Adding keel to schooner - 11/15/2009

As usual work and family life have kept me away from the boat in the workshop so I have decided to make a concerted effort over the next few weeks to move the project along

We have covered the backbone area with six layers of 600 grade biaxle cloth this was done by over lapping the layers we found that by cutting the cloth into manageable chunks we were able to do the whole job with one person mixing and the other laying on the epoxy.

We did speed thinks up by heating Low Vis in the micro wave then adding this to the slow hardener this gave us a water type flow and a quicker set time it also meant we had very little rolling to do 90% just wicked in.

The whole area has been allowed to cure and then cut back to give a good key for the keel. The keel is constructed in two parts the first is the back bone laminated in Douglas Fir boards 20mm thick 147 mm wide by about 14 feet in length. the central area will be squared off ready to take the ballast keel which will be a steel box filled with lead and concrete.

Watch for the pics if i can get camera to work