Keel - 'Where's My Prozac?'

Take my sincere advice:  Dry fit the pieces of the keel BEFORE epoxy to make certain the aft end of the keel is straight!.  Then monitor it closely during and after the glue up.  Strongly suggest having the keel vertical (instead of laying flat) during this procedure.

Have a look at mine below - and this is after I improved it after the initial glue up.....I've spent hours scratching my head wondering it if had to be straight; and, if so, how to fix it.  By the way, I'm really building Pocketship for the building experience and challenge; I really don't care much about it's sailing performance - which is a good thing because by the looks of the keel it's gonna sail in circles! haha  Hmmm, probably won't get lost that way...look on the bright side.

Thought I may have to trash the keel and start over.  So twice I dragged it down to Chesapeake Light Craft for John Harris to get a close look and advise.  I only live an hour away.  He actually dropped everything when I walked in the door and asked for help.  Outstanding service - as always.

The picture below seems to be worse than the problem really is - or maybe I'm just kidding myself...

Below is a more realistic view...
I'm thinking about cutting the port (left) side keel panel away from both the vertical blocking piece in the stern and the horizontal blocking piece in the bottom.  Then insert a thin piece of timber onto both blocking pieces and reglue.  Hell if I know....but it's time to shoot or get off the pot...

Below is a shot with the keelson in place.  The keelson can easily be shifted laterally a bit so that it's centered on the keel thus allowing the bottom panels to be stitched to it.  I have some concern that the boat's sides will uneven....jeez...John Harris says that it's not really a big problem and just proceed with the build....

You can see in the top down pic below where I cut the aft side panel away from the vertical blocking, inserted a 'shim', and reglued.  It improved the problem on that side quite a bit.

Another angle below:

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November 8, 2011

My Keel is Straight!

I think I'm about as happy as I was when my children were born!  The keel is straight!!  I took the crooked keel down to CLC about a week ago for another 'fix it; trash it, or leave it alone' discussion.  Spoke with Ed Wigglesworth, CLC's general manager and a great guy.  He suggested I leave the keel at CLC so that his guys could have a look and advise.  Ed called me back a few days later and told me that the keel had been straightened by one of his builders.  It was perfect when I picked it up.  Thanks Ed.  Bought 80#s of lead while I was at CLC and some Western Red cedar timber.

Gettin' Started - Centerboard Trunk and Noseblock

I'm starting to write this blog about a month after I actually began to build the boat so not many pics.  Anyway, I currently have the centerboard trunk assembled, expoxied up, and sanded down which was fairly straight forward.  However, I overlooked some of the epoxy squeezeout when clamping the centerboard sides to the blocking and had a real mess of a time sanding it down. (well, Dad did anyway...)

Noseblock: Fairly straightforward also.  Epoxied 2 pieces of timber (forgot what kind) together.  Used a table saw, drawknife, block plane, than sandpaper in that order get final form.  Getting a fair curve marked on the top of the noseblock was a little tricky as was cutting it to length on the bandsaw.

The noseblock still needs a little more sanding before install.  See pictures below:

Dad made this ingenious little jig (left of noseblock in picture below) to help stabilize the noseblock while we cut it to length:

Top down view in the picture below....Note the small space behind the noseblock and the centerboard trunk (below the orange clamp).  A small bit of timber needs to be expoxied in there so the lead that is poured into this compartment doesn't drain out.

 Profile view below.  Looks like starboard keel panel may need a little planing down....jeez.