Step 10: Adding the Keel and Finishing the Bottom Prior to Painting.....almost

So it's time to add the keel to this boat. The keel will have two functions,

a) it will act as a stiffener/stringer for the floor of the hull, and,

b) it will help to keep the boat on track.

I'm going to use 1 inch x 2 inch clear fir for this part. I also intend to add two additional stringers on the bottom to aid in the tracking of the boat as well as making the floor of the boat stiffer and more stable. Off to the lumber yard!!

The install of the keel and stringers should be pretty straight forward, cut them, shape them glue them down with our famous peanut butter goo and then cover them in fiberglass and epoxy.

Again Mr. Stacy came out and helped me on Saturday, we cut the keel to fit and made the stringers. We doubled the boards on the keel to aid in tracking and provide some stiffness to the hull. We placed about 200 kilos of weight on the stringers and keel to hold them in place while the peanut butter set up. It was quite a lot of work.

Glassing the keel or center stringer did not go well.......first thing I did wrong was to not radius the corners of the keel boards enough. Remember when I said the fiberglass does not like to go around sharp bends or corners.......well it is true. I used 17 oz. biaxial tape for this and that was mistake 2! That particular fiberglass needs a minimum radius of about .5 in or 12mm. I only had about .25 inches or 6mm. The problem with not having a good radius is that the fiberglass tends to lift as it is stressed around the corner. This where air gets in under the glass and creates the dreaded air bubbles. Oh Fudge!

The solution although not pretty and it was extremely messy was to cut the glass cloth the entire length of the keel and relieve the stress from the corners. Keep in mind the cloth was already wetted out. Gads what a pain in the bum. I was able to tuck down some of the fiberglass but for the most part I now have to contend with spikey fiberglassed corners that will need to be redone. That sucks big time!!

The procedure I intend to use is to allow the epoxy and glass to cure, and once that is solid I'm going to trim off the spikey bits. Once trimmed up I'll grab my handy dandy block plane and have at her till I knock down the edge. Then I'll take my oscillation sander/saw tool and round the edge so that the glass won't lift and create air bubbles. Hmmmmm maybe a router would do the trick.......

A strong back was required to get those valves on top of the stringers and keel.

Cut plastic garbage bags were used to separate the valve supports from the main boat structure.

There we have it.....almost......not glassed in yet, but that's next.

Keel at the nose of the boat.

Stringer Right

Stringer left. Told you I thought it was good! Just needs to be filleted and covered with fiberglass.

So here is where things went sideways for me.....notice the white stripe on the edge toward the rear of the keel. Spikey bits that need removing.

What a bloody mess. It will take quite some time to get this cleaned up. Pain in the bum but repairable...