Outer Parts of Keel Fitted

I wanted to fit the outer parts of the keel or skeg while the centre of the boat is still easily accessible. Even with only two planks on it is a bit of a stretch to work on the centreboard case. There are two big pieces of timber involved and both have to be shaped to fit the curve of the hull. Here are photos of them fitted, glued and screwed in place.

Above is the forward section. It was shaped to suit the curve of the hull by trial and error and this was a slow process. The vertical piece of timber is wedged against the shed roof to hold things in place while I put the screws in from underneath. At the forward end (left of photo) the step is one half of the joint for the outer stem.

This is rear section or skeg. Same approach with the timber wedged against the roof. When shaping this piece to fit I made a template from scrap ply to fit the curve of the hull and then cut the timber using the template. This reduced the trial and error fitting of a big lump of timber and was much easier.

This last photo shows the butt joint between the skeg and centreboard case (both ends of the centreboard case have similar joints. There are 2 pieces of 12mm thick ply to be fitted either side of the centreboard case and I will extend these about 150mm past the butt joints to cover and reinforce the joint. The sides of the centreboard case are lower than the top of the skeg to allow a hardwood cover strip to be glued over the edges of the ply case sides and doublers. Once this cover strip is in place the whole length of the keel will be a continuous smooth line.