Final Keel work & trailer mods

NOTE: This is a post I wrote up in April 2011, but did not post for whatever reason.  I'm including it now to add to the Blog only. I'll update it again with pictures once I ferret them out of my archives.

Blaine
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The keel housing is complete.   After making sure the epoxy was fully set, I went after all the sharp edges with several grades of sandpaper.   I wanted this area as smooth as possible before I applied the gel-coat.  Sanding the upper edges of the patch job proved to me taxing.   Slapping the epoxy saturated mesh into place was easy.   Getting up into there with sandpaper was not.    Eventually, I satisfied myself that the majority of the surface was smooth and moved onto the final gel-coat. 

In applying the gel-coat, my only regret was that I forgot to put on trashy cloths.   Another nice tee-shirt and shorts ruined with a couple drips.  Word of advice: If you plan to do any 'quick' jobs using resin/epoxy....take the extra two minutes and put on work cloths.

Here is a pic of the final product.   Before I stick a fork in this one, I still have to permanently install a cut-off pool noodle into this space.   Not that I’m worried another keel slam will do all that much, but if/when my 600 lbs cast iron keel decides to swing into a solid mass of resin, something will give.   If not the housing, then the keel bolt would bend. Who knows.  The pool noodle will slow things down enough to distribute the forces at play.  BTW, any industrial closed-cell foam will work.  My experience with foam and proved that pool noodles are tough, don't deteriorate very quickly, and never get saturated with water no matter how long they are underwater. Of course, if you do end up with a Keel Slam, you will have to replace it because you will have crushed all the air pockets.

The little space on the port side of the ladder, I made a slight improvement to.   I was considering going back from there with paneling, but who’s ever going to see?

One thing I’ve held off on is the cockpit secondary support post.   Here’s a pick of the original piece of wood that connected the keel housing to the cockpit.   I’ve never noticed any flex with this piece out in all the times I’ve sailed, but it is one of those things that were installed for a reason, so does it go back in or not?   I had originally decided to put something nice back in its place and fabricated this piece of wood to fit in its place.  Since the original piece was connected with cloth epoxied to the support and hull, I’ll have to figure out something similar that does not look bad.    As much as I don’t want to screw anything in from above, I don’t see any other way to do this cleanly. 

Trailer work

When I went out last weekend, I was disappointed to see that my prow lifter was too far forward to be of any help.   The boat still managed to settle back into the cradle and away from the prow stop when I pulled it out of the water.   Looking things over I figured out that if I moved the prow-lifter back, I may be able to help it along its way.   Better yet, I am estimating that if I place another roller further back, I can use it to step the prow into place.

In looking at the trailer, I also noticed that several of the rollers were not in use.   These rollers are obviously remnants of a past purpose.  The previous boat must have had a long shoal keel and needed all these rollers once it was on the trailer.   Regardless, I pulled the first set of rollers off the frame and started modifying their configuration to best fit my hull shape.   Given that there are a lot of sharp edges here, I added rubber flanges which would not allow for any scrapes.   Ugly but functional.  The hard part is going to be how and where I will attach the roller.  It has to be far enough back to force the prow up when loading but low enough that it won’t interfere with the natural way the boat moves on and off the trailer.

I grabbed several lengths of angle iron and started cutting everything to fit. Thinking this through, the rollers and frame had to be strong enough to take the partial weight of the prow not only from above, but also the lateral force when the prow strikes it initially.   I solved this issue by adding two horizontal supports connected to the first roller I installed.

All this being said, the final solution will have to be adjusted.   I did miss the forward roller one time and ended up gouging the fiberglass with an angle iron's top-most edge.   My guidance to the reader is to not follow this plan exactly as I laid it out, but install a wider forward roller to catch the prow.  You have to figure the prow will wander from side to side at some point in the future.   Optimally, I should have changed the design for two rollers, oriented at 30 degree angles that would help to catch and guide the prow to its final resting spot.     To see this in your mind's eye, look at the front roller and extend the roller's V-shape out 6-12 inches.   That would be the best solution.