Back to the rot

Started the day by pulling all the old wiring out of the engine room to get it out of my way. So now it is all in Chad's head (bathroom). Then I ground the remaining bits of acoustic ceiling tiles and glue off the forward engine room  bulkhead. Removed the last little bit of the cieling and really old fiberglass insulation.
That's when the real fun began. My plan is to build an aerobic waste treatment system and holding tank in the bilge running forward from just under the generator at the forward end of the engine room. It will have 3 processing chambers to "digest" the effluent followed by a holding/batch tank. The water from the treatment system will be chlorinated as it passes into the batch tank. When it is full, or periodically it will be pumped out. I have work with these systems down in the islands and usually you use the water coming from a single chamber tank to water the garden. The Aerobic system removes all the noxious odors usually associated with holding tanks. Holding tanks are anaerobic systems which produce methane.....
So where was I...O yeah down in the bottom of the engine room cutting out the bulkhead where it goes down into the keel.

Looking down into the engine room and the hole I cut in the bulkhead.
Can't get any lower in the boat.
The light is right where the bulkhead use to go down into the keel.
When they built the boat they put the stringers in place then put the main bulkheads in place and glassed the whole mess with 2 whole layers of 1.5 oz. mat. Not even close to what is required.
It would have been far better if they had glassed the stringers in first and then the bulkheads. The joints where the bulkheads meet the stringer is a hard one to make water tight...and it is sure to be under water in the bilge.

That is how we ended up with this, the 1/2" ply that connected the upper and lower members of the stringer completely rotted out on the bilge side of the stringer. Luckily for me the starboard stringer and the outside of the port stringer are fine. Funny thing, it was the port stringer aft that rotted out too. I guess the guy did a better job on the starboard side than on the port....
So I am drying out the teak wood members. Then I will replace the rotted ply with 1/2" Powerply which is treated against rot. Then start glassing the whole thing up again.....

Interesting view. You can see all the way up to the chain locker. Whole lot of space you can not easily get to to clean......