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From a Bare Hull:  Carlins (Page 4)

Carlins:  Final Installation
Over the course of the next day and a part of a second day, I completed the carlins' installation.  Before I could continue with the carlins, though, I had to install a full-width deck beam at the after end of the cockpit, as the carlins were to intersect with and attach to this beam.  The day before, I had laminated this beam section up, so I took several minutes to plane it smooth, then determine its exact location in the hull.  Once I had the location determined, I cut and fit the beam in the same way that I did all the foredeck beams earlier.  Then I installed it in a bed of epoxy adhesive with two bronze #14 x 3 screws, one at each end.

The location I chose for this beam, 133" aft of the midships bulkhead, is such that it lands aft of the tillerhead location on the imaginary cockpit sole, and enough so as to allow the possibility of locating the tillerhead at about cockpit seat level, which is often a more user-friendly location; however, the beam is also located far enough forward of the transom that I could choose to run the rudderpost all the way to deck level, as I have discussed here and there in the past in the discussion forum attached to this site.  As it happened, this versatile beam location was by happy coincidence, as I didn't make any particular  compromises for or against either tiller setup.  Later in the project, I will make the decision as to how to run the tiller and rudderpost, but it was nice to know that I still had several viable options.

The carlins were to intersect with the aft deck beam at a mortise, so I determined the location on each side and cut the mortises to the appropriate shape, roughing out the cuts with my circular saw and finishing with a chisel. I added an angled cut at the outer edge to allow for the angle at which the curving carlin would approach.

I dry fit the various carlin pieces on the port side first, beginning at the forward end and working aft.  I staggered the joints between the various boards from layer to layer, and after several hours' work I had the whole assembly dry-fit and clamped in place so that I could eye it critically to ensure that the curve was sweet and fair in all areas.  As I had suspected, bending the three thicknesses together through the various fixed points (as described on the previous page) created a natural--and pleasing--curve that was just what I wanted.

With the pieces on the first side dry-fit, the next step was to glue up the pieces and clamp the whole assembly.  I unclamped the pieces and cleaned them all with acetone, then prepared for the large-scale gluing by getting all my clamps organized up on the boat, and preparing whatever other materials I might need.  To glue the pieces, I chose resorcinol glue, since it is much more user-friendly with its long pot life and open working time.  Epoxy simply doesn't work in this sort of situation when working alone.  I weighed out the two components of the glue, and mixed it up.  

The next morning, I installed some more temporary wooden braces between the hull and the carlin to prevent any movement of the carlin in relation to the hull during the next few construction steps until the deck beams were permanently installed.  Then, I removed all the clamps, after determining that the glue was sufficiently cured.  I repeated the cutting, fitting, and gluing process on the starboard side now, which was identical to the port side except that the whole process went more quickly and smoothly than before.  I compared measurements from port to starboard so that I could ensure that both sides were as close to identical as practicable.

Work remaining on the carlins includes dressing off the tops to match the designed deck camber, cleaning up any remaining glue squeezeout, particularly on the bottom side, and some final attachment at the midships and after bulkhead locations.  Then, it's time to begin the process if installing the short deck beams.

Continue> (coming soon)