Outerstem, Sternpost and Deadwoods fitted

What seemed like a formality, took quite a while to accomplish, however today I finally was able to view the the fruits of my labour.

Getting the deadwoods to fit snug with the curve of the keel was a slow process, equally fitting it to the lead keel was slow, but somewhat easier as the lead keel is relatively straight.  I used a stick of chalk to cover the entire mating surface on the keel and pressed the deadwood onto the keel - this left chalk high spots on the deadwood which I then addressed using a variety of tools, including my new Japanese wood file.  In the end I finished up using my Metabo orbital sander with 60 grit discs which was quite effective at removing material from the curved surface.  I did check on eBay to see if I could pick up a compass plane, but they all seem to go for big bucks.  I toyed with the idea of investing in a Arbortech Power plane disc, but at over 130 euros, it seemed expensive, so I persevered with files and sanders. 

Most satisfying was drilling the sternpost and deadwoods for the 3/8" bronze threaded bar which by all accounts presents the distinct possibility for drilling off centre.  So armed with a 10mm augur bit I took a line of the scale drawing with my mitre gauge and used this to line up my drill.  Taking it slowly and frequently clearing the bit, ended up with a dead straight result for both bolts.  However, I possibly should have drilled for the countersunk part first and then continued on with the 10mm bit, as doing so after drilling the main hole, it was tricky to centre a forstner bit to widen out the recess.  So I will deploy that technique for the remaining keel bolts which are larger 1/2" bronze threaded bar.

Fitting the keel filler was more problematic - as it turned out I had to remove so much material from the middle of the filler that it ended up in two pieces (actually three - since the two legs of the tuning fork were separated from the other part.

Reverted to handsaw having toiled with a hand plane....!

I am considering the idea of placing the lead keel on top of the hull to drill the keel bolts and finish fairing in the keel and deadwoods.  I would then remove it prior to turning up the hull.  

All the tools in the box thrown at it!
Fish eye lens adds extra curves to the hull!

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Lead Keel bending!

Today I made a template from the lead keel and fitted it on top of the boat keel and deadwoods. Unfortunately, I didn't take a photo of the first template on the boat, but it showed that to get it to fit,  I would have to remove a lot of stock from the keel filler and even further down past the filler into the keel.

The problem was that the lead keel has a straight edge which needs to face up to the curve of the boats keel.  There is a keel filler part which is designed to be planed to accomadate the curve, but my gap was even larger than the keel filler.

Curve bent into straight edge of keel

 So I decided to see if I could bend a slight curve into the lead lead.  Supporting it at about 18" from either end, so as not to bend just the thin ends of the keel, I measured the distance from the floor and took a few wild jumps on to the middle of the keel.  Surprise - surprise, it moved about 1mm.  So egged on by this modest success  I enlisted some help and two of us jumped on it and manged to get a curve into the straight side of the lead keel, which made for a much better fit - as the new template shows. Thankfully no pictures of the jumping  madness!

Pic showing template at back of keel shows original line of keel before bending.

This shows how the keel will sit lower down on the deadwood - where previously, I would have had some gaps

New template made off curved lead - here you can see where bottom of lead sits higher over the boat keel, such that no stock has to be removed from the boat keel.

Template sitting lower down on deadwoods.  This will allow me recut topside of deadwood for a snug fit to the lead keel.

Now I have some final fairing on the keel filler to do and should be able to finally fit the outer stem, forefoot filler, keel filler and deadwoods, which will bring me ever closer to turning over the hull..yeah!

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One step forward...two back

Today I spent removing the various dry fitted components off the hull - forefoot filler, keel filler and outer stem.

I roughly shaped up the deadwood to match both the lead keel and the boats keel.  It looks ok but the angle of the deadwood where it supports the lead keel seems more acute than that of the lead keel - so I am not altogether sure if I have to do quite a bit more trimming off the "top" of the deadwoods.


