Center Board Placement

As some of you will know, the boat building project stalled for about 7 weeks after we had a motorcycle accident, late in June. Construction resumed in August and is back on track in a fast and furious way.....life is too short, go cruising!

The sheer clamp was fitted and epoxied into the notches cut into the bulkheads and frames, as seen running along the lower edge of the hull. This becomes the top of the hull and forms the sweeping curve that is so attractive in traditional boats.


Below is a rather confusing looking picture of the sheer notched into the transom. The transom continues lower than the sheer, this will allow the bulwarks to die into the transom.


The battens that were screwed to the bulkheads and frames became supports for cross scaffolding. The battens are long flexible pieces of wood that are stretched across the hull at different angles to "fair" or shape the hull into smooth flowing lines.


The cross hull scaffolding became necessary to gain access to the "top" of the hull for laminating the keel, since ladders definitely could not fit anymore.

Still rather treacherous for anyone other than a billy goat.

During this time, initial attempts at "filleting" were made. This is the process of applying thickened epoxy into corners and running a rounded tool along it to create a strong and slightly rounded "cove" type corner. This strengthens the joint and makes a rounded corner appropriate for glass application. Fiberglass does not make sharp turns well. Richards first attempt was beautiful, even though it will eventually be buried deep in the aft lazarette (deck storage compartment).

All of the joints will eventually get treated this way. (A lot of fillets) And then the entire interior will be coated with either 3 layers of epoxy or fiberglass and epoxy. In a wood epoxy boat there can be no areas for moisture to seep in and rot the wood. All of the "slop" areas of epoxy on raw wood will disappear as the area gets its own covering of epoxy.

The keel, which is the backbone of the boat, was applied in five layers. Three of these were 1/2" VG fir lumber with 1/8" marine plywood sandwiched between them, to add resistence to splitting. It was then shaped.

The remainder of the hull was faired to include the keel and the sheer clamp.

Note the crazy shape the keel takes on (below) when it is faired, due to all the curves and angles. The batten must lay smoothly across the hull, and continue over the sheer and keel, at all angles.

Fairing the bow seemed easier in our inexperience with the insertion of the two removable forms seen below.

The next step was to cut a slot in the keel for the centerboard.


A lot of overhead work was required to get the correct positioning for cutting the hole and positioning the centerboard box.


Richard seems to always be too high or too low for comfort.


Finally the Fein tool and Skil saw come out and the cutting begins.


The swing keel box was constructed in two halves, during down time, over several months.

Research was done for the best type of finish to use on the inside (water side) of the box to prevent flora and fauna from setting up residence. Not a good thing to have a centerboard case full of mussels and growth. Access to the inside is limited since the width is only about 4". We needed something that would retard growth for an extended period (hopefully 10 yrs), and that could also remain potent until the completion of the building process, since many bottom paints need submersion soon after application. We chose "CopperCoat" which is basically an epoxy type medium to which ground copper has been added.

The pretty brown color is the copper in the paint. Both halves were fiberglassed, all edges coated in epoxy and painted in two pieces to assure a good coating, then screwed together. If you look closely at the one half, you can see the fillets at the inside corners.

The long slot was cut into the keel, and through the floor supports that create the bilge and water storage tanks.

Time to call the strong young men to hoist the centerboard box into place.

The hefty centerboard case was squeezed through all the scaffolding and bulkheads, and up into location in the hull.


The keel edge of the box was square so it stuck up from the keel and needed to be shaped after placement.

Lots of epoxy and clamping secures it all in place.

Once the centerboard box was in place, epoxied and shaped the laminated edges of the box can be seen through the keel.

The laminations seen below on the outsides of the keel are the plys of the keel, while the inside ones are the edges of the centerboard box.

At last, a beautiful centerboard box for our swing keel. The slot will continue down through the lead ballast keel when it is cast.

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Another Layer of Veneer and Shaping the Outer Stem

March saw the end of applying the first layer of Mahogany veneer, as seen above, and the beginning of the second layer.

This second layer is applied at about a 90 degree angle to the first.

Of course, the scribing as described in the previous post continues. Note some of the fancy scribing up near the keel in the picture above.

The hull looks different, a little more streamline, with the strips running from the top of the bow and angled toward the lower stern. Both directions can be seen from the bow.

Here are some "action shots" of the second layer being applied...

The hull is wetted with the epoxy.

Note all those plastic staples holding the veneer on...

The underside of the next strip is wetted with epoxy, and Richard mixes more epoxy with wood flour to the consistency of frosting.

The thickened epoxy is applied over the previously wetted area to fill voids and give a base for the strip to smoosh into...

Absolutely no voids are wanted in the hull. Richard is basically creating plywood in the shape of a boat by gluing up these thin layers.

The pre-scribed strip with the wetted back is set into position as marked.

Once the marks line up, a couple of staples hold it in position so that it can be smoothed down evenly.

Of course, if only one or two staples hold the upper end down, then as you work to the lower end the upper end will pop up...

Working it back down, from one end to the other. It seems to have a mind of its own.

Applying lots and lots of nails seems the only way to tame it.

All the way around every curve.

Pow, pow, pow...

Richard is starting to get very tired of this phase. It will be about 200 hrs into this phase when both layers of veneering are complete on both sides of the hull. He is ready for something new.

During some down time while waiting for the last of the plastic nails and more epoxy to arrive, Richard started to lay-up the outer stem. He used the extra mahogany veneer.

The outer stem needs to be shaped exactly the same as the inner stem. The stem is the front edge of the boat, as seen above. A piece of the veneer was screwed directly to the existing inner stem, and left to hang over on the right and left, to create a jig for the gluing and clamping. A layer of tape was applied to the veneer jig to prevent any excess epoxy from sticking to the jig. This would allow the thick built-up outer stem to be removed and give access for the jig to be unscrewed from the inner stem when complete.

Layer upon layer of veneer were epoxied together and clamped to the jig.

All the clamps that were needed to maintain the tight curve makes it look like a porcupine.

The outer stem is made long to run all the way up to accommodate the bow sprit (toward the floor at this point).

By the keel, it also runs long, and will be shaped into the deadwood.

The outer stem that has been being layed-up over days is then unclamped from its base form. The jig was then unscrewed from the inner stem.

The resulting thick stem is a perfect fit.

It will need to be shaped, tapered and cut to the correct width when it is ready to be permanently attached.

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