Iv just spent the last month working on my port bulkhead.
I thought I’d inspect my bulkheads/chain plates, with a view to extend the chain plates.
Mine looked ok…….
On inspection, my port bulkhead wasn’t very good, wet and soft.
From the factory, my port bulkhead was fitted to far aft.
This caused the chainplate, square deck plate to not sit fully on the raised, moulded pad on the deck.
The two aft deck bolts on the chainplate missed the raised pad on deck. So they went through the deck instead. This caused water ingress and deteriorated the wood.
So…
I cut the bottom of the aft heads locker out.
I chopping the bulkhead down to below the locker by about 100mm.
I offset the joints on the bulkhead. Which is made from 19mm and 12mm ply. I jointed the new with the old with 45 degree joints.
Iv moved the top of the bulkhead forward 15mm to make everything align on deck.
I epoxied the new wood in, with multiple layers of matting and thickened epoxy.
Refitted the bottom of the locker.
Luckily the raised deck pad, plywood was rotten, so I raked it out and filled it.
I have extended both chainplate by 500mm with a 6 degree kick to miss locker fronts. The chain plates now have 14 bolts, instead of 4 going through the bulkhead.
With matching 50mm back plates (which it never had)
I have also fitted backing plates under the deck, which involved moving a bolt on the deck plate.
All this was done without damaging the deck or heads moulding, working through the heads, locker doors and the door under the sink.
I’m hoping this should last……