Keel Replacement

dilda02 · Post by **dilda02** » Sun Apr 22, 2012 11:07 pm

Hi Folks,
Thanks for all of your input over the last few days. I managed to get the keel hanging straight the other day... I made a little sample piece from some leftover stock and wedged it up into place:

I found my sample piece had the same tilt to port that the new keel showed. So I cut a bevel in my test section, taking 3/32 off of the top starboard side. You can see the bevel in the following pic:

And my sample hung straight. I did the same on the keel and it worked out great:

Now on to bolting this thing onto the boat!
Dave

dilda02 · Post by **dilda02** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 11:11 pm

Hi Everyone,
Well, I managed to drill my keel bolt holes without blowing out of the side of the keel. I used a drill guide to help stay on track through the deeper sections of the keel:

And last weekend I bedded and bolted the new keel onto the boat!!!

I still need to add the worm shoe, do some more cocking, etc, but the end is in sight!
Thanks,
Dave

jfrprops · Post by **jfrprops** » Tue May 01, 2012 10:33 am

Lots of good work there Dave, carry on...the worst is behind you!!!

John in Va.

Peter M Jardine · Post by **Peter M Jardine** » Tue May 01, 2012 11:34 am

Great job Dave... I have yet to start on mine, despite good intentions. It looks like I may stay out this year and do a number of larger tasks on Vanora, including the keel, several planks, most of the transom, an AC rewire, and ... groan... the vinyl deck, which means removing the doll boards and rub rails around the deck. Wooden boats.

Your work looks really excellent, congrats.

dilda02 · Post by **dilda02** » Sun Jun 03, 2012 10:48 pm

Hi Folks,
Thanks very much for the kind words. Sorry it's taken me so long to post an update on this thread. It's been a real busy few weeks. Where to begin??? Once the keel was hung I added a final line of caulk (boat life) between the keel and the garboard planks. I also dragged the kids down and sanded the bottom:

dilda02 · Post by **dilda02** » Sun Jun 03, 2012 10:51 pm

With the caulking complete I moved on to painting the bottom:

dilda02 · Post by **dilda02** » Sun Jun 03, 2012 11:00 pm

Last Sunday (5/27) was launch day...

I'd put some water in the hull a few days prior, and could find no (zero) leaks along the keel line. I left all of the deck plates open during the launch, so I could see if there was any obvious signs of significant leakage... None could be found. The boat leaked a bit from the seams when initially launched, but quickly swelled up within a couple of days. I've been monitoring the the keel bolts, and I can see that they're being sucked in to the stringers a bit. Does anyone have any thoughts about backing them off a bit???

I'll going to try to put together a short summary video of this project over the next week or 2. I'll leave this thread open for a bit until I've finished that up.

I'd like to thank all of the folks who have helped me throughout this project... I greatly appreciate all of the help and guidance I've received from the members of this forum. Your input has been crucial to success of my efforts.

Many thanks to all,
Dave

jfrprops · Post by **jfrprops** » Mon Jun 04, 2012 8:53 am

Great progress on a great project!!! thanks for sharing it with all of us.

John in Va.

Peter M Jardine · Post by **Peter M Jardine** » Wed Jun 06, 2012 8:41 pm

Congrats Dave... a nice job... You can see me following in your footsteps in this section..

It's all good, things are going well.

Your boat looks great.