Gap between back wall and hull

Sorry for another thread but have another question. Inspecting my new purchase(78 mainship 34 MK1) i discovered that the back wall (sliding glass door) isnt actually atached to the hull where it dips under the railing and follows the hull contour down. It is instead just trimmed out with 1 inch teak. (You can see the trim where it starts right above the couch in the picture) Air gap is about 1 1/2 inches and you can feel cold air coming in. It's like this on both sides and appears like it comes like this from the factory. Is it supposed to be like this? And why? I thought about spraying in foam to help keep the heat in but am thinking it might attract unwanted moisture. Any ideas on this as i must do something (maybe foam backer rod stuffed in). It gets cold on the water here in Alaska and I have never seen anything like this. Ideas, answers anyone? Thank you

I've seen a 26' Riennell (sp?) with the aft bulkhead fitted (?) that way.
I don't know the reason.
The only one I can think of in your case
might be isolating hull flex from the sliding glass door.
If it was me, I would beef it up to eliminate that possibility. I would not want
that cold air, let alone water coming in there.
Others with more experience
may think otherwise, but I would use lots of 'glass.

Ted

Probably to prevent condensation from damaging the interior.


It may be open to the ER thus to the ER air intakes.

Ted said:

I've seen a 26' Riennell (sp?) with the aft bulkhead fitted (?) that way.
I don't know the reason.
The only one I can think of in your case
might be isolating hull flex from the sliding glass door.
If it was me, I would beef it up to eliminate that possibility. I would not want
that cold air, let alone water coming in there.
Others with more experience
may think otherwise, but I would use lots of 'glass.

Ted

Click to expand...

I'm thinking at the very least for now until I know the reason for sure I'm going to shove some 3/4 foam pipe insulation in there. I'm thinking you might be correct with the hull flexing idea.