is attached to the bulkheads. Typically FH bronze screws were used to attach 3/4" square scabs to the bulkhead ... which were in turn fastened with FH bronze screws to the furniture. Most of the screws either came out easily ... but a few were ruined in the removal process ... and some had to be sawed in two.

In general FH bronze fasteners were used on the various wood-to-wood joints ... and oval head stainless steel fasteners were used on the wood to fiberglass connections.

As I remember it all of the fasteners connecting the bulkheads to the fiberglass ribs were installed from the main cabin side of the bulkheads. And there were NO screws (or glue) used at the top of the bulkheads.

There were however a pot-load (that's a precise engineering term for more than ten but less than one thousand) fasteners between the compression post and the bulkhead and the furniture and the bulkhead. And the heads of almost all of these fasteners were covered by teak plugs. These teak plugs make removing each fastener a 3 step process.

1. Find the teak plug.
2. Remove the teak plug.
3. Remove the fastener.

Finding ALL of the teak plugs is almost impossible. I remember when we removed the port side bulkhead ... we had removed all of the furniture ... disassembled the compression post ... removed the chain plate ... and we thought we had removed all of the fasteners along cabin sole (the cabin sole itself had already been removed.) Anyway ... after pushing, pulling ... and much struggling ... the bulkhead finally let loose. Turns out we had missed one lone fasteners ... along the cabin sole, about halfway between the hull and the compression post. As you can imagine, after 25+ years that part of the bulkhead was a bit stained. There was no way we would have ever seen that teak plug. Perhaps if you know to look for one there ... you might be able to find the one (or two) on your boat.

Also ... if you are having trouble removing the teak plugs ... here's the Don Casey method of plug removal.

1. Find the teak plug
2. Center drill it with a small drill. (Be careful here. All you are doing is drilling a pilot hole for a removal screw. If you drill into the bronze fastener underneath the teak plug you may not be able to reuse it. I found that 80% of the bronze fasteners that I removed were in excellent condition ... and thus reusable.)
3. With a hand screwdriver, screw a fastener into the pilot hole in the teak plug. Bottom out the screw just enough to loosen the teak plug, then grab the removal screw with your hand and apply some sideways pressure ... the plug will pop out.
4. Then use the same screw driver to remove the fastener that was exposed when you removed the teak plug.

Obviously, when all of this goes back together you will need new teak plugs. I had a very hard time finding face grain plugs. For whatever reason most of the plugs being sold today are end grain plugs ... even if the vendor claims they are face grain. I finally ended up purchasing face grain teak plugs from WidgetCo. (http://www.widgetco.com)

Attached are some photos of the interior of my 25.5 ... in various states of disassembly. Probably not all that helpful to you ... but perhaps you will at least find them interesting.

Regards,

Ernest Godsey

Godsey Technical Associates, LLC
512-413-9552
egodsey@GodseyTech.com
www.GodseyTech.com

 

[JKCMBOAT]

Ernest,

I just quickly read thru this as I'm currently at work. I will read this again in much further detail tonight. Can't thank you enough for this information.

Joe

 

[robertsapp]

Different boats, possibly different eras (no idea how old yours is, our 336 is a 1995 model). But for what it's worth, when we took out several of the interior teak bulkheads on our boat to replace them, we found that they were held in place with screws as described above, and were caulked with black marine silicone at their tops where they fit into the recesses in the overhead. Removing them only required us to find and remove all the fasteners and then scrape out all the silicone. Interestingly enough, one panel DID have a bead of what appeared to be marine adhesive along its top edge, possibly 4200 or 5200 judging by its slightly off white color. But the bulkhead hadn't been tabbed deeply enough into the recess in the overhead to compress the bead. It was there, dried, but only stuck to the panel, not the overhead.

 

[JKCMBOAT]

Hi Ernest,

Back to this after all this time. The bulkhead has been succesfully removed however the port side is in shambles. Do you happen to have a template drawing or an electronic file of the bulkhead shape that you used to cut your new one?

Thanks!

Last year I refurbished my Hunter 25.5 ... including new teak and holly cabin sole, and new teak plywood bulkheads in the main cabin. I also replaced the white Melamine that had originally been used to cover all of the shelves. I covered all of the shelves and the vanity in the head with white Formica (like what had been originally used on the galley countertop).

The furniture in both cabins is attached to the bulkheads. Typically FH bronze screws were used to attach 3/4" square scabs to the bulkhead ... which were in turn fastened with FH bronze screws to the furniture. Most of the screws either came out easily ... but a few were ruined in the removal process ... and some had to be sawed in two.

In general FH bronze fasteners were used on the various wood-to-wood joints ... and oval head stainless steel fasteners were used on the wood to fiberglass connections.

As I remember it all of the fasteners connecting the bulkheads to the fiberglass ribs were installed from the main cabin side of the bulkheads. And there were NO screws (or glue) used at the top of the bulkheads.

There were however a pot-load (that's a precise engineering term for more than ten but less than one thousand) fasteners between the compression post and the bulkhead and the furniture and the bulkhead. And the heads of almost all of these fasteners were covered by teak plugs. These teak plugs make removing each fastener a 3 step process.

1. Find the teak plug.
2. Remove the teak plug.
3. Remove the fastener.

Finding ALL of the teak plugs is almost impossible. I remember when we removed the port side bulkhead ... we had removed all of the furniture ... disassembled the compression post ... removed the chain plate ... and we thought we had removed all of the fasteners along cabin sole (the cabin sole itself had already been removed.) Anyway ... after pushing, pulling ... and much struggling ... the bulkhead finally let loose. Turns out we had missed one lone fasteners ... along the cabin sole, about halfway between the hull and the compression post. As you can imagine, after 25+ years that part of the bulkhead was a bit stained. There was no way we would have ever seen that teak plug. Perhaps if you know to look for one there ... you might be able to find the one (or two) on your boat.

Also ... if you are having trouble removing the teak plugs ... here's the Don Casey method of plug removal.

1. Find the teak plug
2. Center drill it with a small drill. (Be careful here. All you are doing is drilling a pilot hole for a removal screw. If you drill into the bronze fastener underneath the teak plug you may not be able to reuse it. I found that 80% of the bronze fasteners that I removed were in excellent condition ... and thus reusable.)
3. With a hand screwdriver, screw a fastener into the pilot hole in the teak plug. Bottom out the screw just enough to loosen the teak plug, then grab the removal screw with your hand and apply some sideways pressure ... the plug will pop out.
4. Then use the same screw driver to remove the fastener that was exposed when you removed the teak plug.

Obviously, when all of this goes back together you will need new teak plugs. I had a very hard time finding face grain plugs. For whatever reason most of the plugs being sold today are end grain plugs ... even if the vendor claims they are face grain. I finally ended up purchasing face grain teak plugs from WidgetCo. (http://www.widgetco.com)

Attached are some photos of the interior of my 25.5 ... in various states of disassembly. Probably not all that helpful to you ... but perhaps you will at least find them interesting.

Regards,

Ernest Godsey

Godsey Technical Associates, LLC
512-413-9552
egodsey@GodseyTech.com
www.GodseyTech.com