Skin on Frame Shearwater Build, Day 8: 6hrs. More work on the keel.
With the glue on the scarf joints dry, I brought the inner and outer keel assembly outside to do some sanding, and also I used a 45° chamfer bit on a trim router, to create the 1/2” wide flat spot where the brass half oval is going to sit on the bottom of the keel. This is much less stressful than marking and planing by hand, because that dimension has to be exact along the entire length of the keel. I will go back and taper it further before final assembly.
I also shaped the ends because it’s easier to do with the whole assembly on its side than later on the boat, also drilled some limber holes in the keel (fancy name for a hole that allows water to drain from one side to the other of the keel.
After that a thunderstorm hit, and I had to bring the whole thing back inside, where are piloted for the large screws that will connect the frames to the keel, and also laid out the spacing for the external keel to internal keel screws, and the brass half oval to external keel screws. it’s important to figure out all of this before hand because you don’t wanna back yourself into a corner where you have overlap issues. I will be piloting the external keel for the screws that connected to the internal keel, but I won’t be piloting the internal keel, that should happen at the very end when the boat has settled to its final shape.
So that’s where we’re at right now, and it looks like I’m gonna have to set this project aside for a bit because my buyer for this boat went incommunicado a few weeks ago and I can’t afford to finish and store something unless I have a buyer. These people have purchased boats from me in the past so I’m not exactly sure what’s going on. Hopefully everything is OK. so right now the general plan is to set all the pieces we’ve made aside and then pivot to working on the St. Lawrence River Skiffs instead, and then I will come back to this part as soon as I can find someone to buy it. Good news is that all the hard work is over and from here it’s mostly just assembly. I have to admit that keel was a bit of a challenge, but it turned out really nicely.
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