last preparations before summer, keel
Thursday, Jun 16, 2022     sibling,         keel,

I did the last preparations for the actual build of the boat. I checked all the stations again for the right markings (cwl, centre line) and accurate dimensions to avoid unpleasant surprises in the summer.

I also started to pre laminate the areas that will be on the inside of the hull and won’t be that easy to reach later.

I have to say that after all that laminating of biax and ply, I’m quite satisfied with my time effectiveness and the quality (fibre volume ratio, imperfections, air) of the laminated pieces. While having some time and no real project left, I decided to start with the keel. At first my plan was to build the keel like Annie did out of 3 50mm steel plates. With the difference that I wouldn’t have welded the 3 steel pieces together but put layer of cloth and epoxy between every sheet with bolts welded to the bottom layer of course. But I couldn’t find a company that would pre cut the 50mm steel sheets for a reasonable price. One offer was 8000€ only for the steel and the cutting. I think this is because of the curvature of the keel. I decided to don’t bother with a mild steel keel any further and to fill a mould with lead, epoxy and deadwood. Which will have (besides from the costs of lead) many obvious advantages. So I built a positive mould of the keel and laminated several layers of glass around. I don’t have a photo of the finished grp mould right now, but some of the process. Finding lead will be a task. I gathered some tyre weights from a scrap yard. They would cost me more then 1000€ per ton. Less then new lead. But the density was below 6g/cm³ which is less then steel. I could also cut up a old keel. I need to cut out a test piece first to find out the density, because lead keels can contain up to 10% aluminium and a similar amount of probably tin. At least that is what the internet told me. I have moved this issue to autumn/winter.