False keel
Sunny and warm day. Relatively warm, of course but I was thankful for these 15 degrees. Anticipating lots of dust I wanted to work outside as much as possible.
False keel plank started as 22x70 straight piece of Siberian larch lumber. Quarter sawn, straight grain and virtually no knots.
Measurements from the hull transferred. Most critical is centerboard opening.
Small area where the keel width rapidly diminishes to match the skeg.
Flat area on garboard top power-planed and fine-tuned with hand planes.
Slot for the centerboard routed.
Lots of wood chips and dust. Good I could do it outside the shed.
All surfaces smoothed with sandpaper. I also rounded centerboard slot - this is the outside face. Sharp edges do not hold epoxy or paint well so it is worth to chamfer such areas.
I drilled countersunk holes for substantial bronze screws, placed in crucial areas of the keel. They will bend the plank into position and hold it tight during gluing. Relying only on weights is tricky on such big jobs - parts will glide as if on wet soap if not positively held in place.
Masking of all adjacent areas followed. For centerboard slot I used wide plastic tape, fastened on both sides of the slot so that epoxy drips will not enter the CB-case. After cleanup the tape will be removed.
It was a big glue-job, I needed to divide it into three batches so that the epoxy doesn’t kick off when I spread it.
And so the false stem is mounted.