Interior Tabbing Progress Report

In my March 6^th post – What A Grind – I highlighted areas in Pilgrim’s interior where we plan to add or repair tabbing… quarterberth, galley, pilot berth, and head area.   Over the past week only the galley has not received attention.

While prepping the quarter berth for new tabbing, I discovered that the structural component of the wall between the berth and the engine room is ½” plywood.  The additional ¼” of material is a cosmetic plywood façade glued to the structural wall with contact cement.

Removing sections of the 1/4" plywood facade from the wall in the quarterberth

If we hope to gain any strength from this tabbing, then we need to epoxy the new tabbing to the structural wall, not the facade.  In most areas the ¼” plywood separated easily using a putty knife, but a few areas required a hammer and chisel.  Below is an image of the area prepped and ready for cloth.

Quarterberth taped, masked and ready for cloth.

Along the top of the wall between the berth and the engine compartment we added a couple layers of lighter weight cloth. We applied heavy 1708 cloth in the areas visible in the image below.

new quarterberth tabbing curing

Since our plan for the quarterberth is storage space,  we will simply sand down the new tabbing , then prime, and paint the area.   We do plan to add additional bracing and tabbing under the quarterberth, but I’ll save that for a future post.  Check our Quarterberth Rehabilitation Album for more images of progress in this area.

In the pilot berth we again used heavy 1708 cloth on both sides of the new ¾” bulk heads

test fitting fiberglass cloth pieces in pilot berth area

I attached the original end sections (aft end section visible in background of image above) to the adjacent bulkheads with multiple ¼” wood screws and then tabbed sections  to the seat back.

The new pilot berth bulkheads are screwed into the cleats along the seat back. Tabbed to the hull and floor on the forward facing side. Tabbed to the hull, floor, and seat back on the aft facing side.

The new intermediate bulkheads are now screwed and glassed in place.   This assembly will add significant strength to the seat back / chain plate anchor.  The next step here is to add oak cleats for reattaching the pilot berth deck then sand and paint the area.  Check out our Pilot Berth Rebuild Album for more images of progress in this area.

The area around the head pan and mast bucket has received the greatest amount to effort since the last post.  The 2X4 that serves as a floor stringer forward of the mast bucket (see image below) was floating unsupported on both port and starboard ends. 

Unsupported 2X4 stringer on left in this image.  3/4" plywood member is bracing for mast bucket.  Pilgrim's mast bucket is supported by epoxy thickened with granite powder set atop the keel.

I laminated multiple layers of ¼” and ½” FRP creating shims to fit between the hull and the 2X4 on both ends.

shims for supporting 2X4 floor stringer

These shims were set in place with thicken epoxy.  We then applied multiple layers of 1708 cloth to secure the shims and distribute the load across a larger area of the hull.  While glassing in the area we also added  layers of cloth to tie the head pan, floor stringer, the ¾” plywood mast bucket bracing, and the bulkhead together.

Green FRP shim is visible under 2x4 in this image. Multiple layers of heavy mat on left in image serve to distribute loads from shim across the hull and also support the head pan.

We are not done with our work in this area.   Stay tuned for more structural additions to better support the head pan and mast bucket.

While sticky and in the area we also added a couple layers of cloth to a section of the bulkhead under the head counter.  An 18” section of this critical bulkhead lacked any factory tabbing – WTF?

2 layers of mat added to a section lacking tabbing in the original construction.

Thanks to Anne for spending half a day suited up and wetting our fiberglass cloth.

Anne suited up for work in Pilgrim

Ok, no more Breaking Bad references or she may never don the coveralls and respirator again.

If you want to see our current progress or additional images check out our Tabbing Repairs Album.  We add new photos each time we make progress on this project.