Calm Before the Storm

Another one of the great things about having a build buddy is not ALL of last weeks pictures were accidentally deleted. Using some pictures from his camera, now you can enjoy the keel getting milled, spreader wood being glued up, and welding the keel.

This week the keel was hand ground to shape, welded, then the weld was ground smooth, weighed, and dropped off at the galvanizing shop.

Bracing to prevent warping

Welding top plate

Weld pre-grinding

Keel ready to get weighed

Meanwhile, I glued up the lumber for the lead bulb mold (at the bottom of the keel). I turned this down on a lathe to get the perfect shape. I hope people understand that molten lead will shrink 5/16” per 12” (7.937 mm in 304.8 mm). A 30” bulb will shrink almost one inch as it cools. A “SHRINK RULE” is stretched to accommodate this, so when the lead cools it will be the correct length AND width.

Glued up ready to turn

Turn 1

Turn 2

Turn 3

Almost perfect

Finished bulb 

We (hull 79 & 113) weighed our keels at the local “International Game Fish Weight Station”. They are friends who have a very very accurate scale. My keel weighed in at 236 lbs (107.04 kg).  I am 3 lbs heavy (1.36kg), so I will have to remove that much from the lead bulb to meet class specs. I am super happy with that number, as I could only buy 5/8” (16 mm) steel, not the called for 15 mm. I initially thought the keel might be 11 lbs (4.98kg) too heavy, but speculate all the shaping, drilling, grinding and welding was not in the calculation.

Keel at weight station

The kit is now shipped and in route and all the epoxy bought. I may also have found a shop to build the boat in…things are moving along.

The keel was “Flame Galvanized”. That means it was sand blasted to clean white metal. Then a different type of sandblaster (zinc blaster) blows zinc powder through a flame, melting the zinc, just before it smashes into the keel. This is not as thick or heavy duty as “hot dipping galvanizing”, but due to environmental rules, this is what I could get. I plan to reweigh the keel, for my own pleasure to see how much zinc weight it gained. This new weight has NOTHING to do with class rules, I’m just curious.

Keel weight 236LBS (107.048kg)  — sandblasting?, + zinc coating = 236.8LBS (107.41kg), so that comes out to a .0005 thick layer of zinc?? not much zinc at all. Now the keel will be epoxy coated to “seal off” the metal from the elements.

Keel Back From Galvanizing

Weld Fairing before Epoxy Paint