Here comes the keel - Week 4

As the fourth week of the quarter gets underway, we're bound and determined to see the keel on the building jig by the end of the week. Throughout the project we've been setting goals for ourselves, but more often than not, things have taken longer than we anticipate. Most of that stems from being students of boatbuilding and not seasoned shipwrights. We're constantly discovering additional things that need to be completed before something else can happen. But that's all part of the learning process. Still, a goal is a goal, so let's see how far we get this week...

Our first priority this week is finishing the rabbet. We left off last week having finished the rabbet on the starboard side and most of the port side. We've only got a few more pockets to carve at the stem...



And then fair them all together.



That's one thing to scratch from the to-do list.



Another of the things we want to accomplish before setting the keel on the building jig is fitting the bronze straps at the stern. As we said last week, these straps help to secure the deadwood, stern post, and keel together. Last week, we tapered this section of the keel, and now Tim is fitting the straps.



To minimize drag through the water, the straps are countersunk into the side of the keel, so that they're flush with the surrounding wood. In the above picture you can see the template Tim is using to route out the pockets for the straps.

And the result.



Not a bad fit at all.



With the pockets complete, the straps can be installed with a little bedding compound underneath.



It's almost a shame that we'll be covering these straps with bottom paint.



We're also installing our stopwaters this week. The set-up is pretty much the same as when we were drilling for our keel bolts. Here again we're using a boring block to ensure that we get a nice straight hole.



After our holes are drilled, we drive in our stopwaters. Stopwaters, for those of you not familiar, are softwood dowels (in this case red cedar) used anywhere there is a seam in the keel that could potentially allow water into the boat. In the photo below we have two stopwaters, one on each of the seams along the stem knee. If they weren't there water could potentially work its way along the seam between the stem and the keel and eventually make it's way behind the planking and into the boat. With a stopwater in place, any water that makes it that far, will cause the stopwater to swell and thus stop the leak.



With our rabbet finished, we can also install the rest of our cheek pieces. We start with the long piece that runs most of the length of the keel from the inner keel to the stem knee. This piece has already been fit, so it's just a matter of beveling the lower edge and installing it.



Our stem pieces still need a little work though. If you remember, these pieces have already been roughly fit to the bearding line, but they still need some final fitting and the bevel on the leading edge needs to be cut. Along the stem knee we're also cutting a curve into the inside edge. You can see the curve laid out in the picture below.



And here the curve is cut and faired through the two pieces. You can also see the bevel on the outside edge of these first two pieces. The bevel is left proud for now. Once we have the keel and the frames connected, we'll fair the cheeks between the frames and the rabbet to create our finished back rabbet.



Once all the pieces are fit, it's just a matter of pre-drilling for all the fasteners...



And putting it all together. Even though we're using some stout fasteners (#10, 2") we're still clamping everything together before fastening it. This is good practice, versus using the fasteners themselves to draw the pieces together. In our case, fastening together yellow cedar, which is relatively soft, you're likely to strip out your lead holes long before you've drawn the pieces together as tightly as you want. Remember, you're also working against the bedding compound, which has to squeeze out before the pieces come together.



And the results speak for themselves.



On the starboard side, we've already fastened on our long cheek piece, so it's just the stem pieces that need to be attached.



And here they are fit, faired, and fastened.



We also wanted to get the rest of the holes drilled for our remaining floor timber bolts. This is a lot easier to do when the keel is on the ground rather than suspended on the building jig. Just like with the others, we start by making a boring block, cut to the angle we want our hole. Then we lay out our hole and fasten the block in position.



Once we've got our block positioned correctly, we can bore our hole.



With all that completed there's not much left to do before hoisting the keel onto the jig. Does it look heavy to you?



Here's a little video to commemorate the occasion. By the way, this marks day 47 of our catboat project.



And it's on!

Well, not quite. Before the keel could slide into position, we had to trim a few of the frames and floor timbers where things were just a bit too tight. And in all the excitement we forgot we had to remove two of our temporary floor timbers because the real floor timbers were already on the frames. So we had to pause for a moment and pull a few bolts.



Now that looks better.



With the keel now on the building jig, we've got a few things to do before we can fasten it to the floor timbers and the frames.

Since we're building the catboat with a timber keel, we've got to expect the wood to move a little as it dries. Since milling the keel, it's developed a slight twist. We've got to take this out now before we fasten it onto the floor timbers and start planking otherwise we're stuck with it. To hold the stem plumb, we're basically fastening it to the floor. In the picture below Tim is working on the jig that will secure the stem. At the stern, the transom will secure the stern post plumb as well, thus taking the twist out .



We've also got a few holes to plug in those cheek pieces.



Before fastening on the keel, it's important to verify that the rabbet is correct. The frames and the rabbet need to line up, otherwise we'll have a problem when we start planking. In the picture, Jonas is using a one of our planking fids to check the rabbet.



Once we've checked the rabbet at each of the frames and made sure that all the frames are still fair and plumb, we're ready to drill for the bolts. We'll drill through each of the floor timbers, using the existing hole in the keel as a guide.



It takes a pretty long auger to get through some of the floor timbers.



We had a great week and I'm happy to say that we met our goal of getting the keel up on the building jig. Next week we'll lift the keel off, trim our plugs, give the cheek pieces a quick sanding, slather on some bedding compound, and bolt the whole works together for good.

But for now, let's just enjoy the view.