More curiously, the keel filler which goes between the keel and the lead keel is curved, having been made by laminating to the shape of the outer keel on the hull.  The corresponding part on the lead keel is however straight - so I presume I have to plane down the keel filler straight   Fair enough...but on closer inspection, that will mean in fact removing all of the keel filler in the centre to attain a straight line from one end of the filler to the other.  That in itself is probably not such a huge issue, but it does make me wonder if the keel on my boat is more curved that the designer planned...

Here's the keel filler - it looks like a tuning fork!

Keel Filler

Keel filler sitting on its position on top (underneath) the lead keel

When I took this off the keel and placed it on the lead keel you can see that there is quite a mis-match so I am pondering what is the best solution.  The gap at the ends is deeper than the section of the keel filler.  Alternatively I suppose I can build up the shape in the keel filler by adding new "wedges" to flatten out one side of the keel filler. 

Am I over-thinking this?  Comments Please!

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Trimming Lead Keel

Before fairing my dead-woods any further, I needed to trim my lead keel, so that I could take a pattern from it and reflect this onto the dead-woods to ensure a good fit.

Temperatures rose today sufficiently for me to get my chainsaw fixed, having previously given up in frustration when the tiny tubing became so rigid with the freezing air temperatures that I couldn't reassemble it!

Anyway, thankfully I got it working. So spurned on with Port Na Storm's comment about looking forward to see the lead keel being cut with a chainsaw (from a long distance!) , I took out my video camera to record the process.  John Brooks, Somes Sound designer and ever available to offer sound advice and encouragement, gave me the hint that a  chainsaw was known to be quite a good tool for cutting lead keels.  Initially I was quite dubious, but since I had a very small cheap "Florabest" 40cc saw which I bought in Lidl for less than �100, I thought it was worth a try. Good advice John, it worked a treat!

Off-cut from lead keel

I used heavy polythene to catch most of the flying lead chippings.  Even so I found some chippings quite a bit away, so if you decide that you need to do this, keep all onlookers well away and protected.  I was using full face mask and heavy duty protection.  I didn't use breathing protection but probably should have done so - that said, all the particles seems to have been quite large and I didn't get any impression of lead dust flying about.

Once I had the surplus lead cut off, I set to trimming the lead flat with a hand plane.  I decided against using my electric plane as I had read somewhere that the lead shaving cause the motor to arc and burn out.  However, I was pleasantly surprised at how effective my cheap Anant hand plane was at removing the humps from the lead and leaving a relatively clean surface.  Also I wasn't overly fussy as the side of the keel which I was cutting and trimming is the bottom side of the keel, so it doesn't have to mate to any other component.  I will finish it off with a layer of epoxy to protect it.

Florabest chainsaw - small 16" saw

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Deadwood and Keel Fillers

Since fitting the centre board, I have dry fitted and fastened with bronze screws the keel filler and outer stem.  Also managed to glue up the dead woods  - made out of Doug Fir.

The outer stem needed modification.  I had made it some time ago in conjunction with the inner stem - both laminated over molds.  However, in an effort to afford some wiggle room, I did not shave down the inner stem to its final proportion, such that when I attached the planks, the bow is slightly wider than specified, resulting in the outer stem being too narrow.  So I simply laminated another wider strip to the inside of the inner stem.  Blessed with a very understanding wife, it sits here in next to the dining table out of the cold nights in the shed!  Once set, the inner stem lined up better with the prow and now is dry fitted to the boat.

Next onto the keel filler.  This was a part which I had made by re-sawing a 1" sapele board and laminating it onto the curve of the keelson.  I needed to cut out a slot to accomadate the centre board.  It now sits also on the boat, fastened with bronze screws.

I made a template of the deadwood from the full size plan and spilled it to the keel where it meets with the keel filler.   The plans call for 6 pieces of 7" and 6" wide 8/4 boards planed down to 1 3/4".   However one of the specified lengths is 26" which according to my template is around 2" short to fit the plan, so I will have to add in a small piece when the main boards are glued up.  It is currently sitting under an electric blanket in the shed, as the nights are becoming very cold.  I did get approval to glue it up inside the warmth of the house, but glad I didn't as it is quite a messy job!


