Live the Dream: Keel and Stem

Work on the boat as of late has been visually slow, we have been working on the keel(not the heavy part) and the stem. The keel assembly on our boat is larger than just the space it would take to place the lead. This means that a large portion will be what is called deadwood, just filler. Having the keel larger has advantages and disadvantages. Generally a smaller keel will yield a faster more nimble boat, whereas the longer keel like we have will be slower to tack, but will want to stay on course and be more forgiving to the helmsman. The balance of sailboat design is a never ending compromise.

We have decided to put a minimum amount of deadwood on now and do the rest after the boat is rolled over. The shape of the keel makes it a pain to glue up and shape while its on the boat.

Here you can see the keel and the hull, we are just filling in the areas where the keel isn't touching the hull. Making a curved surface flat.

Once that is done we will glue and bolt on the deadwood and the lead portion of the keel. This picture shows the airfoil (well, hydrofoil) shape of the keel.

Here you can see the very first layers of the keel taking shape.

We've also been working on the stem post, which is the square cap that runs along the point of the bow. Ours is made of Ash, which is a very hard wood, so it will stand up the thumps and bumps we may encounter. It also covers and protects the end-grain of the plywood sheeting, which is crucial to avoid rot and water damage.

I've been working on my dinghy lately as well- we made a trip to the fancy wood store, to buy ash, and a nice bright piece of purple heart (an exotic hardwood,) caught my eye. I needed another layer on the gunwales, so we picked it up. Cody helped me add a thin stripe of fir, to really set off the amazing natural color of the purple heart. Things are coming along!