Preparations for false stem and keel

With finished planking I move to the next step: fitting false stem which I laminated from steamed oak slats.

Not very spectacular job but it took me a while fine-tuning the stem shape so that false stem fits well.

Tomorrow I’ll drill screw holes on a proper drill press at work - they need to be exactly in the centerline as the false stem will be heavily beveled to just around 18mm at the fore face.

I browsed through my wood stock and finally chose false keel plank. I decided to make it from larch. Plans specify, among others, Douglas fir as possible material. Siberian larch is much tougher and heavier so for false keel it should be well suited. The plank I chose is quarter sawn, tight-grown straight grain and almost no knots. Heavy almost as oak but much easier to glue and shape.

Before fitting the false keel I need to plain garboards to get 70mm wide flat surface, to accept the false keel. That’s gonna keep me warm on the coming evening.