Update on rear bulkhead

Kerm here,
Done.  While I didn't feel comfortable cutting into the boat and especially doing fiberglass work I'm glad I did it and in the end I increased my knowledge base for doing this type of project.

Project Synopsis-
While Chris was painting the back bilge she noticed water standing back by the steering jack shaft.  I kept an eye on it and found out that water was coming out through a pin hole in the fiberglass.  I drilled a few holes around the area and found that the plywood backer was saturated with water and rotted. 

Holes drilled to see how far the rot went.  It took out the whole backer and sill above.

                            Not pretty but at least the structure holding the jack shaft was OK.

First piece bedded in. Note plate with blue on it to keep water from coming in if there was a wave in the marina.  Also through bolts for swim platform were very close to the water line.  Grinding all the paint off was the most difficult part.  I did find that the structure holding the jack shaft was breaking away from the hull so had to glass that also.

                       All glassed up but still have to drill hole for scupper through hull fitting. 

All but done.  The unfinished portion is where I'm going to tie the new sill into the old but it's too saturated with water right now.  It's not critical and will have to wait. Now I can get the steering chain on and throw on a couple of clamps for the new scupper valve.  The old valve was trash.

I still don't know where all the water was coming from that saturated everything.  I suspect it was from the cap rail or maybe from the euro strut base.  It's just another thing to keep an eye on but at least everything below is sealed in epoxy.  If we not in such a hurry to every thing done before pushing off I think it was a great learning project.

Chris here,
Captain Kerm is going strong!