Kaimusailing

The work on the bad beam continues. One problem is that when the boat was assembled in CT, the deck support framework was mounted piece by piece and holes were drilled as needed to mount them. The result was "artistic" rather than strict 90 degree angles. The holes not only angle port and starboard, but they angle up and down through the beam to meet the deck support structure on the other side. I think Keith Lamb drilled through the aluminum channel deck supports through the crossbeam and then through the other side into the deck supports for the deck section on the other side. Then he welded the deck supports with tubes in the bolt holes and bedded tubes in the wood crossbeam with epoxy.
As I worked on the beam and finally transposed the locations of the bolt holes, it looked like it would be impossible to accurately lay it out and the final result would be putting it into position and having at least one end of any of the bolt holes out of position. I took a dinghy ride under the crossdeck and took a look through the bolt holes and they were fair.
Also I found the lower holes through the cross beam would run right through the aluminum portion of the new beam.
When we first assembled the boat, the beam mountings were similar to Wharram's design drawings, but things didn't quite fit as in the drawings. I think the main problem was the crown in the deck that meant the beams couldn't sit flush with the mountings at both gunwhales, so we raised them one rubber mounting disk, then the beam would clear the center of the deck. As we progressed and mounted all the beams, the mast crossbeam was last and lo and behold it was lower by the thickness of a mounting disk from the rest of the structure. So, we put a mounting disk under both ends of the mast crossbeam and all was well, until now.
Now we have made a new beam consisting of an aluminum I beam with a wood cap beam on top. The deck structure bolts that pass through this beam would, for the lower bolts, pass through the top of the aluminum I beam. If we could lower the beam, they would all pass through the wood cap portion of the composite beam.
It was decided to do away with the mounting disks at the ends of the mast crossbeam and thus allow the beam to mount about 3/4" lower putting all the bolt holes in the upper wood portion of the beam.
We had to add on top the beam to make up the missing 3/4 ", so an additional layer was added.
The next steps include mounting the wood portion of the beam into position and marking the deck structure bolt holes using the actual deck structures in place to assure perfect alignment, drill the holes, then remount everything and then add the aluminum I beam underneath with its mounting bracket.