Keel Glueup

As many other builders have done, I took this in several stages and did a lot of dry fitting in between. A previous post discussed a couple of areas I wanted to be particularly cognizant of. I’m happy to say that all went well and the keel is as it should be.

Blocking & Trial Fit

First thing I did was cut the three block pieces for the aft section. I used a band saw, cutting wide of my marks and then finishing down with a hand plane. I then laid things out and dry clamped everything up to see if anything was off and get a feel for my glueup process.

All sorts of things pop up in these trial fits. No matter how simple a step looks, a trial fit will show me at least a couple of things I hadn’t considered. And nearly always at least one of those have made a big difference during the glueup.

Here are some pics of trial fit, no glue…

Glueup

My glueup was split into 4 separate sessions:

1. Aft blocking to starboard side pieces
2. Centerboard trunk to starboard side
3. Noseblock and filler piece to starboard side
4. Port sides

This all went very smoothly for me. As usual, each surface to be glued got one coat of unthickened epoxy immediately prior to glue. All of the exposed inside surfaces got two coats of unthickened for sealing. Cleaning up squeeze-out is always helpful, but I was especially careful to clean up where the top of the side pieces meet the trunk. This is the tiny lip that the keelson will fit to and would be difficult to sand clean after the squeeze-out cures.

Aft Blocking

Centerboard Trunk

I made sure that all my holes for the centerboard pivot lined up. This was checked in the dry fit but I didn’t take it for granted here.

Noseblock and Filler Piece

I didn’t photograph the noseblock and filler piece being glued, but there was nothing to it.

Port Side Pieces

Next…

Before pouring lead ballast I’ll clean everything up with a good sanding and some roundovers.