Advice on glassing in wood keel spacer block

[bigwalt]

here's pix of how keel looked when I acquired boat

http://i935.photobucket.com/albums/a...9/IMG_2918.jpg

[Gene T]

I would also highly recommend you re-torque the keel bolts.

[bigwalt]

I am renting inside space at a friend's shop to store boat while I work on it. He is a master boatbuilder - with lots of sailboat experience. He recommends that I grind about a 2 1/2" wide x 1/8" deep recess along the hull where the wooden spacer is in contact with it - and the same on the upper part of the lead keel where it meets the wooden spacer. Then - use two layers of either 12 oz or 17 oz double biased cloth to glass in the wooden spacer - overlapping the glass into the recesses in the hull and keel. He also recommended that I use epoxy rather than poly resin. He's been at his trade for a long time - so I am pretty sure I am going to follow his recommendations.

Prior to doing the glasswork I am going to retorque all of the keel bolts to make sure the spacer and keel are firmly held in place.

BTW - this boat was designed by Halsey Herreshoff.

[Gene T]

Sounds like a good plan. Glad you have a pro working on it.

[deniseO30]

I think.. someone added the wood to give the boat a deeper draft. Just doesn't seem like a Herreshof would be built that way.

[bigwalt]

The lead portion of the keel is below the spacer block - which would (I think) lower the center of gravity of the boat - and improve it's self righting characteristics - but I'm not a boat designer - so I may be off base here. The boat displaces 18,000 lbs - and the lead portion of the keel weighs 8000 lbs. Built in 1986 in Honduras - and it looks like wood spacer is made from either laminated mahogany or maybe teak?

From a design concept - it might be an early version of what evolved into the bulbed racing keels??? I'll have to ask Halsey Herreshoff why it was designed this way .................................

[Gene T]

I don't see that design listed in the Halsey Herreshoff designs. There is a 44 Freedom listed but it has a fin keel. I wonder if it is a modified design, in which case the wood is not necessarily part of his design.

[bigwalt]

Here's a link to a writeup about these Cat Ketches - there were several sizes made - 27' 31' 38' 45' . Only two of the 45' were made before Cat Ketch Corp closed shop.

http://i935.photobucket.com/albums/a...g?t=1280806916

[mitiempo]

I've never seen anything like it either. But it does look solid and it has been there a while...Maybe they either thought that was easier than building a stub into the mold or they screwed up and forgot to.

I think your plans make sense. Epoxy and a double layer of biax will work well.

[deniseO30]

The write up mentions shoal draft... someone added the spacer tis my bet