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Building the boat, Chapter 3: The keel

This page shows:

The keel foil

The keel foil is made out of a massive block of good oak wood. The surface is planed so that a router can be used to prepare the profile.



Before the 16 timbers of best oak wood are cut out of the planks, the whole trunk has to be checked: Which parts are clean, i.e. have no knotholes?

The profile is made using the router. Afterwards the steps a planed and sanded.


The shape of the keel is almost ready.



The shape of all parts of the keel has to be checked an precisely corrected.



Shaping the keel is finished. Now the "wing" will be glassed and coloured to protect it against uv-attack
.

The backbone/beam

The beam is made out of several parts: The middle part is made out of two oak planks of 15cm width.



The beam (middle part) before being shaped in the way the shown in the next pictures. The beam has an overall thickness of 3cm.



Left: The lower part of the beam is shaped. Right: The beam near the bow: A rope is used to bring it in the right shape wich is derived from the drawings.



Detail of the beam: The lines indicate the position of a bulkhead.




The beam: The middle part is 27cm width, at the bow 10cm, at the transom 15cm. The overall thickness is 3cm.



The keel has the shape of an I-beam. Due to this complex shape the whole boat gains a better strength.

The bow

The inner part of the bow is made of an oak timber. To provide good connection with the back bone (beam), a special part is made out of eight thin layers of oak, shaped exactly along bow and backbone.



A special part out of eight thin layers of oak wood is shaped along backbone and bow. It is covered with plastic foil to prevent it from being glued against the bow or the backbone. Thus, it can be removed and sanded before finally being glued.



The afore mentioned part is sanded and glued against the keel and the bow.



The bow and bulkead A. Bulkhead A is closed now for security reasons. In case of a collision the water may remain in the fore part of the boat. The bow is reinforced by two pieces of wood. They will be shaped in a way to fit to the hull.



The bow and the stringers on both sides are shown. The wooden timbers for reinforcement of the bow have their  final shape, incorporating the ends of the stringers.  

The keel box



The picture shows some details of the keel box.



Completing the keel box: 
Left
: One side oft the box, covered with glass and resin. The other side of the box and all other parts are already fixed. Before being brushed with resin, it must be sanded to provide good bonding.
Right: The box is completed now. For the necessity of the timbers, see the next picture.



To provide sufficient pressure, screws are used to widen the two timbers.