The keel was ready to be bolted under the hull. We used the Travellift to set the hull on the keel. The bolts fitted the pre drilled holes and everything worked out as planed.

With the boat back in the shed sitting loosely on the keel, only some wedgy deadwood had to be cut because of the curvature of the hull.

The final lifting of the hull could be done inside the shed with a simpler machine. So we lifted the hull a few cm to put more then the needed amount of thickened epoxy between the keel and the hull, lowered it and tighten the keel bolts. At the end this isn’t complex or difficult but nevertheless stressful. Big amounts of epoxy getting hot, obviously I don’t want any voids anywhere between and there is just one try to align the hull properly. But I’m quite confident that the result is very good. These tasks are way more easy for me with the machines and tools I can use, compared to the diy backyard boatbuilder, a privilege I’m aware of.

After that, I laminated several staggering layers of biax over the joint. The last layer from the bottom of the keel way up the hull. The ballast is bolted, glued and laminated. I can’t think of a way of ever getting the keel intentionally or by accident off the bottom of the hull again. That is a good thing I think :)

To paint the Coppercoat the boat had to be moved once again. I put it as high as possible with the least amount of stands under the keel to make the painting as comfortable as possible. After several hours of rolling Coppercoat onto the hull, the boat is more or less finished outside below the deck. WTF?

Oh, I also built handrails. A short side project. I didn’t had enough Ash left, so one side is out of Ash and one out of Larch.