I'm working on planing my sheer clamps on a chesapeake tripe. Things are looking good except at the stern bulkhead. The clamps are at the right height relative to the side panels but the sheer clamp is at about 1/2 inch above the rear bulkhead. This seems like an awful lot to plane down to while making it a smooth transition from the aft deck beam sheer to the stern sheer. Am I missing something? The bulkeheads were mounted flush to the hull and the hull is nice and smooth/fair.
Picture would be helpfull. Take it both close but more importantly back a little so the shear champ deck line can be seen as well as the bulkhead relationship.
Can't tell what the relationship is between the bulkhead top and the ply sheer. If the bulkhead is low, then it's probably best to scab a ribbon of thin wood on top (or along side) of the bulkhead to preserve the deck's crown.
if on the outside of the hull adjacent to the bulkhead where you have taken your picture, the deck would cleanly join the side of the hull, you are fine.
if at that location, the deck isn't joining the side of the hull, but is being elevated by the sheer clamp, you need to continue to plane the sheer clamp down.
that is why nemochad is saying its hard to evaluate from the picture....because he cant see the outside of the hull from the picture. it only shows the inside view.
when you have done a proper job of planing the sheer clamps you plane into the outermost side of the side pieces of okoume slightly to extend into them the curve of the bulkheads.
I would imagine by the time I get the sheer clamp down to the correct radius at the bulkhead I am going to be about 1/4 inch or more into the hull unless i do what nemochad is suggesting. Just seems odd to me that I should need do that. But if I don't and plane the sheer clamp and outside hull down as instructed in the manual, I will have quite a bit to take off of sheer clamp and hull all the way to the stern to give the deck the correct camber, I would think.
Sorry for the multiple posts, just hate to mess this up at this point. Thanks again for your guidance.
It seems best with the CH series to treat the four hull panels as "the design", and all the rest of the supplied parts as needing to be adapted to fit. The hull panels have fair curves and will generally produce fair shapes. I wouldn't cut into the boat's only good pieces to make the odd accessory pieces fit better.
I recall the aft deck has a pretty flat camber, which is why I suggest adding to the top of the too-low bulkhead. It doesn't seem like a good idea to flatten the already flatish deck further. Otherwise, bulkheads are fine with pretty big gaps, after filleting.
Thanks everyone! What's being said makes a lot of sense. Bummer about the bulkheads lack of fit since the hull panels came together so nicely. I should have held the bulkheads off the bottom I guess and filleted the bottom bulkhead gap. but I will scab something onto the top now. Wish I had some extra okoume just hanging around.