With all the frames secured to the setup jig, it was time to lay the keel.
Using a circular saw we nibbled blade-width by blade-width, here's the slots cut for the keel:
Next was the chine log. The chine was to be 1 1/2" W x 2 1/4" D x 24'
L. Starting at the stem, we anchored and began bending it in place. We didn't
get anywhere near the closest frame and it was obvious it would break if we
continued. We then built a steaming chamber out of our BBQ grill and some
4" plastic plumbing tubes. That didn't work either. The next course of
action was to use the band saw to rip the chine into two 3/4" pieces and
put them on in two laminations. Even with steaming, we heard some noises when
putting them in place, but there wasn't any obvious damage to them. Possibly the
noises we heard were my knees knocking at the thought of having them break.
Here's some pictures:
Because of the limited working space, we had to steam them in place.
After steaming each lamination, we had 20 seconds for Teri to grab the transom
end of the chine and hold it high up in the air and away from the frames, and for
me to secure the front to the stem, AND, to bend it around the frames from front
to back in one smooth motion. Yes - we practice this routine several times
before actually doing the steaming. In the photos, you can see the keel already
in place. In the upper left you can see plywood attached to the wall. This is
about the only place we had to store the two 16-foot sections of factory scarfed
plywood. These were also the two pieces of plywood that were the only two
questionable pieces of wood we felt was sub-par. We had several voids requiring
to be filled with epoxy.
The book states the battens should never end just beyond a frame and should
extend as closest to the next frame as possible. By now this mild V-bottom hard
chine hull with bulbous section at keel and reverse curve at chine that was
designed for double diagonal planking on bottom and sheet plywood planking on
the sides was making me wish I choose a total sheet plywood
hull. 1" x 3" battens just don't want to bend that much. I resorted to steaming
them in place and using chain/turn-buckles to slowly pull them in place while steaming.
Since I've noticed you can steam kiln dried wood into fairly good curves
provided the steam is continually applied while you're bending.
We got all batten perfectly bent within an inch of the next frame. Only the
middle most battens required some kerfing. Note in the pictures the extreme
curvature of the chine. After all this, the sheer clamp seemed simple.
