Bedding the keel and fitting the skeg

Finally getting to attach the keel permanently.  Lots of Dolphinite to bed it in.

Cleaned up after squeeze out.

After a couple of failed attempts, I got the skeg fitted nicely.  I told my wife it was the nicest skeg I've made yet.  She was mildly impressed.

Seat risers and floorboard frames

I've dry fitted the seat risers, floorboard frames and one thwart.  A couple of the floorboard frames did require steaming and the aft most one cracked a little bit.  I'm not yet sure if it need to be replaced.   I'm just about ready to take these parts off (gunwales too) and seal and prime the interior of the hull. 

Glueing frames, riser blocks, and daggerboard trunk

I glued on the daggerboard trunk with 3M 4200 today.  I applied a lot of the glue, then clamped it down with a couple of boards and a bar clamp, turned over, and screwed it in place.

There was a lot of squeeze-out, which is good, but what a lot of waste just to get a waterproof seal.  I would estimate that half of the glue was wasted, but I guess that is what it takes.  I'm pretty sure nothing will be coming up through that joint.

I know, it is a lot of fasteners.  More than needed, but it will be strong.  I will be routing out the rest of the slot with a flush-trim bit once the glue is set.

Looks pretty good all cleaned up.

I also have the riser blocks and half frames glued in at this point.  I decided to go ahead and use epoxy on all of these.  I will also use epoxy on the breasthook and quarter knees.  The gunwales, rails, outer stem and keel will all still be bedded in dolphinite and removable for repair.

I tried to get the trunk as true and straight as possible.  For a while I wore myself out by putting a small level across the trunk cap only to find later that the cap was not sanded true.  I eventually rigged up a device to check the angle coming out of the trunk slot.  It didn't come out perfect once glued up, but I tell myself that the dagger board will never sit perfectly upright in the slot anyway, it wedges to one side or the other when under way.  And, it will look fine, why worry?

Daggerboard Trunk

I have completed a number of tasks lately without taking many photographs.  I have worked on getting the half-frames and riser blocks fitted as well as the breasthook, quarter knees and gunwales.  

Below is the jig for finding the shape of the half-frames.  The riser blocks are scribed with a pencil compass.   I will have photos of frames and blocks in place soon.

The daggerboard trunk is a very nice design.  The daggerboard is angled back and supposedly will keep itself wedged in place rather than floating up.  In any case, it is a cool looking trunk.

Pieces ready for assembly:

Trunk logs and cleats glued on, trunk posts glued to one side only at this point:

Here are several pictures showing a roughly finished trunk in place.  The trunk posts extend down through the keelson to form and very nice, strong fit.  The trunk logs have been very slightly shaped to fit the curve of the keelson.  A seat will fit across the protruding cleat on the aft end of the trunk.  The interior of the trunk is very well sealed and painted.  I will never have access to work on that area again, so I tried to get it well protected before I glued the trunk together.  You can also see a rough mast step sitting in place, as well as the fitted breasthook, quarter knees and gunwales.  Nothing has been glued on yet but the trunk is glued together at this point.

 

Gunwales and Breast Hook

Gluing up a pair of gunwales.  Despite the designer's suggestion to use matching wood for the gunwales, breast hook and transom knees, I have leftover african mahogany for the rails and gunwales, and white oak for the breast hook and knees.  If it looks too funny, I will make everything white oak.

Breast hook blank clamped up.

My helper is cleaning the dust out of the interior after a lot of scraping and sanding.  I'm happy with the appearance of the exterior of the hull, but the laps on the interior are not perfect, mostly because of a few mistakes I made when beveling the laps.  I am getting it cleaned up slowly.

Helper 2 keeps watch from the other boat.

Trimmed Transom

I had the nerve to trim the top of the transom today.  My jigsaw is cheap and my skill with a jigsaw is in need.  With that in mind, I cut a very wavy line about an eighth of an inch outside of the designed curve.  I was happy to find that a rough pass with a belt sander smoothed it out considerably, and a pass with a flexible sanding board really brought it down to a nice curve right on the line.  It may still need a bit of help, but I'm just happy that I didn't cause any real damage.

Turning Over

I fit the outer stem and rails without a lot a pictures because it is a little bit of an awkward task to put the rails on with bedding compound all over the gloves and no one else was around at the time.

Soon afterward I could not wait to turn the boat over.  The hoist is overkill, the hull is very light right now, but it made it easy.

First view from new angles.

Outside for a few more shots.

This is a hard angle to be judged on.  Nothing has been cleaned up yet, but the angle really brings out any asymmetry and unfair curves.