bulkhead replacement

Has anyone out there replaced any bulkheads on their boats? I have a Freedom 25 and the port bulkhead just forward of the head has rotted. This was caused by a leaking stanchion. I had planned on working on it in the early fall but didn’t get a chance. Now it’s winter and it’s too cold to do any fiberglassing. So I thought I’d try to cut the old bulkhead out. But to get to it I have to remove a host of other things. And they’re all held in by screws with bungs. There’s the problem. How to get those bungs out. Any suggestions?

I’ve taken out teak bungs two ways:

  1. I’ve taken a drill bit just large enough for the screw driver bit and carefully reamed a hole. The used the screw driver to back the screw out which pops out the bung.

  2. I’ve carefully taken a razor knife, jabed it into the center of the bung then pried it causing a piece of bung to break out. Of course the goal is to assure that the circle in the remaining piece of teak remains intact.

George

There’s a third way to get a bung out:

Drill a small hole in the middle of the bung all the way through. Put a screw in it that just grabs the wood an keep turning the screw untill the bung gets pushed out. You can re-use the bung most of the time.

About you bulkhead: have you thought about locally reinforcing it in stead of totally replace it? if you make a few double-ups after cutting away the rotted spots, you don’t have to tear everything apart.

Michel,

For someone as lazy as me, your suggestion is pretty interesting. Are you saying I should cut away the rot, then put an overlapping piece on either side of the existing bulkhead? And the attached pieces, which sheath the bulkhead, would then be tabbed to the hull? Do you have any diagrams?

If there is a chainplate attached to it I’d put it back the way it was or get a marine architect to hack off on any modification… I’m just sayin’ If there is not a chain plate attached to it there are a number of remedies. I’ve cut away rotten portions of bulkheads and scarfed new marine plywood in and then put fiberglass biaxial with mat over everything bringing the tab from the hull all the way across the scarf joint. 4/1 scarf was what I made and used fiberglass cloth in the joint also overlapping. Stronger than original but… if there is a chainplate… blah blah blah

George

CHAINPLATES…on a Freedom?? There’s only the headstay on the sloops, af far as I can think of.

I don’t have diagrams, but you might Google with keywords like ‘bulkhead repair’. rotted bulkheads are not Freedom specific, so your project must have been done before by a million other boaters. I would not remove a complete bulkhead lightly. You risk distorting the hull-deck structure in a way that you cannot get the new bulkhead in place again. Just remove the rotten spots and double them up on one or both sides of the bulkhead, depending on the access you have. Screw and glue the new pieces to the existing bulkhead and glass the new pieces to the hull.

I concur on replacing the rotted portion only. Did this on a portion of the bulkhead separating the aft port bunk from the head. Previous owner permitted the leak (original construction leak, probably) from the port side midships deck scupper to continue for years.

Whoever designed these things (probably “nobody”), after discovering that the sheerline of the boat was such that a “puddle” forms against the toerail directly in front of the lifeline gate, was not thinking too well. Mine was quite “porous” and a bear to fix properly.

The one on the OTHER side was conveniently located to drain the starboard deck directly above the portlight at the nav desk. Really good work there!!

I’ve always removed bungs as follows:

  1. Place tip of decent quality (appropriately sized) phillips head screwdriver in center of bung.
  2. Rap smartly with heel of your palm against the butt end of the screwdriver to cause the tip of the screwdriver to dig into the bung.
  3. When screwdriver engages threads of screw, back out (what’s left of) the bung & screw at the same time. About 1/2 the time, the bung will just break and the pieces will fall out.

Knock wood, I’ve never torn up the wood surrounding the bung this way. Unless somebody counterbored the bunghole REALLY deep, there won’t be nearly as much “wood” on top of the screw as there is diameter to the bung itself.

You won’t mess up the screw by drilling into it this way, and the drill bit (since it’s not being used) has no chance of skating off into the adjacent wood.

When you replace the bung, glue it in place with whatever varnish you plan to use on the bung & surrounding wood. Don’t glue it in with wood glue or Gorilla glue or anything like that. The varnish will soak into the wood in the bung hole (and the bung), providing protection from “occasional” water, and it will be far easier to make the whole thing look right (after sanding and varnishing) than if you glue it, wipe the glue, and fail to sand all the glue off. If you plan to stain before varnishing, stain both the bung and the raw bunghole before you “varnish in” the replacement bung. After you cut off the replacement bung and sand down, it will be easier to get it all looking good.