More Plywood, Keel Catastrophe, Start Building a Boat, More Scarfing, Epoxy Resins & Gluing Techniques.

 The Last 11 sheets of Plywood.

At last a window of fine weather allowed me to pick up the plywood from Sydney. The last 11 sheets of Okoume are loaded onto the roof racks and a few other goodies in the boot. When back at the workshop I stored the plywood vertically on a raised floor and secured tight against the storage frame.

More work on the Keel.

I thought It would be easier to add some extra layers of cloth to the very bottom of the keel before installing the bottom and sides. This would provide extra protection when beaching and loading onto the trailer. I removed the keel assembly from the building cradle and placed upside down on two sawhorses. 

I taped up the centerboard opening to prevent epoxy flowing into the centerboard case.

I applied a second layer of cloth wet on wet.

When cured I trimmed the excess cloth, sanded and cleaned the area and proceeded to place the assembly back into the cradle when............bang crash.......the keel assembly toppled off the wheeled trolley and the forward end of the keelson broke off, fortunately this was the only damage.

I recall reading a comment from another Pocketship builder who accidently broke off the forward section of their keelson and I admired their positive comment and attitude regarding the challenge to repair it. 

So now I've given myself that extra challenge to replace it.

"Oh the Joys of boatbuilding"

Here is my three-piece keelson, The challenge here is to firstly remove a large enough section above the nose block to be able to firmly glue the new piece in place. The section was removed using an oscillating renovator tool. The broken pieces are used as a template to make the new section.

Two straight edges are clamped to the centerboard case and used as a visual guide to ensure the new keelson piece is exactly midline along the keel. After a dry fit with screws and clamps the new piece is glued in place to the nose block.

The new keelson piece is cleaned up, now I can get back to the build.