Next day I was able to rough cut out the deadwood to shape on the band saw.

Using a flush trim router bit to take the pattern from inside the centre board trunk.  A very satisfying process which produces a seamless joint.

I spent a fruitless few hours trying to get my chainsaw fired up today.  Apparently the chainsaw is the tool of choice for cutting lead - and I need to trim off 1" off the top of my keel which I over-poured.  The saw is suffering from fuel starvation - there is a tiny air vent in the petrol tank which is blocked and I had to dismantle virtually the whole saw to get at it.  By the time I got to reassemble the temperature had dropped so much that the tiny tubes running to and from the carb became so stiff, I couldn't reassemble ! so have to leave until a warmer day and my patience is in better shape before final reassembly - probably should find some new tubing and proper clips...but it's so tiny possibly only 3mm internal that I'll have a job sourcing.  Ah yes the joys of boat building!

I really want to clean up the keel before finalizing the shape of the deadwoods and keel filler, so one way or another I need to get my saw working!

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Centre Board Trunk fitted

The time finally came to cut a hole in the bottom of my boat!  A big long slot in the keelson was required to accomadate the centre board.  Brian came along to assist, which was quite fortunate as it would be quite tiresome hopping from the topside of the boat to inside the hull to position and clamp the trunk in place.

We made a template out of hardboard from the top of the trunk and laid this onto the outer side of the keelson, and drew out where the holes were needed for the trunk posts.  Armed with a 35mm hole saw, I cut 3 holes in the keelson and joined the middle and end hole with a jig saw, for the  slot.  This allowed us to use pipe clamps to hold the trunk in place.  Then we secured the trunk with #14 -3" screws and took away the clamps so that I could run a flush trim router to square off the centre board slot in the keelson, taking a line from the inside of the trunk slot.  This worked really well and ensured a gap free perfectly alignment between the trunk and the keelson.  Some final spiling of the trunk logs was required and subsequent finer shaving off the top of the trunk.  This resulted in a gap free fit and dead square alignment.

Seating the large 3" silicon bronze screws was a bit more troublesome - as they had Frearson (Reed & Prince) heads and the largest bit I had, a #2, did not have sufficient purchase in the screw head, such that I had to cut straight slots in two of the screws to drive them home.  It is surprising how large a pilot hole is required to get these big screws home into hardwood.  Even with the three pipe clamps in place, the screws created further squeeze out of epoxy which was satisfying - evidence that they were doing their job.


Once the epoxy had set, I removed the clamps this morning and re-checked alignment - measuring top of the trunk from each sheer plank to confirm symmetry.  It was rock solid and within 1 mm from sheer to sheer - all told a satisfactory result for the first time wooden boat builder!

So next stage was to cut out the centre board slot in the keel and glue and screw this down on top of the keelson with 48 x 1 1/4" SB screws.  Similarly, I cleaned out the slot in the keel with the flush trim router which ensured that all 3 slots (trunk, keelson and keel) were in perfect alignment.

As these nights are getting cold - forecast -3 deg celcius tonight, I have an electric blanket covering the keel and two small radiators running underneath the hull - should keep her nice and warm for the night.

Tomorrow - hope to start cutting out deadwood for the keel and attaching the outer stem and forefoot keel filler/  There are quite a number of different components making up the "keel" of this boat which initially was a world of confusion, but the fog is clearing and I now see the end in sight to having a finished underwater profile.  Exciting!!

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Sheer Strakes Installed

Panorama photo taken by Jane on her iPhone

Finally completed the planking today..Hurray!!  Ably assisted by Siobhan, Brian and Jane.  

Yours truly lining up the last plank onto the hull.

Since I want to keep my options open to varnish the sheer strake, I used multiple clamps to hold the sheer strake on rather than the screw and batton clamp method used to date.  This was made more manageable because the sheer strake is relatively narrow and so the clamps can reach around the full width of the plank.  

We also glued the centre board trunk together and began planing the garboards to accept the outer keel layer and outer stem.

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