Bulkheads

I made the first (and last) bulkheads using hand lay-up with vacuum bagging, before discovering that vacuum infusion is simply a much easier method—especially for flat panels.

The infusion of the combined bulkheads (infused as one large panel) for the next float is shown step-by-step in a video that used to be part of my resin infusion starter kit. (Edit: no longer available; only the CD content remains.)

For bonding the bulkheads into the hull half, I initially used Aerosil as the thickener for the fillets. Aerosil is a relatively heavy, high-density filler and it hardly increases the volume of the thickened epoxy paste (often called “bog”). Since weight matters everywhere in this build, I later switched to red microballoons for bulkhead installations. This low-density filler increases the volume of the bog by at least a factor of six. Considering the many metres of fillets throughout the entire boat, this turned out to be a small change with a big impact.